New Reference from an Adoptive home

Hi Nancy,

I really don’t know if you remember us…we adopted Chico a Conure in March.

I have to thank you so much for the gift of having Chico in our lives. When we got him he had plucked out under his wings and a good bit of his chest. All his feathers are back now,  and he is one beautiful bird.  Chico spends his days supervising me at work. Either sleeping in my shirt, or supervising from his perch on my shoulder. He has learned to fly (at first he was a rock with wings) and actually will come back when I call him from any location.

Chico has been to the east  coast in the Motor Home and will be heading south for a month this winter. We did leave him home overnight ONCE he was hysterical when we got home, so now he comes everywhere with us, or stays with my Mother-in-law if absolutely necessary.  Chico has decided he’s a protection bird, and has “attacked” uninvited  guests, he takes his job very seriously, and announces every person coming to the door, or yard. (family excluded) He loves to tease the kids at times, but is still rather a one person bird. Chico says hello when the phone rings in kind of a muttering undertone. Blows kisses, imitates my laugh, and several timers. He also says NO LACEY every time he see’s our young dog. (who is forever in trouble) Chico has a lovebird as his best pal during cage time. Angel bullies him constantly, they adore each other. Angel tucks herself under his wing at night, and during the day tries to teach Chico how to be a troublemaker…so far he has resisted all efforts.

I just wanted to let you know that your rescue brought a wonderful bird into our lives and I will always be thankful for your work.

Mary

Another Happy Customer (Behavior Training)

A new reference letter

I HAVE MET THE BIRD WHISPERER!

It was a huge decision to have some of our birds re-homed but life changes, work and other commitments meant it was no longer possible to give four birds the attention they needed and deserved. They all need a lot of attention and especially Teaka as he was quite literally a ‘one man bird’.

 Teaka is a Sever Macaw who has a great sense of humour and could be a real fun bird but he had bonded very closely with Mike and was quite aggressive towards anyone else. This meant that only Mike was able to feed and handle him.

Cherry is a Red Lory. A great little bird, very friendly towards everyone and loves to play all day with toys or anything he can get his beak into! Lory’s are nectar eaters and Cherry had always been hand fed so this had created a huge commitment to hand feed him twice a day and also a lot of mess in the kitchen while he was being fed!

 ‘Little Guy’ is a Cockatiel. Not strictly our bird as someone had found him outside and knowing Mike had birds bought him to the house to be taken care of.

 We found out about  parrotadoptontario.com  and emailed Nancy and made arrangements to go and visit the bird sanctuary and see what they do before we made a decision about the birds futures.

We arrived at Nancy and Brett’s house and were welcomed into their and the birds home! One thing we noticed right away was the calmness even though there were birds in the house! Every bird, without exception, even the ones Nancy told us were new to their home, looked happy and were calm and showed no signs of stress or nervousness. Indeed two of them quickly made it clear they could better check us out if they were on our shoulders!

 After a good visit we went home and discussed it all and made the choice for the birds to go to Nancy and Brett for rehabilitation.

 I am still amazed at the outcome!

 Nancy, Brett and their daughter arrived at the house and Brett went direct to the bird’s room and let Tika out! I had though this would result in complete chaos and anarchy but……… nothing! Tika came out of his house and calmly walked to the perch across the windows where Brett spent a few minutes talking to him and Tika was calm! Absolute silence and no stress. I have heard of the Horse Whisperer and here was the Bird Whisperer! Brett asked if Tika was used to being on someone’s shoulders and I said that he had been on Mike just that morning, he just said ‘Tika up’ and there was Tika on his shoulder, no biting, no screeching and calm. We bought the carrier into the room and Tika went towards it to check it out and Brett just said ‘Tika in’ and in he went. This was truly amazing! Even a couple of weeks after the evening I still find this so hard to believe and know that this kind of experience is only possible because Nancy and Brett are so experienced and the birds sense who is going to be kind and who presents no threat to them.

 Nancy and Brett’s daughter had, while all this was going on just made friends with Cherry who was also just put into a carrier without any fuss or stress,

 Within half an hour the birds had gone to their new home without any fuss, stress or problem.

Buzz (our African Grey) has stayed with us and even though Nancy warned he may do a little stress feather plucking with the change in the household and without his friends, he only had a couple of tentative pulls at his chest. He was in the room the whole time the other guys were moved and I think the calmness of Tika and Cherry leaving meant that his stress too was kept to a minimum.

 We cannot thank Nancy and Brett enough for their advice, calmness and professionalism in this difficult life change for the birds and for us and for anyone who is facing a similar choice we would have no hesitation in sending them to Nancy and Brett for help and advice.

Mike & Allie

New Reference Letters

Email recieved June 29, 2009 Posted with Permission

Hi Nancy,

I was just wondering how Burby is doing? She has been on our minds and it was a bit of a rough weekend without her little noises, sounds and little body in my kitchen. It’s certainly going to take time to get used to this…….thank you for just being so wonderful with my daughter Sam and I when we dropped her off. It truly is a very special gift that you have, not only with beautiful creatures, but also humans and their hearts as well.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that she loves bells in her cage to play with and also loves to eat the bone marrow out of chicken bones…..

Many love and blessings to you and we will keep in touch,

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts…..

Nadene

A Surprise Reference

We were surprised to find this article in our monthly bulletin as we were unaware of the impact we had on this couple. This was originally posted in the Durham Avicultural Society Bulletin. We have reprinted it here with permission from the author.

