This is just awful! We hurt for you! Chico come home!

when ever you are in a situation that you have to board your birds etc... may I suggest banding them with your own band,you can purchase leg bands with your information on it,that way if something like this were to happen you have your leg band information to prove its your bird,and always have your vet document the band numbers as well.

But Barbara, first thing they would do when they steal birds is cut off the leg bands and, besides, any band put on an adult bird would have to be an open one and those are very easy to take off so what good would that do?

Bea,
Doing something is better then nothing !!! and you can always have your birds microchipped,I am not a fan of micro chipping ,being that some researchers feel down the road micro chipping may cause problems such as cancer,and you can't have the microchip,removed. But People need to start protecting their birds and other pets better,keeping better documents on ownership etc.. Alway take pictures of your birds document any colors etc that your bird has.and when you take your bird to be board right up your own contract to have the boarders sign,on that contract have a picture of your bird,and have it written who the person is boarding ask to see their drivers license write down their ID numbers address phone number etc.. Sadly there are alot of people who like to scam,and you have to protect yourself and your babies.

Good advice! Anything you can do to document ownership is very helpful, and some sort of contract on paper can only help. Its sad to think that we need to take these steps, but things like this do happen.

Agreed. I don't like microchiping either and not only because there are no studies done on long term but also because there is no one system that reads all the different chips out there (it's the same problem with dogs and cats) but, like Barb says, there are always ways of doing things and having a contract with a description of the bird(s) and the sitter's picture ID number on it signed would definitely afford some kind of protection.

Good idea!

another idea is to take pictures(extra ones) and send them to some your close friends or family. also copies of your docs too. that way if anything should happen to your pocessions then you know you have back ups.