African Greys for Sale With a Health Guarantee You Can Actually Use

What Does a Real African Grey Health Guarantee Actually Cover?

A written health guarantee is a contract about risk, and here at C.A.Gs ours names the risks it accepts instead of gesturing at them. It stands behind two categories of illness for 72 hours after your grey lands, so that a fault carried out of our aviary stays our responsibility rather than becoming your veterinary bill.

The Conditions Our Written Guarantee Stands Behind

Two categories carry the weight. A congenital defect is something a grey hatched with — a heart or airway fault, a skeletal problem — that a pre-sale examination had no way of surfacing. Infectious disease covers an organism already at work in your bird when the crate closed but not yet visible to a vet. Both share one quality: they existed before you did anything, which is precisely why they belong to us.

Which Illnesses Fall Inside the Guarantee Window?

Anything a veterinarian can trace to a point before delivery falls inside. In practice that means a positive PCR result on a disease we screen for, or a structural fault identified on examination. The 24-hour transit clause sits alongside it and answers a different question — injury or distress caused by the journey itself, which is neither congenital nor infectious but is still ours to put right.

Congenital Defects and Infectious Disease Are Both Covered

We separate the two deliberately because they fail differently. A congenital fault is usually found at the first examination and is unambiguous. An infection may take a few days to declare itself, which is why the window runs to 72 hours rather than 24 — long enough for an incubating organism to become detectable, short enough that a new household has not yet become a competing explanation.

In Writing: The Exact Conditions Named on Your Guarantee

The document you receive names congenital defects and infectious disease explicitly, states the 72-hour health window and the 24-hour shipping window as separate clauses, and records your grey's closed band number so the terms attach to one specific bird. Our full health-guarantee policy carries the complete wording, including the fine print this summary compresses.

What the Guarantee Does Not Cover, Stated Plainly

Four exclusions, and we would rather you read them now than discover them during a claim. The band must stay on. The diet must be the one we send you home with, not a seed bowl. No other birds for the first thirty days. And the avian-vet examination has to happen inside the window — without it, the sale is as-is.

Why Do Injury, Diet and Exposure Void the Guarantee?

Each exclusion marks a boundary where evidence runs out. Once a band is removed, no paperwork can be tied to that parrot. Once another bird shares the airspace, an infection has a second possible origin. Once a grey has been fed badly for a fortnight, its bloodwork tells a story about your kitchen rather than our aviary. These are not escape hatches; they are the honest edge of what anyone can promise about an animal in someone else's home.

Is a 72-Hour Guarantee Long Enough, or Do You Need a Full Year?

Guarantee length has turned into an advertising arms race among African Grey sellers, and here at C.A.Gs we have watched it run in the wrong direction. The listings offering a full year are, with striking consistency, the ones least able to honour anything — so the number on the badge tells you less than how the promise is anchored.

Why a Longer Guarantee Is Often the Weaker One

Length costs a seller nothing to advertise and everything to honour, so the incentive runs toward inflation. Independent parrot guides reach the same conclusion from the other side, advising buyers to treat an unusually long guarantee as a prompt to be reasonable rather than reassured. A promise stretched across twelve months has to survive a year of someone else's husbandry — which is another way of saying it will almost never be paid out.

What Does a "1-Year" or "365-Day" Guarantee Really Promise?

Read the ones we found and the pattern repeats: a long window, no list of covered conditions, no named remedy, and no requirement that anyone examine the bird. The length is doing the persuading while the substance stays blank. One page-one seller pairs a one-year badge with a Congo discounted to roughly $750 — a figure that cannot cover the testing the badge implies.

An Unenforceable Promise Protects the Seller, Not the Buyer

A guarantee only functions if a third party can establish what was wrong and when. Strip out the vet requirement and there is nothing to establish anything with, which leaves the seller as sole judge of their own liability. That is why we would rather hand you a short window with an independent examiner in it than a long one where we decide.

