I just had fliers made and the kids are posting them around the neighborhood right now.

Obviously I am very worried about her...will the crows kill her? We have owls around here and I am just worried she will be killed. I put her cage outside on the deck where she flew away...any other tips and things I should be aware of?

Thank you

I noticed mid last week that Olive's behavior changed. She was quieter and was sleeping more. Yesterday we found an injury under her wing. Lots of blood. I took her to the vet after hours and a puncture wound was found. I have never left the birds alone with the dogs and always have someone watch them if and when I leave but clearly, someone did not watch them close enough. Nobody is fessing up but I suspect Olive was bit by our Boxer when I left last Wednesday and had my 20-year-old son (who is high functioning Autistic) watch the dogs and birds.

The vet said the wound was scabbed over and cleaned it and gave Olive meds. She sent us home with antibiotics for Olive to take for 20 days. This morning, Olive seemed to have pulled her scab off and started bleeding a lot. I had a mandatory hearing to attend in Seattle and left her in her cage and had the kids stay in the living room with her to keep watch over her, keep her company, and text me updates.

Olive has been staying at the bottom of her cage and keeps going under the newspaper I laid down on top of a towel and will put her head under the towel sometimes, too. She is definitely sleeping more, hardly making any noise, and I have no money to take her back in to the vet. My stomach is literally sick right now from stress. I had some unexpected bills come up this month that required a good chunk of this month's income and had to borrow the $300 for last night's visit from my daughter which was all she had in her account. This experience has taught me to put the birds in their cages if at any time I cannot be here to watch them myself.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am afraid we will wake up in the morning and she will be gone. Not only will that devastate me, but my 8-year-old who is most bonded to Olive. I did try to apply for Care Credit and was not approved.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI1VmQeDvZB/?taken-by=olive.the.quaker.parrot

On Thursday, we brought home a 5-year old-ish Quaker who had just been returned from is second, but very brief home. I started typing a HUGE version of this, but I decided just to post a short version first. We brought him home 'under no obligation,' and since we'd had a few small issues - notably between he and my wife - I didn't want to post this thread until I was sure he was staying here. It looks like unless he robs a bank in the next day or two, he's in.

As I said, he's about 5. I have very few details about his past. His first home was a family of unkown size. His reason for leaving is also unknown to me. From what I gather about his second home, he was recently adopted as a companion for an older Quaker as the woman who adopted him worked nights and thought her first bird needed company. As close as I can understand, Navaro was returned because instead of befriending the other bird, he always wanted to be with the woman. The horror, right? Oh well.

For some silly reason, I don't have a ton of pictures yet, but I'll work on that. I did post one in my 'Which bird?' thread but I'm due for more. He's quite yellow (the pallid mutation?), and a real looker. Though he was VERY sweet the first night with only one errant nip due to a hand-off mis-cue with my wife, he's gotten a little more assertive here at the house. I've found he can be quite possessive of his food bowls, though luckily his cage has good swing-out food doors. He's also nailed me once or twice when not wanting to step up for one reason or another. He had one tense moment today when he flew (despite a pretty sever clip he came with) into the kitchen and quickly found his way into Spencer's food on his kitchen play stand. I got nailed keeping them separated, luckily not by Spencer, but everyone calmed down quickly.

No blood, no foul.

So, as you can tell from that last bit, I opted not to do a strict quarantine. Both birds have full blood and fecal panels from the last 6 months and though Navaro was in a house with another bird for a time and spent a couple hours at the vet, I decided to go half-assed. I use hand-sanitizer between food/water prep and handling of each, am trying not to let them share toys or perches yet, etc., but I'm not deluding myself that it's real precaution. Calculated risk. I'm actually more cautious with Anya's old toys and perches - I bleached them all last week - since, though I ASSUME I know why she died, it is, of course, possible she had pick up a secondary illness along the way.

The really cool thing is that my daughter, nearly 6, is LOVING this new bird. She can not handle Spencer at all (heck, neither can I), and Anya was SO MUCH my bird that any time she would hold her, she'd just up and fly to me. AND Anya was scared of everything - and a 5-year old is capable of EVERYTHING. Navaro, though, is a REALLY good sport and she's quickly learned not to be timid on step-ups and how to keep her elbows low to keep him from creeping up to her shoulder. He can be a bit of a snot on the shoulder - in fact the one issue they saw during his brief stay at the vet's was getting nippy about shoulder removal. I'm not big on shoulder birds anyway, so we are being firm with keeping him off until a latter day, if ever. Typing this out, I wonder if that was the second-owner's main problem. She said he always flew off his gym to her. I discounted that story because the play top was TOTALLY spotless, like he was never up there. But if he DID always fly to her, I bet he landed on or charged up to her shoulder, and then she couldn't handle him. Ah, the mystery of a re-home.

My wife, who unfortunately met with TWO early nips and had me worried was going to call the whole thing off, stipulated that "As long as he's nice to my kid, he can stay." you tell me, how are we doing?

Just before that, we also had him playing peek-a-boo with a towel and was TOTALLY cool with it. Also, I already know he's a sucker for safflower seeds, as Spencer is, so training treats are figured out.

He's not (yet) big on toys, but I'm expecting he's still got some shell to come out of and will get even more out-going. And one other small thing - it's so funny to actually see a bird heat with its feet. Spencer only does VERY rarely since he's so lacking of toes, and neither Anya nor our old budgie Nim did at all.

Anyway, so far, so good. Tomorrow I'll call the lady we got him through and at that point she'll push the adoption paper and he'll be ours.

(And yes, believe it or not, this is the SHORT version.

About 60 yrs ago, Quakers were accidently imported from the above countries. They weren't meant to be pets. When they reached American soil, they formed massive flocks and were constantly on the move. The quaker multiplied because their breeding/nesting is different than other parrots. Basically, they settled in southern, midwestern and northern states . In those areas there were huge farmlands that grew all types of veggies and they also had large dairy farms. The quakers invaded all of these farmlands and destroyed all the crops, mostly corn and wheat fields. Those areas were what the farmers made their money from.

So many farmers and other land officials formed an agency which made quakers illegal. Orders were put out to kill as many as was possible. As time went on, different states set into motion their own rules about quakers. The rules varied from state to state. The Dept of Agriculture was involved. They invented the rules.

Allowed to own--illegal to sell

Allowed to sell but must be banded or bird will be euthonized

Allowed to breed but can't be sold in pet stores

Allowed to be owned but can't be traded to other people

Not allowed to own bird--Bird will be taken away, euthinized and person will be fined

Not allowed to cross state lines. Jail time may be given.

So, the list goes on and on. In this modern age, the rules of quakers have eased up because they're not considered a threat to anyone even though all the rules still apply. Modern agencies are involved in many other major important things. It's not the same as the past.

Today, if I were to walk into the Dept of Agriculture buildings with one of my quakers, the first things people would say are *oh what a cute bird! Does it talk? Where can I get one? The history of the quaker is past tense.

In 2002 when I moved to PA, I was at a toll booth that was the entrance to PA. The man at the toll booth looked in my car, saw my 2 quakers and asked me if I wanted to sell them to him.

And in case I haven't mentioned it, remember the list I spoke about? PA has the most strict rules concerning quakers. Below is that State Law link concerning quakers

http://www.quakerville.com/qic/statelaw.asp