Feathers First Aviary
11-15-2013, 07:41 AM
we have two red lored amazons, Rasta and Reggie. They were "purchased rescues" if that makes sense. I will explain how we got them here but if you want to skip that and get to the actual point of this thread, just skip to the last paragraph. :P Long story short, about two years ago we went to buy a cage that was advertised on craigslist, when we got to the guys house we realized he was a really terrible breeder that was selling almost all of his birds and cages to move out of state. After talking with him for awhile I convinced him to let me see his breeder birds. I could not believe the condition of these birds. His entire basement was filled with large parrots, about 14 macaws, over half of them plucked, all in the thin rabbit wire type cages, sitting on the concrete floor. The lighting was dim and since it was in a basement there were no windows. There were also flies and gnats everywhere. There were a couple cockatoos that he claimed belonged to his ex wife, a couple greys and a pair of ekkies. All of the birds were fed nothing but sunflower seed and when he was showing me his pet macaw, the only one he was keeping and taking with him, I asked why she had no food in her bowl, he said, oh if I give her food in the morning she throws it all out so she only gets food right before I turn the lights out!! This man was literally feeding them nothing but cheap striped sunflowers and he was still being stingy about it!
After walking around we spotted this pair of Red loreds, surrounded by screaming cockatoos and macaws looking just absolutely terrified. Their cage had two dowel rod perches, a food bowl with sunflowers and glass water bottle. The poor things didn't even have a bowl of water! The female's breast was plucked, her beak was severely overgrown and a bit mishapen and they both had bent, crippled toes from an obvious vitamin a deficiency. I asked him what the deal was with the amazons and he said, "oh them, I hate them." Apparently they belonged as pets to a woman who broke her hip and she begged and pleaded him to take them, I assume she thought he took much better care of his birds than he really did. He went on to tell me about how he hates amazons, never did say why but he really couldn't stand them. I reluctantly asked him what he would want for them and he said $300. Now to be honest, we didn't have that kind of money just laying around. I told him I would think about it and give him a call with our decision. We bought the cage we originally came for and left.
On the drive home my husband looked at me and said, ya know we really need to save those guys. I knew it just as well as he did but I just wasn't sure how we were going to come up with the extra money and I knew the guy wasn't going to just give them to us. I also knew reporting him would do no good, technically they all had shelter, food and access to water, as far as the state is concerned, that's all they need. Later that day a friend of ours called and offered to buy camper we had been trying to sell, you guessed it, for $300! It was the weirdest thing in all honesty but we both knew it was meant to be. I immediately called the guy up and said we would take them, we gave him $100 to hold them and told him we would have the other $200 in two weeks, that was the quickest we could get it. The next two weeks were agony, all I could think about was the look on these birds face, the way they stared at us, they were just pleading to get out of there, the noise from the cockatoos and macaws was deafening and I could tell it was slowly driving them mad. When the day finally came to pick them up I asked the man what their names were and how old they were. He told me he thought they were 6 and 8, male and female but he couldn't remember their names. This made me want to smack the guy even more, he already told me they were someones pets to begin with, I knew they had names, this guy just didn't care to take two seconds to find out what they were when he got them. I am also fairly certain by the extent of the damage to their toes and beak that they are way older than he said but they are not banded so I really have no way of knowing that.
Flash forward to now, they have been on a good diet, they will eat anything an everything I offer them. We waited awhile to name them, hoping they would tell us but that never happened so we named them Rasta and Reggie because of their red, green and yellow colors. Rasta's beak is still a bit misshapen, it short of reminds me of gonzo's nose from the muppets. She has had a few trims over the years and her beak is finally starting to look normal again. Their toes have straightened out a bit but I'm pretty sure they both have arthritis in their feet so some of that just isn't going to get better. Rasta still plucks her chest but it's something we've been working on and neither of them will touch toys although they have plenty to choose from.
Now that you have some background on them I will get back to why I made this thread in the first place. Knowing that they were locked in their cage for so long, they both seemed very anxious when we would try to make them go back in at night, they hated the door being closed behind them. When they are left out, they only stay on top of their cage, they NEVER come off of it unless something scares them, like walking in the room with something big and scary(happened when hubby walked in with a ladder once). Neither of them are clipped but they also can't fly, if they try they drop like rocks :(. So for the past almost two years, they have been allowed free roam of their cage, the door hasn't been closed once since. They usually even sleep on top of their cage, the only time they go in is to eat out of the bowl in there, their other food bowl and water is outside of the cage. It finally hit me last night when I looked at hubbs and said, why do they have a cage? He looked at me funny and said, what do you mean? I just figured if they are never locked in it and they don't really like going inside, why do they even have one? I know plenty of people that have macaws that live on a play gym, never being confined to a cage, why can't we do the same with our amazons? If two years has gone by and the door hasn't been closed once, doesn't it make more sense to just build them a big custom play stand to replace their cage? i feel like they would be more active and get more enjoyment out of a treestand with a flat ledge to sleep on if they want and a big enough base to keep them from pooping on the floor. Right now I have to put newspaper down on top of the hard wood because every time they poop they hang their butts over the edge of the cage and aim for the floor! Does anyone else have a setup like this for any of their birds? Is there any valid reason not to do this? We will be keeping their cage so if there is ever a need to confine them we still could but in the past two years that need has never come up. I'm going to start researching some ideas and draw up a plan for how to make their new playground house, the entire thing will be custom made to fit their needs and since we've had this long to observe them we have a good idea of what they like and what they don't. I really think they would be much happier this way though. What are all of your thoughts?