From the Vet: Why a Fast, Documented Window Protects Your Grey

Avian veterinarians make the clinical case better than the marketing does: a parrot that has just flown needs eyes on it quickly regardless of paperwork, because birds mask illness until it is advanced. The Association of Avian Veterinarians' find-a-vet directory is where to book that appointment ↗, ideally before your grey travels rather than after.

How Our 72-Hour Window Compares to the Sellers Beside Us

Set the models side by side on the axes that decide a claim, not the one printed on the badge.

Which Guarantee Would an Avian Vet Tell You to Trust?

The one that sends you to them. Every veterinary recommendation on buying a bird converges on the same instruction — have an independent avian vet examine your new parrot promptly — and a guarantee built around that instruction is the only kind a vet can actually help you enforce.

What Happens If Your African Grey Arrives or Falls Ill?

A guarantee is only as good as the path through it, so here at C.A.Gs we keep that path to three steps and no intermediaries. You see a vet, you send us what the vet found, and we settle it — with Mark or Teri answering, not a form.

The Three Steps From First Symptom to Resolution

Book the avian-vet appointment first — it is the step everything else depends on. Ask for the diagnosis in writing, including any test results, and forward it to us the same day. We then settle the claim as replacement or refund. Nothing about that sequence requires you to argue with us; the veterinary record does the arguing.

How Soon Must You Book the Avian-Vet Exam?

Inside 72 hours of your grey arriving, which is why we ask buyers to line up a practice before travel day. Avian vets are thinner on the ground than general practices and often booked a week out. If the only appointment you can get falls outside the window, tell us before it lapses rather than after — we can work with a booked appointment, but not with a lapsed window and no examination.

The Shipping Window Is 24 Hours, the Health Window 72

Two clocks, both starting when you take possession. The shorter one covers anything the journey caused and closes quickly because transit effects show immediately. The longer one covers the congenital and infectious categories and runs three times as long because an incubating organism needs time to become detectable.

In Writing: Replacement or Refund, and Who Decides

The document states replacement or refund at our discretion. In practice the choice usually makes itself — a family who has waited months for a specific chick generally wants another bird, while someone whose circumstances have changed wants their money. We ask which you would prefer before we decide.

Why We Ask You to See an Avian Vet Right Away

Partly because it is what makes the guarantee enforceable, and partly because it is simply good practice. That first examination gives your grey a baseline weight, a baseline bloodwork picture and a relationship with a practice that may look after him for forty years. Buyers who skip it are usually the ones who later cannot tell whether something is new.

Which Health-Guaranteed African Greys Can You Reserve Today?

Every grey below carries the identical written terms — the same 72-hour window, the same remedy, the same four exclusions. What differs is only how soon each one can leave here at C.A.Gs, which is why we sort them by that rather than by price.

Ready now

Bery

$1,700

Settled Congo hen, already past every milestone the window is designed to catch.

Congo 1 year 72-hr terms

Ships nationwide · $185 airport · $350 home

Inquire about Bery

Reserve & wean

Amie

$2,500

Congo hen still weaning; her window opens the day she reaches you, not today.

Congo 3 months 72-hr terms

Ships nationwide · $185 airport · $350 home

Inquire about Amie

Reserve & wean

Roys

$2,300

Congo cock, screened and cleared, waiting out the last few weeks of weaning.

Congo 4 months 72-hr terms

Ships nationwide · $185 airport · $350 home

Inquire about Roys

Pair · ships together

Jins & Jeni

$3,500

Two greys, two sets of terms, one crate — they do not separate.

Congo Jins: 6 months, Jeni: 4 months 72-hr terms

Ships nationwide · $185 airport · $350 home

Inquire about Jins & Jeni

Reserve & wean

Elad

$1,600

Timneh cock out of Levi and Rily, examined and papered before he was listed.

Timneh 5 months 72-hr terms

Ships nationwide · $185 airport · $350 home

Inquire about Elad

Reserve & wean

Evie

$1,500

Timneh hen, unhurried and deliberate, cleared at her pre-sale examination.

