Rescueing Penny

[Laurasea]

My three beauties!! Penny the rescue, Pikachu the re-home, and Neptune I got from the breeder. Before I knew how many Quakers are given up for screaming, mutilation ECT...

I think I'll call it my Quaker Christmas tree!!!

 

[LaManuka]

Wishing you a very Quaker Christmas, just the way you’d like it (I’m sure Ta-dah will demand her mom time too!)

 

[Laurasea]

Ta-dah opted out of the photo shoot

 

[Laurasea]

Today I'm thankful that Penny currently isn't plucking, her old pluck zone has shrunk, and you can see pin feathers under chin! And she can fly pretty darn good now, even two Laps around house. Penny doesn't gaurd her food dish anymore. She no longer hoards her feathers or poops in her food dish. And I can't rember the last time she shoot poops at me from her cage
I'm sitting with all my birds except the keets on me! Turkey is cooking! Though earlier my ears were hurting from a lot of screaming!!!!! That's why we are having a good cuddles now before I leave to be with family.
Penny us making kisses noises they are newly learned
Oh looking at all these cute fluffed birdie faces makes me so happy !!!

 

[Laurasea]

Penny flew to me in the restroom!!! Yippie!!! Yeah I left the door open, as to keep eye on dogs and parrots.

Penny is still a terrible flier, but she can change directions and altitude , and make landings. But I am so super proud that she followed my into the bathroom!! The bravery this took!!! The actual choice thst she "made " to follow me!!! ( Due to past abuse she has been just a lump on a stick, or reacts to something's.) She had to do some on the wing maneuvering, making tight turns!!! She had to stay in the air with longer endurance!! And last but not least, she loves her mommy, and wanted to be with her!!!!! She made the perfect shoulder landing.im so proud of her!!! I told her too, and her face and eyes looked so bright and happy!!

 

[Laurasea]

I learned tonight from a freind, that the guy I go Penny from died of an overdose. He didn't treat Penny good, but I think he once did, maybe before the drug problems. I'm sad to hear this, but so glad Penny was already with me and safe.

 

[LaManuka]

How terribly sad. There must be thousands of hapless animals out there trapped in homes like Penny’s was - it’s all so tragic it doesn’t bear thinking about! The people need rescuing just as much as their animals do but sometimes despite the best of efforts and intentions not much can be done. Thank heavens at least Penny is safe.

 

[Laurasea]

Yes, he did need rescue. He loved Penny and cared for her once, her actions speak to this, as do the words she speaks , like pretty girl, he kissed her goodbye tho she bit him. It's so hard to know how to help people with addiction....

 

[Laurasea]

Yippie Penny! You are a winner!
Had to update her thread lol!

Penny has come so far! She chooses which places to fly around and he house! She plays with toys and chews stuff up! She eats veggies! She interacts with the other birds! Ta-dah and Penny don't get along. But Penny sits with and gets along with everybody else! She used to not know how to bird at all. When she wants me to come get her she says hello pretty girl? . Neptune thinks that's my name now, so he calls me pretty girl! I can't tell you how wonderful for two parrots to have named me pretty girl! Makes me smile every time!! Penny lives to make me laugh, when she beeps like the microwave, I always laugh, so if she sees me within a foot of the microwave she beeps. She barks with the dogs. And at night when the house is quiet she meows. There are so many funny things she does.
Her first day home she told my to ( f) off.....I ran to the bathroom to laugh because I didn't want to encourage that word use ! She was so mad that first day! Shot poops at me whenever I came near, and her aim was great! We have come so far!!!!

 

[Laurasea]

Penny used to never do any jumps or hops, this is common with birds who hav never learned to fly.

Well as you know she flys pretty good now, nothing compared to my parrots who fledged and learned to fly young. But she gets the job done now.

Just last week she started jumping between perch spots. And doing big leaps! She is so sassy when she does them, like she is proud, and brave and showing off!! She made a big leapbetween the foot stool and the couch. She jumped from a table to my shoulder!

For you who have parrots that have never been abused it restricted, it seem like nothin. But to me to see Penny do these normal parrot things is so thrilling!! I'm so proud of how far she has come!

 

[Jen5200]

So awesome that she’s making these leaps and bounds - pun intended . Seriously though, it is thrilling when they do normal parrot things!

Stanley flew to me the other day and I just about fell over. He’s had flight feathers for more than a year and has never used them for anything except taking off when spooked.

 

[Laurasea]

So awesome that she’s making these leaps and bounds - pun intended . Seriously though, it is thrilling when they do normal parrot things!
It
Stanley flew to me the other day and I just about fell over. He’s had flight feathers for more than a year and has never used them for anything except taking off when spooked.

Way to go Stanley!!! Whoop!

