Rescue VS Purchase VS Adoption

For some time now, there has been a debate going on about the true meaning behind these three common terms that we hear so often. “I rescued Fido from a pet store” is the general statement that leaves people shrugging their shoulders and asking, “come again?”. You hear the terms rescue, adoption, and purchase, used almost interchangeably these days. What do they really mean?

Rescue is defined as “to free or deliver from confinement, violence, danger, or evil.”  The term ‘rescue’ means to save a bird or other animal, from dire conditions that were hazardous to the animal and/or life threatening. Case in point:, Molly, from Parrot Hope Sanctuary. “Molly is a seven year-old green winged macaw. She was left behind in deplorable conditions, a mobile home that had been repossessed that the owners decided to trash on the way out, as they left their parrot behind. Molly went countless days with absolutely no food and water. Neighbors, who could hear Molly screaming, were unsure what to do to help. Finally, they made contact with Parrot Hope Sanctuary, who worked with local authorities to help rescue Molly. Molly was suffering from starvation and kidney failure due to malnutrition.”

Adoption is defined as “To take into one’s family through legal means and raise as one’s own child.” (substitute child for ‘bird’). When speaking of’ adopting a parrot, this normally refers to going through a rescue organization, choosing a bird, going through the necessary procedures, and filling out legal documents transferring the ownership of the bird from the organization to you. Adoption can also refer to the rehoming of a parrot via a private party. Adoptions normally include an ‘adoption fee’, which is a small fee that covers any medical treatment the bird has received while in temporary care, or reimbursement for food items and/or enrichment. The adoption fee should never exceed the original cost of the bird as a weaned baby. If one pays the ‘full price’ for an older parrot, this is to be considered as the ‘reselling’ of the animal, which is generally frowned upon.

Purchase is referred to when someone pays retail price for an animal from a pet store, or private individual (such as a breeder). When someone comments that they have “rescued” an animal from a pet store- it normally translates into what the animal lover community calls a pity buy. A pity buy is when a human sees an animal in conditions they deem as ‘unfit’ in a retail setting, and to take the animal away from those conditions, they purchase the animal. There can be legitimate cases of rescue from a store, but normally such actions are classified as adoption or purchase.
So the next time you hear someone say they ‘adopted Fluffy”, ask what that really means. If you are dealing with a behavioral problem, this can be crucial. Adoptions, purchases, and rescues all come from vastly different backgrounds, and pinning down the source of the birds previous living arrangements can help unlock any behavioral (or otherwise) difficulty the owner is encountering. And, as always, educate. Encourage people to use the proper terminology when referring to their animals past history.

Why cockatiels might be the best pet bird for a beginner.

Cockatiels have been kept and breed successfully in many countries all around the world. They can also be considered as the most widely kept parrot other than parakeet or budgie (budgerigar). Lots of research or expert of cockatiel emerge and many keeper have lots and lots of knowledge of cockatiel bird and their care.

I prepared this topic especially for newcomer birds enthusiast who still unable to make the decision about what species of parrot that they would like to buy. Well, there are lots and lots of parrot out there in the market. Some is very good for petting but some may not. However, for many people who haven’t own any pet parrot or any pet birds, many will feel that parrot will be the same, with good personality, very friendly, good talker, a cuddle creature and a good friend when we are lonely. However, in fact it is not. Some parrot may be very nippy (bite) and rude, some parrot will tend to attached to only one person (and rude to other people), some parrot may not talk at all, while some other species may not give permission to anyone to cuddle them.

Okay, now we may go the some of the reason why in my opinion, cockatiel is one of the best pet bird for the beginner. Having said this, I didn’t mean that beginner should only keep cockatiel or cockatiel is the only choices – the pet bird enthusiast actually have other option, lots of them but that is only if they are willing to learn more about the species that they choose or interested in.

Price
Price can become major obstacle for the pet bird or pet parrot enthusiast to own their dream bird. Since price of a parrot can range from few buck up until ten of thousand dollar, price is sometime a critical in deciding which parrot that the new comer should choose.

In Malaysia and I believed it happen to many other countries all around the world, price of a cockatiel is not expensive. Price may be different based on the colour mutation of the cockatiel and whether the cockatiel is handfed or parent fed. Normally parent fed cockatiel is cheaper than handfed cockatiel. This is because for handfed cockatiel, the breeder have to spent more time, effort and cost to feed the baby, while for parent fed cockatiel, the breeder didn’t have to put extra effort to the bird and definitely they will have lower cost.

