wildcaught african grey ?

2ndEssi

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Jul 25, 2019
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i'm trying to decrypt my rescue greys band type, and most everything is pointing to her being an import aside from the lettering & numbering on the band itself.

she has a rounded ring, and i suppose it's an 'open' ring, although the two ends of the ring have been firmly and flatly squeezed closed.

on the ring it reads: LTBC 1 269

which, for obvious reasons, is a little confusing because LTBC 1 269 are clearly more letters than should be listed for an import bird. the only thing i know for sure is she's over 11 years older. she could be in her 20s for all i know.

is there a chance that she wasn't wild caught after all ? the band type makes me want to say she is, but the lettering on it doesn't seem to matchup with any listings i can seem to get my hands on.

i found a pretty useful thread here regarding info, as well as here, however neither says anything about 4 letter bands or 4 numbered bands.

anyone have any insight ? this is all more for my own curiosity than necessity, but it hadn't occurred to me that she could genuinely be wildcaught before.

aLMEXnN.jpg
kS8fHaj.jpg
 

Allee

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Hello and welcome to you and your new companion. Thank you for rescuing a grey in need of a forever home. Did you adopt from a rescue organization or an individual? Is there any chance of learning more about your grey’s background or is the band the only clue you have? I understand your curiosity, I also have rescues. I can’t help decipher the info on the band but we have members that are very knowledgeable, I’m sure they’ll by along to help. Best of luck, now I’m curious too.
 

Jen5200

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I was doing some reading on leg bands and remembered seeing something about sexing bands which might explain the letters and numbers on an open band. I found the page again, and copied the info below. Definitely not certain, but might be another avenue to explore?

Copied text:
The sexing band, also an open band, is affixed to the right leg for a male and the left leg for a female. When the veterinarians began using these bands, they had to use either a 2-letter or 4-letter code with three numbers, so as to distinguish their bands from the USDA import bands. Usually the letter code refers to the vet's name, or the name of his clinic. Sexing bands, because they are carefully put on by a professional, and sized according to the individual bird's leg size, usually fit nicely and are completely closed at the split.
 
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2ndEssi

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Jul 25, 2019
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Hello and welcome to you and your new companion. Thank you for rescuing a grey in need of a forever home. Did you adopt from a rescue organization or an individual? Is there any chance of learning more about your grey’s background or is the band the only clue you have? I understand your curiosity, I also have rescues. I can’t help decipher the info on the band but we have members that are very knowledgeable, I’m sure they’ll by along to help. Best of luck, now I’m curious too.

hello, thank you for the welcome ! i've had her for about a year+ now and she was a rescue from a family friend, who had her for 10 years while i was growing up. when i was 22 they asked if i could take her in because i had loved her throughout the years and they had ended up with her because she had been left with them by a family member, and they were a bit in over their heads for all those years. my mom and i love her !

I was doing some reading on leg bands and remembered seeing something about sexing bands which might explain the letters and numbers on an open band. I found the page again, and copied the info below. Definitely not certain, but might be another avenue to explore?

Copied text:
The sexing band, also an open band, is affixed to the right leg for a male and the left leg for a female. When the veterinarians began using these bands, they had to use either a 2-letter or 4-letter code with three numbers, so as to distinguish their bands from the USDA import bands. Usually the letter code refers to the vet's name, or the name of his clinic. Sexing bands, because they are carefully put on by a professional, and sized according to the individual bird's leg size, usually fit nicely and are completely closed at the split.

this HAS to be it !!! i know that originally she was bought in a pair– i assume one male, one female, but the other bird sadly passed early on. those are most of the details i have about her past, but i do know for almost certain she's female, so this would confirm it. the band is tightly closed, almost looks like it's soldered, but i hope they wouldn't do that on a live bird. otherwise the letters and numbers match up exactly to what you've said.

i'm going to look into this more, this honestly makes way more sense than the wildcaught leg bands which just didn't seem like what she had. thank you !
 