Timneh 6 months 72-hr terms

Ships nationwide · $185 airport · $350 home

Inquire about Evie

Our Reservable Congos, Timnehs and the Bonded Pair

Four Congos and two Timnehs are with us as this page stands, plus Jins and Jeni, who are an unrelated companion pair and leave together or not at all. Bery is the one grey already past the age where the window's typical findings appear; the younger birds finish weaning here first, because a chick that leaves early is the single most common cause of a claim anywhere in this trade.

What Every Listing Confirms Before You Enquire

Each card states the subspecies, the age, the real price and the same guarantee terms — no listing here says "DNA pending" or "vet check to follow." If a grey is not yet cleared and papered, it does not appear on this page at all, which is why the grid is short rather than padded.

Each Grey Below Ships Vet-Checked, DNA-Sexed and Papered

The examination, the PCR panel and the sexing assay are all complete before a bird is listed, and the certificates are issued against the closed band number rather than the name. That ordering matters: a certificate written against a name proves a bird was tested, while one written against a band proves this bird was.

On File: The Documents Attached to Each Bird

Health guarantee, avian-vet certificate, DNA sexing certificate, CITES Appendix I paperwork and the band record sit in a folder under each grey's name here before they sit in yours. Ask for any of them by bird and we will send it across the same day.

What Documentation Backs Every Guaranteed Grey?

A guarantee with nothing behind it is a sentence on a website. Here at C.A.Gs it sits on top of a five-document stack, and each of those documents is independently checkable by somebody who is not us — which is the only property that makes any of them worth having.

The Paper Stack Standing Behind the Guarantee

The written guarantee names the terms. The avian-vet health certificate records the pre-sale examination and is dated within ten days of travel. The DNA sexing certificate names the hen or cock. The CITES Appendix I documentation establishes captive-bred origin. The closed leg band ties all four to one parrot. Remove any one of them and the remaining four lose some of their force.

How Does Each Document Protect Your Purchase?

Differently, and that is the point of having five rather than one. The vet certificate protects you at the moment of sale; the guarantee protects you for three days afterwards; the DNA certificate settles a question that visual inspection cannot; the CITES paperwork protects you at a state line or a vet's reception desk years from now; the band makes every other document provably about your bird.

Vet Certificate, DNA Certificate, CITES Papers and Band Together

Read as a set, they answer the four questions a buyer actually has — is this bird healthy, what sex is it, is owning it lawful, and is this paperwork really about this parrot. No single document answers more than one. Sellers who publish one badge and call it documentation are answering a quarter of the question.

On File: What Each Document Proves and Who Issues It

The guarantee comes from us; the health certificate from a board-certified avian veterinarian; the sexing certificate from the testing laboratory; the CITES documentation from the captive-breeding record; the band from the closed ring fitted at a few weeks old. Four of the five originate outside this aviary, which is precisely why they carry weight.

How Does One Avian-Vet Exam Screen for the Big Three Diseases?

The pre-sale examination is where our guarantee stops being a promise and starts being a measurement. One visit, one sample, and three PCR panels come back — which is how we can afford to stand behind infectious disease at all.

Which Diseases We PCR-Screen Before a Grey Ships

Psittacine beak and feather disease, avian polyomavirus, and psittacosis. All three run by polymerase chain reaction off the same sample type the sexing assay uses, so one clean pull answers several questions at once. A grey that returns anything other than a clear result does not go on this page.

One of ours at the practice — beak and nails tidied, wings trimmed, and the pre-sale panel drawn in the same visit.

Why Do PBFD, Polyoma and Psittacosis Matter Most?

Because each is transmissible, each can be silent in a young bird, and each changes what a household should do next. Veterinary overviews of psittacine beak and feather disease describe a virus that can sit undeclared for months ↗. Psittacosis matters for a further reason — it passes to people, and public-health guidance on Chlamydia psittaci treats it as a reportable illness ↗. Screening for it before a bird ships is as much about your family as your parrot.

How Do You Know an African Grey Breeder Is Legitimate, Not a Scam?

Most people reading a guarantee page are really asking a blunter question, and here at C.A.Gs we would rather answer it directly than pretend it was not asked. The African Grey market carries an unusual volume of fraud, and a guarantee badge is one of the cheapest things for a fraudulent listing to display.

