Baby African Grey Parrots for Sale Grey .
There are three prices involved when buying an African Grey:
1. The price that is paid by the baby African Grey if he is caught in the wild or if his parents are caught in the wild.
2. The price you need to pay the breeder for your African Grey Parrot.
3. The hidden costs that involve the food that needs to be bought, accessories he needs to stimulate his brain, vet costs which are high, cage and the list can go on.
I want to urge, no beg you, please never buy a parrot unless from a reputable breeder. No matter how tempting or cheap the parrot is. The price that gets paid by the parrots is too high if they are caught out of the wild and then sold worldwide.
As long as there are buyers there will be parrot poachers. Parrots die en route to their destination and those that don’t are left traumatized forever. They suffer by being squashed into a crate with no food or water. If you buy just one parrot from these men your hands is covered in a hundred of these parrots blood.
The second price depends on where you are, the age of the parrot and is never the same from country to country or from town to town. There is not much I can say on this matter.
Once again I want to plead with you not to buy a baby African Grey that has not been weaned. Hand rearing baby parrots is very time consuming and requires an enormous amount of patience and dedication. Buying a weaned baby in no way takes away the bond the two of you can have.
The bond that grows depends on you not the age of the baby. In fact the bond might never grow if you do not know what you are doing and hurt the baby, you could get frustrated and angry and this can also impair the bonding stage, so please do not buy a baby bird of any kind that still needs to be hand fed.
African Grey Parrots are charming, inquisitive, and interactive; Grey's are highly intelligent and have the intellectual capacity of a 5-year-old child, they can mimic a large array of sounds and some can have a vocabulary of about 1500 – 2 000 words.
Not only do they have a large vocabulary but also the vast majority understands what they are saying. However, do not expect your baby African Grey to start talking until a year old, some might even take two years and then again, some never speak.
They can also be fearful of anything new within their environment, high strung and neurotic. They do not like any change in their routine either as they prefer routine. Their intelligence does not solely fall in the brains department but also in the emotional area. They are extremely perceptive of you and your moods, and have moods of their own from depression and self-mutilation, possessiveness, anger and defiantness.
Before buying a baby African Grey, remember they live to about 60 – 70 years, it is a lifelong commitment, your children will one day leave your house and start a life of their own, and your parrot will not. Your children become self-independent, your parrot will not. This means that you will be responsible for your parrots health and happiness for the next 60 – 70 years.
That responsibility is not just providing food and water but includes making sure that your companion has enough to keep his brain stimulated, enough exercise, socializing him and training him.
Bringing Baby Home
Once you have decided on a breeder, do background check on them first. Make sure that they have a good reputation, go and see what their place looks like. If they are hundreds of cages with a nesting box just stuck in a corner and a perch or two, know that this breeder is in it for the profit and not the love.
Look at what the birds look like; are they all in a good condition? Are all their needs being met? All of this gives you an indicator of what type of breeder you are dealing with.
Breeder found, next is an avian vet, you will need to take your baby for a check- up right after you have bought it. If there are any problems he will be able to advise you on what to do. Ask him for advice on all the things you are unsure of.
Purchase the cage, I prefer to get a big cage from the word go as I do not want to keep replacing the cage as the bird grows. Look at toys that are available and purchase one or two at the most.
The nursery is now ready, return to the breeder. Ask the breeder what food he is feeding the parrot, keep baby on that diet for a week and slowly introduce other food.
When you are at home with baby, please do not overwhelm him with too many visitors. Introduce him only to the members of the family that are staying with you. Remember he is scared and might growl, this is normal.
Talk in a calm reassuring voice and you yourself must be calm, if you are over exited the bird feels this and in turn also becomes over exited. Do things slowly and gently. Give him time to settle in and feel at home.
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