Birds Adopted From A Rescue

[Boysmom]

Yes she did lie to us both about the personalities and screaming of these 2 birds. I imagine that is why numerous birds there have been adopted and returned.

I would also like to add a comment about donations made to this rescue. Since we first visited this rescue, the owner received a grant to purchase central heat and air for her entire home and donations to purchase an enclosed 20 foot trailer to supposedly take birds in cages to use for education purposes. Last week she received a $50 gift card from and used it to purchase herself new jewelry making tools to make for an auction. She is living off of the donations, as she should purchase her own heating and cooling system IMO. Plus she was donated a new mac computer and printer, but she doesn't respond to emails about adoptions, so I don't think she needed a computer that badly.

 

[Merlee]

Oh but she did need a computer. How do you think she is going to sell her jewelry and auction off the donated items in November? How will she be able to blog on Facebook so she does not have time to answer her emails such as mine. Remember she ignores those inquiring about birds unless an application is in. She deemed me as unimportant when I inquired about the aggressive amazon and possible bonding with my current amazon.

Folks she would spend time blogging, making toys, and who knows what rather than answering emails from potential adopters and spending time with each bird to rehabilitate them so they can be adopted.

 

[ShellyBorg]

I do know of a couple of good rescues and know of one who has adopted 3 large birds from one of them. But this rescue runs off of vol and foster parenting. Its the foster parent who knows the bird best that does the visits and home visits. You also need to go to a mandatory class.

 

[brianlinkles]

WOTR web site is still up and they are still taking donations...

I just looked it up and you are right. I cannot believe it. It was a huge story on the news here. I don't really know what to say right now. It was the saddest place I have ever been. It was reported that it was infested with rodents and roaches. It was filthy when I went in. I couldn't sleep for so long after going there and only getting one bird out. She was using the money for other things, none of the birds were vetted, I believe if I am correct that when asked about the amount spent on vet bills for the prior year she stated it was around $100. (ha, I would be happy to spend only that on one visit let alone an entire year) This is with hundreds of birds. I am going to ask around. I know many that volunteered with all the seized birds.

 

[Merlee]

In the past I have gone to the county animal shelters whenever I wanted a cat or dog. Animals from there have been the most affectionate pets. They truly appreciate what you have done which is why I wanted to go to a bird rescue in the first place. What an eye opening experience this has been. I am truly disappointed because Boysmom would have offered a great home to a rescued bird and the rescue knows it. I look daily at the rescue's website to see if a DYH comes in. If so, I will have to decide at some point if jumping through hoops is worth saving it from that prison of screamers and pluckers. Maybe I just should not look at the website anymore because all it is doing right now is making me angry at how this place is being run. But those poor birds ... how can I walk away? I guess I am a sucker for punishment.

 

[JoeR]

My experience with a local rescue has been WAY different than what I am reading here!

We adopted a cockatiel, rather painlessly, from a rescue near me. They took what I would consider to be necessary precautions, and allowed us to adopt within a relatively short period of time. They let us spend a LOT of time there deciding on a bird.
We already owned a young cockatiel that is highly social, but wanted to add to our flock, and get a friend for our current bird. We came home with a nearly toe-less 10 year old cockatiel. He took a while to settle in, and now that we've had him for probably 10 months, he is STILL showing us new behaviors.

Most recently we fostered, then adopted, a quaker. We know very little about his age or history, but we took a liking to each other, so he decided to stay with us. He eats his meals at the table with us and the 2 cockatiels. He has great manners and doesn't bully the smaller birds. He is still new to us, and has a lot to learn, but I consider him another successful rescue.

So, while I am not happy to hear about so many bad rescues, they can't all be bad. I found a good one.

Joe

 

[Kalidasa]

I found a decent one also, a bit overcrowded, but clean. It's so sad to hear of these terrible places. If I were to ever stumble upon a hoarding situation I would most likely completely freak out. Any type of pack-rat behavior gives me the willies!

 

[Merlee]

It's great to learn of two member who have gone through it.

Now my questions are do you think these birds were in the rescue for a long time and did they pick up some bad habits while there?

 

[SandyBee]

The rescue here is amazing, we got both our Fids there a year ago.

Our amazon was in the rescue for over a year and a half, he didn't pick up any bad habits, he doesn't pluck, doesn't scream.

The African Brown head was only there a few months, no bad habits either.

