See more posts like this on Tumblr
#birds #cockatoo #parrot
Idea: Plight of the Cockatoo. Mentality of a 3 year old for the (up to) 70+ years of it’s life, self mutilates from lack of interaction and mental illness, lovely birds that deserve to be free, not confined to wire prisons. Stop breeding them and adopt those that need love to proper families.
Done by me
Read this site before saying “OMG! I want one!”
I go through bird tags one here and read so many posts of people saying they really want a cockatoo or how they are getting one soon. It makes me cringe every time I read it.
This site will lay everything straight down...
Mytoos is the best site to *educate* you about Cockatoos
It’s a mathematical powder keg: skyrocketing number of parrots in the United
States, plus their long lifespan, plus a lack of knowledge on how to keep these birds happy and well-adjusted. It all adds up to a looming crisis for the animal rescue community. Best Friends Animal Society shares the facts about Parrot ownership.
Best Friends Animal Society is a nonprofit organization building no-kill programs and partnerships that will bring about a day when there are No More Homeless Pets®. At the core of Best Friends’ work is the dream that one day kindness will replace cruelty and animals will no longer be destroyed because they are unwanted or imperfect. Spaying and neutering will be the rule for all pets and adoption will be the first option for everyone. Making this dream a reality is the mission we call No More Homeless Pets. The society’s leading initiatives in animal care and community programs are coordinated from its Kanab, Utah, headquarters, the country’s largest no-kill sanctuary. This work is made possible by the personal and financial support of a grassroots network of supporters and community partners across the nation. For more information, visit http://www.bestfriends.org
An unexpected bond between damaged birds and traumatized
veterans could reveal surprising insights into animal intelligence.
By CHARLES SIEBERT | The New York TimesParrots have so many social neurons. Their brain is filled with the capacity to mirror their flock.
Abandoned pet parrots are twice-traumatized beings: denied first their natural will to flock and then the company of the humans who owned them. In the wild, parrots ply the air, mostly, in the same way whales do the sea: together and intricately. Longtime pairs fly wing to wing within extended, close-knit social groupings in which individual members, scientists have recently discovered, each have unique identifiable calls, like human names. Parrots learn to speak them soon after birth, during a transitional period of vocalizing equivalent to human baby babbling known as ‘‘subsong,’’ in order to better communicate with members of their own flocks and with other flocks. This, it turns out, is the root of that vaunted gift for mimicry, which, along with their striking plumages and beguilingly fixed, wide-eyed stares, has long induced us to keep parrots — neuronally hard-wired flock animals with up to 60-to-70-year life spans and the cognitive capacities of 4-to-5-year-old children — all to ourselves in a parlor cage: a broken flight of human fancy; a keening kidnapee.
Doc Needs Your Help! via Parrot Rescue Centre
Doc is a 30 year old Female Sulphur Crested cockatoo.
Doc was surrendered to the PRC on Friday the 6th July and is currently being taken care of by one of our dedicated Foster carer’s Christine Day. Doc’s owner, who had her for 30 years, has only just recently passed away, at the age of 84 years old and Doc was meant to then go to the owner’s brother, but he passed away 4 days later. Doc was in temporary care with the owner’s son, who contacted us to try and find her a home.
We were given Doc’s information and photo of her current set up, by the owner’s son and knew we had to urgently get her to one of our PRC carers. The conditions she was being kept in were inappropriate. (Please see pictures attached).
Thanks to our wonderful experienced cockatoo foster carer Christine, Doc was picked up within a couple of days. She is now in a large cage, set up appropriately for her needs with lots of healthy food and enrichment.
The owners son had originally told us that Doc had a broken leg and could not perch properly, so we asked Christine to give us a better assessment once she had seen Doc. Christine noticed that Doc had a growth between her legs, which had caused her legs/feet to be displaced to the sides and prevented her from perching and walking properly, she knew that Doc had to see an Avian vet ASAP.
