Hello Again

I know I'm a terrible forum member, popping in and out like this. But after Charlotte's death, I just needed a break to focus on my family, my birds, and my full time volunteer job, so I haven't been around much. Everybody is doing great. Oscar is as funny as ever, Goofy is still the resident grump (but learning to play a lot more), and Betty has settled in well. She just explodes with excitement when her human visits her, we're hoping for a happy reunion this summer. My son's birds are still as over the top cute as could possibly be (anybody who thinks little birds aren't "real" birds have clearly never met a budgie or a lovebird).

So I don't know if you guys remember, but about a year ago a person joined because she'd taken her umbrella cockatoo to the vet and the bird had an infection and needed antibiotic injections, but she had a needle phobia and was freaking out a bit on how to care for her bird. If you recall, since she uses my same vet, and she was local to me, I volunteered to help her. We became friends over the course of the last year. I've even bird sat for her when she needed to go out of town for a week, on two different occasions. Well, last week Life Happened, and she finds herself in a difficult position, and couldn't really give Lily what she needs right now. I offered a similar arrangement as I have with Betty's human, and she accepted. At first we just did a week, but yesterday she decided that she really needs a little longer to get everything done that needs to be done, so she can bring Lily back to a good situation for everybody. Yesterday we signed the foster care agreements and moved Lily over to my house full time, for an unknown amount of time, but we hope just a couple months. So, without further ado, let me reintroduce Lily, the gentlest, sweetest 50(ish) year old umbrella cockatoo.

Hi Lily!!! You are in awesome hands (once again!)

I hope everything works out well Beatrice,for you and lily and your new friend.
You are a marvelous lady,thank you for all you do when it comes to our feathered friends (and humans too!)

Of course you know we are going to demand updates and lots more photo's...right??


Jim

I have a little over 6000 pictures saved to my phone. About 95% of those are bird pictures. Are you sure you want to open that can of worms?

BeatriceC said:

I have a little over 6000 pictures saved to my phone. About 95% of those are bird pictures. Are you sure you want to open that can of worms?

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Jim

BeatriceC said:

I have a little over 6000 pictures saved to my phone. About 95% of those are bird pictures. Are you sure you want to open that can of worms?

Click to expand...

And if your bird pictures are like mine, 95% of them are blurry butt feathers!

Lily is beautiful and I do remember that situation. I had just joined the forum, you lost a bird (Leo?), I cried over him, and then I was amazed that in the midst of all that, you took time to help a stranger. You’re great.


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Welcome back, always enjoy an update! Totally understand your family dynamics and the need to change focus.

I do remember the saga of Lily and her human! Can't think of a better foster situation. She will thrive in your home and be ready for whatever comes next. Lily is a beauty and seems in great feather, quite an accomplishment for a U2.

Scott said:

Welcome back, always enjoy an update! Totally understand your family dynamics and the need to change focus.

I do remember the saga of Lily and her human! Can't think of a better foster situation. She will thrive in your home and be ready for whatever comes next. Lily is a beauty and seems in great feather, quite an accomplishment for a U2.

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Lily's human does a phenomenal job taking care of her. Her only real issue is that she's a hard core seed addict, but she's also about 50 years old and as far as anybody knows, has never eaten anything else. I've been working with Lily's human since about July trying different things to help get her converted to a better diet, with very little success. You may recall a thread of mine a while back asking about trying to convert birdie bread into something like a cracker. This was the bird that was for. What we actually settled on was the idea somebody gave of baking it a second time at a low temperature, sort of biscotti style. That kinda sorta worked. It's a slow process. But, it took me a full year of solid effort to get Goofy converted once I started in earnest (after two years of half hearted attempts, and many years before that of MrC's intermittent attempts), and Goofy is only 33, so not nearly as old. I'm not at all surprised that Lily is proving to be a very difficult conversion. Perhaps being around other birds and watching them eat other things may help. Perhaps not. We shall see.

One thing I do want to say: Please, no judging Lily's human. This was an agonizing decision for her to make. She was hoping that she would be able to get things sorted out in relatively short order, but it didn't work out that way. She's also moved since we first met and now she lives less than five minutes away from me, so visitation is an option as well. Lily's human is a great parrot caretaker, and had to make a difficult decision in the face of very difficult circumstances.

BeatriceC said:

Scott said:

Welcome back, always enjoy an update! Totally understand your family dynamics and the need to change focus.