It is really sad to see hoarding situations happening out there, the rescue here focuses heavily on education and stability. We walked in with no bird experience and 3 weeks later had the birds delivered to us including cages, toys and food. A huge printed manual explaining bird behaviour, poopology, food etc.. It had all the safe lists and toxic lists and every possible resource phone number.
We can return the birds to the rescue if we are unable to care for them, but are not obligated too if we have a good home for them as well.
The criteria is reasonable, the contract is reasonable.

 

[Merlee]

It is really sad to see hoarding situations happening out there, the rescue here focuses heavily on education and stability. We walked in with no bird experience and 3 weeks later had the birds delivered to us including cages, toys and food. A huge printed manual explaining bird behaviour, poopology, food etc.. It had all the safe lists and toxic lists and every possible resource phone number.

A printed manual like yours should go with every bird and stay with it for its lifetime. Information such as where and when it was born, the breeder, likes and dislikes, and what it can say would be bonuses!

 

[Boysmom]

When I have fostered I always keep a diary on each bird. What foods they ate with me, what new words learned, the schedule I had them on. It makes it easier when they go back home. I requested Kylie's previous owner do this for me a week before I picked her up. It allowed me to know her hatch date, who her previous vet was, and what food she was on, and what words she said. I believe it makes the transition easier on the parront and the parrot.

 

[Merlee]

Wow, we sure do think alike. haha.

 

[noblemacaw]

I know this thread has been going on for a while but I wanted to include my experience with adopting my Noble macaw Julio.

After Mihijo my 17 year old Noble macaw died but before Valentino was weaned I wanted to adopt a parrot instead of buying another baby from a breeder. The strong need to adopt was with me. I have experienced so much loss with my boys and I wanted to help give a parrot in need a home.

I did not go into this lightly. I did a lot of research and talked to a lot of people. I tried to work with two local rescues but they kept dragging their feet with me. I wanted to volunteer to help with the birds because after Mihijo died and before Valentino came home I didn't have any parrots. My home was too quiet and it was a very lonely time for me. I needed to get out and be around parrots again so I wanted to volunteer with the rescues here to help out and help myself work though my grief.

After reaching out more than once I got the impression my help was not wanted/needed. I gave up with doing anything with the rescues in my state/area. Valentino came home early December and I spent the winter helping him adjust to our family, training him and bonding with him.

During the winter I kept looking at a rescue one state over. I really liked this rescue because when I held conversations with the people there they were very willing to talk "shop" with me. I saw a few people on this form that had adopted from this rescue and they had wonderful experiences. I continued to look into this rescue preparing to make the travel out there once the snow storms subsided. Unfortunately we had a LONG winter and it was not until mid may I could even travel long distance without the risk of running into bad weather.

Unfortunately by the time we were able to actually travel the four birds I was interested in looking into were adopted. A form member steered me to another rescue that had a Noble macaw. He was plucked but I was interested because I had experience with this species and knew their quirks. After going though the website and learning they had a rule of not adopting out of a distance range I realized I was WAY outside their distance requirement. I went ahead and called the number on the website because I wanted to share my experiences with Mihijo with his health struggles and all the knowledge I learned about the diet for Noble macaws and what not. I just wanted to pass on what I had experienced to help them out.

I ended up talking with two board members with this second out of state rescue and they expressed interest with us adopting the Noble macaw because he had been in their rescue since 2009. His first foster was going to move ahead and adopt the noble but he had to move out of state after he graduated from collage. His second foster home took very good care of him and I believe she was going to move forward to keep him but that would close her down from fostering another parrot in need.

The little noble macaw had an abusive past but the fosters took very very good care of him. Julio checked out very healthy with his lab reports and other than plucking he is very healthy little parrot. No one wanted to adopt this parrot because he was plucked so with my interest they approved me to adopt Julio because I had experience with his species and have kept parrots for almost 20 years. This rescue requires the adoptee to complete a general parrot care type class but because I had to travel so far to get him and because of my experience they waved this requirement. However I did get to look at the curriculum and was impressed with the class materials. This rescue is on track with having the requirement of the person/family application to adopt one of their parrots.

This is a small club/rescue and even though they are a young rescue they really have a good setup.

Did Julio come to me with behavior issues....yes he did. BUT he didn't have the best start in life. He was hand raised incorrectly and he was abused verbally and I suspect backhanded by the people that surrendered him to the rescue. The fosters have done a fantastic job socializing Julio and helping him. My only issue with him is he is a strong one person parrot that will bite savagely anyone else especially in cage. I think in time he may learn to accept me. I have learned I need to get him into a different cage with a playtop. I feel strongly after I get him into a cage he will feel more secure in where he can come out and be on top much of the aggression toward me will resolve in time.

