https://www.preciselyparrots.com/blog.php?11-PlaxMacaws Parrot/Companion Bird Message Board Community: Source for information and advice on proper care of parrots and other pet birds. Exchange or obtain information on our community message board about bird food, training, toys, socialization, illness, and other aspects of owning companion birds. Topics for discussion may include feeding and recipes, behavior concerns, cage and playgym solutions, bird toys, flight, first aid, general health care, species information, and various problem solving issues. en Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:09:52 GMT vBulletin 60 https://www.preciselyparrots.com/images/misc/rss.jpg https://www.preciselyparrots.com/blog.php?11-PlaxMacaws https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?25-plax-blog-(8-30-14) Sat, 30 Aug 2014 21:15:12 GMT *Parrots! I absolutely adore them!!!* For me, parrots are the ultimate companions. They are by far my favorite creatures on the planet. They are... Parrots! I absolutely adore them!!!
For me, parrots are the ultimate companions. They are by far my favorite creatures on the planet. They are breathtakingly beautiful to observe, with their strikingly colorful plumage patterns. Even beyond that, each of these feathered marvels boasts forth with his or her uniquely exuberant personality. They are such unique individuals... and they are so very fun to be around!

Parrots are also known for their capacity to demonstrate plenty of loving affection and loyalty to their caregivers. They're as well quite humorous to watch much of the time because of their goofball antics . As if that weren't enough, many of these comical feathered characters can actually speak human words and phrases reasonably well - and in some cases they seem to do so in a surprisingly appropriate manner.

One additional factor is that parrots tend to enjoy relatively long lives. Hence, a parrot may be a wonderful choice to consider as a potential lifetime companion for certain folks.

Having stated the above, parrots are not for everyone. They're only for folks who feel a special, permanent affection for them... and, certainly, who are well equipped to properly meet their needs. The conditions that are necessary to meet before bringing a parrot into one's family, include: 1) Substantial knowledge of the living requirements for the particular species being considered. 2) A willingness to devote adequate time to the bird each and every day for its entire life. 3) An ability and willingness to engage in a plethora of ongoing maintenance efforts to keep the bird healthy and happy forever. 4) A commitment to provide an enormous amount of dedicated attention to the bird's social needs. 5) An ability and willingness to meet the sometimes significant expense involved in properly caring for the bird. 6) A willingness to provide and pay for regular medical care from a qualified avian veterinarian. And finally, 7) A commitment of unwavering, unconditional LOVE for the duration of the bird's long life!

I love my birds more than I can say! My guys have been with me for a long time and I'm sure I couldn't live without each of them. I consider them my family members as well as my best friends. While many folks who keep and love pet birds may not always get along with one another, it certainly doesn't mean that they love their birds any less than I love mine, or that their feathered companions are not cared for wonderfully. The world is a huge place within which there are many captive parrots who need and deserve lots of love and accommodation. I will always support those who provide such important elements to our feathered friends!

Parrots are amazing!!! ]]> PlaxMacaws https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?25-plax-blog-(8-30-14) https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?21-plax-blog-(8-29-14) Fri, 29 Aug 2014 16:11:04 GMT Disillusion ...it happens sometimes
There's someone I thought I knew who turned out to be an entirely different person. We had fought battles together, against those who had attempted to publicly condemn us and sadistically tarnish our character among peers. I defended her to the end from false claims crafted to destroy her reputation. I pledged to always be there for her, and she pledged support for my heartfelt views and values. On many occasions she expressed that she shared those views and values as well as my level of passion about them. Sadly, her passion in this regard was not sincere.

This formerly great friend expressed much gratitude for my commitment to stand by her, defending her reputation during times of plight. She as well seemed grateful for my ongoing moral support. She told me that she would not have survived one attacker's goal of inflicting significant social damage upon her if I had not stepped in. She thanked me for believing in her and told me that I was a wonderful friend. She said that she felt extremely fortunate to be able to count on my being there for her.

So what happened? As it turned out, this individual, whom I considered a tremendous friend, had been more interested in managing and participating among our social community than in adhering to the aforementioned views and values which she professed to hold. She in fact was, and continues to be obsessed with online social community functions. She is a master of social rapport, so most folks tend to enjoy her company and are inclined to believe in and support her. She uses this talent to surround herself with a multitude of individuals. Some of those folks are genuinely good people (if a bit misled). While others... well, not so much.

Ultimately, my former friend's allegiance to her collective of 'friends' is her priority. So much so that when confronted with a choice between upholding those previously mentioned views and values (which she claimed to share with me) or supporting a position taken by some of her 'friends' who had decided to obstruct my efforts to enforce said views and values on this message board, she chose a path of support for those 'friends', and further chose to enter a mode of denial concerning their obstructionist behaviors. I thus made the decision to terminate our partnership. In response, my former friend proceeded to vilify me. In so doing, she denied my honesty and the absolute accuracy I conveyed within my account of events.