After walking around we spotted this pair of Red loreds, surrounded by screaming cockatoos and macaws looking just absolutely terrified. Their cage had two dowel rod perches, a food bowl with sunflowers and glass water bottle. The poor things didn't even have a bowl of water! The female's breast was plucked, her beak was severely overgrown and a bit mishapen and they both had bent, crippled toes from an obvious vitamin a deficiency. I asked him what the deal was with the amazons and he said, "oh them, I hate them." Apparently they belonged as pets to a woman who broke her hip and she begged and pleaded him to take them, I assume she thought he took much better care of his birds than he really did. He went on to tell me about how he hates amazons, never did say why but he really couldn't stand them. I reluctantly asked him what he would want for them and he said $300. Now to be honest, we didn't have that kind of money just laying around. I told him I would think about it and give him a call with our decision. We bought the cage we originally came for and left.
On the drive home my husband looked at me and said, ya know we really need to save those guys. I knew it just as well as he did but I just wasn't sure how we were going to come up with the extra money and I knew the guy wasn't going to just give them to us. I also knew reporting him would do no good, technically they all had shelter, food and access to water, as far as the state is concerned, that's all they need. Later that day a friend of ours called and offered to buy camper we had been trying to sell, you guessed it, for $300! It was the weirdest thing in all honesty but we both knew it was meant to be. I immediately called the guy up and said we would take them, we gave him $100 to hold them and told him we would have the other $200 in two weeks, that was the quickest we could get it. The next two weeks were agony, all I could think about was the look on these birds face, the way they stared at us, they were just pleading to get out of there, the noise from the cockatoos and macaws was deafening and I could tell it was slowly driving them mad. When the day finally came to pick them up I asked the man what their names were and how old they were. He told me he thought they were 6 and 8, male and female but he couldn't remember their names. This made me want to smack the guy even more, he already told me they were someones pets to begin with, I knew they had names, this guy just didn't care to take two seconds to find out what they were when he got them. I am also fairly certain by the extent of the damage to their toes and beak that they are way older than he said but they are not banded so I really have no way of knowing that.
Flash forward to now, they have been on a good diet, they will eat anything an everything I offer them. We waited awhile to name them, hoping they would tell us but that never happened so we named them Rasta and Reggie because of their red, green and yellow colors. Rasta's beak is still a bit misshapen, it short of reminds me of gonzo's nose from the muppets. She has had a few trims over the years and her beak is finally starting to look normal again. Their toes have straightened out a bit but I'm pretty sure they both have arthritis in their feet so some of that just isn't going to get better. Rasta still plucks her chest but it's something we've been working on and neither of them will touch toys although they have plenty to choose from.
Now that you have some background on them I will get back to why I made this thread in the first place. Knowing that they were locked in their cage for so long, they both seemed very anxious when we would try to make them go back in at night, they hated the door being closed behind them. When they are left out, they only stay on top of their cage, they NEVER come off of it unless something scares them, like walking in the room with something big and scary(happened when hubby walked in with a ladder once). Neither of them are clipped but they also can't fly, if they try they drop like rocks :(. So for the past almost two years, they have been allowed free roam of their cage, the door hasn't been closed once since. They usually even sleep on top of their cage, the only time they go in is to eat out of the bowl in there, their other food bowl and water is outside of the cage. It finally hit me last night when I looked at hubbs and said, why do they have a cage? He looked at me funny and said, what do you mean? I just figured if they are never locked in it and they don't really like going inside, why do they even have one? I know plenty of people that have macaws that live on a play gym, never being confined to a cage, why can't we do the same with our amazons? If two years has gone by and the door hasn't been closed once, doesn't it make more sense to just build them a big custom play stand to replace their cage? i feel like they would be more active and get more enjoyment out of a treestand with a flat ledge to sleep on if they want and a big enough base to keep them from pooping on the floor. Right now I have to put newspaper down on top of the hard wood because every time they poop they hang their butts over the edge of the cage and aim for the floor! Does anyone else have a setup like this for any of their birds? Is there any valid reason not to do this? We will be keeping their cage so if there is ever a need to confine them we still could but in the past two years that need has never come up. I'm going to start researching some ideas and draw up a plan for how to make their new playground house, the entire thing will be custom made to fit their needs and since we've had this long to observe them we have a good idea of what they like and what they don't. I really think they would be much happier this way though. What are all of your thoughts?