Photo: Pexels.com
A pair of Sun Conure
A Salmon Arm pet store is offering a cash reward after the theft of an expensive parrot on Monday.
A sun conure was taken from Ed’s World of Critters and Supplies located at 271 Trans-Canada Hwy. in Salmon Arm.
Sun conures, also known as sun parakeets, are brilliantly coloured medium-sized parrots native to a small area of northeastern Brazil and Guyana.
Employee Jaedon Mooney was working at the time of the theft.
“Unfortunately, none of us really saw it happening,” he said. “It happened at a really bad time, we were unloading an order at our side door.”
Mooney said staff didn’t realize the bird was missing until later in the day.
“Someone had come in and they were wanting to buy some birds,” he said.
“So I was showing them birds and then I got over to the sun conure and he's not in there. … So I come around and the side door's open and the bird is gone and also one of the cage doors was slightly ajar.”
Employees searched the store for over an hour hoping the parrot had just escaped its enclosure, but with clipped wings it was unlikely to go far.
Mooney was the one who reviewed security footage after they realized the bird was likely stolen.
“Someone came in with a purple hoodie and an open backpack and left with that backpack closed,” Mooney said.
Mooney said everyone at the store is worried about the wellbeing of the bird.
“We're really worried about the bird as I don't think that he has any food or a cage for the bird and he's just trying to make a quick buck off it,” he said.
The sun conure was the only one in the store and has a regular price of $1,799.99.
In a Facebook post, Ed’s World of Critters and Supplies asked that anyone that sees a similar bird for sale contact the Salmon Arm RCMP.
The pet store was initially offering a $200 reward however an anonymous customer has matched the reward bringing the total to $400 no questions asked for the safe return of the missing parrot.

Photo: Luc Rempel
The Sun Conure's empty enclosure