There was an ad in the local paper for a parrot cage and a tree stand. I went to this home and it was a beautiful home. She had previously had, apparantly, many birds. Her dining room had a custom painted wall mural the WHOLE wall of a bird scene with her birds on it. Nicely done. Flying loose in the beautiful home was a lil mini macaw. Ok, those are the nice things.
Onto what bears on my mind. The lil macaw was scared of me naturally. I wasn't pressing myself on him, just hangin out, admiring him. He flew to his "daddy" on the recliner and the lady goes over, picks him up and MANUALLY TRIES TO PUT HIM ON MY ARM!!! Course, he's flappin, carryin on and I'm like "hey, he's ok, just let him go back to daddy, he knows him." and she' s more or less trying to sell him and make him like me or something. She was saying, "he's just a little scared of you, he's really friendly...he even likes riding the lawnmower" OMG...Mark thought.
So, I'm looking at him, his feathers are pretty ragged, I see new growth on his chest. He has a toenail sticking up at a right angle to his toe. I asked if he got in the shower? She said no, they just don't have time anymore to "mess" with him. She said he'll even pluck his chest feathers out if you don't pay him attention, but don't worry, they grow back soon when you start "messing" with him again. OMG...
Oh and she went into the "he goes for $1,200 but I'm gonna let him and the cage go for $450.00 when we sell him." He's 12 years old and she's had him since hatch.
This is just one home with one bird. It's pitiful really. He looked like a sweet bird. Oh and they got rid of the grey cause he "TURNED mean" all of a sudden. hmmm.
I did buy the treestand, nice treestand HUGE and a small play top for my office for Cleo to sit on. hardly used. But, it still hurts sittin here thinking bout that lil macaw. He needs a good home. It looks like at one time, he was the center of attention, now their needs have changed.
But, this is not just true with birds, its with any animal. It's more special to all of us here cause we enjoy birds. I've known horses, dogs, etc to just fall by the wayside. It's sad cause it's not their fault.
But...I'm sticking just with Cleo right now..I think..I dunno. he was such a nice bird...and his feathers looked so ragged and I felt so bad for him when she tried to force him on my arm like a stuffed velcro bird or something. Cleo takes a lot of time. I don't want to end up with too much on my plate with kids and such.
He was very well "housed" even bought very expensive walnuts, toys, etc. And he is never IN a cage, He free flies all the time. NEVER been in a cage, she says. I don't even know about that. Cleo has a retreat to her perch INSIDE her cage. She appears to like that spot when she's not in a good mood or sleepy or so.
AnywHO~!~~~
I digress..the tree is very nice but it is used. I want to disinfect it good. What is the best disinfectant?
As I re-read this another thought occured. I have a good friend, he is barely used, in good shape, nice looking, great job. His wife had him 17 years. His has plucked himself out of his misery and his diet has suffered. He sits silently a lot now when once he had big eyes and a wide smile.
His wife's "needs" changed and HE has to be rehomed . Actually, she's rehomed and he's keeping the nest (nice nest).
So, in the end ...it's not true with just animals;
humans can treat human beings the same way.
Mark

My heart is breaking for this poor bird. I understand about your plate being full with Cleo, I just really hope this guy finds a great forever home. Sounds like his owners are really lacking in the bird education department.

I'm not sure of the best way to disinfect the tree. Somebody will know though.

Do you remember a very old TV show that ended by saying something like: "There are a million stories in the naked city, this was just one of them..." Well, there are millions of sad stories about pet birds...

People think that because somebody has a nice home and they claim to love the bird, they are keeping it well and the bird is happy but that is just plain not true. The sad truth is that we are not genetically prepared to devote the kind of attention a parrot needs for all his natural life. Our brains are made in such a way that, by the time the kids are teenagers, we still love them to pieces but we don't really want to take care of them as if they were babies any more. With a parrot, 20 or 30 years of care is nothing. Tiels live to be 20 and Grays live to be fifty under mediocre circumstances... This mini macaw is still a very young animal but they are already tired of 'messing' with him. They live too long for us. Just way too long. No other companion animal requires the kind of work and attention a parrot needs and no other companion animal lives that long! Dogs live an average of 15 years, same as cats, and one cannot even begin to compare them with a parrot in terms of the hands-on care they require.

Poor, poor thing, lonely and neglected and plucking out of depression because he doesn't have anybody to love him. Something these birds need so desperately. And there are sooooooo many of them out there. Who will take them all in and love them and care for them for the rest of their lives? Every rescuer I know is full. I sometimes dispair of the human race... we have such a terrible unfeeling consumer mentality. We just buy and throw away and buy again and throw away more. And we keep on churning out 'new' ones even though there are lots and lots and lots of 'old' ones already out there. Never thinking. Caring only about our own pleasure, our own convenience and not what we do to these poor beings whose only sin is to be pretty and loving. And do you know what? Most likely, these people will get rid of this bird and then in a couple of years more, they will go and get another one! I've seen it so many times. The couple I recently took an 18 year old Gray from had bought and got rid of five other birds in the past (because they did not 'work out'): a senegal (which had ended up with me from the friend they had given him to), an amazon, a tiel and a quaker. The poor amazon and the tiel ended up in the same petstore they had got them from originally to be 'resold' at a discount as if they were a used piece of furniture, I don't know what happened to the quaker. I don't understand people. I really don't.

