Sun conure leg band mystery!!!

[Sheldon]

Hello all,
My new sun conure Mr. Mango has a band that reads, SMDTX1010
I bought him from a local pet store here in Texas. I was told that he is almost a year old, which I believed. However, I got curious as to what his band numbers meant and I saw somewhere that the numbers can be hatch date, if that is true then was he really born on 2010? Also I looked googled and found a bird band decoder and it has a lot of letter combinations but not one of them said SMD PLEASE HELP!

 

[Sterling1113]

There's a few websites you can search through, I would do a search of bird breeders in Texas (Birdbreeders.com) and see if any of their initials match the ones on the band.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for bird stores to either lie about the age or be lied to about the age. Sometimes they just don't know.

However, the difference between 1 year and 4 years isn't much, other than he may not have such violent hormonal shifts during mating season.

 

[Sheldon]

I searched the page and found nothing. It's great though! I just wish I could know more about his past, like where he came from, how old he is, when his birthday is. Im starting to feel like I should have named him "Mystery" instead of mango! Haha!

 

[Sterling1113]

Haha if we based our birds' names based on what we knew about them... many, many birds on the forum would be named "mystery", "vague", "WhereTheHeckDidYouComeFrom"... you get the idea

I don't know the hatch date of any of mine, just approximate age. My Pionus had a leg band when I got him, but I had it removed in fear of it getting caught in something and hurting him. I still have the band, it's just not on him anymore. Perhaps you can ask the store where he came from? I'm not sure they disclose information like that, but maybe if you speak to a manager and show your interest in his past, they might be more cooperative.

Edit: You can always celebrate his "Gotcha Day" instead of hatch day! I like to celebrate the day they joined me, even if I have a rough idea of when they might have hatched.

 

[Superxdude]

San Marcos District? Possibly near San Antonio? Just my 2 won worth!

 

[Sheldon]

I love the idea of the gotcha day! I didn't even think of that!

 

[policegirl]

My sun conure has a similar band, FL0011.. My bird cricket was born in Florida 2011 So your bird was in Texas 2010.. I would check with the place you got it at and have them explain it but don't let them BS you..

 

[Dustbunny]

My GCC was supposed to be under 6 months. When we checked her leg band we found out she was 5 years old - born in KY in 2009. It explained so much. Some pet stores lie. Sometimes the people the stores buy the animals from lie. It happens a lot.