The Red Flags Reddit Buyers Learn Too Late

Owner forums are full of the same post written by different people: a price well under market, a seller who will not video-call, pressure toward a wire transfer or a peer-to-peer payment app, photographs that reverse-search to somebody else's bird, and an offer to ship internationally. Any one of these is a reason to slow down. Two together is an answer. Our full scam-avoidance guide works through each tell in detail.

Why Won't a Real Breeder Sell a Healthy Grey for $800?

Because the input costs are fixed and public. Months of hand-feeding, an avian-vet examination, three PCR panels, a sexing assay and CITES paperwork do not compress to fit an $800 sticker. When a listing pairs that price with a one-year guarantee, the two claims are contradicting each other in the same sentence.

A Sub-Floor Price Is the Cheapest Scam Signal to Spot

It requires no expertise to check, which is what makes it useful. You do not need to evaluate a photograph or interpret a certificate — you only need to know roughly what the species costs. That is why we publish our floor rather than quoting privately: a published floor is a number you can measure other sellers against.

From the Vet: What an $800 "Healthy" Grey Usually Hides

Where such a bird exists at all, the saving has come from somewhere — an unweaned chick sold early, a skipped disease panel, a wild-sourced or undocumented bird, or a parrot rehomed for a behavioural reason nobody disclosed. Each of those becomes a veterinary bill or a heartbreak later, which is the arithmetic the sticker price hides.

How a Documented Breeder Answers Every Question Without Flinching

Ask us for a live video call with a specific bird and we will schedule one. Ask which laboratory ran the panels and we will name it. Ask for the licence, the address, or a photograph of a band and none of it is a problem. The test is not whether a seller has good answers ready — it is whether questions are welcome at all. Our breeder credentials page sets out who we are in more detail.

What Should You Ask Any Breeder Before You Pay a Deposit?

Buyers arrive at this question from marketplaces, forums and videos that all raise it and none of them answer it from the breeder's side. Here at C.A.Gs we would rather hand you the questions ourselves, including the ones that are awkward for us.

The Five Questions a Real Breeder Welcomes

Ask what the health guarantee covers and what voids it. Ask which diseases the bird was screened for and by what method. Ask whether the grey is fully weaned and how old it is. Ask what documentation travels with it. Ask to see the bird live on video today. Five questions, none of them hostile, and together they eliminate almost every fraudulent listing without any expertise on your part.

How We Answer Each of Those Five, on the Record

Congenital defects and infectious disease, voided by four published exclusions. PBFD, polyomavirus and psittacosis, by PCR. Fully weaned before travel, never earlier, at twelve to sixteen weeks. Five documents in one folder. And yes — name a time and one of us will hold the phone. Those answers do not change depending on who is asking, which is the only real test of whether they are true.

Why Is Our Floor Price $1,500, Guarantee Included?

A floor price is a promise about what we will not do, and here at C.A.Gs ours sits at $1,500 because that is where the costs behind a properly raised, screened and papered grey actually land. Below it, something has to be left out.

What the Price Buys Beyond the Bird

Months of hand-feeding and socialising. A board-certified avian-vet examination. Three PCR disease panels. A DNA sexing assay and its certificate. CITES Appendix I documentation and a closed band. And the written guarantee itself, which is only affordable to offer because everything preceding it has already reduced the risk. Our itemised African Grey pricing page breaks each line out.

Set against the life of the bird, the figure looks different again. An African Grey lives 40 to 60 years in good care, so the purchase price is a rounding error beside four or five decades of food, veterinary care and enrichment. The 72-hour window exists to protect the start of that span — but the reason we screen and document so heavily is the other fifty years, which no guarantee of any length can cover.

Which Costs Would a Sub-Floor Seller Have to Skip?

Work backwards from $800 and the answer is unavoidable. The disease panels go first because they are invisible to a buyer. Then the vet examination. Then weaning time, since every extra week is feed and labour. What survives is a young, untested bird with a badge on its listing — which is exactly the animal that generates the veterinary bill a guarantee was supposed to protect you from.

