There is a down side to rescuing, especially with the parrots that naturally have shorter life spans. It is not only a matter of how old they are when you get them, but how good their care was for the first part of their life.
Some of my parrots are quite young, like Yo-yo, Frank, and Claudia. Yo-yo had a very rough early life, but as I got him when he was around 6 months old, those health effects were easily reversed (although he is still "underweight"from being starved, even if he gets a stick of millet a day.) Claudia's liver is a little weak because she was weaned far early, but she also escaped any other major, health-affecting, abuse. Frank has just plain avoided any bad homes, his only problems are behavior wise!
Some of my parrots are older, though, and from not-so-great homes. I do not know Chester's age, other than that he is at least 10, but I do know that the last eight years of his life before I got him were very, very rough, for both his physical and mental health. I am hoping that his young age will help him eventually recover from the physical (and mental, of course!) health effects; he has already greatly improved. Peter and Ava are both a minimum of 5, easily more, and are both showing their age. Even though budgies should be able to live 10-20 years, most of today's modern budgies (i.e, the "bin-o-budgie" or "box store budgie") are bred with such bad bloodlines, and often live is such poor conditions, that 5+ is not a very young age anymore, unfortunately. Yaz seems to be doing the best of these older birds; he is around 10, but still seems to be going strong (aside from his very closely shaved chest!)
The ones I notice the age and care factor in most are Miss Patty and Lola. I have no idea of Miss Patty's age, but she certainly does not seem very young. I know she has had many homes, and I strongly suspect in the first she was a "battery hen" breeder. When I got her, she was not doing well and seemed very sick and very underweight. She greatly improved with better care, but has slowly declined again in the past few months, and now seems rather fragile though happy.
Lola is over 12, really not that old for a quaker considering they should be able to live to 30 or 40. I do not know much about the care in her first home, other than that she had heavy metal toxicity when I got her, and smelled of cigarette smoke and laundry detergent (shower, anyone? She actually had to be "aired" with open car windows on the way home.) She also greatly improved, but this winter and Spring she has really started to show her age.
Both Lola and Miss Patty went to the vet in March, and were declared very healthy, all things considered, so at least I know that much. I try to give them lots of supportive care, which helps.
Despite all you do, all the good care you may give them, or be prepared to give them, some things can not be changed. I would not trade taking in these birds for a minute; giving them even a week of a better life is worth it, but it is so very sad. To see how wonderful these birds are when given that chance. To think that no one has before stopped to notice this, to even learn what some of their most basic needs are. And that these birds will pay in years for that neglect and abuse.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
How do they do it?
Other bloggers. With many good pictures. Sometimes on every post.
How do they find such reliable cameras and camera/computer cords?
There must be a secret..........
How do they find such reliable cameras and camera/computer cords?
There must be a secret..........
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Budgie Saga continues......
You can probably guess what that means if you have read my last post about Peter and Ava. Peter started to get aggressive again. Don't worry, Ava was not hurt, I removed her before it came to that. But he was definitely very aggressive; I came into the room to find her hiding in the back of the cage, only to be chased if she came to his attention. Not very nice!
I have moved Ava into my bedroom, where she seems to be doing fine without Peter, and is enjoying the extra spoiling, being the only bird to rule the room. She loves having her own playgym, and though she is happy to play in her cage during the day (she is never locked in it unless I will be gone for a while) she has decided that the only way to sleep is outside her cage. The first night, she got out of her cage, as the door was not locked securely, and slept on the playgym. Every night since, as soon as it is time for bed, she climbs out of her cage, if she was in it, to sleep on the playgym. I suppose I could lock the door to keep her in it at night, but it does not seem to necessary; she is very well behaved!
I moved Luna into the bird room next to Peter, so he would have budgie company. Remarkably, they have hit it off extremely well, possibly because they are both males. When Luna first came out of quarantine, I tried encouraging his taming by bringing Ava into the room and showing him how she trusted me. That did not work, as he hated the sight of her, and voiced this dislike with constant shouting of the budgie aggression call. Rather a strong reaction from a male, I thought! He immediately became inseparable form Peter, and they seem to be closer than Peter and Ava ever were. Just goes to show that birds really do chose their friends! They are still not sharing a cage, but have cages right next to each other, and spend much of the day in the same cage or on the playgym together. I want to make sure there is no aggression, though.
Having Peter with Luna has really helped, though, for he is not yelling for Ava or sitting quietly, lonely and depressed. I do not have to worry about him (too much) which makes separating them soo much easier. Luna was waiting to go to a large aviary with other budgies, but I have to figure that out now. For now, I am just going to leave things as they are, and figure it out as I go. About how I seem to do everything with these guys!
