2 additions in 2 months

In August 2006, we had Max, Calypso, and Daphne, and were quite happy with our lives. We did not intend on adding any more parrots to the mix. But within two months, we would be living with two more.

First came Rocky, a severe macaw hatched in 1987. He had been surrendered to the parrot rehabilitation center where we volunteer. He was discovered to have an enlarged preen gland, and his vet recommended treatment including soaking it several times a day and medication.

Thomas and I decided to foster Rocky so that the volunteers at the shelter would not have to worry about his medication and soaking schedule. We had no intention of keeping him, but he loved it at our house and fell in love with Thomas. We officially adopted him several months later.

Rocky has kind of a sad story. He was loved very much by his previous owner, but when that man died, he was passed to a family member that didn't want him. He spent at least the 6 years prior to being released to the shelter locked in his too-small cage, with very few toys. And after living with Rocky for almost a year now, I can understand (but certainly not condone) keeping him in his cage. When Rocky doesn't like someone (and severe macaws rarely like more than one person), he chases them and tries to attack them. And for being a smaller bird, he has a vicious bite! I have since learned to read his body language and while I can't handle him (unless it's on a stick), I haven't received a bite since that first month. It is very important for parrots, especially macaws, to have hands-on attention, and Rocky gets that from Thomas.

About a month later, I found out that a black-headed caique was being surrendered to the shelter. This little guy was about 8 years old. His previous previous owner was going to release him outside to his certain death because he bit her and sent her to the emergency room. A wonderfully kind family took him in for about 9 months, saving his life, but they didn't have parrot experience and were scared of him. They made the tough decision to surrender him to the rescue. Thomas and I have a soft spot for caiques, who are much more difficult parrots than their size would suggest! We took him home the same day he was surrendered.

We renamed him Beeps. Normally we like to give our parrots people names, but this guy beeped all of the time, and while we were waiting for his DNA-sexing to come back, we started calling him Beeps, which eventually stuck.

Beeps is an amazing parrot, and more proof that not all rescue birds have problems, especially in the right environment. We've had him over 8 months now, and he has never bitten us, rarely screams, talks quite a bit (although he only has 2 phrases that he keeps repeating), a voracious eater, wonderful toy-player, etc., etc. He also picked up clicker training very quickly and is now the parrot that I bring with me when I teach other people how to train! I am so thankful every day that he was saved from his certain death outside and brought home to us because we can't imagine our lives without him!

Daphne joins the flock

After losing Ethel in April 2006, we realized that we really missed having budgie chatter in the house. In May, about 4 weeks after losing Ethel, we brought Daphne into our house. Daphne was supposed to be a breeder, but she loved people and didn't like other birds. Her dad is a champion English budgie and her mom is an American budgie.

In this picture, the right side of Daphne's face is orange due to the red palm oil and carrots that she eats for dinner!

Daphne is a total delight. She loves to play with toys. In this picture, she is by a wood dome, which is her favorite toy. Thomas made it as a prototype foraging toy for our larger birds, but none of them were interested in it. I placed it in Daphne's cage, and she loves it! She spends a long time every day spinning it around or just hanging out by it. We find it rather strange, but also quite endearing.

Daphne loves her foraging bucket. She goes into it and throws things out of it that are bigger than she is! She also loves chewing on some wood toys that were intended for larger parrots -- they last a lot longer in her cage!

Daphne is incredibly tame and friendly. She'll go to anyone, but perfers to be by Mary and Thomas. Many people think of budgies as throwaway pets because they are so inexpensive. Nothing could be further from the truth! A tame budgie is such a delight, and these guys deserve so much more than a small cage with few toys. I know I can never be without a budgie in my life!

2005 and the worst day (so far) of our lives

In June 2005, we moved into a different house and were just starting to meet the neighbors. One of them asked me if I would bring my parrots outside so he could meet them. Now, Thomas and I had a rule that the parrots were never allowed outside unless they were in their harness or in a secure carrying cage and closely monitored because of the risks. They could be snatched by a predator, or a gust of wind could take them away, even though their wings were trimmed.

However, I wanted to be a good neighbor and decided to take Max out for less than a minute so he could see her. I had been running for well over an hour that morning and knew there was no wind. And if something spooked her, she would fly and land in a yard across the way where I could easily scoop her up, right?

