Hyacinth macaw

[JadeC]

Anybody in Cali looking for a young hyacinth macaw??

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Dunno if it's a scam or not but thought I'd post it. :) There's the two ads from two diff people, so I dunno. Heh

[plax]

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[plax]

These ads are confirmed scam attempts! I responded to one of them and, from yet an entirely different email address, I received the following rambling scam spewage in reply:



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Hi,
just saw your message regarding the baby hyacinth macaw parrot
that we want to give out.Its a female called Blue. Due to extreme
personal reasons and life changes, I must find her a new home. It has
nothing to do with the parrot. If you are looking for that special
parrot, please read more about Blue below. If you are interested in
her, I would be happy to talk about her with you, but only after you
have read everything below. She's health guaranteed and will be
coming to your home in her travel cage. she interacts well with kids,
other pets and toys. Have an excellent temperament and takes a very
short time to know strangers. I have been training Blue since she was
just weeks old. She has been hand fed and raised and trained to be a
“PR” parrot. What I mean by this is that she was raised and trained to
be in the public, and handled by the public. She has featured in many
photo shoots, and has been used for educational
programs, nursing homes, exhibition shows, and much more. I raised her
to be comfortable in the “public eye”. Due to her extensive training,
she's very social and very friendly. She has a wonderful comical
personality typical of hyacinth macaws. She's quite the goof when you
get to know her. she has none of the bad habits associated with most
parrots.
Blue likes to lie on her back and to be cuddled.
she's very affectionate and loving. she likes to be scratched on her
head. she steps up every time you ask her, climbs on your shoulder
and mimics sweet sounds to your ears. she has been well trained. She
will do well in just about any home where she will get constant
attention.
Unfortunately, we are unable to keep this great parrot
due to serious changes in our circumstances. We want to give her out
because my husband and i went to the hospital some days back after i
have been vomiting (approx. twice a day) and also noticing general
body weakness and the Doctor discovered that i am 3 months pregnant.
Though good news to my husband and i, we weren't prepared for this as
we are currently in MARYLAND for our Honey Moon. Had it been we knew
earlier of the pregnancy, we would have postponed our honey moon and
stayed back. More so, the pregnancy has been causing much weakness in
me so much so that i do not have that required time and energy to
devote on Blue as before. Us continue keeping Blue is like preventing
her from her rights as a pet. I feel like she's not having that
required time from us to cuddle and pet her. Besides, i want to
concentrate more on my pregnancy as this is the first baby that we are
expecting as couples and won't want any extra load on me. We are
enjoying MARYLAND and do not want to return back now, else we will
just fly back. Besides, i do not like traveling when pregnant as it
endangers my unborn child...''HONEY THIS IS OUR FIRST BABY AND I DO
NOT WANT ANYTHING TO HAPPEN TO HIM'' says my darling husband...he's
already wishing for a male child...OHH men... lol... My husband and i
have decided to re home blue to any gentle and loving family that is
willing to usher the full required time to her. Hope your family is
gonna be the best for Blue if and only if, you can provide us with some
info about your home...that will help us better understand your home.
That's your family composition, their reactions towards pets in
general, whether or not you've owned pets before and how do you intend
welcoming Blue into your home. Well i will be willing to give out Blue
to your home provided you are going to give her all the necessary care
and attention that she deserves in the world. I am not very much
concerned about money now, all i want is to ensure that Blue finds a
good home. All i will ask from you as adoption fee is $290.
Blue needs a home where she will be out of her cage
most of the day, getting lots of attention for that is what she's used
to. If you think you are interested in Blue, then contact me. I will
also include all of her toys and food samples. she's still a baby,
and would make an excellent addition to any home. she's better than
getting an old parrot which will be hard to train. It will break my
heart to part from her, so I would really enjoy a home that would keep
me up dated on how she's adjusting. I’m not asking to see her, that
would be too hard for me, but an update now and then and pictures also
would be good.

N/B, If you are not located around us, we will arrange for shipping
of the parrot okay?...so where are you located?
Thanks


It's just another one of the Cameroon Hy scammers, I'm certain.

