BirdMart expo loot!

[SRSeedBurners]

We're first timers at one of these expos. This one was located 1.5 hours away, a little far but what the hell. Some vendors had really good prices, others were full retail - we stayed away from those with the exception of one. Lots of sad looking birds, I hated to see that. You can tell some of these idiots consider these birds mere livestock. We were after toys and food so ---

 

The total haul. The two manzanita perches are huge and heavy - built for macaws. They were $24 and $35. Retail on those, I wouldnt even look twice.

 

Two on the right are a soak and a cook mix. I've always wanted to try but these are outrageously expensive in our local store. They were literally 1/3 the cost at the expo:

 

I didn't want to buy this but my wife insisted and Toby went ape* over it. Obviously he's into soft and fluffy:

 

Some of the stuff hung. Greycie of course is a big chicken.

 

10ft tall and bullet proof Toby can't get enough of his fluffy perch toy:

Edited May 18, 2014 by SterlingSL

[Timbersmom]

Nice haul! We have to drive 1.5 hours to get to the nearest bird fair, but it's well worth the drive to me. I order many things on line, but for somethings it is great to be able to see it and feel it.

[Talon]

Wow! You got some great stuff! Good prices too. It's always nice to be able to touch and feel things vs online shopping .

[Luvparrots]

Very nice!

[Quirky]

What a great haul! I don't think I would have thought twice about the perches at those prices either. I went to my first bird fair last month and although I did find a few jewels at great prices I was surprised at how much was the same as retail. The big bird fair is coming here in 3 weeks I've been told it's much better so I'm planning on attending it.

[katana600]

Yay for the loot! Toby looks so interested in that fleece. I am going to have to try something like that for Java. Thanks for the idea. We use the soak and simmer. My favorite way to make it is in my rice cooker, after soaking overnight. While it is still warm, I put red palm oil in it. I make enough for a month, fill ziplock snack bags with daily amount, press flat and freeze. Each morning, I take one from the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw for the next day. The one that is thawed will warm quickly in hot water or 15 seconds in my microwave. Massage the bag to make sure there is no hot spots. I hope your birds live it as much as ours.

[KimKim]

Nice! You got some great stuff, love the hanging perch!

[murfchck]

Haha, I wish I had known you were there. We spent about 3 hours there yesterday too. $600 bucks later I had to leave. So, those hanging wooden perches that you got, those are the ones we put together with the dragonwood perches to make that hanging stand in our bay window. BTW, i love that vendor and spent $300 alone just at their booth. She makes all of the toys there, they are not commercial so the prices are wonderful. Also Centurian (ms?) Cages booth is another we dropped a bunch at, we got the big rope perches and ladders for the outdoor aviaries. I was going to start a thread with pictures of everything we got as it covered the top of our ping pong table and then a picture of a lone tee shirt and say, "went to the bird mart and all i got was this lousy tee shirt" lol. There were a few vendors that didn't make it this year, one who i loved was Linda ( she uses a walker, i think she has MS ) and everyone said they were retiring. The booth called Busybeaks kinda took their place but they had their stuff priced so high all i ended up getting there were some foraging toys and the shirt. ( the shirt was priced pretty high but i had to have it since i get one at every show) And the table that sells just boings wasn't there either, Busybeaks had boings but their price was double what we normally pay, $14 verses $35 i had to pass. The booth where you got your atom, i had my arms full of stuff but when they went to check me out they only did cash or check and i had neither. I chased down hubby and he had 35 cash so i got some metal foraging things. I felt kinda bad since i have to get 7 of everything, some booths i cleaned out rows of toys with! Bill's booth ( the fleece things you got and the perches ) held our stuff there for us and it filled the underside of his table and he had no leg room! It took 3 trips to put everything in the car. Because we buy so much there with them, he gives us a nice discount so friend these guys and get to know them, all of the vendors are that way. It was only about an hour drive for us so we are planning to go again for the June show but Bill said they may not be there because he thought the date was the same as another show they are commited too. :-(

Edited May 18, 2014 by murfchck

[Ray P]

I haven`t been to a bird fair in years, looks like I should get back to going.