Yes, what really saddened me was that this beaautifulllll expensive elaborate mural was on the wall. It' like looking at pictures of people that have passed on. When you see it, you are lead to think devotion or possibly excentric. Also, birds offer a lot of "show". What I mean is if one was to visit that home, all of the bird bling and show and how she sort of "commanded" her flock made HER look like some sort of bird officiando. The ownership of the birds actually can inflate one's ego.
I saw pictures of her and the husband and the kids. I wanted to say "hope she doesn't get tired of messin with you, buddy." a stretch, but it's the truth.
I do feel bad that I can't go get him. But the reality is I have two kids, a wife, a job, etc. AND a very demanding Cleo. Of course, I saturate with Cleo. My wife had a comment last nite as I was assembling the new/used 5 foot manzanita tree and the lil portable perch with ceramic crocs, (both very nice, I got em both for $50.00). All of this beside the Featherland playtop that I've temporarily sat on a card table by the big window in our living room, cause Cleo likes to look out that window when I bring her in to the flock.
She said "Mark, this bird has more toys than our kids did when they were little", I said "they do not". She said, " well, maybe not, but they SURE ARE BIGGER".
She had a point.
To the subject though, people and birds can make good companions, I do believe that. I look forward to coming home to Cleo and Dood. They enjoy our company. Well, Cleo doesn't enjoy the get on my finger challenge still. Dood bleeps "HEY baby bird" when we walk in. But this consumer mentality leads one to make life disposable. Any life, just get another that works better for you. We want control over our lives so much that we are willing to hurt people/animals. We want the perfect bird, the perfect whatever. However, I do believe this is partly a generational problem. My generation doesn't have a problem, as a whole, in chunking something for something better. My parent's generation lived thru the depression and hoed cotton and had one pair of shoes. They don't waste ANYTHING...
An example is that my elderly parents dearly LOVE the two poodles they have. Neither Buffy or Phoebe have been real successful at potty training, some but not every time. But the cuddle and love they naturally give my folks far outweighs the problem of the mistakes they make. Even when they are sleepy, frustrated, whatever they offer unconditional love. Birds are not domesticated, and can't offer a lot of the same things. They don't get adequate sleep, they are just ill about it. They bite, they scream, etc. So, they're tossed to the side to the first person that comes along. They don't know what they did wrong.
When in fact, they were hatched/born to a generation who's allowed their selfish needs for control to replace their conscience.

Mark

It's too bad about that poor little bird! However it's so true. Human nature is to lose a little interest after a while. In some cases....lose a lot of interest. IMO...you have to be a true bird person to stick it out...if that makes sense. I think some people get taken in by their beauty and all the attention they bring YOU. Birds are like kids...you have to be in it for the good times and bad. They are not like other normally kept pets, and require a lot more care and love (generally speaking).

I can relate to the story about your folks Mark because I too am the proud owner of the world's biggest pain in the butt dog! She is going on 8 years old...still gets into the garbage, still poos on the floor when we leave her home alone to long, still hates the bath, still jumps on people, and goes through stages of compulsive licking (she's wearing a lamp shade collar right now). We have spent a ton of money at the vet on her. BUT....we LOVE her..no matter what. And no matter how inconvenient she is sometimes, we brought her home, not the other way around, and she still deserves to be loved and well cared for.

I too digress. I feel your pain. When we got Harley YES we were looking to add to our flock. But we hadn't yet decided if we wanted to re-home again or get a hatchling. When we met Harley, yes we did fall in love with him, he's adorable. BUT we could also see that the family too was sick of "messing" with him. He spent all his time in his cage, his diet was suffering, and he was bored stiff. And I am sure "pity" for him played into our choice. (Turned out to be a wonderful choice non the less). It is VERY hard to see a bird in need and take a step back from it. Bottom line is....we all are responsible for what we bring home. And IMO...you need to be able to go above and beyond for the ones you already have before you even think of adding more. If you can't give each and every one what they deserve it's not fair to anyone. Especially the bird(s). We are planning to add to our flock in the future...but we know right now we are not financially or space wise in the position to take on any more birds and be secure in the fact that they will all get proper care. That's why we are planning for the future.

I know it's hard to see that though. But if we all took home every single bird we took pity on there would probably be houses full of hundreds of birds. I know I would love to be in a position to help with the bird rescue situation. And someday I might be...just not now.

Hopefully this little bird will find his way to a loving forever home....and maybe someday someone will get sick of "messing" with this lady and she'll know how it feels!

Some people just annoy the heck outta me.

That's just so sad... I've met quite a few people who think they are doing birds a lot of good when really, they are causing them only more suffering. I know what you mean about your plate being full. There was a male eclectus I wanted badly, but sadly didn't get because 1. I felt I might neglect the wonderful little babies I have now and 2. because I realized that this could be a potentially heartbreaking thing for me. I know you heart goes out to him, but I think you're makng a wise decision about just having Cleo.

Hopefully, this little guy will find a good home. Do you know what kind of macaw it is? There's a slight chance I may know someone interested...

I don't know much bout mini's. He is green with white around his eyes. I think I remember some blue on his ragged tail feathers.