Thank you for considering Rain Blossom Birds to provide you with your newest family member! Please familiarize yourself with my policies, as they are here to set the terms of our relationship and protect both of us!

Getting Your New Bird

The first step is to fill out my buyer form linked here.

While this is a business, I want to make sure a bird is going to a safe home, and it wouldn’t be ethical of me to (for instance) sell a macaw to someone living in a dorm room. However, I’m not here to pick you apart or send someone to your house for a home visit! This form helps protect me from scammers, keep records straight, expedites information gathering, and ensures you are all set for your new family member. I don’t mind educating if there is something that could be better; we all learn new things!

Reservations and Payment

A non-refundable money deposit will be required to hold a bird. A bird is not held for you until you have paid a deposit for it. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Final payment is due once a bird is weaned and ready to go home. I will not ship or hand over an unpaid bird (a bird is not paid until payment has CLEARED to my bank/payment account). You will have 72 hours upon being notified that your bird is ready to go home to pay the remaining balance (and shipping fees if necessary). If you do not get in touch with me regarding payment within that time frame, I reserve the right to put the bird back up for sale without refunding your deposit.

Deposit amount is typically 50% of the bird’s total price, and counts towards the price of the bird.

To re-emphasize, your deposit is NON REFUNDABLE. Whether you back out in two months or two minutes. While your bird is reserved, I am turning away potential interest from other people and I am setting your bird up to go home with YOU. If you back out, the opportunities I have missed and the training, supplies, and upkeep that have gone into a baby bird is PARTIALLY covered by your deposit.

Local pickups: If you do not have the full amount agreed upon when you come to get your bird, I will turn you away and reserve the right to relist the bird and retain your deposit without further discussion.

I accept deposit payment via Venmo or Zelle. I will also accept credit card with a 6% surcharge.

For weaned birds only: I am able to accept AfterPay via Square invoice with a 10% fee. This allows you to have a payment plan, while the bird is also considered paid from my end and can be released to you.

Final payment can be the above methods, or cash.

I do not accept Paypal, money orders, cashier’s checks, or personal checks.

Sales Contract

For any bird $2000 and over, I require a sales contract to be signed at time of deposit. For birds under $2000, the contract must be signed at pickup/before shipment. This is an example of the contract with full terms and conditions.

Weaning, Pickup, and Shipping

I will provide you with my best idea of when a bird will wean. I cannot guarantee an exact wean date, and I will not ship/deliver a bird until I am 100% certain it is weaned. This is to ensure both physical and mental health of the bird, and that you do not get a bird home and have to have a crash course in hand feeding!

I ship via Delta Airlines. I will do my best to coordinate a good day and time for you, but please be aware that it is a 2-3 hour trip one way to the airport for me and I try to drop off birds in groups to keep shipping costs to my clients as low as possible (also Delta makes the cargo schedule and unfortunately they have yet to request my input). I can arrange to make a more rigid time/date drop-off (which means a private ride for your bird/s to the airport) for additional fees.

Please also note that we are at the mercy of Mother Nature. If conditions are too hot or cold on the ground at any point in the journey, the airline will not accept the bird (which is for the bird’s safety) and we will have to reschedule.

Typically, I opt for flights that leave in the evening and arrive in the morning. This lets the bird have the least stress as they can sleep through the trip, and this is also typically the best way to get a direct flight. I also strongly encourage utilizing a direct flight whenever possible. While risk of a bird getting misplaced or otherwise getting lost in the process is minimal, cutting out layovers makes it even less likely there will be a problem.

Please be at the airport to accept your bird when the plane arrives!! You do not want your young bird hanging out in a cargo office for any longer than absolutely necessary, and I will not be responsible for what happens to your baby if you are not there to get it right away. Please don’t put your new friend at risk!

Please also note, it is very important to keep your crate closed when you get your bird until you get home (DO NOT OPEN THE CRATE IN THE CAR; BABIES CAN GET STUCK UNDER DASHBOARDS OR FLY OUT WHEN DOORS ARE OPENED). Look inside and make sure your bird is okay, but DO NOT open the crate, no matter how tempted you are! Wait until you are safe at home.

