Volunteering for parrot rescue

I am still in a huge transition and more huge changes are happening. This week will be Lupe's last week in the house. After she moves out next weekend it will just be Valentino and I.

Because I tend to isolate myself and become reclusive I have to be mindful of this happening again. I do NOT want to return to that former life as it was very unhealthy and set me back a lot socially.

The therapist would like me to be out of the house for at least 3 days a week and 1 day during the weekend. I have been visiting the Minneapolis and Hastings Veterans homes but now that situation has gotten a lot better for my friend I don't think I will be visiting as often.

Today I reached out to one of our parrot rescues and sent a email explaining I would like to volunteer and help out the rescue. I did not make this decision lightly because of my past experience with my local rescue. This time I reached out to the second rescue the one I have not had any dealings with.

I would like to prepare and learn how to keep Valentino safe while I volunteer for the rescue. So far I know to....

Not expose Valentino to my clothing and hair after I come home from volunteering.

Clean up after returning home. I will probably take off my clothes and shoes in the garage come into the house and go upstairs to take shower. I do have to walk though the kitchen from the mud room ( I am not changing my clothes outside by front door. LOL) then will go upstairs to shower right away.

Volunteer clothing will stay in the garage until wash day. I have to be mindful of my resources and not do laundry a lot so the clothing will have to wait until washday.

Does anyone have any experience volunteering for a rescue and what are you tips/tricks to keep your birdie/s safe?

I am not insinuating the parrot rescue is riddled with disease but I do know I need to practice safe hygiene for Valentino's sake.

IMHO you cannot be too careful protecting your pets from possible contamination.

Kudos for volunteering at a bird sanctuary; this is high on my post-retirement "bucket list."

That's a good question. I think it would be best to also ask how well the parrot rescue quarantines their birds. If you don't come in contact with birds who require quarantining, I'm sure you wouldn't have to be nearly as wary of spreading disease - though it is still very possible. So precautions are best, but I wouldn't strain yourself. My boyfriend worked at a pet store and we basically did the same thing. He had a specific pair of work shoes that stayed away from our other shoes, he took his laundry off in the laundry room, and he washed them separate from everything else, then had a quick shower. We never encountered an issue doing it this way.

Kudos to you for taking time out of your hectic life to volunteer!

congrats, will be a fun way to get out of the house. Does the rescue vet check all their birds? if they do contamination is less likely, but still good to be safe.

Depends on how much you trust this rescue and their procedures. We don't do any particular procedure when we get home from AHW and actually bring our birds back to the rescue at times. However, I wouldn't just trust any rescue nor should a rescue just trust anyone. If we have picked up a surrender for the shelter or cleaned quarantine then we spray done in F10 a vet grade disinfectant. We also strip and bag clothes outside the building not in and then take it directly to the washer.

If you trust and are given full access to behind the scenes then I wouldn't worry all that much. There are a lot of iffy people out there so make sure you know everything they do not just what they tell you. Since we are involved in every aspect of AHW now, from the first calls to surrender to adoption, we have no worries about anything to do with the shelter.

First of all I am proud of you. I can be the kind of person who never sees the light of day if I don't force myself. I am in a really good place right now, but if know myself well enough to know I have to be very careful to keep it that way or I will plummet back to dangerous levels of depression and isolation. I know what it is like to force yourself out of the house, and I am proud of you for making sure you do.

I like the suggestions already given and I am glad you are already thinking in this way. I am us you already know that simply keeping an extra sharp eye on Valentinos droppings and behavior is a must. Also, do you weigh him regularly? A gram scale is easy to buy in he kitchen department at Walmart, and weight loss is often the first sign of distress, even before funny poop, if you can catch it in time. It might be worth training V to let you weigh him, and doing so every weekend and keeping a record. Also, because I often come into contact with other peoples birds, I test at least one member of my flock for common diseases every 6 months. I have a lot of birds living together which means no bird has to be tested very often, but it gives me a peace if mind knowing that the flock is tested regularly.

Noble, I do basically the same thing whenever I come back from a pet store that has accessible birds or a bird show/fair.....

Interesting about your front door changing.....wonder how long I could get away with something like that, before a neighbor would call the police on me ? ? ?

