Many people think of rescue birds as damaged in some way, but we've learned time and time again that's not the case. Unfortunately, far too many people who are not equipped to own parrots purchase them, and then the birds suffer. True, there are some birds who, due to their innate personality or past experiences with humans, are difficult, and many of those birds find their way to rescue.
However, the majority of birds find their way to us because they outlived their owner, or their owner has a major life change and is unwilling or unable to include the bird in that change. Additionally, there are parrots owned by people who didn't do their research on what living what one of these intelligent creatures involves, so they are unprepared for the noise, mess, and cost of living with one.
Luckily, parrots are extremely resilient and the vast majority of them will quickly integrate into a new home.
We've talked a few times about Holly, an adult severe macaw. Here is the last time she was featured. Holly came from an animal hoarder, so we have no information on her. When she first came to us, we suspected that she was in her 30s, due to her condition. Holly, a few weeks after surrender:
However, she has made such amazing progress since being with us that we think we may have prematurely aged her. She might be a spritely teenager! Can you believe this is the same bird?
Holly is an incredible joy to be around. When she sees her favorite people, she starts swinging from the top of her cage and begging to come out. She leaps on their arm and is one happy lady.
She will always have a dislocated hip, but since being on a good diet at CARE, her arthritis has disappeared, so she is no longer on any kind of pain medication. Her dislocated hip does not impede her in any way -- she has a normal cage, with normal perches, and normal toys.
We don't understand why she's been here for nearly a year. She isn't aggressive at all, and is quite charming. She is relatively undemanding and just wants to spend time out of her cage with people.
In a home environment, where she'll receive more one-on-one attention, we suspect that she'll reveal many more delightful surprises. She is quite the treasure, and we hope that she will soon have a home of her own. We're just not sure why she doesn't have one already!
2 comments:
what a beautiful transformation she has made, thanks to all you guys have done for her. My question is how she would get along in a house with other birds? I have 1 grey and 4 ekkies?
Terry
Since every bird is an individual, we can't tell you for sure how things will go, but we can speculate.
She came from an animal hoarder, so she's used to being around other birds. At CARE, she has not shown any interest in any of the other birds -- just people! Severe macaws tend not to be bird aggressive (though of course some can be.) Of course supervision is always very important!
Severe macaws tend to be quite vocal, so there's a good chance she may get some of your birds riled up vocally. So far, Holly has been on the quieter end of the spectrum for severes, but with so many louder birds in the aviary up for adoption, sometimes it's hard to tell in our facility.
Almost always, the transition to a home goes better than expected. If you have more specific questions about her, please feel free to e-mail us or stop by and we can help you to decide if she might be a good fit for your home!
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