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Any experience with Lucky Feathers aviary?

karen256

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I am thinking of getting a budgie from Lucky Feathers and I was just wondering if anyone has gotten a baby from them and what their experience has been. They seem to specialize in parrotlets, but also breed budgies, cockatiels, and GCC's. They offer a 3 yr health guarantee, which is unusual. It isn't the greatest guarantee (half off another bird if one dies of natural causes in the first 3 years) but better than the 2-3 day guarantee most breeders offer.
 

Aequa

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I'd assume with breeding smaller birds, especially budgies, early death is common. I know budgies don't live the longest at times ): so perhaps they are just trying to avoid a negative reputation?
 

Milo

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No experience with them... but what do they mean by "natural causes"? The reason that most breeders don't offer guarantees past 2-3 days is the risk that the new owner would expose their bird to something and then blame it on the breeder. This is why new bird checks with disease testing and chem panels are so important, that would prove that the bird was exposed to the disease at the breeding facility or that there was an obvious congenital issue at the time of purchase.

That is one huge health "guarantee" page. I do find some of the wording troubling, specifically that blood tests must be done within 48 hours of purchase. This doesn't allow for all the disease testing and a chem/CBC to be done due to the small size of the budgies and parrotlets specifically. For instance, a 25g parrotlet could only have about 0.2mL of blood drawn safely and the vet will likely draw less due to the potential for a hematoma or skin bleeding so that your little one can be safe. I am also concerned that they would not want a necropsy done on birds that seem to die of "natural causes" to find out what could be congenital issues in their breeding stock.

The long and the short of what I'm trying to say is ask them a lot of questions and make sure that you understand their very long "health guarantee" page.
 
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karen256

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It looks like the bird must see the vet within 48 hours, but allow one week to actually find out lab results, ect.
The 3 yr guarantee, limited as it is, does look promising. Other breeders I've found, even ones who claim to breed budgies for longevity, don't offer any guarantee beyond a few days.
Of course to get any kind of refund for a sick bird, it needs to be shipped back within 12 hours which I don't think most people would actually do.
 

Milo

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It looks like the bird must see the vet within 48 hours, but allow one week to actually find out lab results, ect.
The 3 yr guarantee, limited as it is, does look promising. Other breeders I've found, even ones who claim to breed budgies for longevity, don't offer any guarantee beyond a few days.
Of course to get any kind of refund for a sick bird, it needs to be shipped back within 12 hours which I don't think most people would actually do.
Remember that budgies are genetically prone to tumors and other health issues. The breeders simply cannot look into a crystal ball to see that their animals will develop health problems in the future so they're doing the best they can for now. There aren't as many screening tests that they can do like reputable dog and cat breeders can.
 

Vanessa G.

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I'm having a lot of issues with the parrotlet purchase I made through Lucky Feathers Aviary. It has been a very uncertain and at times traumatic experience for my family. I started to feel really unsafe about the purchase after a little over a week and a half based on conflicting communication regarding shipping and delivery of the bird, and I ended up formally disputing the sale through PayPal when the seller claimed he could not provide any kind of shipping evidence. I have also been contacted by a couple of other women who also claim to have had negative experiences with this seller.

I am very thankful I purchased through PayPal, as I'm sure the situation will work out. I still lost valuable time waiting for the bird that never came, along with sleep over all of the anxiety I experienced. We will purchase our birds locally from now on.
 
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