Love at First Sight

So . . . How did someone who thought it was ridiculous to keep a bird just to clean up after it even become interested in parrots? Well, I thought you’d never ask!!

I answered the phone one day to the excited voice of my friend Mare (actually Mary, but she preferred Mare – no, not the bird breeder – this was a friend from work). She said I just had to come over right now and see what she had. Mare had been taking a desktop publishing course and met a lady who needed a home for her male Umbrella cockatoo. He found a home with my friend. Yeah, ok, whatever . . . I humored her and went to see this so-called wonder bird.

The first thing that struck me was how huge he was. Of course I had seen the old Baretta TV series with Fred the cockatoo – who didn’t love him? This was the same kind of bird. Chester was at the back of the chest high cage looking out the window when I walked over to stand in front of it. He turned and rushed directly at me! Before I could even move a muscle he had thrown his head against my neck and began to snuggle and coo lovingly, then he would look directly into my eyes for a minute before going back to cooing! I was in total shock for a second or two, and then, just like that, it happened. I was in love! Mare told me to go ahead and pet him. Pet a bird?? I did. His feathers were really soft and he turned his head back and forth so I would scratch just the right spot. I stayed for hours.


Mark and I began to talk about getting a bird. At the time we had three dogs, a cat and a ferret. We decided that now was not the right time, but sometime in the future we would look into it.

Not too long after that our sweet little ferret died of a stroke. The following day at work I was telling a co-worker about the incident when she said “Well now you can get that bird.” I told her I wasn’t ready – poor Stinky had just died, for cryin’ out loud! She told me there were birds in the paper for sale and insisted I call Mark and let him know. I refused, so she called him herself! He made an appointment to go look at the baby birds.

We took my sister Deb and her 2 year old daughter with us. Debbie had parakeets when we were growing up and always liked birds. Mary (the bird breeder) showed us all her babies. I fell in love with a fat little female Umbrella cockatoo just like Chester, but much smaller. Unfortunately someone else had put a deposit on her, so she was not available. Mary insisted I hold a Citron cockatoo. That one was a sweetie too. Deb picked out a little male red-bellied parrot. Mark purchased the Citron for my birthday. As we were standing in the driveway saying our goodbyes, Mary asked Deb if she was any relation to Art (our father). Now here comes the weird part – as if my co-worker calling my husband about a parrot wasn’t weird enough! Mary told us that she and her husband knew our father and her husband had known my late mother. They grew up in the same town in northern New York. What a small world!


This is me holding Spike and Chester. Take note of the size difference! I once promised Mare I would take care of Chester if anything happened to her, but I had to take that back! The one time I babysat for Chester I found that he would not go into the cage when asked. Mare was on a disability retirement and he was used to being out of his cage all day. I was still working and could not allow that. He actually kept me hostage for about 4 hours one day because I could not get him off the top of the cage! I even tried prying his feet off the bars. Nothing worked, so I kept patting my forearm and asking him to step up. No way. He finally got tired of my asking and reached out and bit me the same place I had been patting – hard. His beak was so big that it went almost all the way around my arm. He didn't break the skin, but I had a pretty good bruise for a couple of weeks. I got the message loud and clear. He was the boss, not me! (By the way - the promise was not entirely broken. It was Mare who sent me to get Emelio, her baby grey, when she was in the nursing home. Emelio was also one of Mary the bird breeder's babies.)

Cathy

Cockatoo Bombs

We were so uninformed with our first bird; it makes me shudder to think about it. Like I said, I read everything I could get my hands on, but reading is not doing – you have to learn through experience. It’s actually quite awkward the first time you handle a bird. I’ll never forget making a frantic call to Mary (the wonderful lady we bought Spike from) just days after bringing Spike home. I was standing in front of the cage just about to put her in when she climbed up my arm, walked across my shoulder, grabbed the back of my (then) long hair with both feet and threw herself backwards while vigorously flapping her wings and shrieking like something straight from hell. To say I was startled would be a gross understatement. I removed the excited bird as quickly as I could – something not easily done – and ran to the phone. Upon hearing the description of what had just happened Mary laughed and said “Oh Cathy, Spike is just playing. A lot of birds enjoy hair surfing.” Hair surfing?? Well now, that was never discussed in any article. I thought the bird had gone mad!

