Goodbye, Birdies

There is a piece of news I needed to share with all of you. Back in 2007, I made an important decision based on many different things. First a bit of honesty with the background regarding Baby and Sammy. My ex made all the decisions in the household. I had never wanted parrots for pets, but my ex wanted possessions, and always gets what he wants. I love animals, and parrots are no exception, but quickly recognized they belong in their native habitats, NOT in the many rental places we lived in, moving every 6 months to a year. I did the best I could do for as long as I could while I lived a lifetime of abuse with a wicked person.

My ex made the decision that we would move into a smaller house as our family was growing, because he wanted to live near the beach. One with no patio for the birds to fly freely, and one bedroom for two adults and two small children to have to share. No bird room. The Birdroom and patio had been our saving grace with Baby in particular all these years. Things grew increasingly difficult - even living in the 'old' place, as Baby did not like the attention the tiny human was getting. It was not a matter of IF Baby would attack our baby girl, but WHEN!

Unfortunately, because baby was such a hormonal mess, was violently attacking people, was flighted, and because we needed to move so quickly, finding her a sanctuary or foster home was impossible - even with all the connections I had in the "bird world" through many years. We ran out of time, and my ex made me drop her off with Parrot Jungle in Miami. It was heartbreaking to leave her there, as she made contact calls while we left the property. I cried and cried. At least I feel she has been kept care of well there. I can only hope they didn't use her to breed more cockatoos in captivity for tourism.

When Baby went away, Sammy seemed more happy and relaxed compared to when Baby was frantically flying around and calling. (She always loved to give a staccato alarm call to spook him and make him fly and freak out. I could tell he hated that.) My ex insisted that Sammy stay, because he "broke" him, so is considered "safe" to be around the children. Sammy is smart enough to know not to anger my ex most of the time, or my ex will rid him of tailfeathers and throw beers at him. I wanted to save Sammy when I fled my ex in 2017, but had no safe way to remove him from the house. I feel just awful I wasn't able to save him. If you think that's bad, I've not been able to remove the children from the abuse either.

I kept in touch with the people at Parrot Jungle for a few years. They told me she was quite upset at first, but then calmed and began to accept a new schedule and environment. I was concerned about whether she would pluck feathers. I truly believed that change would be a positive thing for her. I explained to them how to make her "dinner" the way we always did - just in case she went on a hunger strike. But there were no issues, which was a very good thing. They told me she snuggled right in with the rest of the Too flock they have there.

There was a discussion on a forum about Hand Fed Baby Parrots that echoed in my mind for a long time. Quote by PaRehabber: "Often with hand-raised parrots, everything goes quite well for the first few years. The juvenile parrot bonds to its human family and enjoys their companionship. Its natural instincts do not go away though, and the bird, behaving like a bird, often gets in trouble because although it thinks it’s human, it doesn’t act like one. Then comes sexual maturity when the strongest instinct surfaces…the desire to procreate. This is when some real problems can surface. It may not recognize its owner as a mate, but a parent. Its instinct is to leave the parent family, move on, find a mate and start its own primary family. It can become aggressive to its owner because it wants to leave. Very interesting words that I pondered over for a long time...

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