Leg band

[merlin]

Scott,

I have NO idea, but I'll check around.
Maggie-

[merlin]

Dear Scott,

I contacted Marc Marrone of Parrots of the World, as he has had a lot of experience with transporting greys over the years. He said that quarantine bands have a gap in them and they are not smooth all around. I have not been able to find a photo.

Will keep checking.
Maggie-

[Lisa A. Bono]

Th "Q" band is round. Like most rings women would wear. They are open or cut in appearance because they needed to be crimped on the bird at the station.
Domestically bred birds have a flat continuous band. More like a watch band is flat. There is no break in the material and must be slipped on as a baby to fit over the foot.

I may have one of each at home to take a picture. I have to look.

[merlin]

Here is a description of bands from breeder, Jean Pattison:

Breeder bands are flat like a wedding band, and usually have 3-4 letters to identify the breeder, and then numbers for the breeder records. It has no opening, so slide over the toes, before the baby's feet get too big. There is the state sideways on it also. Some will have years while others may not. At about 60 cents each, I don't order 30 bands with the year. I end up with too many left over that I cannot use the following year, so I just run consecutive numbers regardless of the band size for the different species. If anyone needs to follow up, if they give me the number of the band, I can look on my records to see which bird got that number and the year.

The quarantine band looks like a nail or heavy round wire with letters for the quarantine station and numbers also. That should be all, on those bands. The band not on the bird resembles a hog-ring. It is slid around the leg just above the foot, then crimped closed, so there is a tiny seam where the two ends meet. See this article for quarantine band codes.....
http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-breeders/breeder-business/decode-leg-bands.aspx

Now for me, I use a lot of open bands since I pull my babies later than most, so their feet are too big for a closed band. But my open band reads like my closed bands. AF QU XXXX with the state. So in recent years, you really need to look at the codes on the birds to make sure if it imported or domestic.

Import bands are stainless, while closed bands are "usually" aluminium. For capes and some big macaws we do use stainless closed bands, since they can crush aluminum in their beaks.

In all my years, I have only had 2 birds get their bands caught. One was imported where the space in the band had not been crimped all the way closed. On my imports I do have the pliers to crimp them closed, so we check them now and recrimp them if needed. The other was a Meyer's that I had used a Senegal band on. The band was too big and her foot went thru the wire and allowed the band to slip sideways thru the wire and she could not pull her foot back thru.

[Lisa A. Bono]

Breeder band(closed) vs Import band(open)