Mary also had drilled us on keeping the cage and bowls absolutely clean, so like good little bird owners we were at it every chance we got. One morning I was getting ready for work while my husband was wiping down the cage. All of a sudden Mark started swearing. I went to the living room to see what was wrong. Mark had been cleaning the bottom grate and was kneeling in front of the cage furiously wiping at his neck. Spike was on top of the cage above him. I asked what happened and before Mark could answer, Spike threw her wings up with a little shriek and replied “I got ‘im”, then actually chuckled!

She also planned and carried out an attack on the cat. Spike was sitting on the top of her cage when I noticed her watching the cat. As the cat came nearer to the cage Spike positioned herself at the back. When Puss walked between the cage and the wall I saw Spike look down over her shoulder and drop a poop bomb directly on the cat’s back. As I chased the cat down to clean him off I could hear Spike laughing.

I find it amazing when a bird says or does something that is appropriate for the situation. It happens a lot, and usually it’s something that the bird has never said before and may never say again. I remember the time I was sitting on the couch while Spike was perched on my finger. I was holding her up in front of my face talking to her when she reached out and bit my nose!! I gave her a little shake and loudly told her that was not nice and never do that again. She immediately looked down and replied in a tiny voice “I’m sorry.” I could not believe my ears – how did she know to say that?

Another time my niece Christie was visiting and we were all in the living room goofing around with the birds. Emelio had been singing something (Mary told me that greys don’t sing, but mine certainly does) and Mark said to him “Here’s a song for you Emelio . . . I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener.” Without any hesitation at all Emelio sang it right back to him. He had never said it before, probably never even heard it before, and he has never said it since. I think our wild laughter might have scared it out of him!

I have since read that parrot language is taught to babies by their parents, and that communication is very important in the bird world. So much that they actually learn our language in order to communicate with us. Sometimes I believe that, other times I wonder – like when I’m trying to explain that I really have to trim wings or nails and it won’t actually kill them. Maybe they just don’t want to hear it!

Cathy

Mmmm, Good!

Alex helped himself to a potato chip during a family get together at Christmas. This is not his usual diet!!

I just peeled some hard boiled eggs and shared them with the birds. They love eggs – especially scrambled. In fact they love most human food and they can have almost anything we eat in small quantities (avoid giving them chocolate, avocados or liquor). I love to watch how excited they get about it. Alex's eyes will pinpoint and he makes comments like "Mmmm, good" and then "Want some?” I never cease to get a kick out of that.

It also amazes me that they like chicken – that just seems so wrong!! The weird thing is that they didn’t like it when they were babies, but they all seem to acquire a taste for it after a year or two. All except Classy, that is. He’s a funny little guy. The only people food that he will eat is scrambled eggs, popcorn, and Corn Chex. He’s not a big veggie and fruit eater either, but he still gets them every day because every so often he will actually eat a bean or pea or something that’s good for him.

We feed the birds a combination of seeds, Roudybush pellets and Zoopreem. Some think that birds should only get the formulated food, but I think they need some seed, and they really enjoy it. They also get fruit and veggies daily, and some kind of nut – unsalted peanuts, pistachios, almonds, walnuts or pecans. They also get snacks like Ritz crackers or oyster crackers, cheerios and other unsweetened cereals – I think we spend more on their food than we do on ours.

The experts say not to let the birds have salt. I followed that rule until I saw a show about parrots in the wild. It showed a huge flock of African greys landing on the marshy ground where elephants had walked just to get the salt. Besides, how can you refuse a bird who asks over and over for something? Alex will not stop saying “Want a cracker?” or “Cracker?” until he is promised that he can have one.

Emelio will gladly give up a place on the counter – which is his favorite spot – when he sees me take the crackers out of the cupboard. He insists that he go back to his cage immediately. Then begins the cracker ritual: he steps down onto his perch, takes the cracker, puts one foot on his water bowl and drops it in, then steps back to the perch, puts his head down and says “Woo”. This is done each time without fail. He eats the cracker from his water bowl, then sticks his beak in the water and makes circular motions with his head so he can get the bits that have sunk to the bottom.

Alex prefers to just dunk his in the water. Gideon likes his broken in half so he can clutch it in his foot and nibble away at it. Spike does the same. Peeper and Rani just eat it right out of their bowls. Classy, on the other hand gets his Corn Chex. He throws crackers to the bottom of his cage. Ah well, to each his own . . .

Cathy

And Finally . . .

A local bird store owner encouraged me to join a new bird club that was starting in the area. There was already one established club and I had gone to their shows, but never joined. I had inquired when I got my first bird, but learned that there was a lot of dissention and decided not to get involved. I did join the new one which turned out to have the same problems and eventually disbanded, but I did meet some of the bird people in the area.