 

[Laurasea]

What a pretty Quaker. I am so happy that you found her. I have gotten Bird's from bad situations and they can be the most loving and appreciative birds.

I’m missing my recently departed Quaker. 20+ yrs together and now she is gone...

Hi welcome to the forum. I'm so sorry for your loss!!! I will be do crushed when that day comes. You can share your story under the bereavement forum if you want. Sometimes it helps to share the story if our loved FIDS with a group of people who understands the bond. I wish I could make it better.

When the time is right I hope you find a Quaker to rescue, so many in need of homes.

 

[NewQuakerMom]

That's awesome!

 

[Laurasea]

Thank new Quaker mom! It really is a big deal. I had to set up her cage so she could lean and grab a perch with a beak and carefully climb to a new area. She would not make even the shortest hop. It was so sad and pathetic.

So her big hops and leaps and flights are so worth celibating!!! Two years to reach this point! 2 years!!!! I really thought she would never do perch hops!

She is sitting on my shoulder giving kisses as I write this.

 

[NewQuakerMom]

Thank new Quaker mom! It really is a big deal. I had to set up her cage so she could lean and grab a perch with a beak and carefully climb to a new area. She would not make even the shortest hop. It was so sad and pathetic.

So her big hops and leaps and flights are so worth celibating!!! Two years to reach this point! 2 years!!!! I really thought she would never do perch hops!

She is sitting on my shoulder giving kisses as I write this.

Aww, that's so sweet!!! That's a long time, but looks like all the work was worth it! She must really love the greater freedom she's given herself!!

 

[Laurasea]

Penny, my rescue, if you have read her story , I found her in terrible situation. She was being sold as a rehome as a favor to an employee at a mom and pop pet store. She was at the back of the store, no natural light, and very dim light. On a shelf in a tiny " travel size cage" so small she couldn't stand up, feces covered the cage, piled up in the cage, and covered and matted her feathers with poop.. her water dish had filth and algae ...she was next to an aquarium filled with live rats. She was screaming, plucking, and mutilation to her feet......when I bought her cuz I wasn't leaving that poor girl, they gave me her original cage that she had spent 7 plus years in, also dirty and small. Penny had never learned to fly, had been kept clipped all her life, she has wing restrictions which is scaring down of muscle wnd ligaments from never having room to stretch or flip or fly.

It has taken 2 years of work and rehabilitation, and credit to flock therapy to get her to make choices. Because of all the above she had learned helplessness, had all her choices for movement taken away. It was the hardest thing to get her to make choices, to move, to entertact with her environment, plenty of times I thought we had plateau, and thsts as good as it would get.

Now she can fly well enough to move to play stations, hanging perches ect. She climbs and hops, she makes choices for herself, takes baths when she wants and utilize her environment. She still isn't like all my other parrots, but for her it is profound !

Sadly there are many more parrots living tge life she once had. From our lack of knowledge, or misinformation we were told.

Below from Pamela Clark
" Control is a Biological Need
We know that all animals exercise control by making choices. I have argued for years that by increasing the number of choices that our parrots are able to make, we are increasing their quality of life.

Lauren A. Leotti and her co-authors expand upon this idea by saying, “Belief in one’s ability to exert control over the environment and to produce desired results is essential for an individual’s well-being. It has been repeatedly argued that the perception of control is not only desirable, but it is likely a psychological and biological necessity.” They go on to state that “the restriction of choice is aversive.” (Leotti, 2010)

Lack of Control is Aversive

Not only is it aversive, it can result in the condition of learned helplessness. This is a state of behavior in which the animal stops even trying to make choices. How many times have we described a parrot as a “perch potato?” The perch potato is manifesting a version of learned helplessness.

Expanding upon this idea, they write: “In the absence of other stressors, however, the removal of choice, in and of itself, can be very stressful. It has been found that the restriction of behaviors, particularly behaviors that are highly valued by a species, contributes to behavioral and physiological manifestations of stress. It seems that the aversive effects of captivity may depend upon the extent to which behavioral choices have been reduced relative to what could be performed in the natural environment.” (Leotti, 2010)

New Perceptions

In the past few years, I have come to see our parrot-keeping practices in a new light. We have taken flighted spirits, clipped their wings, and put them in cages. Many parrots spend all of their time in their cage, or have at most, one or two hours out each day. We have taken away their liberty, which is essential for exercising choice.

If we kept dogs in a similar manner, rendering them unable to move in a way natural to them and keeping them in kennels for 22 hours every day, it would be considered abuse. However, these practices are still commonplace in the parrot world, rarely being brought into question. We appear unable to judge the inappropriateness of these practices since they have been accepted as normal for so long."
https://blogpamelaclarkonline.com/tag/parrots-and-flight/