As you might imagine, things didn't turn out the way I expected. At 8:00 am on Thursday July 28, 2005, a gust of wind carried Max over the roofs of the houses across the street and out of my sight. I followed her trajectory, but lost sight of her. I called Thomas at work and he came home to help look. We looked nonstop until 10:00 pm, calling her name. Friends came over to help, including someone with a dog to try to sniff her out. We gave posters to everyone in the neighborhood and placed a lost ad in the paper. We spent a sleepless night and were back out looking for her at 4:00 am Friday morning (we had read that they are more active at dawn and dusk). We looked for several hours, then I went to work to get a few things done, but I was crying and came home after Thomas called and said he couldn't be alone right now. We resumed our search.

We called and whistled for her, but didn't hear any response. How far could she have gotten? Did someone find her? Was she eaten by someone's cat? We decided to take Calypso out in his carrier to help us look. They always enjoyed whistling back and forth to each other and maybe she would respond to him. Around 6:00 pm on Friday, about 34 hours after she went missing, she responded to Calypso's call. Unsure of whether the noise was made by her, something else, or just in our imaginations, Thomas headed into chest-high weeds searching for Max. He heard a rustling and thumping. Still unsure of what he would find (the weeds were VERY thick), he pounced on the creature and it was Max!

This was the happiest moment of our lives! Thomas clasped her to his chest. She looked up at him, said "I love you," and we ran her back to the house. She eagerly ate and drank, and surprisingly was no worse for wear.

I like to think that things happen for a reason, and perhaps I had to go through this so I could tell my story to others. Even if your bird's wings are clipped, he can fly. Even if he never has before. A little wind and adrenaline can take them MUCH farther than you'd imagine. Max was found over 1/4 mile from our house, very close to a pond. We are so lucky that we found her. Many people are not so lucky.

I guess I'm not making banana bread...

I'm bringing this story into the present right now. My goal was to get this blog up to speed on the history of my parrots and then update it with the things that are going on currently. However, I went into my kitchen last night to find this...

Max sometimes likes to hang out in the kitchen by herself when the rest of us are in the living room. It's strange, but since she normally just hangs out on one of her playstands and there's nothing dangerous, we let her be. She likes to sing and order us to come and get her (but when we do she'll just fly back into the kitchen). Last night I entered the kitchen to find that one of the bananas that I had been planning to use for banana bread had been attacked!

Too bad, Max, since you like banana bread much more than just bananas, and now I'll have to buy more bananas and wait for them to ripen...

An addition and a loss

In 2004, we added a female budgie, Ethel. Ethel had a huge tumor that made her weigh more than twice what she should have! We took her home knowing that she didn't have much time to live, but wanting to give her a good end to her life. We also hoped that her presence would perk up Lenny, our other budgie. After several months, Lenny died from an internal tumor that he had (budgies are prone to tumors). But Ethel thrived!

Ethel showed us how wonderful and full of personality budgies can be! So often, budgies are considered disposable pets because they are so inexpensive. They are kept in small cages, rarely handled, and with few toys. Ethel loved Thomas and would follow him all around the house, flying to him on command. She began imitating the sounds that Max and Calypso made. She was such a delight to have around the house!

We were lucky to get over a year to spend with Ethel before she passed away. We will never forget her and the way she opened our hearts to budgies. I know I can never be budgie-free again! Their delightful chatter and wonderful nature brightens the day. And budgies can be great pets for people living in apartments (they aren't very noisy) and for gentle children.

Another new addition

During the interim years, we began volunteering at a local parrot rescue. Although it was hard not to take every bird home, we successfully resisted until March 2004 when an adorable 9 year old black-headed caique was surrendered. Max had been an only big bird for over 2 years when we brought Calypso home.

Calypso did not have a happy start to his life. We don't know much about his past. We do know that he was kept covered, sometimes all day long, to help control his noise. This still baffles me because caiques are not very loud birds! He was fed a poor diet consisting mostly of sunflower seeds and peanuts. When he first came to our house, he would climb down off of his cage, walk into the corner, sway gently, and repeat "Shut up! Stop it! Shut up! Stop it!" over and over. It was heartbreaking.

We converted him to a healthy pelleted diet, supplemented by fresh fruits and vegetables. He was no longer covered and had a cage more than twice the size of his previous cage that was filled with toys. Things were going well. Then, one morning, we awoke to find this:

Now that he was receiving what he needed, after being deprived for so long, his hormones went out of control! Overnight, he had ripped out all of the orange leg feathers on his legs and mutilated sores into each leg. We rushed him to the vet. We placed a collar on him so that he could not mutilate his legs anymore. He was quite upset with having to wear the collar, but after a few hours (maybe more like a day), he got used to it and was able to maneuver normally. After the sores healed, we removed the collar. He allowed his feathers to grow back in, and we have not had any problems with him since then (so far it's been 3 years).