Doc has now been to the avian vet who has suggested that the growth (please see photo) is either a fatty tumour or a hernia and that there is not a lot of blood flow in the area, as a result the tissue is starting to rot. Due to the severity of the growth it is recommended that she has surgery ASAP. There are blood tests that need to be performed first, to ensure surgery is going to be a safe option for her and if they all go well, and then her surgery will be scheduled for Thursday.
Doc’s Avian vet is Karen Dobson from Railway Row Veterinary Clinic, Emu Plains, NSW.
We need your help to pay for the vet costs. It is estimated that the tests, x-rays, hospitalisation and surgery will come to around $800, but there will be ongoing visits to ensure she is healing well and also the ongoing care that will be needed to help her recover.
Please help Doc by donating to the PRC, either through shop purchases or making a monetary donation. Any amount great or small is appreciated.
If you would like to make a monetary donation, please use the following bank details or phone us on 07 5569 2840 with your credit card details.
Thank you for your support!
Gofins cockatoo, Magoo, before and after in the Macaw and Cockatoo Rescue of New Mexico
Source: Why Rescue Birds Aren’t Free
GIBSONTON –
Last August, Karen Atwood received a frantic call from an Orlando woman whose house was in foreclosure. She had taken in 35 parrots over 10 years and kept them all in the same room.
The woman could no longer keep the birds and didn’t know what to do.
As vice president of the Florida Parrot Rescue the largest foster parrot network in the state – Atwood and several other rescue volunteers visited the woman to evaluate the birds.
“They were malnourished, poorly cared for, underweight and constantly caged,” Atwood said. “But because we work out of foster homes, all of the birds were dispersed into separate locations, given the proper care, and many have since been adopted.”
Atwood is used to getting such calls. She said most people don’t realize how often it happens.
“I read recently there is just as big a population crisis among birds as dogs or cats, partially due to a huge illegal market for all kinds of parrots. Over-breeding also contributes to the problem.”
Like other animals, young parrots have endearing qualities that later can become annoying to some people, she said. They’re intelligent, affectionate and easily trained, and some do tricks or talk. All are social and need companionship.
“Often the reasons that make parrots attractive as pets are the same ones people give for relinquishing them,” Atwood said. For example, a bird that’s not properly cared for can become loud, needy or engage in self-destructive feather plucking, she said.
“These birds can be expensive to keep,” she continued. “They need veterinary care, toys, special foods and lots of social interaction. They just don’t sit on a perch all day.”
Many parrots end up in homes with owners who have no idea about how much care the birds need, Atwood said. They get to a point where they either can’t handle or no longer want the responsibility.
That’s where the Florida Parrot Rescue comes in. The nonprofit, all-volunteer avian rescue saves, rehabilitates and finds permanent homes for companion parrots, including parakeets, conures, macaws, lovebirds, Amazons, cockatiels and cockatoos. There are about 350 species that originate in Australia, South America, Central America and parts of Asia and Africa.
Parrots come to the rescue for many reasons – after their owners die, because they bother people’s allergies, or when people move and or have their houses foreclosed. Many go to foster homes with health or behavior issues that must be addressed before they are adoptable.
“Sometimes it takes years but we keep them as long as it takes to get them well and adopt them out,” Atwood said.
Adopting a bird is a lifelong responsibility, because many parrots live 40 to 60 years or even longer. Atwood knows a woman who owns a blue and gold macaw that’s 98 years old.
“Many of these birds can easily outlive their owners, so we’re very picky about where we place them. We want to make sure they’re matched with the right people.”
The organization was founded as the Tampa Bay Parrot Rescue by Jennifer James in 2007. Its name was changed a few years later to reflect its statewide reach.
At the time, James was working at an animal and bird hospital in Temple Terrace. A Seattle woman called about 30 birds her recently deceased father had kept in his one-bedroom condo in Tampa. The woman needed help placing the birds but later decided to sell them. Although all of the birds were sold through a local pet store, many ended up at the animal hospital malnourished and in poor condition.