In March 2005 Michelle (the former president of the bird club) called to ask if I would take one of two macaws that KC (another former member) had rescued. KC had a macaw of her own and a new baby and the screaming was becoming too much. My first reaction was that I couldn’t, but I asked for the information so I could help find someone who would. One was a male blue and gold named Alex, the other was a military macaw named Sadie. They had been purchased from a lady who had cancer. She apparently moved in with her boyfriend and the macaws had spent a winter in the garage due to lack of space! They shared a cage and sorely needed some care. KC spent eight months rehabilitating them and now badly needed to find good homes for them.

I made a few calls – one was to my brother who had already adopted an African grey. He agreed to take the military. My husband had always wanted a blue and gold, so we adopted Alex. By now our birds were enjoying the new bird room, which had enough room for the six cages, and a small table and chairs in addition to their cabinets and fridge. We removed the table and replaced it with a new cage. (Sound familiar?) Now we really have no more room and have vowed not to adopt any more!

And Another One!

One Saturday in January 2002 we took our dogs to the Dog Wash for a bath. The owner of the place knew we had birds and asked me if we would be interested in adopting another one. My first response was no, but I had been reading about adopting older birds and quickly asked him what kind. He told me it was a Red Lored Amazon. I relented and said I might be interested. I gave him our phone number to pass on and we went home to talk it over.

We decided to go see what the story was. We were told that they were the second owners. The first owner had died so they didn’t know how old he was, but they had him for over 16 years. He was in a room all by himself. His owners were a lot like us – no kids, middle aged, both had jobs. They were interested in boating, motorcycle riding and other activities that kept them busy. That was the reason they wanted to find him a new home. They loved him and would miss him, but didn’t spend enough time with him and felt guilty about it.

Although the bird didn’t show any interest in me, he didn’t show any aggression either. I felt sorry for him. He seemed lonely. I said we would adopt him if they would allow us to take him to the vet first. They agreed. Our avian vet gave Classy a clean bill of health. She also took nail clipping for a DNA sex test. I thought it would be nice to know for sure if the bird was a male.

We took a look around our now crowded living room and could not imagine where we could possibly put another cage. By now we were down to 2 Lazy Boy chairs, an end table, a TV and a dining room table and chairs. We had already decided to add on to the house instead of moving, so we disassembled the dining room table and stored it downstairs. We replaced it with a tiny old table – just big enough for 2 people – and a new cage was put in the dining room.

As we were bringing Classy home I wondered how he would fit in. He had been by himself for so long! When we walked in the door our other birds started whistling and calling out. As soon as he heard them Classy got really excited and began to return the calls. I knew we had done the right thing.

Number Five

This is Gideon – a Rose Breasted (or Galah) Cockatoo – hatched on May 26, 1998. He was an unplanned addition to our family. We had taken our four birds to our favorite bird shop owner for wing and nail trims. Afterwards we always visited with the birds in the shop. I was gabbing with Linda, the owner, when my husband tapped me on the shoulder. “This one really likes me” he says. (The only bird of ours that he could handle was Spike – the others were bonded to me.)

Linda smiled and introduced us to Gideon. For some reason he was a year and a half old and no one had bought him yet. I couldn’t imagine why – he was just the cutest chubby little guy and he whispered in your ear! Linda told Mark that the bird really liked him and we should consider taking him home. We laughed and said we couldn’t do that. We already had four cages crowding our living/dining room! But of course all we did was think about him after we went home.

We went back for another visit the following week. While Mark was carrying him around someone else noticed how cute he was and asked Linda about him. That customer was informed that the bird was quite old enough to choose his owner and had chosen Mark! What could we do but take him home?? On October 30, 1999 we added another cage to the living room and another bird into our hearts.

The First Adoptee

Emelio is a Congo African Grey parrot. He was born September 21, 1995. This was my first adopted parrot. I had seen these birds, but was not interested in them at all. A friend owned this bird and I knew him somewhat, but he had acted quite frightened and seemed much less friendly than my birds. His owner had decided the bird was a girl and named her Amelia. When she returned to the breeder for a wing trim the breeder said she really thought it was a boy – hence the name change.