I have moved Ava into my bedroom, where she seems to be doing fine without Peter, and is enjoying the extra spoiling, being the only bird to rule the room. She loves having her own playgym, and though she is happy to play in her cage during the day (she is never locked in it unless I will be gone for a while) she has decided that the only way to sleep is outside her cage. The first night, she got out of her cage, as the door was not locked securely, and slept on the playgym. Every night since, as soon as it is time for bed, she climbs out of her cage, if she was in it, to sleep on the playgym. I suppose I could lock the door to keep her in it at night, but it does not seem to necessary; she is very well behaved!
I moved Luna into the bird room next to Peter, so he would have budgie company. Remarkably, they have hit it off extremely well, possibly because they are both males. When Luna first came out of quarantine, I tried encouraging his taming by bringing Ava into the room and showing him how she trusted me. That did not work, as he hated the sight of her, and voiced this dislike with constant shouting of the budgie aggression call. Rather a strong reaction from a male, I thought! He immediately became inseparable form Peter, and they seem to be closer than Peter and Ava ever were. Just goes to show that birds really do chose their friends! They are still not sharing a cage, but have cages right next to each other, and spend much of the day in the same cage or on the playgym together. I want to make sure there is no aggression, though.
Having Peter with Luna has really helped, though, for he is not yelling for Ava or sitting quietly, lonely and depressed. I do not have to worry about him (too much) which makes separating them soo much easier. Luna was waiting to go to a large aviary with other budgies, but I have to figure that out now. For now, I am just going to leave things as they are, and figure it out as I go. About how I seem to do everything with these guys!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Featured Craigslist find
Craigslist is worth checking regularly. This was proven yet again to me recently. I have been looking for a larger cage for the quakers, as their current one is 32" by 21". In this miraculous find, I managed to get two larger cages, and on top of that, though homemade, they are of all stainless steel wire!
The rundown:
-2 30" by 30" stainless steel cages, with feeder doors
-large (i.e, 7 1/2" across, and perfect for Frank to bathe and toss food in) ceramic dishes to fit in the feeder doors
-several short, one side screw on, wood perches, of various woods
-2 swings
-several toys
-one massive super long ladder
-several manu mud chew blocks
-several ruffed up plastic perches (but I am not using those)
Cost: $94
Not bad, huh?!!
Factoring in the height of these new cages, they have over twice the interior space of the quakers old cage! Needless to say, Frank is very, very pleased (with himself, as he is sure that it was all his doing) Lola is also extremely happy (with the cage, actually) since it gives her even more room to throw her toys around. Plus, I can open up one of the sides of both cages, and put them together to form a cage that is 90" by 30"! That would really be verging on a small aviary, something the quakers would love even more.
It turns out the lady that had these cages used to be a small breeder. Her daughter had lost her job, and had to move back in, along with her children, so they had to rehome the birds to make room. Needless to say, she was very upset about it. She had many other cages, and walk in aviaries, but these were the last two cages she had left. She has already rehomed all of her birds separately, which I am sure was a task, as she was very picky about to whom they went. Unfortunately, there was not much else to do, as the bird rooms had to be turned into bedrooms. She really was extremely nice, though, and it is always nice to hear (I had to have someone else pick up the cages, of course) of other parrot lovers.
Frank feels no sympathy, though.
The rundown:
-2 30" by 30" stainless steel cages, with feeder doors
-large (i.e, 7 1/2" across, and perfect for Frank to bathe and toss food in) ceramic dishes to fit in the feeder doors
-several short, one side screw on, wood perches, of various woods
-2 swings
-several toys
-one massive super long ladder
-several manu mud chew blocks
-several ruffed up plastic perches (but I am not using those)
Cost: $94
Not bad, huh?!!
Factoring in the height of these new cages, they have over twice the interior space of the quakers old cage! Needless to say, Frank is very, very pleased (with himself, as he is sure that it was all his doing) Lola is also extremely happy (with the cage, actually) since it gives her even more room to throw her toys around. Plus, I can open up one of the sides of both cages, and put them together to form a cage that is 90" by 30"! That would really be verging on a small aviary, something the quakers would love even more.
It turns out the lady that had these cages used to be a small breeder. Her daughter had lost her job, and had to move back in, along with her children, so they had to rehome the birds to make room. Needless to say, she was very upset about it. She had many other cages, and walk in aviaries, but these were the last two cages she had left. She has already rehomed all of her birds separately, which I am sure was a task, as she was very picky about to whom they went. Unfortunately, there was not much else to do, as the bird rooms had to be turned into bedrooms. She really was extremely nice, though, and it is always nice to hear (I had to have someone else pick up the cages, of course) of other parrot lovers.
Frank feels no sympathy, though.
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