 

[FIREBLADE]

I tried dealing with a rescue before getting the girl I have now but the only thing after spending a long time filling out an application was an auto response.
And a long list of requirements they have before placing a bird.
And sadly none of them included trying to find a match just seeing if you had unlimited funds.
Sometimes I think rescues spend to much time trying to disqualify people rather than finding a good fit for the bird.
I am by no means rich but I know how to take care of the animals in my home including my Macaw. And I understand they don't want birds going from home to home that does nothing for them but I feel that meeting the bird and seeing if you click is more important. I took a chance on an older bird and I am glad I did.
I would love to get a baby but I couldn't even find anyone that answered my Emails as far as breeders.

 

[Boysmom]

Where are you located at FIREBLADE ? perhaps someone here could help you find a reputable breeder if we know where you are at.

 

[Birdman666]

I have been to a rescue and feel very bad about them being there. From what I have learned about rescues, I would never put my bird in one. Many scream, pluck, or are very aggressive. I do not believe these birds get enough one on one attention to rehabilitate them from these bad habits.

I would be interested in learning from those who have worked with rescues what the success rate is in rehabilitating them from screaming, plucking, or being aggressive. I would also like to learn how many adoptions have been successful long term. I used to be an advocate of rescues into I learned how the one in Atlanta operated.

I think the public should know the good and bad things about rescues before becoming involved so birds are not returned.

How many members actually got birds from a rescue and what is your experience with the rescue and how has the bird been since it has been in your possession?

RESCUES ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THEM...

Some of the bad "so called" rescues are nothing more than "hoarders" - mentally ill people who think they are doing good by taking in unwanted pets that they lack the facililties or resources to properly care for...
And then only make the problem worse.

I have worked with, fostered for, and done rehab, placement and bird handling classes for three different rescues over the year. THESE WERE LEGITIMATE RESCUES run by people who care about the birds, and actually friggin love them. They had Avian Certified Vet clinics on retainer... They had proper food and facilities for housing the birds. They had staffs of people like me, where they could place them in the private homes of people who actually knew what they were doing, and would do the work with these birds...

And they had training protocols for screaming, biting, and plucking disorders that we tried to implement where appropriate.

Did these always work? NO! (with screamers and pluckers. Absolutely YES! with the biters. Biting is easy. Screaming is harder. Plucking is very, very, very difficult to stop.) Did they work about 85-90% of the time?! Yes to screaming. Plucking?! Probably 50-60% of the time...

Rehabbing pluckers is complicated and time consuming, and a 50%-60% success rate, I consider quite high!

Every bird I have ever owned, (except 3 of them) came from the rescue, and was someone else's throwaway "problem" bird.

Two of my conures had screamed and bitten their way out of 5 homes before I got them. My red lored amazon was taken to the vet to be destroyed before I got her. I am the 5th home for my Lilac Crowned Amazon. My BFA was left for dead by a grocery store garbage can!
My Greenwing hadn't been handled in 8 years when I got her...

Even my CAG, who was raised from an egg, is the offspring of confiscated breeders kept in deplorable conditions, who happened to be on eggs at the time they were confiscated...

And I probably placed around 40 birds in loving homes in my time...

So, yeah, the quality of life for these birds has improved thanks to us...

But there are people who are in the bird resale business. Get a free bird, resell it to anyone who wants it for a profit. Call yourself a rescue...

And HORDERS are some of the worst conditions I've seen...

 

[FIREBLADE]

Where are you located at FIREBLADE ? perhaps someone here could help you find a reputable breeder if we know where you are at.

I am in Central Wa Wenatchee to be exact.

 

[Boysmom]

birdman666 I totally agree with you about the rescues ! watch the video in this thread to the end. Most rescue birds are INSANE.

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/36147-pbs-parrot-documentary.html

i can definately say the poor birds in the rescue myself and Merlee visited IMO are insane, from the screaming and plucking I make this Insanity call.

 

[Boysmom]

FIREBLADE, here is a link to breeders in your area.

Bird Breeders in Washington WA - BirdBreeders.com - Avian Directory of Available Birds and Bird Breeders

 

[FIREBLADE]

FIREBLADE, here is a link to breeders in your area.

Bird Breeders in Washington WA - BirdBreeders.com - Avian Directory of Available Birds and Bird Breeders

Thank you I will check it out.