# No leg band



## sprman00 (Dec 31, 2014)

Hello all,

So it appears I may have finally found my grey WF baby cockatiel! The only thing is it is not banded. I found this peculiar given I'm getting it from a registered breeder. When I asked the "breeder" why it wasn't banded, he stated that he had pulled the birds too late. I remember reading somewhere on the internet that if you buy a bird from a breeder, it should have a leg band and to be weary if it doesn't. I know it's a baby based on the picture and that it hasn't molted in the whiteface yet. Should I be concerned and not go through with picking this baby if it doesn't have a leg band?


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## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

I don't think it means anything about the quality of the breeder. Some breeders choose not to band because it can be associated with health and safety issues. It's also pretty easy for a less-than-great breeder to band if they so choose. So I'd base your opinion of the breeder on the research that you've done rather than on the presence or absence of a leg band.


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## Colorguarder08 (Sep 13, 2014)

Not having a leg band is no reason to not get a bird. A lot of times the bands become useless anyways because the information on the band you can get from the breeder


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## Jaguar (Jul 11, 2014)

Colorguarder08 said:


> Not having a leg band is no reason to not get a bird. A lot of times the bands become useless anyways because the information on the band you can get from the breeder


It's very useful for identification & tracking.

I have a quaker whom is unbanded. I will never know who bred him, where he was bred... heck, I don't have the slightest clue how old he is. 

Ideally, a breeder would try to keep track of every bird whom they adopted out so they could monitor said bird's health, temperament, and so on. For example, if the bird suddenly got aggressive cancer at a very young age, the breeder might consider stopping further breeding of that line. With an unbanded bird, should someone happen to "forget" or lose the breeder's details somewhere along the line, the origin of the bird will be lost forever. This is extremely likely when you consider most birds are rehomed multiple times in their life.

I would like to see a better procedure when it comes to banding birds. They need to have a standard format, and all breeder codes should be cataloged with their contact information. Unfortunately, there's very few organizations that do this, and some breeders won't use them. A band with random letters and numbers only decipherable by the breeder is about as useful as no band.


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## Colorguarder08 (Sep 13, 2014)

Most bands are as only depcipherable by the breeder which is why there are several posts on every bird forum asking how to read them and in most cases it's not able to be done. And since this person is looking at a specific breeder anything the band would tell them ( mostly just the year it hatched and what number chick this is) they should be able to ask the breeder.


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## Jaguar (Jul 11, 2014)

Colorguarder08 said:


> Most bands are as only depcipherable by the breeder which is why there are several posts on every bird forum asking how to read them and in most cases it's not able to be done. And since this person is looking at a specific breeder anything the band would tell them ( mostly just the year it hatched and what number chick this is) they should be able to ask the breeder.


I addressed both of these issues in my post.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> It's very useful for identification & tracking.
> 
> I have a quaker whom is unbanded. I will never know who bred him, where he was bred... heck, I don't have the slightest clue how old he is.
> 
> ...


To each their own. I hate bands. I cut every band off of every bird I ever owned. Why? Because they tend to be a health hazard and a danger in my opinion. I had a bird that would bite at her band every chance she got. So I chopping it off. MY breeder, who I got said bird from, not only provided me with a band, but with a card with ALL her info on it. The band was incorrect to begin with, because he had run out of bands the year she was born and had to put the wrong year on her. So honestly, unless a breeder is totally honest, you can't even trust the band. 

As to using the band to find owners if a bird is lost? Nope, because the breeder only had the info for the person they sold the bird to. There's no guarantee that's the same person who lost the bird. Bands are just not accurate enough to be worth it to me. 

So I say go meet the breeder, see their set up. That's how you judge breeders, banding or not.


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## Colorguarder08 (Sep 13, 2014)

Exactly making the band useless anyways


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

I make every effort to band only because the information may one day prove useful either to future owners or to a customer who lost their bird. But as the breeder told you in this case, sometimes you wait too long and a clutch or one or two birds do not get banded. This is not unheard of as the window to band at least for me only lasts about two or three days (sometimes shorter). After that, their legs are too big and it isn't worth it to risk injuring the bird just to get the band on. The band is only good for tracking the bird back to the breeder; this is why I tell everybody I sell to that they should keep my number handy if their bird is lost.


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## sprman00 (Dec 31, 2014)

Thank you all for the replies.
I decided not to go with this "breeder" as I was wasn't able to obtain consistent responses in regards to age, hatch date, etc. In addition, I found a post on-line where this "breeder" was outed for posing as a breeder when in fact they were not; they were buying unweaned baby cockatiels from other breeders and re-selling them. Very sad for those baby cockatiels.
Back to square one!


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## Jaguar (Jul 11, 2014)

sprman00 said:


> Thank you all for the replies.
> I decided not to go with this "breeder" as I was wasn't able to obtain consistent responses in regards to age, hatch date, etc. In addition, I found a post on-line where this "breeder" was outed for posing as a breeder when in fact they were not; they were buying unweaned baby cockatiels from other breeders and re-selling them. Very sad for those baby cockatiels.
> Back to square one!


That's incredibly sad and would explain why they aren't able to band them. Good luck finding a baby elsewhere!


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

sprman00 said:


> Thank you all for the replies.
> I decided not to go with this "breeder" as I was wasn't able to obtain consistent responses in regards to age, hatch date, etc. In addition, I found a post on-line where this "breeder" was outed for posing as a breeder when in fact they were not; they were buying unweaned baby cockatiels from other breeders and re-selling them. Very sad for those baby cockatiels.
> Back to square one!


I think the word you are looking for is "flipper". I have seen my share of them. Flippers tend to not realize that selling cockatiels is not a very profitable business. Spotting flippers isn't too hard because most of the time they don't ask any questions. Just "how much"? "Will you hold it for me?" And "when can I pick up?" Customers will ask me what mutations I have, the sex, how old they are, and maybe a few newbie questions if owning a bird is something new to them. It does not surprise me on selling phase of the operation the flipper is clueless. At the end of the day, they're just some guy who saw an ad on craigslist for a bird and thought he could turn a profit reselling. /rant


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## Colorguarder08 (Sep 13, 2014)

While this hand feeder is not a good one you have to remember a lot of times people will sell the unwanted babies on Craigslist to be handfed and then resold. That's what happened with the babies I handfed this summer. Also some do have a good relationship with the breeders. The ones I got Riley from where able to get me the exact date he hatched and information on his parents it really just all depends on the person doing it. When it came time to rehome the babies this summer I let everyone know I had very little information on the parents because they were not bred from my tiels and I was lied to about how old they were


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## sprman00 (Dec 31, 2014)

Thanks Jaguar, Darkel777 & Colorguarder08.


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