EDIT: Notice that the scammer screwed up and indicates that the bird is a female within the ramblings, when the ad I responded to was for the one described to be a male. Also notice the typical way the scammer's phrases are worded, and that he/she is "giving out" the alleged bird. These people are pathetic :(

[tonkatiel]

One day they'll realise that no one believes them :/
Does make a change though that this one seems to have at least taken the time to research parrots - I've seen others that have a description that reads as if they're talking about a dog but has a picture of a macaw :/

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[Feathers First Aviary]

I don't think i've ever seen a legit ad for a hy on craigslist. they are incredibly expensive birds and in pretty high demand, anyone that is selling one is not going to be posting it on craigslist.

[plax]

Yes. As a general rule, I think it's safe to assume that any Hy ad appearing on CL = SCAM!

[JadeC]

Hah sorry!

[plax]

Hah sorry!No need to be sorry. It's always good to post this kind of information so folks can hopefully learn from it and thus avoid falling victim to such scam efforts.

[ShellyBorg]

CL in Central CA is riddled with scams. They run Grey one's all the time. There is only one Northern CA breeder that has Hy's and they have been having issues with live chicks for awhile now ( Breeders are old) I see the price going even higher on these great birds as breeders( Both parrots and owners) are getting older and there is not many younger ones taking there place. I see the price on many parrots going up for babies. Most of the bird club members up here who use to breed are now getting to old and looking for homes for there breeders that are in poor conditions and feathers because of years of seed only diets. ( No not all breeders feed only seed but a HUGE amount of Northern CA breeders do.)

[MomtoPercy]

I didn't even know such scammers exist! Thanks for the headsup!

[Macaw Lover]

The pics they post most of the time and in this case are give always, there is just 'something' that is not right and you get a feel after a while if they are scammer ads or not.

I have to say Tony the response you got back on this one is a lot more in-depth than what they usually send you, never seen one using a pregnancy excuse to that extent before. LOL

When I have responded to ads I would always ask general information questions such as what vet they use, what foods the bird eats, favorite toys, age etc. On that second ad what is the biggest give away is they have had the bird since 4 months old. Hy babies take a lot longer to wean, closer to 8-10-12 months old even, not 4 months and if they got a baby to finish weaning, that's not a bird I'd want as most people don't know how to wean out a baby let alone a Hy.

There was one guy who was selling an adult bird that he got because the original owner bought it from a pet store in NJ, the baby was hatched in Florida and the original owner had no idea how to feed let alone wean it out. Even the second owner admitted the bird's growth was stunted after I had been trying to get a weight from him. Seems that guy no longer had a scale and I want to know how much a bird weights as there are just too many Hys that are small. My opinion on that is there are too many people out there trying to make a fast buck off the Hy's, feed them pellets only, force wean them faster, don't feed them the proper nutritional foods, including Macadamia nuts and coconut oils in the foods, and so the babies don't grow to the size they should be.

Another thing most people don't realize is there is a high mortality rate in Hys. Getting them hatched out of that egg is a milestone as a lot don't make it. The other critical period is getting the baby past the 3 month mark as Hy babies are notorious for throwing themselves on their back where they aspirate the food in the crop and die. So now you have all these people who are just in it to make a fast buck. They have babies but turn around and sell them to pet shops or to these places that 'raise' a bird for you but who think since they have feed out smaller birds there is nothing different to feeding out a Macaw let alone a Hyacinth. Same deal all around, get the baby out of your hands asap to make your money back plus that profit. Now just remember, every time that baby changes hands, it has to get adjusted to a new feeder. Is that easy on the baby? I think not. I had talked to one guy who bought it from a pet shop, they even delivered it a few states away but the baby was just covered in stress bars. Why he even took 'delivery' I don't know, but I would not have. Heck, I would not have bought a bird from that type of situation to begin with.

One thing I will say is that not 100% of Craig List ads are scams. I do know of 2 people who got real live Hys off of it and I almost got a couple of birds that I met in person from CL ads. One of the birds was really small and the other, the people ended up giving it to the vet tech when they took it in for the exam. Yes, really messed up, but from what I also understand, those people were then wanting the bird back afterwards.