For buyer convenience, I will hold birds up to two weeks after they are prepared to go home in order to arrange an acceptable arrival date. After that, you must make arrangements with me to board the bird at $10/day (if I agree), or I reserve the right to put the bird back up for sale and retain your deposit. This is waived if the reasons for me to retain the bird are due to shipping or other issues on my end that are beyond the buyer’s control (examples: family emergencies, weather conditions).

Local pickups: You are expected to show up at the agreed place, day, and time with the full amount agreed upon. I will allow a fifteen minute grace period. You MUST contact me at least two hours in advance if you will be late. Your first no-show, no-contact will result in a $25 rescheduling fee, to be paid before the bird is released to you, and you must contact me to reschedule within 24 hours of the original appointment to avoid losing your deposit. A second no-show, no-contact OR failure to reschedule within 24 hours will result in forfeiture of your deposit and the bird being relisted for sale.

Health and Testing

I test for: PBFD, Bornavirus (ABV), and Polyomavirus.

DNA testing is conducted on all birds that are not sexually dimorphic (i.e. you can’t tell by looking at them).

At least one bird per species, per clutch is tested. All birds brought in from other breeders are tested. If your baby has not already been tested and you wish it to be individually tested, or tested for other diseases, I am happy to do this at buyer expense.

I do everything in my power to ensure a bird is healthy and uninjured before turning it over to its new family. I will not release a bird if I even suspect illness. Once a bird is in your care however, I cannot guarantee freedom from illness or injury, as I have no control over what happens to it and no way to verify cause of illness.

In the event a bird passes away within 30 days of leaving my care and is definitively determined by veterinary necropsy to have passed due to congenital defect or other problem caused on my part, I will replace or refund the bird. I will require an official document from the veterinarian stating that the necropsy showed a congenital defect or negligence on my part, and you must give the veterinarian permission to confirm this with me over the phone. I must be able to find your veterinarian via a google search to get their contact information. I will not accept a phone number from you, nor a veterinarian that I cannot independently find contact info for.

It is extremely unlikely, but should a bird pass or be injured in transit, I will also make this right, but you MUST photograph the bird on pickup and notify Delta and me IMMEDIATELY. Delays or a lack of photographic proof may void this policy.

NOTE: Clipping wings on a bird you have received from me will negate any and all health warranties.

Returns, Refunds, and Cancellations

Deposits are NOT REFUNDABLE. Please be aware that if you change your mind or “something comes up,” you cannot get your money back. Yes, even if you cancel the same day or two minutes after you pay.

If I decide to cancel or cannot complete a sale, however, I will refund the money to you.

If you get a bird and it is not working out for you, I will always take it back. I may also be able to help you find a home for it; I have a large network of friends in the bird world, both breeders and pet keepers. I wouldn’t want someone stuck with a companion that isn’t a good fit for them!

Other

I am not commercially zoned and I do not maintain a storefront. I do not permit clients to visit birds or my aviary. I will arrange pickups away from my aviary. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Please allow up to two business days for a response to messages and emails. My birds are my number one priority so that you, my client, get the healthiest, happiest companions possible. Sometimes this means it takes a little longer for me to get back to you. I promise I will do all I can to answer quickly if something is urgent.

I DO NOT CLIP WINGS AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT. I can’t control what you do once a bird leaves my possession, but I train babies for recall and to adapt to a home environment as fliers. I can also harness train babies for an additional fee. I hope you will think about this if you are contemplating clipping, and how heartbroken a bird that has flown its entire life will be if it is suddenly struggling to come to you from across the room, crashing to the ground, or forced to waddle across the floor. I will give you the information to adapt your home to a flighted bird and will always be here to answer questions, and I hope you will not take away what I have worked so hard to give them. I will not be responsible for any injuries or behavioral issues arising from you choosing to clip you bird!