If we compared price of a pet cockatiel ( a good, healthy handfed baby cockatiel which can make good pet) with other species with similar quality (healthy and handfed baby birds) of the bigger parrot , the price is totally different. For the beginner, I think the price of a pet cockatiel is reasonable (even it is not the cheapest).

Noise level
Personally I think all parrot will make some noise. Some of them will have rough squak while some other may have melodies whistling. However, for the normal rule the bigger the parrot it is more likely that they able (able but not necessary they will do) to make higher level of noice. I highlight this topic up because I understand that not everyone have the priviledge to own a very big house (and area) which will able to prevent the noice from their parrot to disturb their neigbhour.

In many occasion, new comer in pet bird or pet parrot keeping fall in love with their dreamed parrot in the first sight or from their reading. They may heard or read about the parrot ability from books or from internet or they may have some friend who have this species of parrot and the parrot able to ‘speak’ (mimic) or perform some trick. However, many fail to realise that different people will have different level of tolerance towards noice level. For some people, they are okay with the noise that their parrot have (in the morning, afternoon and evening and sometimes all day until middle of the night). We also should consider this with the people live around us a.k.a our neigbhour.

Cockatiel will create some noise or whistling sound every now and then especially in the morning and late afternoon. However, if only one individual cockatiel is kept, the noise level that they able to create is not much and still at minimal level compared to other bigger parrot. Cockatiel also didn’t have high pitch sound like lovebirds. They also normally not always ‘sing’ like budgie do. Generally one can keep cockatiel in all type of house – whether it is an apartment, a single house, a link house (terrace house) or a bungalow.

Talking abilities
Generally many parrot will able to mimic. This is not happen to every individual birds but lots of them do. The main different among one species and other is clearity of their voice. Normally big parrot will be easier to train to talk and will have clearer voice. Among the best talker known at this time is African Grey Parrot, Eclectus parrot and Amazon parrot. Cockatoos and macaw family also talk but they are not rank in the top talker bird.

In small parrot category, cockatiel is one of the parrot that have the ability to talk (mimic). Many will learn how to say ‘hello’ and some other phrase which will depend on the training given by the owner. Based on my reading, the species of parrot that hold the records of most vocabulary ( english word) is budgies! strange right ? I believed that many people will think it should be from big parrot family.

I have raised many baby cockatiel and most of them have gone to other good house. There are one individual who currently own by one of my friend which able to mimic ‘hello’. This particular cockatiel name ‘Cupid’, and is less than a year when he mimic that word. If the cockatiel is a handfed baby, they are friendly and more trainable. They are more likely to mimic if the owner spend proper time with them everyday.

Good personality
Human have kept parrot since long time. However, in early stage most of the parrot is from wild caught. Only few that is captive breed. Later, aviculturist is growing and more parrot are produce in captivity. I believed now some of the species that we keep today is totally from captive breed stock and not from wild cought anymore. However, most of the parrot is still exotic and their personality is either still similar to their cousin in the wild or they are still not domesticated. I believed that there are many parrot out there in the market that didn’t have good personality or friendly behaviour.

As far as my experience with my cockatiel, which I believed is more than 100 individual bird (many of them have been sent to good home), I think cockatiel have good, calm and friendly personality. Cockatiel rarely bullies other birds even from smaller species. (provided that they are house in good home and good environment). They normally not charge to people to bite.

Cockatiel also not very moody whereby if the cockatiel is tame, it will be tame. I mean it will not act like a ‘good boy’ in front of you and bite you if you didn’t look at them! Yes, some parrot do this… when you look at them they may stay still but once you didn’t look they come and bite you and they bite hard! Having said this, if the cockatiel is not tame, they will still bite us if we try to catch him.

Cockatiel rarely have mean personality. Most of the cockatiel is friendly, (but some individual is more friendly than other). Handfed cockatiel will still become a tame pet birds even after few year we put them in breeding stock. However, it must be given some time to be used to us again.

Small and compact in size.
Many people likely to be attracted to large bird or parrot. Obvoiusly because they are big and look so elegance. But while these species of parrot look very elegance, they also need lot of space to live happily. For some species of parrot, ten of feets of avairy is their minimum requirement for them to able to perform a healthy lifesyle. Therefore, in many cases many people will prefer to keep smaller species which similair behaviour or pet quality.

Cockatiel didn’t need a very big cage to live happily. A cage of about 3 feet is somehow can make the birds flip their wings and stay healthy. Their cage also didn’t have to be very strong as they are not so destructive. When they are outside their cage, they are also didn’t create any damage to the furniture.

