FINCHforum

Has anyone purchased birds from Fly Babies in Tampa, FL? They show a great selection of gouldians on their web site and I'm tempted to buy a few. I live in AZ, however, so the birds would have to be shipped to me. I'd be interested in any information regarding the quality of their birds, services, and shipping method.
Thanks

I have never purchased from them but there is a post on Hoobly from about 13 hours ago about their experience with them.

They are a broker and buy gouldians and canaries from other breeders and brokers at the shows, the birds you get are not necessarily bred by them. I can not vouch for the quality of the birds they ship.

I am a vendor at some of the shows here and we see them often doing this and I am aware of who they often purchase from.

I personally always try to find a breeder in the area that can give you exact records on the birds so you know age, parentage. I know a few private breeders that you can contact.

Another great site to purchase from is Paradise Earth, several people I know and that are on some of the facebook groups I admin on are very happy with the quality of the birds and the service.

Bob, I've been searching for those comments on Hoobly, but haven't found them yet. Do you have the specific page site?

Cindy, thanks for the info. I didn't realize it's a broker instead of breeder. I want to buy from breeders who are familiar with & care about their birds. If you know of any breeders in AZ, I'd appreciate the recommendations. It's always better to buy birds that I can inspect personally.

Vienne, this is the link for updated comments...they reposted with an update. Again, I don't know anything about them, I just happened to see these comments. You probably can contact the writer of the comments through Hobbly to get the complete story. http://www.hoobly.com/1wYcH/think-twice ... -in-fl.htm

I read the link with the comments. Sounds like they are not acting responsibily or professionally with their business practices. I would definitely take Cindy's advice. I also know a few gouldian breeders here in Texas who breed beautiful goulds. If you're interested, I can give you the contact information.

Bob, thanks for the link. Definitely not good business practices. I'll stay away from them.

Deborah, thanks for the offer. I'll try to find local breeders first. Also, there's a bird mart coming to my area later this month. Hopefully I'll find all the birds I want (and probably more than I have room for). If not, I'll take you up on your offer.

Beverly in Tuscon, Arizona raises them.

http://www.bevsbirds.com/

Several of my males are from her.

So that was my post on Hoobly. I had been going back and forth for over a year on whether or not I should buy from them. I even posted on here asking if anyone had purchased from them. Didn't hear anything too bad so I decided to go for it.

They advertised to me in a way that made me think they used a special courier service for their birds - not to mention the $125 I spent on the shipping. I started getting suspicious after they wouldn't give me shipping information on them once they shipped. I stay away from USPS shipping and I was so upset when the post office called me saying they were there ready to be picked up.

The birds I received are beautiful and two out of the three seem to be in great health. The other one I'm not so sure of - she has extremely watery droppings which I've posted a question about in the health section of this forum.

Betrue2yurself
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I hope your finch responds to treatment. Glad you're able to get advice here at least. Did you post pics of those finches?

finchmix22 wrote: Betrue2yurself
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I hope your finch responds to treatment. Glad you're able to get advice here at least. Did you post pics of those finches?

Here they are. You can see the hen with and her watery droppings in her pic. Not sure if you can see her droppings well enough in the background. But I'm treating her with Ronex (finishing day 3 today) and have not seen much if any improvement. Any ideas as to what treatment I should follow with if Ronex doesn't work??

The male is the BH,PB,GB and the other hen is PB,SB (not sure of her head color)

Well they look gorgeous. I'm surprised they shipped USPS from Florida to California. Glad they made it to you ok. Hoping the hen gets over whatever is ailing her.

Mark, the birds are lovely. Hope the hen will recover soon.

Colt, thanks for the recommendation. I'll check out Beverly in Tucson. I take it your males from Beverly are doing fine?

Betrue2yurself
Keep using Ronex 12% for 7 days. Her dropping could be related to veggies in her diet, but if that is not the case, then see how she is doing after Ronex. If that does not seem to change anything, I'd try and antibiotic; however, give her a few days of filtered water between treatments. Then, follow with Probiotics at the end of treatment.

Would just like to give everyone an update. I've been in touch with Laraine getting advice on how to treat my sick hen that I received from Flybabies last week. She tells me that one of her customers is dealing with a similar issue, actually much worse than mine. Here is what she says email....

Hello Mark,

I couldn't wait to log in this morning and see if I got a reply from you. I just got off the telephone with another customer who received birds this morning from Flybabies. They shipped his birds through the PO on Monday and they just arrived this morning. The 2 blue hens are dead, the 2 silver males are sitting with heads tucked and one of the others is butt pumping when they poop. He is so upset... as am I. Did your birds come through the PO too? Or through the commercial airlines?

I haven't seen anything that you posted. Where did you post about FlyBabies? My other customer doesn't belong to any of the egroups, but I want him to join and post about this experience. FlyBabies won't give him a refund except for credit on another purchase. YEAH! Would anyone be stupid enough to purchase from them again after what he just experienced with them. I am so angry I would spit nails.

I had hear other negative remarks about FlyBabies from other customers, but nothing specific like what has happened to you and this other customer.

Please let me know about where you posted your complaints about FlyBabies.

Let's take your hen one day at a time. After the KD, get back to me and then we can make another decision based upon her condition at that time.

Laraine
www.ladygouldian.com