Decided on a bird

Well my daughter did.
After looking at all the different kinds available at the local stores, she has decided she wants a parakeet.
Now for the hard part.
I am looking for a young one. The ones at the store are older even though we were told they were only about 3 months old. Well when you can sex them, they are older than 3 months old. I just nodded and left. Didn't want to mention the cere color or no stripes on the head. Plus, I didn't feel like paying $24.99 for a bird that I get no history on.

So, anyone have suggestions for a breeder? I would rather pay good money and get it from a reputable source and not a petshop.
She liked the white with a little bit of light blue on it.

Here is my suggestion: I have both parakeets and an English budgie, and budgies are a bit larger and I like the way they look. You can get a budgie from a breeder for about $25. Do a search for your area, or send an email to a national budgie association and group and they will provide you with a name of a local breeder. It sounds like a wonderful choice!

Originally Posted by SPJ

I am looking for a young one. The ones at the store are older even though we were told they were only about 3 months old. Well when you can sex them, they are older than 3 months old.

Steve, I think the parakeet (aka American budgie) is a good choice for a kid. That was actually my first bird, too. It is actually possible to sex 2-3 month old budgies once you've raised enough of them. It's still based upon the cere coloring, and the location of some of the coloring. Unfortunately, it's not really something you can describe to someone without having a bunch of young birds in front of you. It's possible that the person at the pet store has enough experience with them to sex them at that age, but I've never met another pet store employee who actually knew how.

In addition to what Lucille said, you might want to check to see if there are any bird fairs/shows in your area. The best place to find a listing of them is usually in the back of a Bird Talk mag. That way you'd be able to meet multiple breeders in person.

I have no doubt someone familiar with these birds can sex them at a young age but when I can tell the males from the females just by the research I did on the web, then I have a pretty good idea that they older than 3 months.

I will look online for breeders and see what I can find out. I also heard at work that there was a bird show this weekend in Stamford CT, which is only about 45 minutes from where I live. Now I just need to try and confirm it and find out exactly where it is and the times.

Anyone have experience with the vision birdcages? The have a stand with storage built into them, some type of plastic barrier on the corner where the seed bowl goes to prevent seeds from falling on the floor, and supposedly since they are longer rather than taller, they would be better for this type of bird.

I have no clue about the smaller bird cages (but they are a LOT cheaper than my macaws cage was LOL).