Caring for Exotic & Beautiful Baby Birds

By Dana Strome

When Steven Hildreth and I first met several years ago, he had been breeding exotic and rare parrots for over 35 years. He’s one of the best breeders in California and possibly the United States. About 15 years ago, I started the Wing Foundation, which is a parrot rescue group.

The bird world is surprisingly small as people who own parrots tend to know other people who own parrots, so word of mouth travels very quickly. Steven and I noticed that a lot of pet parrots were sold without the proper knowledge of how to care for them. People aren't going to stop buying them as pets, so we thought a better way would be to raise our own birds and then educate people as to how to be responsible parrot owners. Eventually, Steven and I opened Parrot Planet last July in East Sacramento.

Parrots are not like a dog or cat. They’re very specialized creatures. With Steven’s amazing knowledge of breeding, we decided that we were only going to breed birds that really do make good pets. There are lots of types of parrots but we don’t recommend some of them as pets because they scream, they bite and so on. Bob Cox, publisher of Go For It Magazine stopped by the other day and had several questions for us. Here’s how our conversation went.

Q: Are you trying then to match the right bird with the right owner?

A: (Dana) Yes, exactly!

Q: Does your mission statement involve education in order to create the best possible environment for the bird and the owner?

A: (Dana) Exactly! We have a lot of customers who have children. There are certainly parrots that make excellent pets for families with children. They come in all different shapes, sizes and personalities. It’s like you said, we try to match up the right bird with the right family. (Steven) The fact that we raise all of our own birds allows us to offer the bird at a much lower price than most retail stores. It also gives us a tighter control on any kind of viruses. By breeding our own birds, we don’t have to worry about any kind of diseases being introduced to our flock.

Q: What are some of the common challenges with owning an exotic bird?

A: (Dana) They’re addicting (laughs). You get one and before you know it, you have a house full! So many times, people who have never owned a bird, after they've come here and purchased one, guess what? They come back and want another one! Because we hand raise and hand feed our birds, they are extremely tame. They’re really sweet. We don’t keep them in cages as they’re out on stands where they interact with people all day.

Q: What is your breeding facility like?

A: (Dana) Since Steven is such a fastidious breeder, the farm is absolutely clean, sterile and very state-of-the-art. (Steven) And all outdoors.

Q: Since your birds are not in cages, how have your customers responded in your store?

A: (Dana) They love it! One thing we find also is parrots get to choose who they like. So, when a parrot is out on a stand, and we've seen this quite often, a person will walk by and a parrot will jump on them! It’s kind of endearing really. Guess what, now you have a parrot, whether you want one or not (laughs)!

Q: What are some other things you’re doing in your store to really stand out amongst other stores that offer exotic birds?

A: (Steven) One of the things we try to do is carry high quality cages and high quality food. Even the toys we have here are much better quality that most other stores. We try to educate our customers and answer any questions they have, whether they own a parakeet or a parrot. We’ll help anybody out in any situation. We are one of the few stores that actually rescue and re-home birds, which is a real plus. (Dana) If you have a parrot that can’t be re-homed, we do have a sanctuary in Florida where parrots go and live out their lives in aviaries. If you’re going to sell parrots as pets, you have to be willing to help people with all the steps along the way that involve owning a parrot. Some people, for what ever reason, can’t keep the parrot, so we try to assist people in whatever they need because we feel a responsibility as breeders to make sure that everybody is happy.

Q: It sounds like you have a huge heart and a lot of compassion for these birds and their owners. Would you agree?

A: (Dana) Yes. In all the years I've been doing rescue, I've seen such sad things and I want to avoid that. (Steven) We purposely don’t raise Umbrella Cockatoos as we were saying earlier because they tend to wind up in our rescue 90% of the time. So, being a responsible breeder and being responsible as far as educating the public, I think this approach is really, really important. A lot of other stores are chasing the dollar instead of chasing what’s right for the bird and the owner. For example, if someone lives in an apartment, a macaw or cockatoo is not a good fit. We want our customers to have the right bird so they don’t get themselves in a bad situation and the bird ends up neglected or abused. So why not put the right bird with the right owners so we don’t have that situation.

Q: I can see how a noisy bird living in an apartment complex could create a bad situation for a lot of people as well as the bird.

A: (Dana) Exactly. That can be very problematic, even for people who are experienced and really love their birds. Birds can be complicated, so we do offer classes on how to be a good bird guardian.

Q: Do you have a few simple common sense tips you can offer people interested in owning an exotic bird?

A: (Dana) Parrots live a long time, 20-30 years or more, so it’s a long term commitment.

Q: Steven mentioned earlier that you offer your birds at much lower prices than other stores. Can you tell us a little more about that?

A: (Dana) Since we do breed our own birds, we can offer them at extremely reasonable prices. Some people that have always wanted a parrot have had to put it off because they can be very expensive. We want our birds to be reasonably priced so that more people can experience owning one. It’s such an amazing thing to own a bird. It’s like nothing else I've experienced!

Editor’s notes: For more information about Parrot Planet, visit their store at 4819 J Street in Sacramento or their website at www.parrotplanet.com. Their phone number is (916) 594-9290.