FINCHforum

I couple of people I met once mentioned the other day that a local store of ours had "the birds with the really long tails." I just lost my Pin-tailed Whydah the last month, and I was curious as to what birds these were. I figured they were Pintails (was hoping for maybe Paradise Whydah), but they were Pintails.

Anyway, they had quite a few species of finch in the store, including ones I haven't seen for sale in a long time like a pair of gorgeous Shafttails. They also had some I'd never seen personally like a lone Fire Finch (I didn't even know about them) and they also had a pair of Owls!!!!! First time I've ever seen Owls in person.

I don't think I'll get them because I really don't need anymore finches right now (why must we be limited by space??) and one of the poor little Owls looked like it might be sick or have something wrong with one or both of its eyes..... it was very squinty-eyed.

I also had a little bit of sticker shock..... $239 for the pair. I wanted to ask out of curiosity for the future, is this a good price Owls?

That's high for Florida! There are many hoobly and Ebay classified ads for owls that are way cheaper.

http://www.hoobly.com/0/0/1633004.html

Owls usually go for between $70 to $85 each. Anything higher than that (normals), especially sick owls is to much.

Poor little owls...either they are sick or stressed.

Thanks everyone.

The pet stores here seem to have all the really sought after finches overpriced (gouldians and owls). Its common for a normal gould to be over $100, which I've been told is high.

I felt bad for the little Owl too. The one looks so healthy and alert, and the other one looks sick. Maybe sometime I find them at my local flea market... only place that really seems to have certain species at reasonable prices. They had Cordon Bleus there once, $100 for the pair. My local PetsMart was selling individual Cordons for more than that.

Around here (NJ) normal gouldians go for OVER 100 in pet stores. Can't touch an owl for under 100

can't even touch it?

There is a pet store here in Maryland that sells owls for $400/pair. Completely ridiculous.

Most pet stores are overpriced. Your best bet would be a bird mart or directly from a local breeder. I have paid $40-85 per owl, depending on the source.

these pet stores re a right ripoff, i just 'given way' 4x 5 week old gouldians and 2 shaft tails also 4 week old. its a shame people cash in on natures beauty. mind you the guy i gave them too was recently robbed of all his birds but its still not the point.
its a shame there isnt a cheap way to post eggs to each other as it would save us all a fortune and put an end to the petshop ripoff pricing.

General rule of thumb here is to double your price so if a pet store is paying 60 for a normal gould, then their retail price is around 120. Remember stores have a much higher overhead then private breeders.

Flrancho, I have owls that I will be pricing out soon, mostly boys. Both pairs gave me males, one group is finishing a molt.

I am going to be placing an ad in market place for zebras (young pairs of cetain mutations) and owls (young...under a year..I have to check my records on fledge dates). Where you looking to breed them?

Not sure where you are located, if you are interested in a couple pm, I don't have an problem meeting you part way.

Thanks for the offer Cindy. But like I said I really shouldn't get any more birds right now... I'm a bit over crowded in my flight right now by three, so I don't need to add more.

Maybe in the future when I do have room though.

Ok.....let me know.

Again, on the overhead thing. It's getting tougher and tougher for pet stores (or any small retail shops) to make it. They have to make a good margin due to employees, insurance, taxes, utilities, and the rest of the unseen overhead.

It's just like a restaurant may charge $6 for a glass of wine and the bottle sells retail for $9. It seems excessive, but when in reality a restaurant is lucky to make 5% profit at the end of the day.

This is probably the reason why so few pet stores carry finches any more. It's tough to mark up the finches enough to make money. And unlike other retail products, birds and other animals have to be fed and are labor intensive.

Candace- I wish you had a location here in Atlanta. You would get tired of weeing me.

perm band 2011

15 euro a pair from breeders ( 20usd )
25 euro a pair in petshops ( 32,50usd )

i could get a pair for free today when i picked up my new birds after trading a birdcage .... he had about 20-30 young ones flying around

In Ontario $50 a bird is the fairly consistent number. I think I've seen $40 once. A pet shop would likely be $100 per bird, but you seldom see them in a pet shop.