Friends in the industry warned them not to be too ambitious. “You’ll sell only one bird in your first six months,” they said. Well, Parrot Planet opened in June in East Sacramento and sold nearly 20 birds in its first two months.
The shop, a hands-on avifauna paradise at 48th and J streets, is the realization of a decades-long dream.
Store co-owner Dana Strome, formerly an emergency room assistant, received her first parrot in the late ’80s and shortly thereafter launched a rescue and rehabilitation organization called The Wing Foundation. Through her efforts, she found homes for more than 800 abandoned parrots.
Opening a retail store was the next natural step, she says. She envisioned a place that would sell exotic birds “properly and responsibly to combat abandonment and poor care.” Parrot Planet offers basic vet care classes from an avian veterinarian, boarding, resources and supplies, including 3-pound bags of walnuts.
Steven Hildreth has been raising birds for 30 years and has been breeding them for specialty stores for nearly a decade. It’s a labor of love, to be sure, and there are no vacations.
Self-taught in animal husbandry, Hildreth raises and breeds parrots on his large bird farm in Fair Oaks. “Most birds are weaned in 90 days, but some take nine months,” he says, and when the chicks are young and hatching, he’s up for feedings as frequently as any parent.
Hildreth raises all manner of parrots, but the breeds most commonly purchased at specialty stores like Parrot Planet in East Sacramento, which he co-owns, are the rose-breasted cockatoo and the African grey. Those birds sell for roughly $1,000, but very rare parrots can fetch upward of $20,000.
Photos: Ken James Captions: Christine Calvin
Of a Feather
Exotic birds are at home in East Sacramento