I wonder how a judge would accept a declaration that I was protecting my birds from possible, dangerous zoonotic transmissions?


Hope you enjoy the volunteering and find peace of mind and comfort in it!

Weco. Just laughed at your post. You are too funny. During a meeting with some of our neighbors and the law firm suing builder and contractors, and probably subcontractors I got upset during the discussion with the inability to sell my home. No realtor would take on the sale so I knew I was pretty much screwed. I said during the meeting "I couldn't sell my house if I stood in front of it dancing naked." My cheeky neighbor replied. "I wanna see that!" LOL. These is nothing to get neighbors attention like nudity or partial nudity.

When the rescue contacts me to gather more information I will also be asking a lot of questions. It is my hope they would not be insulted by my interrogation but would understand where I am coming from.

SilverSage..Thank you for understanding where I am coming from. As the weather gets colder and the days shorter the depression gets harder to manage. For me when I was in Hawaii for 4 years I did not suffer as much with depression. I was able to manage it so much better in the tropics than I can here in the midwest. I used running to help manage it also. I ran at least 6 miles every day and it helped me deal with a lot of issues I had to put up with while stationed there. I had a very high stress job and the exercise/running was a lifesaver. Unfortunately I cannot run anymore as that ended when I hurt my back working as a server at Red Lobster. To this day I have never found anything closely resembling how I felt when I ran.

It seems the older I get the harder it seems to be able to manage the depression. I have to use a lot more tools and medications than I ever did in my life. It is a lot of work believe me.

Lupe took Nico to his new home yesterday so now Valentino IS the only parrot/animal in the house. Just now I heard him doing "Nico sounds" and for a moment I thought he was still here. I worry about when I finally find the right job Valentino being alone all day. I did notice some negative changes when I worked the 5 week contract and was gone 10.5 hours a day. I know I need to consider a second fid for all our sake (not just his but mine too. The household does so much better with at least two parrots) but the timing is not real good for us right now.

I want to volunteer for the rescue for many reasons. Mostly to keep myself mentally healthy by not isolating myself and also to give back to my community. However I am going to be open minded with the experience and maybe a parrot in need will pick me as its special person. I would never hold my breath on this happening but for now just want to help out in what ever they may need help with.

There is also the possiblily they never contact me back. If that happens I do understand I cannot force a rescue to want my offer of helping out. To be honest it would be their loss.

Do you like horses? Have you ever thought of trying a therapeutic equestrian center? There's something soothing about horses and I saw a lot of people with physical, mental and emotional issues find a lot of peace interacting with the horses when I volunteered at one of these centers.

I tried convincing my mother to give it a try since she has MS but she doesn't really have time these days.

My Goddaughter rides and has since she was a child. I have been to many events watching her ride. I did enjoy doing this because well I love my Goddaughter and it was interesting to watch her ride in these events.

I did not grow up around horses and I have zero riding experience. My best friend (she now lives in New Zealand) had a hobby farm in WI and she had two horses. One a older rescue that was very gentle and kind and her young Arabian who had quite the personality. My exposure to her horses have taught me about their individual personalities and I did learn not to fear such a large animal but to respect them.

I never have ridden though but I have helped my friend take care of hers and learned a lot from her about horses. For some reason her younger one really liked me and he use to like to "lick my face". It was gross and disgusting but I just sucked it up and didn't react. That horse tried to lick me every chance he got. Yuck. LOL. I will never forget once when I went to visit her and walked into her house and the HORSE WAS IN HER LIVING ROOM! I am sure that was for shock value for me as she did not normally have him in the living room but first time I ever saw that. She still gives me crap about the look on my face.

Anyway I do have fond memories and exposure to horses but have for what ever reason never ridden one. I do see what you mean by using horses for therapy work as with what limited exposure I have had with them has been pleasant and interesting.

Well, the one I volunteered at, the birds I worked with had already been through quarantine, so I didn't worry about it. I didn't work with any that hadn't been vet checked and quarantined.

At the time I had 11 birds at home, and a bunch more that I worked with down at the rescue. And I used to bring mine with me. (Hell, most of them CAME from there... so it was kinda like visiting home.)

Maybe I just got lucky, but none of mine EVER got sick.

Now if they don't have strict quarantine procedures, that is something entirely different...