SailBoat

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Based on the guess that you are located in North America: The Import facilities for Canada and the US closed somewhere around 30 +/- years ago.
Vet sexing with ID Banding (right and left leg) ended some 15 - 20 years ago as a replacement for Tattooing, which had been common 15 to 50 years ago. Thankfully, both had been halted with the advent of DNA testing as it ended surgery based Sexing.

Thanks Jen5200 as I had forgotten ID Banding.
The blessing of Age is all the stuff in ones head. The sadness is not being able to find it when one needs it. :D
 

Jen5200

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Mar 27, 2017
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Baby - Sun Conure;
Tango - GCC;
Bindi - Sun Conure;
Stanley - Pineapple GCC;
Screamer “Scree� - Cockatiel;
Tee - Pineapple GCC; Jimmy - Cockatiel
Based on the guess that you are located in North America: The Import facilities for Canada and the US closed somewhere around 30 +/- years ago.
Vet sexing with ID Banding (right and left leg) ended some 15 - 20 years ago as a replacement for Tattooing, which had been common 15 to 50 years ago. Thankfully, both had been halted with the advent of DNA testing as it ended surgery based Sexing.

Thanks Jen5200 as I had forgotten ID Banding.
The blessing of Age is all the stuff in ones head. The sadness is not being able to find it when one needs it. :D

It was one of those odd things that I had researched a couple of years ago when I noticed that so many older, former breeder birds had open bands and I was pretty sure that they hadn’t been imported. I tend to get a bit obsessive in my search for answers once my brain latches onto a question - and volunteering at the rescue has generated many of these weird questions in my brain :)
 
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2ndEssi

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Jul 25, 2019
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i think this has to be it. i'd been guessing her age at being around 15 years, but i'm wondering if the '1' in the middle of her band couldn't mean '2001', making her closer to 18. either way, the mystery of her band i would say has mostly been solved. i can't imagine her style of band being anything other than the ID band now, as it is also perfectly fitted to her leg for being an 'open' band.

her bodily characteristics are in line with being a female as well, so i've always called her a 'her' as well ( though of course it didn't honestly matter that much to me. ) i didn't realize that the banding would involve surgical sexing, but considering it had to be in the hands of a vet and a vet is the one to band them, that makes all the more sense.

though that's also a scary way of going about it, i can't imagine risking a bird and putting them through that unless the intent was to breed, so maybe that was the original purpose.

pretty interesting stuff !
 

jam.mar1e

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Dec 19, 2022
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Indian Ringneck
i'm trying to decrypt my rescue greys band type, and most everything is pointing to her being an import aside from the lettering & numbering on the band itself.

she has a rounded ring, and i suppose it's an 'open' ring, although the two ends of the ring have been firmly and flatly squeezed closed.

on the ring it reads: LTBC 1 269

which, for obvious reasons, is a little confusing because LTBC 1 269 are clearly more letters than should be listed for an import bird. the only thing i know for sure is she's over 11 years older. she could be in her 20s for all i know.

is there a chance that she wasn't wild caught after all ? the band type makes me want to say she is, but the lettering on it doesn't seem to matchup with any listings i can seem to get my hands on.

i found a pretty useful thread here regarding info, as well as here, however neither says anything about 4 letter bands or 4 numbered bands.

anyone have any insight ? this is all more for my own curiosity than necessity, but it hadn't occurred to me that she could genuinely be wildcaught before.

aLMEXnN.jpg
kS8fHaj.jpg
i was wondering if you ever figured anything else out about your band? this is the closest band that i’ve been able to find to my parrots. she was a rescue, & passed recently & so been on a mission to find out more about her .

her band is LTBD 299, it’s closed but oddly fused together …

hope you were able to find out more information !
 

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SailBoat

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Jul 10, 2015
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Thank you for replying to an interesting Thread and providing excellent photos of an interesting band.
Sadly, the OP has not been as active of late and may likely not see your new Post.
Very interesting band. Sad that banding history has been lost.
 

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