I do remember the saga of Lily and her human! Can't think of a better foster situation. She will thrive in your home and be ready for whatever comes next. Lily is a beauty and seems in great feather, quite an accomplishment for a U2.

Click to expand...

Lily's human does a phenomenal job taking care of her. Her only real issue is that she's a hard core seed addict, but she's also about 50 years old and as far as anybody knows, has never eaten anything else. I've been working with Lily's human since about July trying different things to help get her converted to a better diet, with very little success. You may recall a thread of mine a while back asking about trying to convert birdie bread into something like a cracker. This was the bird that was for. What we actually settled on was the idea somebody gave of baking it a second time at a low temperature, sort of biscotti style. That kinda sorta worked. It's a slow process. But, it took me a full year of solid effort to get Goofy converted once I started in earnest (after two years of half hearted attempts, and many years before that of MrC's intermittent attempts), and Goofy is only 33, so not nearly as old. I'm not at all surprised that Lily is proving to be a very difficult conversion. Perhaps being around other birds and watching them eat other things may help. Perhaps not. We shall see.

One thing I do want to say: Please, no judging Lily's human. This was an agonizing decision for her to make. She was hoping that she would be able to get things sorted out in relatively short order, but it didn't work out that way. She's also moved since we first met and now she lives less than five minutes away from me, so visitation is an option as well. Lily's human is a great parrot caretaker, and had to make a difficult decision in the face of very difficult circumstances.

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A seed-eating parrot at age 50 reminds me of the proverbial 90 year old human eating like a teenager. (well, sort of!) Might be the combination of great genes and luck. So, while conversion to at least a more comprehensive diet seems appropriate, it may not be critical!

No judgment of Lily's human here! We all face daunting situations and agonizing choices; character is how the challenge is met. She made sure to place Lily in an optimal situation, while preserving the right of return. How can you top that?!

Lily looks beautiful! 50 years old?? That's A LOT!

Scott, I'm sorry if I implied you would judge Lily's human. That last bit was a general thing. I've known threads like this, perhaps not here, but at the very least in other places, to go a bit sideways with saying negative things about the person who gave up their bird. Sometimes giving up an animal, temporarily or permanently, is the most selfless, loving thing a person can do. Life goes pear shaped sometimes and despite our best efforts, sometimes we can't do everything we want to do.

Pureblood, her age is my vet's best guess. It's a combination of the fact that she had a band on her leg that was from a breeder that went out of business in the early 80's (giving us a lower bound for her age), and other things like the arthritis in her legs and feet, blood work, and the general condition of some of the organs that could be viewed on x-ray. I have an extremely skilled avian vet, so I trust his judgement.

I have an umbrella too of uncertain age who has been in and out of so many homes that we finally settled on estimating his cage's age (it has apparently followed him in and out of all those homes). They're amazing and challenging birds, unlike any other species. Lily is lucky to have a soft place to land while her human gets things taken care of.

Siobhan said:

I have an umbrella too of uncertain age who has been in and out of so many homes that we finally settled on estimating his cage's age (it has apparently followed him in and out of all those homes). They're amazing and challenging birds, unlike any other species. Lily is lucky to have a soft place to land while her human gets things taken care of.

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Oh, gosh. The cage age. We have that with Lily too. Her cage has been passed through at least three owners: her current human, the human she got her from, and the human before that. No clue before that human, and no idea how long anybody had her besides the current and last human. But her cage is an old California Cage Company cage that they stopped making decades ago. The sides of the cage are welded together, to give you an idea. Of course, somebody along the line could have put her in an older, used cage, but still, this one is pretty darn old.

We do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the very latest she could have hatched was 1982, as that's when the breeder who used her band went out of business (her band was causing problems with her ankle, so the vet removed it before serious problems occurred.) So she's a minimum of 35, but the vet thinks much older based on other factors, and guessed about 50.

BeatriceC said:

Scott, I'm sorry if I implied you would judge Lily's human. That last bit was a general thing. I've known threads like this, perhaps not here, but at the very least in other places, to go a bit sideways with saying negative things about the person who gave up their bird. Sometimes giving up an animal, temporarily or permanently, is the most selfless, loving thing a person can do. Life goes pear shaped sometimes and despite our best efforts, sometimes we can't do everything we want to do.

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Oh goodness, no apologies needed! I posted accordingly to preemptively dissuade anybody from harshly judging. Setting the tone for understanding, while acknowledging well intended critique is always welcome.

What a great looking bird! I would have never guessed that she was in her fifties.

Oh so beautiful!!!!!


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