How to Prepare Yourself for Rescue Work

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Senegal Parrot waving “hello.”

 

If you dream of opening your own parrot rescue or sanctuary (and let’s be honest, it crosses the minds of a lot of us once we’ve seen how birds suffer in the wrong environments!), the most important step of all is to get yourself ready. Many owners find that they are not suited mentally, physically, or emotionally.

What is the difference, first of all, between a parrot rescue and a parrot sanctuary? A rescue typically rehabilitates an ...

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Determining Where to Start with Rescued and Re-Homed Pet Birds

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Rescuing or re-homing a parrot comes with unique challenges.

 

When we first bring home a rescued or re-homed parrot, we need to be aware that it isn’t like bringing a fresh new baby bird in. Every one of these beautiful animals – even a young one – can be expected to be unsettled and nervous upon reaching a new environment, but an adopted pet is more likely to suffer from depression, potential aggression, and fear issues, including anxiety. There may also be health issues, ...

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Setting Up Obtainable Goals for Rescued Parrots

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Setting up obtainable goals for rescued and re-homed parrots: What is progress, and how do you know if you’ve made it?

 

The question of knowing whether you’ve progressed at all can be surprisingly difficult to tell! With our neurotic pet-shop cockatiel, for instance, we had to decide what was her personality, and what was emotional ‘damage’ from her past. Progress for her came in very tiny steps. It took time for me to get that a super-quiet bird may be that way because it is ...

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Using Your Energy When Working with Birds

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African Grey

Energy is very important to parrots and how they react to us. Our birds can sense our every mood change, reading both your body language and the way you look to them in UV. They can perceive many more colours than we can, and – as the Island Parrot Sanctuary once put it to me – because of that, they know you better than you know yourself. They can see your mood.

One of the things I try and do with new or ...

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