Buffalo Parrot Squawk Forums

http://www.parrothouse.com/pamelaclark/secondhand.html

Thanks for the article grey, it was very interesting and informative. Of the parrots I had back in the mid 90s, 3 were previously owned. My first was an orange wing Amazon,Mikkie Blue Love who had not been handled by the two previous owners. He took 6 mos. of stick training to get him successfully out of his cage & another 6 mos. to step up on my hand. He always maintained a loud scream when asked to step up & would jump onto my hand, indicating to me that he had been abused in someway while being held in his past. He never allowed me to hold him on my hand, but loved being out on his play perches & would allow a scritch  on occasion. Mikkie could talk & learned several phrases after coming to live with me.

My Mexican redhead Amazon, Cisco Red I suspect was a wild caught bird cause he had no interest in humans. He didn't act as if he were ever mistreated & I went through the stick training with him also. I was able to hold him, but he never enjoyed it. He would peacefully stay on his play perch, but never played with toys & never learned to talk despite being around the other talking parrots. I must add, he was the quietest Amazon I have ever seen. He would give a short scream when the sun came up & you never heard another sound out of him the rest of the day. He was a very unassuming parrot & never wanted anything to do with the other parrots.

Now my 3rd parrot was a 7 yr. old Timneh African Grey. Nikko was the most well adjusted, friendliest parrot I have ever had the pleasure to know. He had one previous owner who got him as a weaned baby & did all the right things to make him a wonderful companion. I actually bought him for my Mom who had always wanted an African Grey. She tired of taking care of him 1 1/2 yrs. later & he came to live with me. He never knew a stranger, going to anyone who offered to hold him, could say many words & phrases & was a total clown.

I had to learn how to train the Amazons by reading everything I could get my hands on in way of books. I had no prior experience with anything larger than a Cockatiel before these.  There wasn't all the internet info' yet & I didn't have internet available back then. I know I made mistakes with them, but I felt a great accomplishment being able to get them out of their cages & happily on play perches. If folks wanting to own parrots nowadays would just research all that goes into their care, there would be far less precious fids in need of new homes!

cool!!

Nakia-where are they now?

Hi Nakia:

When I was a teenager, I got a second hand bird, a Congo African Grey named Maxine. My neighbor, Miss Doris, gave her to me. It had been her husband's bird, but she was terrified of her. After her husband passed away, Maxine was not let out of her cage for 10 years. It took a long time, and a lot of nips for her to trust me too. I certainly made a lot of mistakes. She was never a cuddly bird, I was only useful for moving her from point A to point B. She passed on at the ripe old age of 51+. She was a wild caught import, so I can only say the number of years that she was in captivity. All in all, her last 20 something years were good with a healthy variety of foods, toys, exercise, and attention (on her terms). After she cam to live with me, I found out she could talk (like a trucker). She never talked around Miss Doris.

 :thumb: Very good info Grey!
If only everyone interested in owning a parrot would at least see some of that info re; to their behavior etc. prior to having one.
I am 110% on research and education!  and it is still and always will be ongoing.
My first parrot was almost (the almighty beloved) Rose Breasted Too.  D and I both fell in love with him/her.  I went right home and began researching them...finding out that I didn't think that would be good as a first parrot.  Through all my research I decided on a Senegal.  If the Rose would have come home with me...me just being me at least knew I had a lot more research to do on them.  Unfortunately some just see a pretty bird and have no clue at all of what goes into the care of them.

 :thumb:

Pamela Clarks site is AWESOME!! I check it out monthly for her articles. She is very knowledgeable and shares that knowledge freely.

Unfortunately our first bird was a U2. NO research. :bugeye: Powder was a gift for my hubs, paid $500.00 for his cage and my GF paid $100.00 of that and Powder came home with us. I got right on the net and found a site that was tricky. If you dared to disagree with any info posted you got banned, I got banned. Found another site that had some very knowledgeable people on it, they, and I got banned. Was asked to join a wonderful site by the people who got banned from the previous 2 sites (one started the new site) and I've been there ever since (YEARS!!). I joined this site a relatively short time ago.
WOW did I wander from the topic!  :headhammer:

Any-who, IF I had Known what I know now, I NEVER would have gotten a Cockatoo. Do I regret getting him? No and yes, but only because I really wish he was in the wild where he belongs. Research is the best thing anyone can do when it comes to a companion animal. Whether it's furry, scaled, or feathered research it.

I rehomed them when my hubby got laid off from his oil pipeline job he'd worked at for 18 yrs when the company sold out to a company that contracted the pipeline work. (20 if you count the first company that sold him with the the pipeline). He decided to make a career change, he always wanted to drive a truck over the road & I went with him. That was back in March of 2000 & we did that for 5 yrs.

 We had a mutual friend & his wife (she was a dog groomer) that lived in Carlsbad that told me about an older couple who was looking for a parrot. I drove them, their cages & play perches out there & hand delivered them to the couple for free. I just wanted to know they had a very good home to go to. It's been a few years since I checked, but they still had them & all was well.