Quakey and Hailey

Who could resist these ladies? Quakey and Hailey are young adult female quakers looking for a home that has room for two. Just imagine double the love!

While they are a bit cage aggressive, away from their cage, they are delightful. They have each other as companions but also like to be around humans.

Quakers are extremely intelligent parrots and can quickly become a treasured member of your family. If you have room for two, they'd love to meet you!

A phone call we received

Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., when the phone would obviously not be answered, we received a message from a cowardly man. He used an untraceable number and did not leave any way for us to contact him. He was quite profane and left a rather unintelligible tirade about "rescues" selling their birds for a profit.

We found this behavior to be quite childish and hope that if anyone has any questions or comments about our policies that they contact us during open hours or via e-mail in order to have a discussion. We may end up agreeing to disagree, but that's what communication is all about. We have given careful thought to how we operate, making changes to our policies and procedures when necessary. The guiding principle behind everything we do boils down to what's best for the birds, in general, and also for each specific bird.

We do not profit from the birds. We do charge an adoption fee, but would soon have to close our doors if we relied exclusively on adoption fees, which are often not enough to even cover vet expenses, not to mention the food, toys, and other expenses involved, such as shelter and heat. Every bird stays with us until we find them the best home we can; we never euthanize for space or unadoptability, which means that some birds stay with us for a year or more while waiting for their home. Every bird has a large cage and tons of toys. That's why we have a retail store selling parrot toys, food, cages, and other supplies, and why we ask for donations.

We don't sell birds to anyone with the money. There is an adoption process, and we work closely with people to see if a bird is right for their home. If so, we work to find the right bird for their situation. It bring tears of joy to our eyes when a previously unwanted parrot chooses someone and gets to go home with them. When a parrot is truly happy after so long! That's why we do what we do -- for the birds. They had no say in their lives up until now, and we find them the best possible situation so they can be as happy as possible in captivity.

Additionally, we have behavior consulting services, in an attempt to keep birds in their homes instead of being surrendered to us. If all we cared about was money, we wouldn't do this. We'd encourage them to surrender the bird to us and then sell her to the highest bidder. That's unconscionable and we wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

We hope that this early-morning tirade was not spawned by any untrue rumors circulating about our organization. It's true that people should be careful when dealing with animal rescues as adding a pet to your house is a serious, lifetime commitment, and you want to make sure you're dealing with a responsible organization. We just ask that if anyone has any specific questions or comments they address us directly so we can understand the issue and have a discussion.

Lovebird Extravaganza!

OK, not really, but we do suddenly find ourselves with 11 lovebirds needing good homes. Aren't they just so beautiful?
Some, like Chico here, are very tame:He grew most of his feathers in when he was in foster care, but plucked them out when that fosterer returned him to a different rescue. They sent him, along with some of the other lovebirds, to us in hopes that we might be able to place them.

Others, like Chiffon, are not tame, but can be worked with in order to develop their full potential:

Horace and Hecate are a former breeding pair. They're hoping to find a home where they will be loved and pampered and where they will never produce another chick.Lovebirds can make great pets. They have tons of personality and are great fun to watch playing with their toys. It's hard to stay in a bad mood when one of these little jewels is around!If you've been thinking about adding a lovebird to your home, now might be the perfect time since we have so many; you're sure to find your perfect match! Just fill in a Bird Wanted Questionnaire (the link is in our sidebar) and someone will contact you. We can help you out with any questions and help you to set up a fantastic and fun environment for your new companion!

Guinevere Update

We have some very sad news to report on Guinevere, the abused cockatiel we profiled here. Late last week, our vet performed the surgery to amputate her wing; a necessary step towards her recovery.

She survived the surgery, but couldn't recover and died in Lori's hands. Years of poor nutrition contributed to her inability to clot blood. Birds do not have a lot of blood; even a loss of a small amount is of serious concern.

It is of some consolation to us that she spent her last weeks in a safe and loving environment and that she is no longer in pain. We only regret that we were unable to save her, despite doing everything we could.

