Who Is Breeding Pi's These Days?

[Nostromo]

I am in the US. I'm curious if we know who is breeding these lovely birds primarily? Why are they so rare in aviculture? I heard from a store I was at the other day that Pi's are difficult breeders. Is that true? I know of JC Aviary, Omar's Exotics Birds, Patty's, and Parrot Stars. Anyone else breeding pionus babies?

 

[MommyBird]

Avalon Aviary in Colorado breeds Blue Headed Pionus

 

[Jayced!!]

I don't think there's a solo primary breeder for these guys, but several breeders scattered around the US are breeding the Blue Headed Pionus. Those are the most common of all the Pionus you'll see because they're the sweetest! My local shop, Sugarcreek Bird Farm in Bellbrook, OH breeds them too! You'll also sometimes see the White Capped Pionus and Bronze Winged Pionus but definitely not as often. Then you rarely see the other guys like the Dusky Pionus!

I'm not a breeder so take my opinion with a grain of salt obviously, but I've heard that they're not particularly terrible parents or hard to raise like some other species are, it's just a pain to try and match a pair that gets along (making you go through multiple females/males trying to find that match), and to actually maintain that pair that'll KEEP producing. I hear that many pairs will simply just stop producing. Pionus aren't known to be particularly hormonal after all, and hormones are the driving force of breeding! As you can imagine, buying several birds can quickly become quite the investment. So, less demand for them = Less investment into breeding them. You see even less of the other Pionus species for this same reason too, but also the other species tend to have less desirable personalities as well, being purchased mainly for appearance ( Less cuddly, more particular and nippy, etc. )

IMO you don't see them often in Aviculture just because they're overlooked. They're a small-medium sized, mild-mannered bird that isn't particularly flashy color-wise. They aren't known to have the exotic factors that'll draw non-bird people into having a bird. Macaws are large and flashy color-wise. Cockatoos are loud, entertaining, and known to be SUPER cuddly. Amazons are loud, entertaining, and talk. Greys are similar personality-wise to Pionus but are revered for the intelligence and talk factor. Usually, people don't get into Aviculture FROM Pionus, people don't typically have Pionus as an only bird, and usually people that have them have been interested in Aviculture for a minute. They're the sweetest and cutest little guys ever, but don't have those larger-than-life exotic traits of those high-demand species which unfortunately lead to them being overlooked.

 

[April]

@Jan

 

[April]

Oh @expressmailtome probably would know of some breeders.

 

[thedogtor]

I can vouch for Parrot Stars. I got my bird from there and my friend just got a pionus from them.

 

[Jan M]

I got my Maximilian Pionus last month from Magnolia Bird Farm in Riverside, CA. I purchased him because they called me before Omar’s and because it was the best price on the market. The down sides: 1) The bird had absolutely no training. He has a fear of humans and it’s been a slow process getting him acclimated to me. He is almost 4 months old and will not allow me to handle him, so he’s missing out on many of the things I wanted to do. He has not been outside. He does not step up. 2) The advice Magnolia Farms gives is inconsistent with most of what I’ve learned by reading and watching parrot training videos. For example Magnolia Farms told me to force him out of his cage 3x/day — grab him against his will. Needless to say, I traumatized my beautiful parrot. It’s taken a while for me to regain his trust. They told me to put zero toys in his cage for at least 3 months. Thank goodness I broke this rule as on as I got him home. I make sure he has a variety of toys — foraging, chewing, shredding, preening, foot, and clanging toys. Magnolia Bird Farm told me to feed him pizza, meat, dairy — whatever I eat. Of course, I did not follow that advice. They also insisted that I keep keep feeding him on their proprietary all seed diet they have fed him since birth. I immediately began a process of diet conversion as soon as I got him come. I feed him fresh chopped every morning and early evening. During the day I use pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds for training. Over night I leave in his cage a 2:1 mixture of TOPS and buckwheat and occasionally a small spray of millet. All this said, I love my bird dearly and am thankful I was able to afford the extremely reasonable price Magnolia Farms required.

 

[Nostromo]

@Jayced!! All that you're saying makes sense! It's sad to think these lovely parrots are overlooked. I feel like a lot of the problems of aviculture might be avoided by breeding more of the mellow, lower maintenance, more psychologically-resilient species like Pionus and fewer of the ones that seem so prone to damage from captivity, like cockatoos. How could a cockatoo be a more popular pet than a pionus?! It's like a wolf hybrid being more popular than a collie.

@Jan M What an interesting experience. I commend you working so hard to socialize your baby. I suppose part of the steep price of many parrots is the time required to tame them and help them imprint upon humans.

 

[Jan M]

If money wasn’t a factor, I would’ve gone with Patty’s Parrots in Florida. He’s been breeding Pionus parrots longer than anyone in the country. I would’ve been equallly comfortable with Parrot Stars. Every interaction I had with Parrot Stars was excellent and they clearly know what they are doing. The problem with these breeders is their high price. I paid Magnolia Farms a third of the price I would’ve had to pay Patty’s and Parrot Stars.