FINCHforum

Not sure if I have placed this in the correct are, but anyway:

I am currently looking into transporting finches from the USA - likely Washington because I could drive and see them first - to British Columbia, Canada. I am wondering if anyone has successfully done this - LEGALLY.

I am looking at this option as I am having a hard time finding healthy birds of several species.

Alberta, Canada maybe another option but the drive would be much farther as I am on the West Coast of BC.

Ponytail Joe may be able to answer your questions.

Here is Ponytail Joe's website with contact information if you don't have it...

http://www.ponytailjoes.com/index.html

Thanks for the suggestion. I do know Ponytail Joe - actually bought some birds from him with mixed results. I am not so sure he really wants to help his customers by-pass him though. Last couple times I spoke to him, he did mention he was going to carry fewer varieties of birds, so you never know. Out of courtesy, I will speak to him. I have no plans to compete with him. I would just like to know where my birds are coming from and see what they look like before I purchase. I also believe a lot of his birds are wild caught and I am not sure how I feel about that. I am going to post regarding that a little later tonight. Thanks again.

Many of Ponytail Joe's birds are wild-caught. I understand anyone's reluctance to purchase wild-caught birds, because none of us like the methods that are used to catch them, nor the rigorous quarantine process they must go through before getting to us. That is a personal choice which I respect.

However, keep in mind that if some breeders didn't purchase those wild-caught birds and work with them to get them domesticated and bring the numbers up, we wouldn't have many birds at all. I work with waxbills, and there would not be a single waxbill available to us in the U.S. if someone didn't work with the wild-caught birds. Every domestic waxbill in the U.S. is there because someone bred wild-caught to start with.

You probably know about this already, but here is a link to a bird club in B.C. I have found that bird clubs are one of the best ways to acquire new birds, mostly because of the contacts I've made through bird clubs. Networking is the best way to find birds, as many breeders don't do a lot of advertising. There are a lot of hobby breeders out there who rely on word of mouth, or they go to one or two marts a year. You learn about them from other breeders. This club will have a mart in May.

http://bcexoticbirdsociety.org/index.html