Parrot

You’ve made a list of all of the qualities you want in a parrot. You’ve gone on line and carefully researched the different species that fit your criteria.  You’ve discussed the possibilities with the other members of the house. You’ve even checked out the costs of an appropriate cage and it’s accessories.  You’ve decided, and you’re going to get the perfect parrot to fit your lifestyle!!  But from where? There are really three possibilities: rehoming, breeder or pet store.

Rehoming/rescuing:

I’m a little biased in my opinions about this one: I think ...

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Rose Breasted Cockatoos and African Grey

I have heard so many times that a certain parrot doesn’t like women, or that another prefers them. I have myself had a parrot that didn’t care for men – loved my daughter, liked me, hated my ex-husband.  Smart bird.

I was even told once that a female parrot is more likely to do well with a male human, and vise versa.  Where does this preference come from? Were they born with it? I don’t think so.

Often, a bird that has been placed in a rescue ...

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Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

If you have parrots and potted plants in your house, you have probably watched in awe at the speed with which your feathered backhoe can empty the contents of the plant pot onto your carpet.  You likely have a ground foraging species like the cockatoo, cockatiel, budgie or african grey to name a few.  Digging is a natural behavior for a ground forager and if he’s found his way into your secret garden, you will  have to pretty clever in your attempts to keep him ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

I am resistant to change.  It is my nature.  I try not to pass that trait along to my parrots, but I have to work really hard to avoid it.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I said: “Boy, I should’ve done this sooner.”   A lot of my hesitation has stemmed from my concerns about how the birds might respond to certain changes.  I’ve worried about moving because the birds are happy where we are.  I worried about starting a new job because they ...

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I used be very intolerant of people who allowed their birds to escape. I saw this as the height of irresponsibility.  Then, three years ago, it happened to me.  It was a fluke accident.  My cockatiels were in a bathroom that was off of my bedroom and both doors were shut.  I had not fully latched the door to my bedroom and my cat pushed it open creating a series of incidents which resulted in one of my cockatiels escaping out of the open sliding door in another room. I was horrified.  I managed to track him to the ...

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Toco Toucans

Crate training might seem easy… you get the bird and put it in the crate, right? Wrong. At least not with these birds.

These toucans were, again, wild caught so they came to the island very wild and very scared of people. Cathy was their main caretaker on the island who brought them their food and cleaned their cages, they began to become comfortable around her. Until one day they had a hurricane warning and HAD to get the toucans out of their cages and into crates for transport.

Originally, their travel cages they came in stayed in their new aviaries and they ate out of them all the time so it wasn’t a problem. However, it made a huge mess between left over food (as they were over feeding) and poop everywhere so it wasn’t done for long. When emergency time came, they chased the toucans all over the aviary until they were too tired to move from the ground and could no longer perch. This was recommended to them by a vet as a means of getting the birds in the crates… so for 45 minutes they chased the toucans over and over again in the aviary until they were limp in their hands and they could put them in the crates.

After that experience, the toucans never trusted anyone and this included the crates.

Dave and I were darn proud to have gotten them over such a huge hurdle in the beginning and have them eating out of anyone’s hands on the island as a sort of “excursion” people could do. But crate training in two days time? Yikes…