Photo by Dave
Location: Centralia, WA
On my back: Blue throated macaw “Jinx”

I’ve personally worked with a lot of adopted parrots, and they’ve always had extreme issues from an insane amount of aggression to extreme amounts of fear, to horrible diets, large amounts of weight loss to being obese, to hating women or men specifically or plucking themselves, among tons of other issues popular among captive parrots given up for adoption.

Because I had never worked with an adopted parrot that was just nice, with no issues, I assumed they literally did not exist among rescues and bird sanctuaries.

 Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Everett, WA
Outside of Apollo’s Bird Store

Until I went to Zazu’s House in Washington state. Someone on our facebook told us about it, and we thought likely on it, until we were recommended to go to a bird store named Apollo’s Bird Store where they highly recommended Zazu’s House. Finally, we decided to go and this experience really opened my eyes.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Bothell, WA
Zazu’s House Special Needs Aviary

I met birds ranging in species from African Greys to Amazons to Macaws. The ones I was most impressed with and assumed I would be sad to see (but wasn’t) were the birds in the “special needs” aviary.

These special needs birds completely blew my mind and threw my misconception about adopted out birds out the window!

I was able to hold a handful of the birds given up – though I only chose to hold one as I’m a total wuss when it comes to other people’s birds until I’ve gotten to know them better and vice versa. Volunteers there were able to walk around like it was no big deal with 3-4 birds on them at a time, and the owner we met could handle EVERY… SINGLE… BIRD… THERE. That is amazing. Just amazing. I was shocked, and in awe, and totally impressed.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Bothell, WA
Zazu’s House Special Needs Aviary

I realized the number one misconception of adopted parrots, because it was the same misconception I had and was a huge reason why I was kind of… not sure what the term is… but I’ve always been nervous to permanently take on other people’s baggage with birds because I work with them so often and see how long it takes and how hard it is. On the bird and person. That’s why I prefer to train people on how to change for their birds, and then take on their birds to do the heavy work and give them back for them to do the rest. I like to get people started in the right direction with a heavy push. But a huge reason I’ve always felt that way is because of this misconception.

That misconception is that all birds given up for adoption are bad, mean and bite.

That couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth… the stories I heard were nothing near, “The bird was mean and they gave it to us.” In fact, I didn’t hear that once! The one person who gave up their bird to this facility that did have a mean bird that bit everyone actually had their bird step up fine for the people there, and hated the owner every time the owner would come to visit. The bird was so much happier in this new environment, it wanted nothing to do with its old one. Which isn’t always the case, so don’t get down in the dumps if that’s your situation…

Photo by Dave
Location: Centralia, WA
With me: Blue throated macaw “Jinx”

Here were some of the reasons people gave up on perfectly friendly parrots:

1. Suicide or unexpected death of the owner or family member
2. A growing family
3. Believing the bird is lonely
4. Not having enough time to devote to the parrot
5. Someone else in the family not getting along with the parrot
6. High medical bills/lack of being able to afford the bird’s expenses

It really turned my mind around about rescue/adoption parrots and how great they can be when you first get them. Always consider volunteering first to spend time with the bird you’re thinking about adopting and learning the in’s and out’s of parrot companionship.