To conclude, there are lots of pets parrot in the market. However, for the beginner I still recommend smaller species of parrot or birds. In these smaller species, definitely cockatiel bird is one of the best option that they should consider.

Holiday Safety for Your Companion Bird - Part 3

Holiday Safety for Your Companion Bird

Guests mean snackies and the opportunity to wow your friends and families with cool new recipes. If you have an inquisitive parrot you may wish to stick to recipes that have all bird safe ingredients. Is there such a thing? Of course! Preparing food that pleases our family and guests and that is safe for our curious feathered friends means only a few minor adjustments.

Before you start planning, shopping and cooking, here are the key toxic foods that birds should not eat in any form (part of a recipe or as is):

* Avocado
* Chocolate
* Caffeine
* Alcohol

So champagne and chocolate truffles are definitely out if your parrot can get to them! The key is not leaving hazardous foods in the open with unattended birds. And guests must be clear on the house rule: no-one feeds the birds without your permission and presence.

Here are other are other topics to be aware of for companion bird safety:
Cooking

* The holiday season is the best time of year to get in the habit of cooking without your constant companion bird. The chances of injury are much higher with the increased activity in the kitchen preparing all those yummy goodies for your family and friends.
* Watch out for that inquisitive bird who may fly or jump right in the middle of what you are doing, whether it be simmering sauce, saut�ing scallions, or sieving spaghetti for an evening meal. Hot dishes, cooking pots and utensils, and hot foods present very real high risk burn hazards.
* Be careful of the type of cookware you use. Non-stick coatings, when heated, are very toxic to birds.
* Keep all hot foods covered with a lid. This prevents beak marks in the buns before they go on the table and prevents those beaks from getting into foods with potentially harmful ingredients and hot dishes with burn potential.

Fumes

Cooking pots and counter top appliances are two obvious sources of hazardous fumes.

Also consider:

* Self-cleaning oven fumes - highly toxic to birds - if you don’t want your bird inhaling them do you want to?
* Candles, incense, carpet fresheners, air fresheners, and room deodorizers - all contain one or both of scent oils and propellants that are very dangerous to the fragile respiration system of your bird.
* Cigarette, marijuana, pipe and cigar smoke - if second-hand smoke is bad for people, it’s worse for your birds.
* Microwave popcorn fumes - highly dangerous to the avian respiratory system.

If you want a festive spicy scent in the air for a gathering, consider a small simmering pot with herbs or spices such as rosemary, mint, lemon balm, cloves, whole allspice, or cinnamon stick. These are safe aromatic ingredients that can be simmered individually or in various combinations with lemon and or orange slices.

CAUTION: When using this method and these ingredients, be sure to keep an eye on the water level so the pot does not cook dry and burn. Automatic simmering pots for this purpose can be purchased in stores or online.
Kitchen Safety

Keep all drawers and cupboard and appliance doors closed at all times! Birds are very curious and if in nesting mode will gladly investigate open doors, drawers and anything else that looks cozy. Drawers may have sharp and pointy knives and utensils. Cupboards may have heavy, unstable stacks of food and cooking supplies or containers, bowls, pots and pans that can shift or tip.

If your bird is in the kitchen with you during food preparation, always be aware of its whereabouts. But for hygiene and safety reasons, it’s a good idea to keep your bird(s) out of the kitchen while preparing meals at all times of the year.

True Story: My beloved kakariki, Jade, rest her dear little soul, scared the “you know what”, out of me and my family one year. I had my parents in from Salmon, Arm, BC and my brother and his two sons from Calgary and Stone Plain, Alberta, respectively. Jade had diabetes and thus she was highly water dependent. She was also a female, hormonal, nesty little thing who loved dark corners and hidey holes.

It was Christmas Eve and we were sitting around watching a movie when I realized I hadn’t seen Jade for some time. The panic alarm was up and everyone was looking for Jade. I figured it had been at least a half hour since anyone had seen her.

We started the hunt. After 10 minutes of looking and calling, I thought that maybe she had gotten into an opened drawer and was shut in. Sure enough, I found her, weak and dehydrated in the bottom of the drawer unit in the kitchen.

Thankfully I worked, and still do, in a veterinary clinic for birds only and knew what to do for Jade; she had gone into diabetic shock before. This was very scary for all involved. My Mom got a crash course on how to hold a parrot steady for injections.

What started as a simple list of holiday hazards has turned out to be a multi-part series! In the next article, we’ll cover first aid for birds and a few other hazards that didn’t fall neatly into the first three parts.