AWARE show recap

Last Saturday, we had a booth at the Great Lakes Pet Expo. Here is the recent post announcing our appearance.

As usual, we had a great time! The expo was very busy, so we had a lot of opportunity to talk to people and help them improve the nutrition of their parrots and answer behaviorial questions.

We took Joey (umbrella cockatoo), Queenie (rose-breasted cockatoo), Buckie (Mexican red-headed amazon), Tuesday (pionus) and one of our volunteers brought two of her birds: Burt (goffin's cockatoo) and Sam (African grey). The birds were perfect. We only bring birds that enjoy this kind of socialization and make sure that everyone has plenty of time away from the public as well.

We did a posterboard on Guinevere the cockatiel. We also sold lots of food and toys (for parrots), along with four boxes of candy bars (for people)! All of the proceeds go directly to helping the birds at the Center.

One of our goals is to let people know that there are places out there from which parrots can be adopted, and that adoption is a wonderful choice should they decide to add a bird to their home. With any luck, a few parrots currently at the Center will find loving homes due to networking we did at this event.

If we missed you this year, we hope to see you next year!

Niko Update

Niko the senegal has been with us for a year now, and he really needs a good home! Here is a link to his story, along with pictures.

What a difference a year makes! Niko is a fantastic bird! He loves coming out of his cage and receiving attention from loving, caring people.

He's been in foster care much of this time, but due to circumstances, his foster home can't keep him much longer, which will mean he'll have to come back and reside at the Center. We'd love to find him a home before that, in order to lessen the stress on him. It will be easier on him if he can move directly from one loving home into another without making an interim stop at the Center.

If you have room in your life for a new friend and think Niko might be a good fit, please fill out a Bird Wanter Questionnaire. We can work together to see if he'd be a good fit and, with any luck, he can be in his new home before Valentine's Day!

Henry

Henry went to the vet recently, and his report saddened us all. Both of his legs and one of his wings were broken at one point and healed improperly. He is a wild-caught parrot, so we're not sure if the injuries were sustained during his capture or after. With the abuse he's suffered, it's amazing he's as personable as he is!

Henry is calming down since being with us. His cage is next to Peru's, and the two birds like to be near each other.

We already have two sets of Aratinga conures that cohabit -- Sasha and Kellie and Millie and Cleo. Given the interest that Henry and Peru have for each other, and the slim chances of finding them separate homes that will provide them the same level of companionship that would come from each other, we are working towards caging them together.

Millie and Cleo needed to be groomed this past weekend. They made it easy on us to transport them to the area where we groom by going into a soda box. Once in the contained area where we groom, you can see them peering out of the box (that's Cleo up front and you can just see Millie's beak).They are quite amenable to being groomed -- as long as they don't have to leave each other's sight. With any luck, Henry and Peru will soon reach the same level of companionship as these two!

Flower Update

Last month, we featured Flower the canary. Here is that post. We just received an update from her new owner, which we wanted to share:

She has settled in nicely in her VISION cage with plenty of perches for getting around on. She LOVES her bath dish and takes several baths a day. Her diet consists of seed and Zupreem fruit pellets along with egg food (which she can't get enough of), a very small vitamin and mineral supplement, hard boiled eggs, noodles, corn, broccoli (*) and slices of apple (is she being spoiled or what!). She has a good appetite, loves bouncing around on those perches and pulling at her "stringy" toy I picked up from you. She also likes to be "talked" to. She is starting to softly twitter a bit which is a good sign. As the weather looks like it will warm up a little the latter part of next week, I will try to get her in to see [the vet] about the tumor (I'll let you know what his opinion on it is). (*) I have read articles that broccoli flowers contain properties that have reduced some tumors in lab animals and people. This is why I am feeding her this veggie. It's a good veggie nutrition-wise and she loves to eat it so we'll see what happens.

We love hearing updates on the progress of the birds who leave the Center. Flower is one lucky lady!