MrPoppagergio
New member
Hello my fellow avian lovers!!
My name is Nick and I'm an avian enthusiast. I live in Escondido, CA which is about 30 minutes from San Diego. I work at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I'm a full time college student. I have a lot of animals at my house in Escondido, but I'm a proud owner of two birds that were both rescues. One is my 39 year old Red-Lored Amazon, her name is Chili (pictures to come soon). I've had Chili for going on four years. Prior to having her she just sat in her cage all day on a free fed diet with peanuts and seeds and other junk.
Since then, I've trained her to say a few things on command, like "hello!" I ask her, "Are you sick?" and in response she will give a smoker's cough twice back. I also ask her, "Is it funny?" And she will give me one of four laughs that she has on cue.
My proudest accomplishment to date though would be that I was able to take her from not having the strength to flap her wings to now being able to do a full flight to and from me and other targets on command. It's still not perfect, but it's great progress coming from where she was, especially considering her age and all the underlying factors that came with her.
Now, my cockatoo - she's another story. She was also a rescue, she was abused by her last owner's husband a little bit, in the sense that he would grab her by force out of the cage with two hands against her will and then bit e the heck out of him. She is still terrified of most people and their hands, however over time with the work my wife and I have put in we've been able to get her to work with us now.
Her name is Anna and she is about 18 years old we think, we've had her about almost 4 years as well.
Both birds live outside and I'm planning on building a very large aviary for them to live in so they can live as freely as possible. I also plan on adding macaws to the aviary over time, of course I'll have sections too. More details too come once I have the aviary up and running though.
I'm happy to have found this forum and others who share the same passion that I do!
Thanks!
Nick
My name is Nick and I'm an avian enthusiast. I live in Escondido, CA which is about 30 minutes from San Diego. I work at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I'm a full time college student. I have a lot of animals at my house in Escondido, but I'm a proud owner of two birds that were both rescues. One is my 39 year old Red-Lored Amazon, her name is Chili (pictures to come soon). I've had Chili for going on four years. Prior to having her she just sat in her cage all day on a free fed diet with peanuts and seeds and other junk.
Since then, I've trained her to say a few things on command, like "hello!" I ask her, "Are you sick?" and in response she will give a smoker's cough twice back. I also ask her, "Is it funny?" And she will give me one of four laughs that she has on cue.
My proudest accomplishment to date though would be that I was able to take her from not having the strength to flap her wings to now being able to do a full flight to and from me and other targets on command. It's still not perfect, but it's great progress coming from where she was, especially considering her age and all the underlying factors that came with her.
Now, my cockatoo - she's another story. She was also a rescue, she was abused by her last owner's husband a little bit, in the sense that he would grab her by force out of the cage with two hands against her will and then bit e the heck out of him. She is still terrified of most people and their hands, however over time with the work my wife and I have put in we've been able to get her to work with us now.
Her name is Anna and she is about 18 years old we think, we've had her about almost 4 years as well.
Both birds live outside and I'm planning on building a very large aviary for them to live in so they can live as freely as possible. I also plan on adding macaws to the aviary over time, of course I'll have sections too. More details too come once I have the aviary up and running though.
I'm happy to have found this forum and others who share the same passion that I do!
Thanks!
Nick
