faith

Hello Everyone! My name is faith, and I am addicted to birds. I worked with birds and taught courses on birds for a pet store chain for almost 4 years. Originally, I couldnt even pick up a Cockatiel I was scared of birds. It was a green wing Macaw named Rudy who changed that, and taught me alot of what I know about parrots- and since then I have been hooked, and ended up primairly working with birds with in the company. I left, and now on occasion I take care of sick or stressed birds that need out of the store envoirment and then find them their forever home. I want to learn! Especially since I am now fostering an African Grey. I am framiliar with them,but by no means knowledgable on them specifically. I have however always had a praticiular intrest in them. This bird chews and pulls out feathers on his wings. Its awful, his wings are destroyed (for now) any advice would be appreciated! Anyway this site looks fantastic and I cannot wait to learn from all of you! !

Beautiful.

Wonderful I will go pick some up soon. Thanks for the advice. I'm pretty sure no matter what I would like to think I'll keep him...!!!

I agree, I may end up keeping him. The commitment freaks me out. When I got my first bird, Layla -a white capped pionus i was stressed for about 2 weeks after, I was sure I made the wrong decision. On the other hand Cricket the senegal in my picture is another foster from the same pet store, who will be shortly adopted by a friend of mine. He also had a plucking problem however it was his sibling who was doing the plucking. Silly parrots.

bah! maybe when my boyfriends home he can make the picture small enough. thanks again for being so encouraging. its really hard to have a bird who needs so much from me, but is so scared of me we will get there! Any name ideas!!??

had to try again

Thanks everyone! looks like it will take a while, he stepped up fine last night, and today he hides behind a perch/ toy thingy everytime i walk by the cage. There was also a spot of blood on his cage paper this morning, but after looking closely at his wings while we streched together there was no more blood to be found I'm nervous that the pet store did not pull out the blood feathers correctly and the folicle shattered in his wing. I'll have to keep a close eye on it. They vet he saw reccomended he stay in a foster home for a year. I have no idea if I will keep him beyond that. Any thoughts on him going back to this behaviour once he goes into a new home? I assume going back to the pet store is out of the question.. Caitb2007 - i have an aloe vera plant i use to on my other birds feet when they dry out, could i mix some with water and use that? Here he is! not the greatest, because i don't want to make him come out of his cage for a while.

Hello everyone! My name is Faith and I am brand new to the site. I joined because an African Grey has fallen into my lap, and requires lots of love! which means i need some advice. He is about two years old, I am currently fostering him for a pet store. He needed to get out of the store because he has destroyed the feathers on his wing. They are all broken and chewed. To make matters worse the day I went to pick him up he had fallen at the pet store and broken FIVE blood feathers, dont ask me how. Anyway i picked him up the next day after they stopped the bleeding and now he is here! I have him in a beautiful cage, lots of toys and isolated from my flock. I havent bothered him much but sit with him and mimic his stretches and whistles and feed him walnuts. any tips on how i can help him heal? Thanks!