willow found a home!

About 6 months ago a little bald Goffin cockatoo was dropped off at my breeder friends house. She was more than just a behavoiral plucker.... she had scratched the feathers off of most of her face as well. She was immediately taken to the vet and lots of tests were sent off. Zinc was high, Giardia positive. She was treated, and during the course of treatment she became a nervous frightened bird. Willow came to stay with me for a while for behavoiral work. She blossomed into a very loving bird. Willow seemed like a bird that desperately wanted to be someones number one baby. Needless to say we just weren't sure we'd ever find a home for a partially bald goffin (she grew in a lot of feathers, but due to excessive follicular damage she will always be missing some feathers. Then one day I got a phone call from a lady who was looking for a bird. She came out and met Willow and they immedaitely fell in love. The lady bought a cage, hundreds of dollars in toys, prepared fresh food per our recipe, and waited patiently for Willows arrival (I dropped off Willlow so that we could spend a couple hours discussing some specifics etc...)

Willow is home now, and we are very pleased that she loves her new home and her new home loves her. Her new owner never dreamed she'd own a parrot (her husband had never met one he liked, but Willow won him over too). I will ask permission to put up pics of her at her new home, but for now I'll put up a photo we have of her here.

I just absoluttely love it when people get excited about a new bird. We always do this just for the benefit of the bird, we never charge a penny for a rehab bird. We ordered a cage for her at our cost.

All that matters is that Willow found a home to call her own

She has the cutest face ever, although she's plucked and stuff she is still a very beautiful and charming looking girl! I'm very happy she's found a new home. Nice to hear lovely stories like this!

Congrats Willow, so glad you have found your forever home and it is one where you can love, be loved and happy. Yes! you are so cute and you deserve it. To Shreddedoak, thank you for helping this birdy. Its people like you than shine a bright light in this not so nice world.

So happy she found a home! And many thanks to you for your wonderful generosity and compassion in helping Willow!

I'm very honored to know Willow personally, she has come so far and I will continue to visit her and ensure that everything continues to go well Willows new owner has never had a large parrot before, and she was so nervous that she might do something wrong... so she calls regularly, sends photos, and does constant research. Occasionally we come accross a person who is lacking in experience, but makes up for it in an eagerness to learn and do right by the bird. Her new owner was never pushy with us, just full of questions, Willow loves her new family, so we felt that despite a lack of experience we could work with them and teach them how to keep Willow a happy and healthy little girl.

I may be a breeder, but not every bird wants to have babies... Willow got a clean bill of health and could have been a breeder, but we never tried, she just acted like she wanted to be someones only bird, and now she is .

We get sooo many birds dropped off, and we vet them, tame them, and then hope to find that perfect home. In Willows case we feared we wouldn't find a birdless home that would accept Willow with all her flaws and that she would like that hoome. I teared up when I dropped her off (I'm such a sap though!), and I am looking forward to this Saturdays visit...

Now time to focus on the latest homeless babies.... 2 amazons, a triton cockatoo, a blue crown conure, and a green quaker (although I think our vet is gonna take the green quaker!) Which would be perfect because he has hyperkaratosis and needs his beak trimmed about once a month.

I'll miss Willow, and I am glad to have been the final stepping stone in her journey to a happy life.

One of the reasons we get so many messed up homeless birds here is because we have an over abundance of shady unethical breeders in our area We keep reporting 2 in particular, and hopefully someday those two breeders will go under!

One story I'll share after court.

The other breeder is really a broker, he finds birds on craigslist and then sells them for well over market value to unsuspecting people. I'm getting pretty sick of cleaning up his and his wifes messes!

Most recent was a blue quaker that was a biter and excessive screamer he sold to a woman for $400! (Blue quaker is now healthy and tame and doing quite well in his home, so that story has a happy ending also.

We need more happy stories like yours here on the forum. Thank you so much for sharing Willow's adventures. Guess we could have a new forum for "happy bird stories".

Yea, willow. Nice to have a happy ending for a change.

the CAG I fell in love with when I was 15 was plucked nearly compleatly naked, only his wings and head were left untouched, I fell in love with a compleatly naked bird, its not the looks that most people fall in love with.. its the personality.. I will forever remember the birds name for me.. sunshine.

Those who understand animals have no problems looking past the outer looks, and just love them for who they are. I am Glad she as a home, and she dosent really look that bad, I know a bird that was mutilating its body, they spent over 3 thouand trying to fix this bird, apparently it was the family that pushed it to go insane. I am glad it only took a vet visit to fix this one.

i am always happy to read a happy ending! an thank you for your work an effort, especially with these breeders/sellers! grrr

an willow looks so darn cute as well, regaurdless of missing feathers! you must tell her new family, they are doing a great thing also!!

Oh I'm soooo happy that you found the perfect home for her! That is so nice of you to continue to help the new owners out. I love the fact that you gave an inexperienced person a chance. Its obvious that it was the perfect home that just needed a little guidance (everyone has to start somewhere). I have never rehabbed birds but I have done a lot of work with dogs and horses. The feeling that you get when you know you've matched the prefect home makes it all worth doing over and over again. We need more people like you out there. I hate it when people look at these birds with dollar signs and turn big profits at the birds expense . Its not fare and the birds are the ones that end up suffering.

I've never been very fond of certain rescue policies that require a person to have large parrot experience. It shouldn't be such a big deciding factor. Willow's original home was people who had large bird experience, and look at the mess they made of her

I have thanked her new owners over and over on Willows behalf. Explaining that taking on an emotionally damaged second hand bird is a lot of work and dedication (although all parrots are), and thaey just keep thanking me back.

I warned them about other peoples reactions to such a naked little bird.... Lola is a B&G macaw I adopted from a rescue years ago, she's like the household mascott She is completely bald (except head, wings, and tail) and whenever I take her out (she likes to go for car rides and pick out her own toys from the petstore) people glare at me as if I'm the one that made her that way. It bothered me a lot at first, but after about a month I realized it didn't matter what they thought, and I wasn't gonna stop taking Lola to pick out her own toys simply because people glared or came up and lectured me about not caring for her properly.... I didn't even bother explaining Lolas story or myself. I just excused myself and Lola and I continue our shopping.

Lola is in the house, and when people arrive if they make fun of my beautiful baby I never allow them in my home again. Lola is a beautiful bird, and I don't want anyone saying otherwise! So, the new owners have been told that all they need to say is that she's a rescue. They don't seem to mind in the slightest, her new family is so proud of her that no one could convince them that Willow isn't the most perfect bird on earth...lol

Taking a bird like Willow as a permanant part of ones family speaks volumes about the people themselves. Love is blind, and they love her sooooo much!

It was a week between deciding Willow would be their new bird and the actual day I dropped her off, I kept getting more and more questions from them, and the lady had such a hard time sleeping (because she was so excited. I took about 3 days and matched the lady's day schedule at my house (so that when Willow arrived she'd be comfortable with her new hours. I'll post new photos this weekend when I take some during my visit