Some of you know that my husband and I have been planning on getting an Amazon for awhile now. We thought we had found 'the one', a gorgeous Blue Front.. I posted his info and picture in this former thread http://www.quakerparrots.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42829
So I had asked his breeder for more pictures, and she emailed me some pictures of a beautiful Blue front....but a different one! My husband looked at the EXIF files on the pictures and they were from two completely different months....in 2005. The blue front I requested was born this summer. I know sometimes people don't have their cameras set correctly, I surely don't, but this combined with the different pictures raised a red flag at our house.
THEN..while doing a Google image search for Blue Front Amazons, guess who showed up as the FIRST image? My blue front, who is fact is not for sale and is someone's loving pet named Petey.
At the least, someone is guilty of being misleading, using a stock photo or 'borrowing' an image. At the most, someone is trying to scam us! I emailed the breeder, who will remain nameless until she has a chance to explain herself, with our concerns. That was a few days ago and I have no reply. She and her aviary have several stellar reviews, I did do research on her before I decided to do business with her...now I'm just confused.
I was so excited to get him, I've been cleaning and decorating his cage, cooking and freezing parrot dinners, showing my family his picture, trying to fit him in at the vet for a "Well-Baby" visit, etc.
I've started looking at other blue fronts, but my heart hurts a little!

Could she have just goofed and accidentally sent you the wrong photo the second time? Goodness knows, as much as I adore Clyde, I'm not sure I could tell a photo of him from a photo of another green Quaker if it was taken somewhere other than our house, where of course I'd recognize the background. I admit it does sound suspicious, but give her a chance before you get too disappointed.

Try not to worry TOO much until you hear their side.
Have you paid a deposit yet ????
Keep a note/copy of all calls & emails.
I hope it is just a simple error.

Fingers crossed.

Tricia.

Hi Rebekah!

My fingers are crossed that everything is okay with your new baby. I want to believe your breeder is trustworthy ... keep us posted and good luck. Good that you caught the photo error or scam!

Jen

I would definitely wait for her to explain. I had an internet acquaintance who wanted to show me a picture of her Mexican Redhead. It was a few days later when she "confessed' that she couldn't find a good current picture of her bird so she just found one on the web to show me.

I didn't consider it any great sin. I would have never known the difference if she hadn't told me.

I am giving her the benefit of the doubt, but when I was emailing her before she was checking and replying to me several times a day, and now its been days since I heard from her...And I understand that sometimes people use stock photos, but to me, not ALL blue front amazons look the same...it's one thing when you want to show your friend the species/type of bird you have, its another when you are selling a SPECIFIC bird. This breeder specifically said "THIS baby for sale" with the posted picture...a picture from another site....Oh well, I'm not too worried. I'm going to find our new baby sooner or later! Thanks for your support everyone.