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My Birds

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Types of finches I keep

• Zebra finches
• Society finches
• Orange cheeked waxbills
• Owl finches
• Shaft-tail finches
• Spice finches
• Lady Gouldian finches

       

How I care for my birds

       

Pricing and Shipping policies

I purchased 2 pairs of birds for $310 in California; they were healthy and doing great. I originally wanted to take them on the plane with me when I flew home to Florida since United allows birds as a carry on for 80$. At first I felt this was a steep fee, but in the end I decided that it was reasonable for peace of mind and keeping the birds by my side at all times. I called the airline several times to gather all of the information I would need to carry the birds on the plane. I was told I needed a special cage, to pay $80, and to make reservations for the birds a few days in advance. I purchased a special carrying cage that could fit under the seat in front of me and budgeted for the $80 though I could definitely not afford anything more than that. I got to LA and purchased my 2 pairs, and then called the airline to make reservations for my birds.... only to learn that in addition to a special cage, advance reservations, and a fee, I also needed to present a veterinary health certificate for my birds.

I don't know any vets in LA, let alone bird vets, and I was relying on other people for transportation. However, even if I was able to find a bird vet, get an appointment, and find a ride to my appointment, I still could not afford to pay for 4 health exams on these birds in order to obtain a health certificate--I had only budgeted for the $80 carry on fee and I was otherwise very broke at the time, sadly.

So I decided to try shipping USPS to a trusted friend back home. I had Horizon Microenvironments ship me a special bird box overnight, received it 3pm on Thursday, and loaded it with seed, spray millet, cucumber and orange slices, and even taped a deli cup with a little water in it to the bottom corner of the box. I added the birds and wrote in sharpie marker my friend's address and phone numbers, a note to hold the birds and call my friend when they were received at the post office, and my phone number. I shipped them out at 3:34pm Thursday May 11th from Los Angeles to Gainesville, Florida with the USPS overnight express mail service. I was told they would be guaranteed to arrive in Gainesville by 3pm Friday May 12th at the latest. Even if something delayed the package slightly, they could still be delivered early Saturday morning. I was given a tracking number. I called my friend and instructed her on what to do--to call her post office early in the morning and inform them she was expecting a live bird shipment, etc. I gave her a copy of the tracking #.

As of the following Sunday night (May 14th), the last record USPS had of my shipment was from 6:30 pm on Friday May 12th when the package was supposedly "processed" and shipped out from the USPS distribution center in Miami, Florida, 3 and a half hours AFTER it was supposed to already be in Gainesville. I feared that USPS had lost my shipment, that the birds had died, or that the package had possibly been stolen. For four days the birds had been stuck in a box, and for 3 of those days I worried myself sick.

In addition to this fiasco, USPS does not allow insurance of live animal shipments, and would likely not compensate me if their negligence had caused the loss of my four birds. This entire time, I had been in contact with the facilities in Gainesville, Miami, Jacksonville as well as with numerous customer service employees at the 1-800-ask-usps number since Friday evening when the shipment first appeared to be delayed. No one was able to help or give me any valuable information. No one knew where the package was or where it might behave been headed to next. No one had any information, and what is worse, the customer service people were not only apathetic but rude. No one cared that this was an urgent live bird shipment and that this was literally a matter of life and death. The customer service employees had raised their voices at me--me who was understandably upset and had every right to be. I had been told the birds were probably dead and that I should not expect any compensation even though it was entirely the fault of USPS for the delayed delivery.

I had done everything within my power to ameliorate the situation. I asked customer service to start a research investigation but at no point did I feel that anyone was actively working on my case, and to date no really valuable information was uncovered about what caused the delay. The USPS tracking system is a joke and is essentially worthless. The system does not keep track of what truck the birds are placed on or where they are being driven to, so the USPS employees do not have any information to share with the customer. They also claim they don't have the ability to communicate with their distribution centers after hours, on certain days, or ever with their truck drivers--all of this seems like a pack of lies to me. A company like USPS has to have the ability to communicate with their employees at all hours in order to function.

For three days I was terribly upset, and I still feel the need to get the word out about this disaster of a situation so that no one has to go through what I have been through, and so that no one else runs the risk of losing their birds to gross USPS negligence and apathy. By the time Monday morning rolled around I felt the situation was hopeless and that the birds were surely dead. Much to my surprise, amazement, and ultimate joy, I received a phone call at 6:30am Monday (May 15th) informing me that the package had arrived. Apparently there was movement spotted in the box. The local USPS employees took the liberty to open the box to provide the birds with much needed water, and one even escaped and flew around a bit before it was caught. I rushed to the post office and picked up the birds--in the end, all four made it here alive despite spending 4 days trapped in a box, and they all seemed surprisingly chipper for all they had been through. Despite the happy outcome, I would never want to put any birds or people through this type of stress ever again. Therefore, I feel I have learned my lesson and will never use USPS for bird shipments in the future.

Please be warned as I urge you to avoid using USPS for live animal shipments of any kind. USPS simply is not consistently reliable enough to provide true peace of mind or a stress-free journey for the birds, and their customer service is disappointing at best.