Photo provided by breeder

To my complete shock, our entire facebook community came together and talked Dave into setting up a donation of sorts to help us get a Toco Toucan. Everyone was asking why we hadn't gotten another; and we told them the truth... $10,000 for a toucan? We couldn't justify paying such an amount for such a fragile pet, especially getting out of show business it would strictly be a pet. Once we lost Fiji we heard the average lifespan of Swainson Toucans in captivity as pets was around 6-7 years. Such a short life, and such a fragile life with how high maintenance their diet is.   If we could have any type of toucan next, Dave and I had talked about it, and he chose a Toco while I chose a Keel Billed. When prices and availability came around, tocos were available but way out of our price range. The keel bills weren't breeding, and the shocking part was that they were merely $3k less than a toco would be. The prices had sky rocketed since we last looked into buying a toucan. Although I love the coloration of the keel bills, I, like Dave, had always wanted a toco since we worked with them previously... their eyes are to die for! So beautiful.  

Photo provided by breeder

See us working with toco toucans here. When the facebookers pulled together and finally convinced us to set up a donation fund for getting a toco, we figured, why not? It took about 3-4 budges from them since we weren't taking them seriously... my apologies for that... Because it was the birdtricks.com facebook fans that helped us get this new bird, any updates about him will be written and posted over at the birdtricks.com blog. But I definitely wanted to make the announcement here about the excitement and addition. I'd like to extend my utmost gratitude to those of you that helped donate and make it possible for us to get a new toucan, we never thought this would ever happen and your kindness is just... I don't even have words, honestly.   Thank you to the following who donated:

• Lisa Dunne
• Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey
• Cheryl Campbell
• Kai Bansner (recent freeflight student whose fees for the course went to make up the difference of the cost of the toucan!)
• Chad Jensen (breeder who worked with us on price!)
• Erica Loria
• Jyoti Hardat
• Gregg DePorter
• Borut Zupancic
• Lou Buckner
• Connie Hess
• Everyone who donated to the fund online here (totaled up to over $350!)