To Durham Avicultural Society

Attention Bulletin Editor

I’m submitting this article to be considered for your monthly bulletin news letter. My wife Jackie and I became DAS members through odd circumstances. We have always been dog and cat people and all our animals are rescue cases. In January of 2005, I was asked by a working acquaintance if I would look after his birds while he went on a one week vacation. He told me that the person that normally did this for him was going through some hard times and was unable to help him out.

He asked me because he knew I was a huge animal lover and it wouldn’t cost him any money. A couple of days before he left I went to his home to get a briefing on what I was supposed to do for the care of the birds. When I went to his home he took me to where the birds were kept, it was in an unfinished basement with block walls and one small window at ceiling level with plastic hanging from the beams to keep the heat in. There were three birds in two different cages, two Amazons and one African Grey.

When we went down stairs it was apparent the bird hated him and they appeared absolutely viscous. They went crazy at the sight of him. Now he proceeds to tell me that he has had the birds for about twelve years and has never had them out of their cages and I’m going to have to be careful when I change their food and water because they will attack. He told me the amazons can take off the tip of your finger. Holy cats…….what have I gotten myself into here.

I should have left right then and there but something told me to stick it out. He said just come twice a week to change their food and water. I knew when he left I didn’t have to show up for a few days but I could not get those birds out of my mind. I went to the house the first day he left and just stood by the cages, I had a sadness that drew me back to them. I did not know anything about birds but I was smart enough to know that any living being would go crazy under these conditions. I came home and told my wife Jackie about my thoughts, she could tell this was really bothering me, so later that day she had to go and see for herself. When I took her down into the basement her first thought was it looks like the set from the movie Silence of the Lambs – dark, damp and scary. There wasn’t even a chair to sit on to hang out with the birds.

So this was the beginning of our relationship. Despite the fact there was no way we could put our hands in the cages, it was very apparent they wanted a relationship with us. Bart, the African Grey seemed particularly interested in Jackie. She would bob her head up and down and Bart would copy her movement and stick his tongue out. Shaba would crawl down to the bottom of her cage asking ‘what ya doing’ while I changed her papers. Fred, scared us the most since he would scold us if we came close to the cage and lunge at us. We stayed for about two hours and just watched and talked to them. When we left we both knew that we could not leave these beautiful creatures to suffer in this hell that they had been living in. We decided that we were going to get these birds and if the only thing we could do was give them a clean cage and a nice view it would be a heck of a lot better than how they were exiting now.

When the owner came back I had a very uncomfortable and honest conversation with him. At the end of the conversation he agreed that the birds would be better in our care .In February 2005 we took possession of our new flock. Jackie started to snoop around for some professional help and as luck would have it we were introduced to Carol Davies who lived very close to us. Carol came over to see the birds and quickly noticed how aggressive they were . Carol was on blood thinners at the time and thought it would be too risky for her to try to help us with the taming of the birds. She told us about a couple named Brett and Nancy Daniels who run the Parrot Adopt Southern Ontario agency and if anyone could help us with the birds it would be them. We contacted Brett and Nancy and within a couple of days they showed up at our door. This was an experience that has changed our lives forever. These birds had not been handled for over twelve years. They were scared and as we were later to find out in poor health.

I thought that Brett and Nancy would come and visit with the birds a few times and cautiously try to put their hands in the cage to gain their trust over several visits. Boy was I wrong. On the day they showed up we met them at the door and the first thing I noticed was a huge gash on Nancy’s hand in the perfect shape of a rather large beak. NOW I’M NERVOUS. I tried to ease my tension by making a joke and saying “a bit of a cooking accident”. She responded by calmly stating “it’s a parrot bite, look if you got birds your gonna get bit, it won’t kill you, get used to it, it only hurts for a bit.

We gave them a brief history on the birds and they decided they would concentrate on the two Amazons that night. Within five minutes of them being there the Amazons cage was open and I could not believe what I was seeing. Without batting an eye Brett went over to the cage and stuck his hand in until the one bird Fred had a firm grip on his finger and when she was firmly attached he pulled her out. As soon as he cleared the cage Nancy gashed hand and all was next in line to pull out the remaining bird Chauba. It went the same way, a chomp on the finger and out she came.

I must say it was not what I expected at all, I thought my god these people are nuts, I’m surprised they have any fingers left at all. The fact they just got bit did not faze them at all. Brett said “look these birds have cage rage, you got to get them away from their cage to deal with them. What happened in the next half hour was amazing, I realized, my god these people know birds. Not only were they handling the birds, but the birds felt safe with them. The birds were enjoying being on their hands and being told how beautiful they were. Birds that had not been out of a cage or been handled in twelve years.

I thought this has been a great night, what a success, put them back in the cage and we will pick up where we left off another day. WRONG !! Nancy and Brett had different plans, they said look theses are your birds and you might as well start handling them and get bit while were here. It’s not goanna kill ya. They were right we got bit and it sure didn’t kill us. That night gave us the confidence to start working with the birds on our own. We have had to pick up the phone and call Brett and Nancy on occasion for advice as we still have much to learn. I’m happy to say that we can not walk by the bird cages today without the birds rushing out on their own and sticking their foot out so we can pick them up and carry them around with us. Also our African Grey Bart who had never been handled and was completely plucked when we first got him has regained all his feathers . It took a few bites but he now steps up and loves to play PEEKABOO and has crush on our cat Spencer.

Jackie and I would just like to give a special thanks to Carol, Brett and Nancy for sharing their experience and providing the moral support we needed to get through this past year. It has been difficult for us to attend meetings due to the constant care we are providing for an elderly family member that lives with us. We are hoping in the spring to be able to attend some meetings and bring the birds so they can say thanks to our DAS friends for their new freedom.