Dilemma

Last April I rescued a bunch of birds from a sanctuary I was working at due to problems there. I don’t want to go into detail right now . My favorite bird there was a military macaw his name is sergeant. , he needed a better life than what he was living. I call my close friend he said he would take him home and give him a good life. I believed him. He lives on 15 aces of farm land he rescues horses and goats, it was going to be great for my bird. Months past and without telling me my friend rehomes my bird to his brother in law. Though I got phone calls and pictures it wasn’t enough, I had to SEE my bird. I did that the other day. I drove to Lakeland from Clearwater. As tears rolled down my face I drove down a path to a trailer. I hate judging before I know the facts but my gut told me this wasn’t going to be good. The trailer smelled like human feces, the walls were crawling I mean moving with German roaches, everything was so dirty so dirty. I stood in one spot with my bird until I took him outside to hang out. Sergeant seems happy even though he’s fed food from Walmart. I want to take home but the brother in law seems nice and warm hearted just uneducated. So I sent food to his home and offered to pay for vet care. You think I did the right thing? I just want my bird to be healthy.

Maria - i know that must be so heartbreaking to deal with.

TO answer your question, I keep coming back to the fact that you keep calling the bird "my bird". You rehomed him, he ceased to be yours. But it sounds like you never really gave him up emotionally. Would you be happier if you took him back?

If you can keep him i would. Roaches carry many diseases like salmonella to name one. A person who can't maintain a safe home fir themselves cannot maintain a safe home fir a burd. What if they spray or use a bomb, or traps and that kills the bird?

I know I keep calling him my bird I never really let him go emotionally. I would be happier if I could take him home but I don’t have the space to let him free roam like he does in his current home. I think your right if I offered to spray or treat the home I’d feel better. I just needed an outside opinion so thank you for all the feed back. I’ll be going back once a month from now on, the brother in law suggested it not me lol and I’ll update you

All you can do is educate him. Turn him onto this web board! Keep trying to uplift his knowledge about parrots and macaws.

So sorry to hear this story, I can only imagine how difficult that must have been! I agree with the others to try and help educate the brother-in-law.

Something else that might help the new owner to become more engaged and interested in bird-care: my husband was initially not particularly interested in birds before he realized just how smart and interactive they are through training. Maybe the brother-in-law will be more engaged in caring for Sergeant if you shared some trick training and bond-building games they could play together? I'm new here but it seems there are tons of great resources to share on this parrot forum! Wishing you the best of luck

I think you might need to be prepared that you might upset his new owners. I wouldn't let that stop you trying to improve things, because his health and wellbeing are arguably more important than your feelings, but presumably you have no right to actually get photos etc. and see the bird? Offering to spray the owners place is telling them you think they are dirty and that might not go down well!

I do not think this is a good situation for Sergeant at all. I know the man is probably very nice and likes the companionship, but he is clearly not able to provide the necessary environment for this bird. The birds overall health and environment is more important then who has taken the bird in. I think it would be better if you would take the bird back and find them a proper home. I would be very interested in adopting this military macaw. I have a large macaw for 28 years. He passed a couple of years ago, and I’m looking to re-adopt another adult my car at this time. Feel free to contact me.