ShreddedOakAviary
New member
- Jul 13, 2011
- 591
- 5
- Parrots
- M2's, U2's, G2's, RB2's, VOS, RLA's, BFA's, DYHA's, Dusky Pionus, Blue and Green Quakers, Meyers Parrots, VOS, GW Macaw's, Harlequin Macaws, Tiels, YNA, TAG's, CAG's, Blue Crown Conures, Red sided Ecl
As most of you know I went to a bird show this past weekend with my bird breeder friend. She needed some help with the eight hour drive and setting up the booth when we got there. Anyway in an attempt to keep this story short I'll skip most of the details...
My breeder friend had a friend pass away 3 months ago. The woman who passed away was young and the details surounding her death are still unknown to me. The woman had been married to a wonderful (non bird man). She had quite a collection of "loser" birds. Splay legged birds, plucked birds, older than dirt birds, and wild and terrified birds. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but she had 40 birds and most of them would be a full time job in itself. She had health problems and things went a little downhill from there. From what I understand and what we saw at her home, the birds were very loved and had the uttmost that money could buy. Anyway, the husband was not able to keep them all, so he chose 3. That he could keep and love and he brought the rest to our booth at the bird show to see if we could rehome them. This is where I start to feel sick....
There were 40 birds and they all found homes and the rehoming fees were very low (The grand total in rehoming fees off of 40 birds was $635. That was including the sale of the cages, etc...)
The booth was swamped and it was a mess trying to sort through people looking for "cheap" birds. The entire thing makes me sick....
I don't blame my breeder friend or even the husband.... We were left holding the bag, and it was just a mess...
Anyway among the 40 birds were 2 in particular....
A padagonian conure (older than dirt and splay legged)
A wild caught umbrella cockatoo (imagine the worst cockatoo you can and multiply it by 10)
Not long into the day I glanced over and noticed the umbrella looked horrified...
I walked over to my bird breeder friend and the husband and said "I'll give you anything you want for that umbrella if we can just put him in the vendors area and cover the poor things cage".
I also made a phone call to the girl watching my farm and birds and said "I want you to consider a special needs fragile padagonian conure". Well the friend didn't even need to see the conure.... she said she trusted my judgement and would be more than happy to take on spoiling the little conure.....
So I got home this morning and introduced her to her new conure..... I was right
. Love at first sight on both ends.... This will be her second bird and she has debated a second for 2 years because she wanted it to be a special bird...
Now back to the umbrella....
I have named er Phoebe. She is bigger than my other umbrellas, and the same size as my moluccans. She has NEVER been tamed or touched without a towel. She was mistaken for a male for most of her life and paired with other territorial females. I have a long road to travel with Phoebe, and I'm hoping to get her to calm down enough and learn to trust enough so we may be able to find her a home down the road (I can't keep them all ) We'll see how she progresses, and when the time comes if any of you are close by perhaps you can see if (at that much later date) she might be the bird for you...
For now, Phoebe is safe and calming down nicely watching me play with the other 'toos in the aviary. She now looks me in the eye and let's me reach in the cage to grab bowls.... We'll see what tomorrow holds for Phoebe...
My breeder friend had a friend pass away 3 months ago. The woman who passed away was young and the details surounding her death are still unknown to me. The woman had been married to a wonderful (non bird man). She had quite a collection of "loser" birds. Splay legged birds, plucked birds, older than dirt birds, and wild and terrified birds. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but she had 40 birds and most of them would be a full time job in itself. She had health problems and things went a little downhill from there. From what I understand and what we saw at her home, the birds were very loved and had the uttmost that money could buy. Anyway, the husband was not able to keep them all, so he chose 3. That he could keep and love and he brought the rest to our booth at the bird show to see if we could rehome them. This is where I start to feel sick....
There were 40 birds and they all found homes and the rehoming fees were very low (The grand total in rehoming fees off of 40 birds was $635. That was including the sale of the cages, etc...)
The booth was swamped and it was a mess trying to sort through people looking for "cheap" birds. The entire thing makes me sick....
I don't blame my breeder friend or even the husband.... We were left holding the bag, and it was just a mess...
Anyway among the 40 birds were 2 in particular....
A padagonian conure (older than dirt and splay legged)
A wild caught umbrella cockatoo (imagine the worst cockatoo you can and multiply it by 10)
Not long into the day I glanced over and noticed the umbrella looked horrified...
I walked over to my bird breeder friend and the husband and said "I'll give you anything you want for that umbrella if we can just put him in the vendors area and cover the poor things cage".
I also made a phone call to the girl watching my farm and birds and said "I want you to consider a special needs fragile padagonian conure". Well the friend didn't even need to see the conure.... she said she trusted my judgement and would be more than happy to take on spoiling the little conure.....
So I got home this morning and introduced her to her new conure..... I was right
. Love at first sight on both ends.... This will be her second bird and she has debated a second for 2 years because she wanted it to be a special bird...Now back to the umbrella....
I have named er Phoebe. She is bigger than my other umbrellas, and the same size as my moluccans. She has NEVER been tamed or touched without a towel. She was mistaken for a male for most of her life and paired with other territorial females. I have a long road to travel with Phoebe, and I'm hoping to get her to calm down enough and learn to trust enough so we may be able to find her a home down the road (I can't keep them all
) We'll see how she progresses, and when the time comes if any of you are close by perhaps you can see if (at that much later date) she might be the bird for you...For now, Phoebe is safe and calming down nicely watching me play with the other 'toos in the aviary. She now looks me in the eye and let's me reach in the cage to grab bowls.... We'll see what tomorrow holds for Phoebe...