In August of 1996 my friend had to go to a nursing home due to complications from diabetes. Her neighbor had been caring for her two birds, but she felt that the baby grey wasn’t getting the care he needed, so on September 1st she asked me to take over. She was right – when we got there we discovered him living in a filthy cage and he was quite frightened of us. The other bird was quite friendly and was getting the attention he needed. After repeated attempts to get Emelio to step up my husband Mark grabbed him with a towel and put him in the carrier. We took him home, put him in a clean cage and let him calm down. It didn’t take long for him to decide I was harmless and he began letting me pick him up – but no petting (oh great, another one!).

The nursing home allowed pet visitors, so after about a week I took Emelio to visit his owner. She was so glad to see him, but by that time he had bonded to me and instead of staying near his owner to visit with her, he got as close to me as he could. It was obvious to us both that he had become my bird – whether I wanted a grey or not!

It didn’t take long for me to admit I was falling in love with him too. Where I once found the color of this bird uninteresting I now found it absolutely beautiful. The outer edges of his feathers are lined with white and his little white face is just adorable. I have no idea why I had no interest in this type of bird. Now I can’t imagine my life without him.

The Agressive Queen

Rani is a female red sided Eclectus. She is our third bird - born May 28, 1994, brought home in September. The males of this species are green with red under their wings and have a candy corn colored upper beak. The females beaks start out that color and turn black as they mature. We certainly didn’t have to guess at the sex of this bird!

In my experience this is a hard bird to care for – at least the female is. I understand that the males are the sweeter of the two, and the female is the one who guards the nest in the wild. I certainly believe that! For the first seven years of her life Rani was extremely protective of her cage. She managed to bite me in the face three times. (That REALLY hurts!) She got me once under the nose and twice took hunks out of my bottom lip. Each time I dropped my guard for just a moment as I was cleaning her cage. It took everything I had just to walk away when I wanted to lash out at her.

When she was younger she didn’t like to be touched. She would step up with no problem, but was quick to let you know she would tolerate no petting! When I held her she just sat nicely on my arm. I don’t know why she changed, but from the time she was about 7 she has been much less cage aggressive and when I hold her she is up on or near my shoulder either buried in my hair or making kissing noises as she rubs her beak back and forth across my face. I can now touch and pet her on her back and head – actually anywhere. Sometimes she nests on my shoulder and just looks at me lovingly. Other times she’s totally annoying – biting at my ear or my glasses, scratching on my shoulder like a chicken.

Life With Parrots

I have been living with parrots for almost sixteen years. It started with one bird - a present from my husband for my birthday. We now have seven. My aim in writing this blog is to share the experience - both good and bad. I plan to introduce each of my birds and write about their individual personalities, quirks and exploits. While it takes a serious committment to care for these birds, they bring such wonderfully odd comic releif into my life that I couldn't imagine being without them. They truly are my feathered kids.

Spike is our first baby - a Citron cockatoo. She was about 3 months old when we brought her home in June of 1993, and we knew nothing about caring for a parrot. Neither one of us had ever owned a bird. I couldn't actually see any point in it. When I was a kid the only birds I ever saw were parakeets that stayed in their cages. You just fed them and cleaned up after them - and they certainly didn't talk!

Before bringing Spike home I read everything I could get my hands on about caring for parrots. There were a few magazines available (such as Bird Talk) and they were a great help. There was so much to learn! One of the things we read about was how to tell the sex of a Citron cockatoo. When they are babies their eyes are black. The female's eyes turn brown as they mature - male's eyes stay black. My husband was convinced that ours was a boy (hence the name Spike), and as she passed her first birthday her eyes were still black. But soon after they did turn a brownish color. Unfortuantely by then she had learned to refer to herself as a boy and we were also so used to her being a boy that to this day we still slip up and call her a him.

Here is a picture of our 2nd baby - a pied peach faced lovebird. She was 4 months old when we brought her home early in March 1994. As a baby her back and wings were totally green and with every molt she gets more and more yellow.

Again, we decided this was a boy (some people never learn) and named this one Waldo Wigglesworth. Luckily the name didn't stick and we've always called her Peeper. We discovered she was a girl after we had given her one of those hanging tents called a Birdie Hut or some such thing. She loved it! She would get in there and sratch the bottom or just sit in it peering out at everything. She would be in there for hours. What we didn't realize was that it brought out her nesting instincts. She began laying eggs soon after! Thank God I had read enough to know that they had to be left in the cage until she lost interest in them. If removed the bird will just keep laying and it could result in a calcuim deficiency and even death. Needless to say, that was the last Birdie Hut for her.