New to the world of birds!!

[rebeccaturpeinen]

Hi!!

I am very new to the world of birds... just got one on monday. Well, we kind of caught him and need looooots of advice.

Here is what happened. About two weeks ago we noticed this beautiful bird flying around in our garden and we new straight away that this bird was a pet and shouldnt be flying around outside... On the second day he already came about 40 cm to us to eat (he loooooves apples) and we were able to take some pretty good pictures. Then I googled it and found out it is a Rosella Parakeet. It seems to have lots of different names; Crimson Rosella, Eastern Rosella, Pennant Rosella... anyway, he is absolutly beautiful! We first borrowed a cage from the animal shelter and put food in it but that cage was too small so then we put our big dogcage outside with food and apples and he seemed to be drawn to the cage; started climbing on it and the second day he was in already and he calmed down straight away when we closed the door. Like he was happy he was caught and his ordeal was over.... poor thing. It went straight to eating

Anyway, after a week of tryíng to catch it we got pretty attached to it and found it hard to hand him over to the animal shelter (especially knowing they do not know much about birds). So we decided we could maybe keep him and went out and bought him a big cage (the biggest we could find since we are pretty clueless about birds). Its 44 inches wide, 26 inches deep and 47 inches high.

Then I found this GREAT forum and have already gotten lots of great advice. To start with I am mostly reading up on food since that must be most important.

Oh ya, we did try to find his owner throught animal shelter, through websites and checked notes at stores but no luck.
So that is how we got Joe!!!

[pchela]

Wow. He's beautiful! Congrats. You'll find lots of good threads here about what to feed and all kinds of stuff. Welcome!

[Michael]

Please make an honest effort to locate the original owner if possible. I'm sure I can speak for all parrot owners that if our parrot got lost in such a way, we'd be devastated if we couldn't find it because someone decided to keep it but we'd incredibly appreciate someone making the effort to return it. If the owner cannot be found, it sounds like you are wiling to provide a wonderful home and we appreciate that. But please don't let that hold you back one bit from getting the bird back to the original owner. Thanks.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

Please make an honest effort to locate the original owner if possible. I'm sure I can speak for all parrot owners that if our parrot got lost in such a way, we'd be devastated if we couldn't find it because someone decided to keep it but we'd incredibly appreciate someone making the effort to return it. If the owner cannot be found, it sounds like you are wiling to provide a wonderful home and we appreciate that. But please don't let that hold you back one bit from getting the bird back to the original owner. Thanks.

I can assure you we have been doing everything we can to locate them... I am a pet owner and would be horrified if someone would just keep my pet just because she got lost. But at the same time I would be making myself heard and be putting up flyers and contacting animal shelters and posting on the websites especially for missing animals. We have looked on all of those places days after days and it doesnt look like anyone is looking for him. We live in Denmark so the country is not that big. If someone is missing him, they dont seem to be doing enough to try to get him back wich is afwul because he is an amazing bird. I would love to be able to give him back to his owner because that is his HOME and they know how to take care of him. We will keep on looking for the owners another week, in the mean time, we will let him calm down and fill his belly

[Michael]

Fair enough.

[lzver]

Welcome and kudos for taking him in and looking after him. He is a beautiful bird!

If you do not locate the original owners and you decide to keep him, I'm sure it won't take you long to get hooked and attached. Parrots make wonderful pets!

[MandyG]

Welcome! Congrats on your new parrot.

If you can't find the original owners I'm glad that he found a family like yours that's concerned about providing him with the best care

Good luck and welcome to life with a parrot!

[skeetersunconure]

hey! congrats on him he is a beauty im sure he'll be happy with you

[entrancedbymyGCC]

He's beautiful!!!! I have to say that if I ever did lose Scooter... I'd like to imagine he wound up in a home like yours if I could not regain him. So... if you've done all you can reasonably do to locate his former family, I say enjoy the heck out of him!