Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

[Navre]

The mystery Amazon has a black beak, and although his feet look pale, the nails are black. I guess it's probably a blue front, at least mostly.

[Navre]

Edward, and Tiki, both blue and gold Macaws, have gone to their forever homes (separate ones.)

Birds are coming in faster the they're going out.

Currently, in quarantine, we have a Blue and Gold, a Greenwing, a Severe, A parrotlet, a TAG, a double yellow head, a mystery amazon, a yellow IRN, and a 'tiel.

[Navre]

I'm looking for mesh/hardware cloth to cover a portable carport to make an outdoor aviary. Seems that stainless steel is the recommended, but for the same cost I could buy each species their own tropical island, fly them there first class, and hire a bunch of topless island girls to care for the birds.

In our case, the birds will only be outside for supervised outdoor time. Maybe we can get away with galvanized? There would need to be a person outside with the birds all the time. Maybe we could keep them from chewing if we gave them enough other options. But birds always seem to find the "wrong" thing to chew.

Right now I'm wondering about the right sized squares/rectangles for the mesh, and the right sized wire. We have birds from parrotlets to greenwings and M2s. I think the thing to do might be to build for the bigger birds, as the smaller birds can be taken outside in cages. I think I can find a size that will work for birds from the size of a timneah grey or Orange wing Amaon, to the large macaws.

[Navre]

Bridge (used to be Bridget, but is a male) has only been here a short time. Came in with a severe Macaw. Both were very loved and a real characters.

http://youtu.be/uXwqTUUc1_w

[Navre]

Jasmine is new to the rescue, also. She, or he, is about 21.

Jasmine bit a few holes in my sweatshirt today. She's pretty shy.

http://youtu.be/y3wP4GeVTSk

[Wolf]

The cost of either anodized aluminum or stainless steel wire mesh is a huge obstacle and from what I have seen, mostly in documentaries, very few places that are working to return parrots to the wild or any of the sanctuaries or rescues are able to afford to use these materials. And I have not been able to find even a powder coated alternative for this. I think that most of them just deal with the risks of galvanized wire because of the cost. It seems to me that there is a greater risk of birds getting heavy metal poisoning from their cages in the ordinary home environment or any environment where they must be caged much of the time. I would think that there would be less risk in an aviary with enough trees and bushes to occupy the birds as well as by adding to their diets foods that are known to help get rid of metals that the birds might ingest.

The concern about the size of the wire itself is a major factor but can be reduced by the wire mesh openings being too small for the bird to bite the wire, one needs to bear in mind that some of the larger macaws and cockatoos are actually able to bite through even chain link fence.

[Navre]

I think the big advantage we have is that this aviary will only be used for recreation and sunlight exposure. The birds in it will be directly supervised.

If there is a bird who wants to chew the wires, we probably just won't put him in it. And if a macaw were to chew through a wire, we'd see it before he made a large enough hole to escape.

[Navre]

I'll try to get a picture of Midge. Midge is a very pale blue Parrotlet.

[Wolf]

Very nice looking Timneh Grey parrot.

[Navre]

I just found a video on YouTube. A guy named Michael, who goes by parrot wizard, adopted a greenwing macaw named Santina from our Rescue a few years ago.

http://youtu.be/wodNhbwwPlE

I think that's our Michael.
Lazicki's Bird House and Rescue, now in Warwick, probably in Wakefield at the time. It that you, Michael?