Any ads that you would answer, always pay attention. There was one ad, not on CL but somewhere else, a phone # was listed and I called. Sounded like a really good bird, they owners were in the process of selling their house and moving back to Ireland from what I understood him to say. I had more questions the next day, the price was a little more than what I could pull together but did not tell him that and since they did not want to sell him right away, not until they actually had the house sold, I figured I had more time all the way around. He sent me a video then and I scratched my head because the name on the email said it was from Adeel Mustafa. Not exactly an Irish name. He claimed that I was the most experienced home that he had talked to and basically since I was not saying that I would buy him immediately, he would contact me if he came across someone else that was top on the list too. Three days later I get an email from him asking me what my 'best offer' would be as he had someone else that was experienced, had a contract they accepted on the house and would be selling him soon. Hmmmm. I wrote back saying that I would not get into any bidding war with anyone, that he knew what my 'best offer' was, the type of home this bird would have that I did offer and I just backed out real fast. Was that a more suffocated scam, not just using the email responses to hook you with? He had mentioned about a 2-300 deposit that I did not go into detail at the time but I am about 95% sure that was a scam, only on a more in-depth scale. One thing that I would never consider doing is telling them to send me a bird. I have flown to Dallas, rented a car and driven back home with bird in hand. Same with flying out to Colorado and picking up another little birdie who needed a new home.

If anyone answers an ad, I suggest using an email account that is set up just for that use so if you need to shut it down because of scams, you never, ever pay for a bird unless you can put your hands on it first.

[plax]

All good points, Renee'. I actually discovered Zaf on an Internet classified ads list in early 2005. There was a telephone number given, so I called and had a long conversation with the widow of Zaf's former owner. Zaf was in boarding at a vet clinic where he had been for about one year. So yes, all Internet Hy ads are not scams... but sadly many more of them today in fact happen to be :(. And I agree that the ones that are scams usually present with tell-tale signs of such (several of which you've mentioned). It's always good to point out those signs.

You've probably read this before, but here's an exchange I had with one of the Cameroon Hy scammers back in Januauay: [Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

Unfortunately, some of the Hy scams must be successful in their trickery or the scammers wouldn't persist with them so plentifully.

Scams aside, one of the saddest aspects of the real birds who are quickly produced and sold (as you've described) is the suffering, illness, stress, and death experienced by many of them purely for selfish human financial gains :th_shakehead: :(. Whether the poor things survive or not, each is critically dependent upon the humans who control its destiny. It's so very sad to realize that the wonderfully unique personalities of such amazing beings often ends in their tragic deaths due to human greed and incompetence. Those birds never have the chance to happily flourish... they will never find that special loving person and a safe and secure home :'(. And it's all because of money, greed, and apathy!

[Macaw Lover]

I remember seeing that posting out there of the one you linked, and yes that is all true the usual replies that you get. That is why I always sent them a list of my questions and if they did not reply to what I wanted to know, you know the whole this is a scam. Yes. so many people are just so stupid. If you watch the classifieds on FB (I found I could read the ads, just can't ever reply to one as I will not sign myself up on FB itself) but so many people think the ads are real when they see a low price, they want the bird and then are asking why they are not being given a phone number to call. I mean really, any Macaw being sold for $301 is the first warning bell going off yet they would keep posting how they wanted the bird and will come get it today etc.

It truly is sad to know that a lot of these birds that are being bred just to make the $$$$ are not going to have a long, healthy life. What is even worse is there are good people out there that want to 'save' a bird whose breeder did not provide enough food, or maybe it had a physical disability to begin with and people that take a bird in thinking it is going to cure the bird, and save it, end up with a bird that has major issues and the kindest thing that should have been done would have been to put it down a long, long time ago. Years and years ago when we had responsible breeders, not just these back yard breeders who are only in it for the money, would only keep 'stock' that was healthy, and this was referred to as culling. Now if you mention that an animal should be put down because it really is not healthy you will have people up in arms saying how terrible that is but in nature, that is what will happen automatically. If parents know of something that is wrong with a baby, they usually will ignore that baby and allow it to die on it's own. Nature has a way of taking care of things and sometimes humans should just not interfere with the natural order of it.

Ok, I am going off on a tangent and need to get back to my work.

[plax]

Well Renee', I have to tell you that I don't personally agree with you about there being justification for euthanizing disabled birds. While there are not a great deal of them, there are people who are willing to care for disabled parrots and I don't believe we as humans have the right to play God, even in the name of compassion. Of course a huge consideration will always be what the particular disabilities/illnesses are on a case-by-case basis... and, most importantly, how ill a particular bird happens to be. But in situations where we would not euthanize a human child, I don't believe we have the right or the moral justification to put a companion bird down. What goes for human beings should go for our pets as well, in my view. The only thing that could possibly be an exception may be when a bird's condition involves ongoing agonizing pain and suffering to the point of a chronic condition of torture. However, some parrots in clear agony and with grim prognoses have been known to recover impressively with enough care and dedication.

