Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003232213
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ADAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Listers recently moved to Western Virginia from Manahawkin, N.J., and they brought their business - breeding, selling and loving parrots - with them. The business, the Parrot Place, is home to some of the top domestic parrots in the United States.
"We sell birds all over the country," said Court Lister.
Court and wife Vicki didn't settle in the immaculately clean Vinton shop, however, because Western Virginia is a hotbed for parrots.
"We ended up here after a visit. When I crossed Hales Ford Bridge [Smith Mountain Lake], I stopped and said `This is where we have to live.' I fell in love with the area. It was impulsive, but . . . ."
The Listers have been working more than 12 hours a day on the shop and settling into their home in Goodview.
Court hopes to find time to enjoy the area soon. "I'm a golfer now, but I want to get into fishing now that we are on the lake."
The Eastern Bedford County-Vinton area is obviously a different world from the hustle of Jersey. But Lister thinks they can make a go of it.
"The bird business is booming," he said. "We consider our market anywhere within three hours of here. Government reports say birds will outnumber both dogs and cats as pets by the year 2,000. They are easy to take care of, and they don't die so soon."
Lister said longevity is one advantage of a domestic animal.
"The advantage domestic stock will have is an import may live only five years; a domestic should live 50. Domestics are basically disease free, they talk better and they don't bite."
The parrots are more than merchandise to the couple, they are family.
"We like for people to come in and look around. Back in New Jersey, where it is a much faster pace, and geared to impulse buying, most people would visit at least two or three times to before buying. We don't encourage impulse buying."
An Amazon, African grey, cockatoo or colorful macaw, which is best?
"That depends on what they want," Lister said. "We will try to match a bird to the buyer's lifestyle. If they want a bird with personality and to play with maybe a macaw would be best.
"If they want a loving bird that talks some, maybe a cockatoo. And just for talking maybe a double front or blue front Amazon or a Congo African grey. They can have several-hundred-word vocabularies."
The special breeding, hand feeding and individual attention doesn't come cheap.
Prices start at $50 for a cockatiel. Some of the smaller parrots are in the $200 range. Prices for some of the fancier larger birds can go as high as $4,000.
The shop expects to have a rare hyacinth macaw ($10,000) in soon.
And the yearly stock of birds will be around 400.
"When we sell them we are done," Lister said. "We only sell what we breed or our breeder breeds. So our supply is naturally limited. There will be no wholesale or import birds. This is a closed shop."
Also there will be no parrots brought in for wing or nail clips, a necessity for tame birds. "We are delighted to tell people what to do," he said. "But they are not allowed in the shop. Our birds are disease free and we want to keep it that way."
In fact, Lister is so confident of the health of his stock, all come with a guarantee. Financing and bird-life insurance also are available.
"Most companies charge 10 percent of the bird's value to insure it. We will do it ourselves for five. We can afford to do that because our birds are so healthy, he said."
In addition to seeing that the birds are healthy, the shop's six workers also spend a lot of time talking to them.
"We teach them to talk, but we are careful what we say," Lister said. "We use `Hi mom, hi dad.' We don't use individual names because they will probably live longer than their original owners. It can be painful to hear a bird saying hi to someone by name when they are no longer around."
And when a bird goes to a new home, it can sometimes be a little sad.
"Before we got into this business seven years ago, we used to breed dogs. We always made sure they went to a good home. This is the same. It is the same as if they were kids. They grow up, get married and go on to other homes."
Lister is serious about good homes, too. "We had two of the macaws we have here at the Sands Casino in Atlantic City. They weren't performing birds, just for the girls to carry around and show. But we yanked them out of there because they didn't provide the living conditions they said they would."
The Listers' love for the feathered critters is obvious from the way they handle and play with them.
"Yes," Lister said. "These birds are special. You will see birds with me most of the time. I take them everywhere I go except to restaurants."
by CNB