MosaicMadness
New member
Hello,
(I seem to have composed a novel instead of a brief info... but here it goes...)
I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself and my background. I've had birds in my life for the past 27 years (give or take). I started out with a pair of baby lovebirds as a teenager. After working for an all parrot bird store in college full time (it was at the end of the import era so I got to work with a combination of wild caught adults, imported "hand fed" babies and captive bred babies that we hand fed in house), I added some tiels (my mom asked for them) and brought home a budgie that needed some PT from work to join our flock. Soon after I was married and for our wedding gift to me, my husband bought me our maximillian pionus, "Oreo" who we brought home at 10 weeks old and I finished weaning him myself (unfortunately his wings had already been cut and he still does not know how to fly, he just crashes) He'll be 24 this spring. Once we got our first home the next year, I got into breeding peach-faced lovebird mutations, then added a pair of fischer's and even had a pair of madagascar lovebirds (I ended up selling them back to the breeder when I was successful with producing one baby, but no one in the country was willing to sell me a 2nd lovebird to pair with it, they would only trade 1:1, I decided they would be better off with a breeder that had more pairs and could be a better infuence on the breed's success). Unfortunately when my 2nd daughter turned 1 she had a major illness and life altering event that necessitated my selling off all of the lovebirds to spend months in the hospital. So that left me with my Oreo. When the kids started school full time, I became a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and specialized in, yes, birds. I was blessed to spend the next 4 years working with everything from humming birds, chickadees, doves, chimney swifts, bluejays, woodpeckers, grebes, hawks and owls, to great blue herons and even a juvenile bald eagle. I had to set aside this volunteer activity when I realized it was a bit too dangerous for me to handle some of these without any additional hands on deck after a fellow rehabber who also worked alone from home lost her eye to a heron.
I have fostered for our local parrot rescue bringing an orange wing amazon into our lives for a short time and we had a gorgeous Red Front Macaw for about 8 years. We adopted a teenage boy with a lot of PTSD and trauma triggers that proved to be a bad fit at the time with a macaw who fed off of drama and hyper activity. Our son was overly sensitive when Jenks would do his alarm call (which I will admit was a bit high pitched). We tried to work with them for 2 years to not feed of off each other's emotional junk, and weren't getting anywhere, so I ended up rehoming him to an old school friend of mine who just got a farm and was home with the time and knowledge to care for him (used to be a vet tech). I still miss him so much, but in the last year we've seen such a difference in our son's behaviors and ability to self regulate and be calm, I know it was the right thing to do. He's also starting to work with Oreo and has told me he "likes birds now".
So that brings us to the present, outside we have some hens and ducks and geese and inside we have my steadfast Oreo the Maximillian Pionus who has stuck with us through thick and thin. I have found a 19 year old bronze winged pionus for sale that was a pet, then a breeder and now is looking for a new home because their last female died. I am very excited as they have been on my "bird want list" for decades and he should be coming home to us following the Thanksgiving holiday. I love how very go-with-the-flow our maxi has been. Other birds, dogs, cats, kids, attention or just self amusement is all the same to him. He's never been a snuggle bug, but he talks some and likes to sneeze or laugh like me and is pleasant and easy to live with. I'd still like to get back into lovebirds and I might have one more "bappy" in me... I'm fascinated by the cuddliness of a rose breasted cockatoo and I might try fostering a macaw again to see how my son reacts now that he's in a better place.
I've been out of the "bird world" for a bit and see I may have some catching up to do with new training methods and such. I look forward to reading and learning more. (and if anyone knows of someone CURRENTLY breeding bronze wing pionus, I would love the contact info., I have found that a lot of the listings have not been updated online for breeders and they either no longer are breeding BW Pis or breeding at all)
(I seem to have composed a novel instead of a brief info... but here it goes...)
I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself and my background. I've had birds in my life for the past 27 years (give or take). I started out with a pair of baby lovebirds as a teenager. After working for an all parrot bird store in college full time (it was at the end of the import era so I got to work with a combination of wild caught adults, imported "hand fed" babies and captive bred babies that we hand fed in house), I added some tiels (my mom asked for them) and brought home a budgie that needed some PT from work to join our flock. Soon after I was married and for our wedding gift to me, my husband bought me our maximillian pionus, "Oreo" who we brought home at 10 weeks old and I finished weaning him myself (unfortunately his wings had already been cut and he still does not know how to fly, he just crashes) He'll be 24 this spring. Once we got our first home the next year, I got into breeding peach-faced lovebird mutations, then added a pair of fischer's and even had a pair of madagascar lovebirds (I ended up selling them back to the breeder when I was successful with producing one baby, but no one in the country was willing to sell me a 2nd lovebird to pair with it, they would only trade 1:1, I decided they would be better off with a breeder that had more pairs and could be a better infuence on the breed's success). Unfortunately when my 2nd daughter turned 1 she had a major illness and life altering event that necessitated my selling off all of the lovebirds to spend months in the hospital. So that left me with my Oreo. When the kids started school full time, I became a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and specialized in, yes, birds. I was blessed to spend the next 4 years working with everything from humming birds, chickadees, doves, chimney swifts, bluejays, woodpeckers, grebes, hawks and owls, to great blue herons and even a juvenile bald eagle. I had to set aside this volunteer activity when I realized it was a bit too dangerous for me to handle some of these without any additional hands on deck after a fellow rehabber who also worked alone from home lost her eye to a heron.
I have fostered for our local parrot rescue bringing an orange wing amazon into our lives for a short time and we had a gorgeous Red Front Macaw for about 8 years. We adopted a teenage boy with a lot of PTSD and trauma triggers that proved to be a bad fit at the time with a macaw who fed off of drama and hyper activity. Our son was overly sensitive when Jenks would do his alarm call (which I will admit was a bit high pitched). We tried to work with them for 2 years to not feed of off each other's emotional junk, and weren't getting anywhere, so I ended up rehoming him to an old school friend of mine who just got a farm and was home with the time and knowledge to care for him (used to be a vet tech). I still miss him so much, but in the last year we've seen such a difference in our son's behaviors and ability to self regulate and be calm, I know it was the right thing to do. He's also starting to work with Oreo and has told me he "likes birds now".
So that brings us to the present, outside we have some hens and ducks and geese and inside we have my steadfast Oreo the Maximillian Pionus who has stuck with us through thick and thin. I have found a 19 year old bronze winged pionus for sale that was a pet, then a breeder and now is looking for a new home because their last female died. I am very excited as they have been on my "bird want list" for decades and he should be coming home to us following the Thanksgiving holiday. I love how very go-with-the-flow our maxi has been. Other birds, dogs, cats, kids, attention or just self amusement is all the same to him. He's never been a snuggle bug, but he talks some and likes to sneeze or laugh like me and is pleasant and easy to live with. I'd still like to get back into lovebirds and I might have one more "bappy" in me... I'm fascinated by the cuddliness of a rose breasted cockatoo and I might try fostering a macaw again to see how my son reacts now that he's in a better place.
I've been out of the "bird world" for a bit and see I may have some catching up to do with new training methods and such. I look forward to reading and learning more. (and if anyone knows of someone CURRENTLY breeding bronze wing pionus, I would love the contact info., I have found that a lot of the listings have not been updated online for breeders and they either no longer are breeding BW Pis or breeding at all)
. I have a Bronze Winged Pionus. His name is Raven. About 10 years ago, I had a female Bronze Winged who passed away. My vet swears that Bronze Winged Pi's are a species in particular who are notorious for getting overly hormonal and consequently the behavioral and health problems because of it.... so he says 