I do agree with you, though, on your method of interrogating the potential scammers with specific questions. Asking a seller for the contact information of an alleged bird's veterinarian for purposes of verification of the bird's existence and condition is an outstanding method of safeguarding oneself. It's in fact a measure that I've personally advised those contemplating the purchase of birds via classified ads to utilize.

[Blancaej]

I think Hy ads are the most suspicious of all bird ads. There are so many scams out there. One does need to be careful! You know what they say "If it is too good to be true, it probably is!"

[Turquoise]

I just wanted to comment about the disabled birds and euthanizing them. I too do not feel we as keepers of animals of any species or type have the right to take their lives just as we cannot take human life. I do understand the need for a terminally ill animal/bird or one in agonizing pain being euthanized to end its suffering. I still have a very hard time justifying doing this to animals. Humans are left to suffer to the very end and some illnesses are not pain free once it gets to that stage no matter how much pain medicines they are given. This is my personal thoughts and feelings on the subject of euthanasia. I do not expect anyone to agree or change their feelings due to my viewpoint.

That said I am one of those folks who not only took a disabled/handicapped macaw into my home, I requested the breeder to put my name on her list of possible homes. At the time I had never owned a macaw before and actually had never held one. I was waiting for my younger Catalina macaw Roscoe to finish weaning when I found out about his older disable brother Angel in need of a home. His breeder posted a comment on her FB aviary site about Angel's story and that if he didn't find a loving home, she would keep him. That is when I contacted her to see what requirements she had in mind for a good home. I told her I did not have prior handicap parrot experience other than a female budgie I was once given by a local pet shop due to its toes being twisted and she could not stand on her feet or grasp a perch. I made Mesquite bark wood ramps so Lacy J could waddle up to the first low perch and feel like she was perching with the other two budgies. I also added these ramps in front of her food and water bowls. Did the breeder have anyone else on her list as possible homes for Angel? I don't know, I didn't ask her, but I venture a guess she didn't. The breeder did tell me when Angel was 3 days old and she discovered his legs were deformed she took him to her avian vet. The vet really did not give her or Angel a good prognosis due to the need for macaws to use their legs so much in their daily lives. She almost decided to have him euthanized, but her daughter asked her to give him a chance first. She did and worried he would never be able to use his legs until the day he learned on his own how to climb the cage wire. And look where Angle has come full circle to today. In April he will be 3 years old and so far is in great health, eats well and loves his life with me. :)

I brought both Catalina boys home on January 21, 2012. Angel has never been a problem to own, keep or love. He has his limitations and he has learned ways around them. In some ways Angel is easier to take care of and live with than his boisterous full of himself brother Roscoe! I know not all disabled/handicapped parrots are as easy going as Angel nor are they as easy to take care of, but they are worth looking into opening up your home and heart to.

Kinda' off topic about scams, but I don't have any horror stories about being scammed. I do have a 'Happy Continuance' (not 'ending' since he is still very much alive) story about disabled parrots. :th_heart:

[Luthien]

My friend bought a Greenwing over the internet but before she did she went on video call with the guy and saw the baby bird. Always get them to do that, they can't fake a video call :)

[coltfire]

i had to laugh at a scammer the other week, they had 3 hyacinth for sale , so i asked how much , now they were in the states, i was told i could have the 3 of them for $700 and then i told them im in Australia and they said they could ship them to me for only $250 , i said to them its a scam and they promised it wasn't, then just for fun i asked them where the hell they got the pics of my 3 hyacinth Macaws and funny enough they never replied after that lol what a scam you think they would at least find out the cost of the bird 1st before trying to sell them. but 3 for $700 what deal, i would of begged, borrowed or stole for that price for the 3 of them, lol

[PlaxMacaws]

Well, Steve... they will usually always tell you they are in the states. They do so because they know they're more likely to find gullible victims living within the US. The scammer that you contacted is most likely based in Cameroon, Africa. That's where most of the pet scammers and their scam networks are located. And the reason they advertise such low prices for expensive birds (such as Hys) is because making such birds appear affordable is likely to get far more responses from folks than would using actual market prices within the scam ads. So it tends to improve odds for the scammers of finding potential victims who will actually send them money. Unfortunately, such scammer-placed Hyacinth Macaw ads have become a persistent phenomenon in our world today :(