Is Owning a Documented African Grey Legal Across the United States?

Yes — a captive-bred African Grey with proper documentation is lawful to own and transfer domestically, and here at C.A.Gs every bird we place is captive-bred in the USA with that paperwork in hand.

Why Your CITES Papers Outlast the Guarantee Window

The CITES listing for Psittacus erithacus placed the species on Appendix I in 2017 ↗, the strictest tier, in response to pressure on wild populations. That listing governs international trade; it does not prohibit domestic ownership of a captive-bred bird. What it does mean is that documentation stops being a nicety — your CITES paperwork and closed band are what establish your grey's captive-bred origin, and they are worth keeping for the bird's whole life. We have never sold a wild-caught bird and never will.

Can You Ship a Health-Guaranteed African Grey Safely?

Travel is the part buyers worry about most, so here at C.A.Gs the guarantee carries its own transit clause — 24 hours from the moment you take possession, running alongside the 72-hour health window rather than replacing it.

Ships nationwide · $185 airport pickup · $350 home delivery · collection in Midland, TX is free if you are within two to three hours of us.

Which Delivery Route Keeps Your Guarantee Intact?

Airport pickup at $185 is what most buyers choose — your grey flies as live-animal cargo and you meet the flight at your nearest major airport. Home delivery at $350 puts the crate at your door. Collection here costs nothing and is the gentlest option for the bird, which is why buyers from Texas and the neighbouring states often drive. Meredith made the trip work from South Carolina; Jeffrey took the Denver route into Centennial.

Which Carriers and Crate Standards Keep the Guarantee Intact

Delta, United and American, in crates meeting IATA Live Animals Regulations — ventilated on multiple sides, with a secured water cup and absorbent bedding. We book direct flights wherever a route allows one, because connections are where temperature and handling risk accumulate. The health certificate travels taped to the crate, dated within ten days of the flight, because the airline will ask for it.

Whose Guarantee Terms Survive Being Read Closely?

We went through the page-one results for this exact search and recorded what each one actually publishes about its guarantee. The table below reports only what we could read on their pages — where a seller says nothing, we say so rather than guessing.

What Page-One Sellers Promise Versus What They Guarantee

The pattern across all of it is the same: the badge is universal and the substance is rare. We are not claiming to be the only honest aviary on the internet — only that if a guarantee matters to you, the terms should be readable before you pay, and on most of these pages they are not.

What Have Buyers Said After Their Guaranteed Grey Arrived?

Two buyers who took different routes to the same place — one searching for a healthy grey near her, one weighing rehoming against a breeder. Both are verified C.A.Gs buyers, and both wrote these words themselves.

Both greys were placed under the same written terms set out at the top of this page. Our aggregate across every placement stands at 4.9 from 52 reviews.

See Our Greys on Camera Before You Ask About One

Photographs are the easiest thing in this trade to steal, so we would rather show you a bird moving. Roys is one of the Congos in the grid above, filmed here at the aviary in Midland.

Where to Read Next on Guarantees, Papers and Safe Buying

This page covers the terms and the birds that carry them. These four go deeper on the policy itself, on the fraud around it, on who we are, and on the testing underneath it.

The policy Our African Grey health guarantee in full The complete written policy this page summarises, including fine print we did not have room for here. Scam guide How to avoid African Grey parrot scams Where a guarantee badge sits among the other signals a fraudulent listing gives off. Who we are Trusted African Grey parrot breeders Mark and Teri, the licence, the aviary, and why any of that should matter to you. Testing DNA-tested African Greys for sale The sexing assay that runs off the same sample as the disease panel, priced openly.

Questions Buyers Ask About Our African Grey Health Guarantee

Ten questions we are asked most often about the window, the remedy and the paperwork — answered here at C.A.Gs in the same words we would use on the phone.

Reserve a Health-Guaranteed African Grey

Tell us which grey you are looking at and where you are, and one of us will reply within a day — usually much sooner. A $200 deposit holds a bird; the written guarantee is issued in your name at that point, not after delivery.