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Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Navre » Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:03 am

Most people who Relinquish are devastated that they have to do so.

The problem with a “no questions asked” dropoff is that we need to know things about the bird. Maybe its name, its age, its likes and dislikes. Knowing that the bird hates children, or is not scared of dogs, etc, helps us place it successfully.

Of course, lots of relinquishers tell us stuff about the bird that don’t seem possible. We had a mealy amazon relinquished for biting. You couldn’t get that bird to bite you if you tried. We recently had a bird come in. The owners didn’t even know what species of bird they had. They thought they knew, they were just wrong. We have had a reported DNA sexed female turn out to be male when checked again. Chastity Bono not withstanding, that just doesn’t happen. Either one of the tests was wrong, or, more likely, the relinquisher reported things incorrectly.
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Pajarita » Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:54 am

No, of course that 'no questions asked' doesn't work. It's not the questions that people dread, it's the condemnation they don't want to face. And that's what volunteers at animal rescues are taught never to show.

And I am glad that another person who works with lots of given-up birds has reached the same conclusion I've had, namely, that, in many, MANY cases, people who think they know their birds don't!
I cannot even begin to tell you how many males ended up being females [people have a tendency to see all parrots as males], how many 'biters' ended up being the sweetest things and how many picky eaters ended up being great eaters.
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Michael » Tue Sep 04, 2018 10:06 am

Navre wrote:The problem with a “no questions asked” dropoff is that we need to know things about the bird. Maybe its name, its age, its likes and dislikes. Knowing that the bird hates children, or is not scared of dogs, etc, helps us place it successfully.


I kind of disagree with this.

Now I understand there are people who relinquish birds because of personal tragedies and issues unrelated to the bird. Those people won't mind providing all the info/help possible.

But the vast majority are people who are just unhappy having such a difficult animal in their house (even if they try to make it sound otherwise). In that case, they are the last person who's judgement of the bird is useful.

However, instead of worrying about what the bird used to like/dislike, it's better to educate new owners on how to discover this from scratch! When you get a baby parrot, you have to discover and help create its personality. The same is true for an adopted bird! Taking shortcuts like saying "this bird hates men" or children or whatever prejudices the volunteers and adopters which makes them not really give the bird a full chance. Not knowing this and giving the bird a new start, those predispositions may get rebooted or may turn out to be falsely assessed in the first place.

When you follow my training and positive reinforcement based approach it doesn't particularly matter what the bird's history is. I teach how to make the future awesome instead.

Knowing the birds name, food preferences, fears, etc is nice but not really important. There's really only one thing that I'd really like to know is a bird's medical history. But given that most people are oblivious and don't care enough to have the bird seen by a vet, most won't be able to provide it anyway. Knowing the age is also something you probably can't otherwise discover so it's nice to know.
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Michael » Tue Sep 04, 2018 10:07 am

Pajarita wrote:in many, MANY cases, people who think they know their birds don't!
I cannot even begin to tell you how many males ended up being females [people have a tendency to see all parrots as males], how many 'biters' ended up being the sweetest things and how many picky eaters ended up being great eaters.


Pretty much summed up what I just added.
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Pajarita » Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:14 pm

Yep. And I do agree 100% with you, Michael, on the "Taking shortcuts like saying "this bird hates men" or children or whatever prejudices the volunteers and adopters which makes them not really give the bird a full chance. Not knowing this and giving the bird a new start, those predispositions may get rebooted or may turn out to be falsely assessed in the first place." Many birds lose a great home because of the self-fulfilling prophecies of owners that make the wrong judgement to begin with. They determine the bird hates, say, men and only adopt out to women when a man might have been able to give it the better home.
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Navre » Sun Sep 16, 2018 11:13 am

Have you ever seen a bird whose wing feathers grow in upside down? We have a 47-year-old U2 whose feathers on her left wing all grow in upside down. It’s really strange. The vet didn’t have much of an explanation.

She’s pretty terrified, so I didn’t want to try to get a photo.
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Pajarita » Mon Sep 17, 2018 2:34 pm

I can't quite picture in my head what you mean, John... Linus often ends with feathers that end up facing up but that's because he barbers/chews on them so, sometimes, he doesn't quite break the shaft but dents it in such way that the feather easily turns on itself when bumped against something [I am forever correcting these feathers -they only happen on his wings- and telling him that he is 'despeinado' -somebody with uncombed hair :lol: ]
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Navre » Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:02 pm

I'll try to get a picture, but the feathers are all perfectly formed, but rotated 180 degrees. The undersides face up, and the natural sweep back they would have is still there, but since they are rotated they sweep toward the wingtip and not toward the body. These aren't damaged feathers and I guess it has been like this for many years. At 47 years old, she's probably wild-caught, so it's not likely to be inbreeding.
Navre
African Grey
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1909
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Turquoise Green Cheek Conure
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Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Pajarita » Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:17 pm

I guess you don't want to stress her out being that she is 'new' but, whenever she feels more comfortable, see if you can open her wings and look at the feathers closer to the root and see if it wasn't her that 'twisted' them because Linus does that sometimes.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

Postby Navre » Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:10 pm

Image

These guys are the cutest pair of GCC. She's a pineapple, he's a Cinnamon Turquoise, I think.

They're only about 2. I think we already have a home for them.
Navre
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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