Cockitiel and a budgy?

[popcornbird]

Originally posted by Aspen and Misty
Question. Sorry to ask this on this thread but, How much did you pay for your birdies Popcornbird??? Our one pet shop sells them from 400 while our other one sells them for 60??? I am very confused about how much they should be. They have the pretiest Grey one, it was sooo pretty!

Ash

Our birds were "kind of" rescued, because the pet store we got them from was "so" bad. They took awful care of the animals and had 30 birds in one cage! We didn't plan to get them from there though. We went to Petco first just to see when we were planning. They were between $100 - $300 there depending on the color mutation and how tame they were. Then we went to Petsmart, where they were the same price. A few days later we went to that shop "just to see" and when we saw what bad conditions they had kept them in, we had to save at least 2 of them. (The government recently closed that store due to their mistreatment and overbreeding of animals) and I am VERY thankful for that. We also fell in love with Popcorn and Muffin at first sight and just HAD to have them. They had them up for $90 each, but they were practically stuffed in the cage with tons of other birds so we had a big argument with them, told them they didn't deserve to sell animals when they weren't caring for them at all. We told them that we weren't paying more than $50 because of how they were keeping the animals, saying that they didn't deserve more that that (if at all). We had a big argument with them but we HAD to save at least 2, so we ended up getting them to give us both Popcorn and Muffin for $100. (50 each) They were furious, but we were happy we saved the babies who were just 2 1/2 months old them and didn't even have all their feathers under their wings yet. They were thin, had diahrea, but were overall healthy, thank God. We took them straight to the vets, who told us they were completely healthy besides a minor bacterial infection, for which he gave us antibiotics. After getting treated, they gained weight, got "healthy" droppings, and started growing normally. Thank God they have been healthy since then and are now 3 1/2 years old. We got them for $50 each after a long fight, but you probably won't find cockatiels for less than $90 from a good place. The Petco and Petsmart in our area take very good care of their birds and they are very healthy. My friend recently bought a handfed cockatiel baby from a well-known quality breeder, for $100. He is such a sweetie. Are you planning on getting a cockatiel? I would recommend rescuing, but if you want a sweet, loving baby, I recommend getting one from a good breeder. My babies were very young when we got them, so they became friendly, tame, and loving very quickly. Now they can't bear to lose sight of us! The normal price range for cockatiels is $90-$400. If the price is as low as $60, I would be suspicious on where they got the birds from and how healthy they are. I know I cannot trust the people we got Popcorn and Muffin from at all. I have no clue where they got them from, but they said they breed them themselves. They didn't even band them but I know many breeders don't do that. I'm glad the government closed their shop because of how they were breeding the birds. It was almost like a puppy mill, but we weren't that knowledgable about bird mills at the time, and wanted to save our birds. Now we know a lot more and would never buy pets from such people, but I'm glad we fought with them and got the birds of our dreams.