“I started the rescue right away because I realized a need was not being met,” said James, who now manages a veterinary practice in Westchase.
The organization has rescued more than 1,000 birds since it started, and most of those have been placed. Five area coordinators and about 100 volunteers throughout the state foster birds, including 24 in Hillsborough County. Atwood, who lives in Gibsonton, is one of four volunteers in South Shore. The others live in Riverview, Ruskin and FishHawk.
“We’re currently fostering about 200, and we have a waiting list,” she said.
Atwood is currently fostering three birds herself — Kizmet, a 3-year-old Hahn’s Macaw; Jocko, a 7-year-old Pacific parrotlet and Crystal, a 12-year-old Alexandrine parakeet. She adopted two others she once fostered: a Goffins cockatoo named Coco, 4, and a lovebird named Cujo, which is 18 months old.
The Florida Parrot Rescue is funded entirely through Petco grants, annual fundraisers, private donations and adoption fees — which range between $15 and $400, depending on a bird’s species and medical expenses. Last year the organization spent $29,000 on veterinary bills alone, James said.
For additional information, visit www.floridaparrotrescue.com or email flparrotrescue@aol.com.
We have a wonderful little cockatoo available for adoption through No Feather Left behind.
His name is Archie and he is a ham. He loves everyone and needs to be involved with whatever you’re doing.
Cockatoos are not beginner birds. Let me know if you know of anyone that is prepared to love this adorable fluff.
Susie the cockatoo being spoiled from A Helping Wing Parrot Rescue
The collar is to ensure there is no further plucking.
NEVER TETHER A BIRD
People are unintentionally causing injury to their parrots with leg restraints and we hope that the following information might save a few lives.
Predator birds such as falcons and hawks, used in the so-called sport of falconry, have restraints called jesses that are used until the bird is sent in to hunt. An Anklet is attached around the bird’s leg. A jesse is the long strip of leather that attaches through an eyelet in the anklet. The jesse has a hole close to the end to which a strong piece of material such as a leash is attached for tethering the bird.
The legs of predatory birds are heavy and muscular. Using their feet, they are able to capture and carry prey.
By comparison, a parrot’s legs are slender and delicate. They are intended to support the normal activities of a parrot – climbing, hopping, landing, for instance. These legs don’t require any special adaptations to get through life when attached to a parrot.
There are people throughout the world who have been taught to use leg restraints with their parrots. Many do not even use restraints made from leather, but are opting for chains attached to metal shackles on their bird’s leg, causing abrasion and damage to the area. Others are attaching leads to their bird’s existing leg band. Using restraints on these delicate legs can have serious consequences. Their legs can be broken or even amputated if they try to fly off suddenly.
Some people are doing this because they, conscientiously, are trying to let their birds enjoy the outdoors without the risk of them flying away. Many others have taken their cue from practices used in falconry and assume it is appropriate with parrots.
However, a parrot’s leg is very easily fractured or dislocated – a sudden take-off could cause an injury that could result in an amputation – or worse.
If you want to give your parrot some exercise outdoors, train him/her with a harness. There are a number to choose from which will suit your bird. Or place the parrot in a secure cage outdoors, making sure that no predators can disturb or harm your bird. NEVER leave your bird unattended outside.
A tethered parrot can also wind up a a meal for a predator because there is no way to escape.
So to reiterate…parrot’s legs are not designed for restraints. They are dangerous and they are cruel. If you want to take your bird outside, use a harness and be there to supervise your bird’s activities. If you feel that your parrot needs to be restrained because of behavioral issues, please, please consider training as the first option.
Courtsey:www.birdtricks.com
& www.thepetwiki.com
That’s straight up cruel. People need to think about the welfare of the bird, not human convenience.
saint-nevermore
herpsandbirds
Greater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), male, fully charged and showing off!, family Phasianidae, order Galliformes, found on the north-central Great Plains of the United States
photograph by Wayne Williams