I guess I like to pay the big buck. (not)

[SRSeedBurners]

Haha, I wish I had known you were there. We spent about 3 hours there yesterday too. $600 bucks later I had to leave. So, those hanging wooden perches that you got, those are the ones we put together with the dragonwood perches to make that hanging stand in our bay window. BTW, i love that vendor and spent $300 alone just at their booth. She makes all of the toys there, they are not commercial so the prices are wonderful. Also Centurian (ms?) Cages booth is another we dropped a bunch at, we got the big rope perches and ladders for the outdoor aviaries. I was going to start a thread with pictures of everything we got as it covered the top of our ping pong table and then a picture of a lone tee shirt and say, "went to the bird mart and all i got was this lousy tee shirt" lol. There were a few vendors that didn't make it this year, one who i loved was Linda ( she uses a walker, i think she has MS ) and everyone said they were retiring. The booth called Busybeaks kinda took their place but they had their stuff priced so high all i ended up getting there were some foraging toys and the shirt. ( the shirt was priced pretty high but i had to have it since i get one at every show) And the table that sells just boings wasn't there either, Busybeaks had boings but their price was double what we normally pay, $14 verses $35 i had to pass. The booth where you got your atom, i had my arms full of stuff but when they went to check me out they only did cash or check and i had neither. I chased down hubby and he had 35 cash so i got some metal foraging things. I felt kinda bad since i have to get 7 of everything, some booths i cleaned out rows of toys with! Bill's booth ( the fleece things you got and the perches ) held our stuff there for us and it filled the underside of his table and he had no leg room! It took 3 trips to put everything in the car. Because we buy so much there with them, he gives us a nice discount so friend these guys and get to know them, all of the vendors are that way. It was only about an hour drive for us so we are planning to go again for the June show but Bill said they may not be there because he thought the date was the same as another show they are commited too. :-(

 

 

For some reason those wood perches seemed familiar. Now I remember the photo of them you posted. I can't believe how heavy and solid they are and so cheap. No doubt Tree Top or Kookaburra would have been asking somewhere between 100-200 for those if not more. Busybeaks is the one vendor I was referring to when I mentioned 'full retail'. They had one toy there with a manzanita branch with leather dangles and a tube bell at the bottom that I know my bird would love. I went back and forth because those guys weren't giving any deals. They were the only ones that went ahead and tacked on the tax too. Will avoid them in the future now that we know. If I want to pay full retail and taxes, I'll go to Kookaburra.

 

The atom you mentioned, we actually didn't get that at the fair. Greycie was sitting on it because it's familiar. She's perfectly willing to let Toby test the waters before trying the new stuff. The vendor that did have the atom I was interested in had it marked '16' but then he changed his price. They were kind of flakey so we just bought little parts and pieces which they had tons of.

 

If we go again I'll PM you first, that way we can meet up and my wife can keep you busy while I buy all the stuff out from under you :)

[murfchck]

We got there at about 10:30 and there was only one of those hanging perches left that you got, the straight one with the little one attached, and we bought it so what time were you there to have gotten one? lol I also bought all of the larger fleece rings she had. I was trying to get the double macaw cage for a hefty discount but he would only go to 600 so i had to pass but told him if he didn't want to haul it home he could always give a call. That is how we got Bubbas cage and they delivered it on their way back home. (I was shocked to see a double macaw cage on craigslist for 750, used! I wanted to email them and ask if they were crazy. I got my other 2 on craigslist for 300.)

The outdoor rope perches and ladders didn't go over well with the Too's or the greys but the big boys loved them! They were outside all day yesterday, we had to remove some of the new stuff before the greys were happy about being out there again.

[SRSeedBurners]

We got there at 10:30. We started on the northeast corner of the expo and zig-zagged our way through. So it was probably a good 1-1.5 hours before we got to that corner with her booth. She had four of the double half-moon perches and several of the single half-moon as well as two of the 'standard' hanging perches. She told us that's the last of them which I didn't buy her story for some reason - she was too much into sales person mode and I could smell it. Apparently she brought more out after you wiped her out. She had several fleece perches when we came by so we had a lot to pick from.

 

We may have bought some of your inventory too. My wife was asking that lady if she had a couple of particular items and the lady lifted the cover on the table and pulled some stuff out and said 'she'll never know I sold a couple of her...'. One was a little green metal hanging bell that you can see laying on the couch in the first pic. Don't recall what the other item was, something small and insignificant.

[Greywings]

Bird fair humor there Sterling, always love to look I get more ideas of foraging opportunities. My birds are jealous they saw the loot. If a big white Too shows up at your door his name is Harry Too.