sheenabatko
New member
Hi All,I am a new member to this site and I hope that it will provide me with some good advice.
I am the proud owner of a 13 year old Greater Jardine named Ernie whom has had quite the difficult life. He originally came from a home where he was neglected and abused, then went to a wonderful home where he recuperated. He was then passed off to another home because he became territorial and possessive of a female, so was then given away. Unfortunately, he was given to inexperienced Parrot owners and spent 2 years living off of limited stimulation, very little attention, inadequate housing, as well as peanuts and seed as a daily diet. He was given very little freedom and suffered being yelled at often. With much work, effort and research, he is now under our care and is slowly making his way back up the healthy chart.
I will describe a bit of the information of the state he was in prior to us receiving him (last June). After living in an environment lacking in everything that he needed, he became quite the defensive bird and was petrified of new things. He received no handling or affection therefore had difficulty trusting anyone. His cage (in the previous place) was situated next to a window near a busied street and was provided with no sections of his cage for him to hide in. On a daily basis, it was common to have at least 5 hours of interrupted sleep therefore; his grumpy behavior became quite normal. As for the malnutrition and smoke-filled environment, as well as increased levels of stress, he lost all of his feathers on the top of his head where his feathers are so brittle when they grow in, fall out very easily. They previous owners indicated that he was experiencing a molt. Even prior to doing the research, we knew that molts did not last for a full year. As for bathing, he was sprayed by a bottle about once, maybe twice a month. When we tracked back to the last time he had been to a vet, it was evident that he had never been for about 10 years (as far as we know). The day that we received him, we immediately took him to see a highly known exotic bird veterinarian in our region. Also, this has written books and educational videos for exotic birds (which we read and watched just prior to getting Ernie).
The vet visit went better than planned because after series of tests, she found no infections or diseases in the little guy. He suffered from malnutrition, severe loss of feathers, and was a frightful bird, but at least we could work with this and regain him back to health. We know that it would take much effort and with her advice, told us that it could take up to 2 years to correct.
For his feathers, it has been a battle. We pray every time we see his shoots coming out that these poor little feathers will stay in. We have had luck with the tops of his wings, but his head still needs some time.
As for his personality, wow has he changed. He is far less shy and actually loves to be everywhere that we are which we let him, of course. He loves to explore and climb anything he can and with the increased energy from his proper diet, warm baths and such, he has increased the amount of muscle mass. He loves anything that we eat, naturally, but what he doesn’t know is that when we cook, we put together two batches, one special for him with his vitamins and mashed pellets and then one for us. It took him a while to eat anything other than seed and peanuts but we can now officially say that he has no had seed in at least 2 months and has started to take a liking to actual pellets (instead of us having to hide them with a mashed consistency, in cooked foods that he likes). His bowel movements seem to be relatively normal. As for baths, we give him Luke warm baths is a large sized casserole dish, which he thoroughly enjoys. We basically fill up the dish and put in the middle of the kitchen and he jumps right in and splashes everywhere. lol...Clearly we can see the excitement.
He gets rubs often although he dislikes anywhere other than his head and neck. I can rub him anytime a day whereas my husband is only liked in the morning.
As for his speech, he is very talkative. In the mornings just before we get up, he babbles on and on (some actual words and other practice words) and occasionally when I am seated next to him, he will start talking to get my attention. Anytime he hears noises in the kitchen (which usually means we are cooking something), we can usually hear repeated "Hi Ernie"'s coming from the living room.
His sleeping habits are consistently 10 hours about and in most cases, it is uninterrupted. He also takes some naps during the day as well, when he has had much exercise.
So all-in-all, he has made positive improvements and we are so very happy for him. My intention for being with this site is to learn more, get answers to questions and such because not all books can give you the answers that you need. I am hoping that this site will be able to provide me with that. With all the love that we have for our little friend, we want to make sure that what we are doing is good for him because after the life he has had, he deserves to have a good one for a change.
Sheena
