Crazy Bird People Jul 12, 2007
It had to happen sooner or later. Today, Dana and I took the step from somewhat normal folks who just happened to have two parrots and took then to Parrot Club functions, to full on Bird Weirdos with the addition of a third feathered pal. Some in the office argued that anything beyond KFC gets you automatic membership in the bird wacko club, and we didn’t disagree too hard.
The creature in question is Tessa. A one year old (hatch day July 17, 06) Vosamaeri Eclectus Parrot. I don’t want to call Tess a “rescue” bird, because her people loved her very much, they were just in over their heads with dogs, cats,kids, and now as extremely dependent Parrot. We could tell Tess was relatively happy, but she had some obvious issues that needed to be corrected immediately before they could cause irreperable harm. First off, her toenails were probably twice as long as they should have been . Parrots use their claws for almost everything: eating, climbing, scratching, pretty much like us. Hers had grown so long that many of them curled back under and she was forced to walk on her knuckles and the sides of her feet. Within an hour of the clipping, she was walking quite a bit more normally, but still a long way from perfect. She also had no concept of “step up” which is one of the first things a bird should be taught. By he end of the evening I think she started to get it, althought her balance is way off because she’s using her feet in a way that she’s never used them before (the right way).
Her diet was also a little suspect, as evidenced by some of the black feathers streaked throughout her usually neon-beautiful body. Proper nutrition should have that looking better in no time.
Other than that, she seems like a nice girl. She was perfectly sweet while we trimmed her wings and nails, and even tolerated the Goffins as they moved in for a closer look a couple of times. Our feeling about the situation is, we don’t NEED them to be friends, but we would LIKE them not to be enemies. Anything beyond that is gravy. They’re all a similar age, though. I think they’ll get on just fine.
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