Max was not entirely happy with this arrangement, but we made sure to treat her as first among equals so as not to lose her favored status in the house. And in 2005, Calypso would save Max's life.

A new addition

About 6 months after we brought Max home and after we had moved into our new house, Thomas's mom asked us if we would take her budgie, Lenny. He was quite old and was ignored in his home, except for the cats who would look at him in a menacing way. He was cagebound and not interested in people. Due to his age, we worried that handling him too much would give him a heart attack.

We brought him home and packed his cage with toys. Max was interested in the new arrival, but he didn't arouse much jealousy because he didn't require a lot of our attention.

However, the first jealous episode we saw from her did involve Lenny. Max was fledged (learned to fly) at her breeder's house, but we decided to keep her wings trimmed for safety (Max is now fully flighted, but we'll get to that later!) However, when she would start to molt, we would let her fly for a few weeks/months until she got a bit too sassy, at which point her wings would be clipped again.

Max loved to fly and land on the curtain rod that was in front of the doors leading to our breezeway. We did not like her hanging out up there, but if we went to remove her, it became a fun game for her. So we decided to ignore her when she was there. She did not like being ignored, so she would be extra cute saying, "Hello! Come here! Up!" and whistling little tunes, which made it very difficult for us to ignore her. After a few weeks of this, when Max would fly up there, I would turn my attention to Lenny and start talking about what a good boy he was. This was not acceptable to Max, who flew down from her perch, buzzing the top of my head in the process, land on her cage and exclaim "Good Boy!" (At the time, we thought Max was a boy). What a ham!

Early Max pictures

Here are some early pictures of Max. Look at her black eyes! When I look at how empty her cage was, I just cringe. We don't have a lot of digital pictures of her early years, but she looks pretty much the same now as she did then (with the exception of the eyes!)

Parrots need tons of toys, and different types of toys -- destructible, preening, knots, puzzle, foraging, etc. Max has tons of toys all over the inside and outside of her cage now. Greys have a tendency to get used to routine and to become afraid of new things, including toys. In fact, Max used to be afraid of new toys herself! But we kept working on her, and now she flies to us to inspect all of the new toys that we bring into the house!

What did we get ourselves into?

Max was about 4 1/2 months old when we brought her home. This was so exciting! But our reading and research had not prepared us for actually having her. Did we make a mistake? We were overwhelmed at first and were quietly discussing whether we should consider returning her to her breeder. She didn't seem happy (not exactly sure what we were hoping for!) At exactly that moment she looked at us and very clearly said, "I love you!" These were the first words we'd ever heard out of her, and she wouldn't say that phrase for another 2 years or so. We snapped out of it and decided to redouble our efforts and do everything we could to keep her and make her happy.

After we'd had her for a few weeks (or was it months?) she developed an annoying squawking habit. This actually is not a problem -- they were just normal timneh vocalizations, but we really didn't know that. We thought we were doing something wrong and needed to fix the problem. Conventional parrot wisdom at the time mandated that you cover the bird to stop him from screaming. We tried that, with the following result:



Poor, poor Max that she had to go through our learning curve! Luckily she is very resiliant and is a wonderful bird despite our inexperience in the beginning! And the lessons we learned from her have allowed us to successfully work with more difficult parrots.

Anyway, we saw her trying to be part of the family by looking at us while she was covered and decided that there had to be a better way to deal with the noise. We quickly sold our condo and moved into a house where she could be as loud as she wanted and not bother anyone. And now we can't imagine our lives without her grey noises!

And research leads to...

We did what we thought was adequate research. Since none of our friends owned parrots and we didn't know about bird clubs or bird rescues, we visited local pet stores with parrots and did a lot of reading on the Internet. Knowing about the horrors of pet stores and dogs, we knew that we weren't going to buy our new parrot from a pet store, but we visited to get experience with the various birds.

After our research, we had narrowed it down to either a Hahn's macaw or a timneh african grey. We found a lovely breeder of timneh african grey parrots, and that sealed our decision!

We purchased Max, a timneh african grey parrot, but she was still too young to come home, so our breeder sent pictures of her on a semi-regular basis! The breeder lived about 6 hours away from us, so we were not able to meet our new parrot before picking her up.

Here are some of her pictures, and some with her sibling. In the one with Max's name on it, her breeder was trying to take a picture of her sibling, but Max had to get in front of the camera! The reason we chose Max instead of her sibling is that Max's breeder told us that Max was more inquisitive and we're always up for a challenge!