by Julia Allen

We are people who breed birds for a number of reasons.  As such, we accumulate baby birds as our breeder bird pairs produce for us.  It doesn’t take very long before we have to ask ourselves the question,  ‘‘what are we going to do with all of our new additions?”   Can we keep them all, probably not!  So, we decide which baby birds we will hold on to for the time being and make the decision of which ones will go to new homes.

As cockatiel exhibitors, our goals are to progress and improve the quality of our offspring with each breeding season in order to produce better show stock.  In order to accomplish this, we keep the babies we feel are the better birds for ourselves and sell the remaining ones. The question needs to be answered as to which of the cockatiels are to go to the ‘pet trade’ as we refer to it, and which of the cockatiels are potential show birds and/or to be offered for other exhibitors’ to add to their breeding stock.

As viewed by the many websites, these are a most popular and effective way to sell your birds.  The pictures, the descriptions are very effective tools and by all the reports I hear, this is the way to go in this technological era. Of course, there is the local Pet Center who loves to take our good birds, any we are willing to let go cheaply.  In my town, the Pet Center takes un-weaned babies and I know I can always rely on them.  This is the easiest and fastest way to move babies into the pet trade. But it is not always the most lucrative, however

A classified ad in the newspaper is not an effective way for obvious reasons.  The inconvenience of phone calls, making appointments for folks that either don’t show up, or want to spend hours chatting during the sale and for weeks afterward makes this option unpopular. How about the next Bird Fair for selling our extra birds?  When you walk through one of these fairs, the first observation is many, many cockatiels for sale cheap.  There are so many cockatiels in a cage they seem lost in the crowd.  The secret to selling birds at bird fairs is to be imaginative, different and have an eye pleasing display to present to the public

Nice sized cages with a small number of birds per cage will attract attention of potential buyers much more quickly than those in overcrowded cages.  Place clean, well-groomed birds in fresh clean cages, fresh food in clean bowls and colorful new toys for them to play with all helps the presentation of the birds you wish to sell.  The cage should be kept clean and fresh throughout the day. Bring extra water to change if the water becomes soiled.  Layers of newspaper in the tray that you can remove several times a day will   enable you to keep the cage fresh and clean; sort of like curb appeal when marketing a home for sale. Nice tablecloths on your table, a dish of wrapped candy, are subtle tools as well.  The main selling tool is your good marketing strategy and the better results you should obtain.  Your birds must be better looking, happier and healthier looking than all the competitors vying to sell their birds as well. 

You should decide weeks in advance which birds you wish to present for sale, and like getting ready for an exhibition show, you should pull the tail feathers if they are broken or ragged. Spraying the birds for good feather is a bonus as well.  A really good bird with broken and ragged tail feathers may look like an unhealthy bird to an observer looking to purchase a new bird.  A written description of each of the individual birds for sale with the listed price will help observers to view all pertinent information about the birds.  If you have only a few birds per cage, it is easier for the observers to make a decision about your birds for sale.

You can have on hand the prepared pedigrees and add all the pomp and circumstance related to help the visual display. Several of us have taken cockatiel breeder pairs and put a pair in a show box for display purposes and included everything about those two birds in a printed description displayed by the box in order to attract interested buyers. These ideas just give you something to think about if you plan on marketing your birds visually to the public.