We do not allow birds to be sold here
You can search every other category on Panjo Pets, and rescues can still rehome birds through us. What we will not carry is birds being sold.
This is our rule, not the law. Selling most captive-bred birds in the UK is perfectly legal. We have decided not to be the place it happens, and you can hold us to that.
Why
A parrot bought this afternoon may outlive the person buying it. African greys and amazons commonly reach fifty, cockatoos more. Almost nothing else sold as a pet asks a buyer to plan that far ahead, and an online listing is the format least able to check that anyone has.
The birds that come out of that worst are the ones passed on again and again. Rescues are full of greys and cockatoos that were bought on an impulse, plucked themselves bald in a living room, and were moved on within two years. We would rather not be the first step in that.
There is also a provenance problem we cannot solve at a distance. A great many species are still taken from the wild, and the paperwork that separates a legally captive-bred bird from an imported one is a CITES Article 10 certificate and a closed leg ring - both of which are straightforward to claim in an advert and impossible for us to verify from a photograph. Where we cannot check a claim, we would be lending it our name.
What we would suggest instead
- A rescue. Parrot rescues in the UK have more birds than homes, they know each bird's history, and they will tell you honestly whether it suits you. Birds needing a home through a rescue.
- A specialist breed society. For most species there is a UK club whose members breed to a standard and will talk to you for an hour before selling you anything. That conversation is the part an advert cannot replace.
- Spend a day with one first. Volunteer at a rescue, or sit with somebody else's. Noise, dust and forty years are all things people underestimate until they have been in the room.
Poultry is different
Chickens, ducks, geese, quail and pheasants can still be advertised in the poultry section. They are kept for different reasons, they live a fraction as long, and the trade in them is not the one described above.
If you were about to advertise a bird
We will not publish it, and the advert builder will tell you so rather than taking your money first. If you need to find a home for a bird you already have, email us and we will point you at a rescue that takes that species. We would rather help than have you list it somewhere worse.