Thinking about the ordeal, I can't say that this former friend of mine suddenly changed into what she has seemingly become. She was likely always this way within her core. I suspect that she had merely been humoring me for the function that I was facilitating related to her great need to possess her social following among our online community.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this situation has been my former friend's retaliatory technique. As an effort of apparent convenience, she has re-friended the two people that I diligently defended her from in the incident involving fraud and attempted character assassination upon her by one of them, and an effort to distribute the fabricated claims by the other. I'm inclined to think that she did this to build group opposition toward me, since she knew that both individuals harbored existing contempt for me. Through this re-friending effort on her part, she has effectively turned a blind eye to the very individuals who had attempted to libel her (behind her back)... the very individuals that I stood against for her, ultimately proving that she was innocent of the fraudulent allegations being spread to others. But apparently my former friend's priority is that these two individuals serve her interests well (as far as strengthening group solidarity against me). And by the way, one of these two individuals has already submitted a sarcastically hostile post on this forum site. It is directed at me and it is replete with exaggerated and inaccurate statements, as well as a great deal of sarcasm.

Yes, I am sad to say that these actions are as pathetic as they sound. I fear that anyone who would do such things may resort to worse measures.

As I'm sure you can see, I am one who tends to openly express and explain my disturbing experiences. It helps me cope. While doing so may not be the best social idea -since many folks are put off by what they consider "drama" or "negativity"- I refuse to bottle up such greatly upsetting issues within myself. Instead, I vent my feelings and try to explain my views and the reasons for them. I've been inclined as such for as long as I can remember.

This website is many things to me... one of them being an outlet for my feelings. Each of my threads relating to this particular matter has been posted to the forum category, 'Controversial Topics', which exists for this very type of communication. And just to be clear, while I will screen out posts containing hostile rudeness toward anyone, I won't screen out a member's heartfelt feelings or descriptions, even when they appear negative. Those who are not interested in posts like the ones I am speaking of may simply ignore the 'Controversial Topics' forum category.

More to come soon...

Disclaimer:
This is a personal weblog entry. Each description herein represents nothing more than my personal opinion based upon my own perspective. Therefore, no assumption should be made that any statements contained within this weblog entry are anything more than an expression of my own personal interpretations. ]]> PlaxMacaws https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?21-plax-blog-(8-29-14) https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?19-plax-blog-(8-28-14) Thu, 28 Aug 2014 19:25:42 GMT *Remembering a Friend* Terrie Morris was an amazing lady! I met her on the Internet (in a parrot chatroom) and we quickly grew very close. She had... Remembering a Friend
Terrie Morris was an amazing lady! I met her on the Internet (in a parrot chatroom) and we quickly grew very close. She had two wonderfully beautiful Macaws. And that element was our initial commonality, since I had three Macs of my own. For years, and almost on a daily basis, we spent hours conversing and sharing our worlds. But it all ended when Terrie suddenly passed away on May 12, 2012 :'(

I've never met another human being like Terrie! We shared so many views on so many topics. We had parallel sensitivities and concerns about life, people, and the world. The profound love each of us possessed for our Macaws meshed very well between us. I can honestly say that I've never had a better human friend than she.

Terrie suffered from a lifelong blood clotting disorder, so she was on a permanent regimen of blood-thinning medications. She knew the risks involved, both from her illness and from the blood thinners she was forced to use. As such, she was terribly worried about Salsa's future because none of her family members were prepared to care for him in the event such became necessary. And that's why she turned to me. Terrie's other Macaw, a female Blue & Gold named Mango, already had the promise of a permanent home. It was planned that if the worst were to occur, Mango would go on to live with Terrie's husband. He had agreed to provide exclusive care for Mango in the event of Terrie's incapacitation or passing. Upon Terrie's death, and per her wish, Salsa was shipped to the west coast to live with me.

Terrie will forever live on within my heart... and Salsa will always be one of my dearly cherished companions. I know that Terrie is very much alive within Salsa's heart as well. Each and every day, I hear Terrie in his voice and I sense her very being in his personality. Sals learned so much from her... they shared an unbelievable bond that can never be duplicated. I truly adore that big red guy!

Bird Forums
Prior to Terrie's death, I had never been a member on a parrot-related forum website. As such, I would typically only converse with my close friends about my birds (with the exception that from time to time I interacted with certain bird enthusiasts on some of the Yahoo! discussion groups). My general experience with forum site message boards came through various memberships that I held at a few non-avian forum communities. As far as other online parrot discussion experience, however, I had as well created a small parrot-related live chat system on one of my own web servers. It was within that very chat system that I met Terrie, as well as another very good bird-loving friend of mine (who resides in Australia), Danielle Bamforth.

Naturally, when I acquired Salsa in June of 2012, I was feeling the immeasurable loss of my special friend, Terrie - and to an enormous degree! I was certainly missing our frequent conversations about life with our beloved Macaws. Salsa's arrival was a bittersweet thing for me... but it was one weighing heavily on the very sad side :(. At the time, it seemed that increasing my bird-related interactions with folks online might help me cope a bit better. I felt it would be nice to become involved communicating with people who adored having parrots in their lives as much as I do, so I joined a couple of pet bird forum sites.

The parrot forum site where I ended up spending much of my online time turned out to be a double-edged sword (as it were). I made friends and felt generally accepted by the community there for a time. But the situation came to an abrupt halt once I challenged some unsafe bird practices that were being endorsed by certain members. I ultimately became banned from the website after I, and one of the site's own staff members, took it upon ourselves to create Precisely Parrots. Our main motivation to create a new parrot-related forum website was to promote bird safety practices among our new community, since management personnel at many of the existing pet bird forum sites tended not to treat this sorely needed protocol, or their obligation to implement and maintain it, as a priority.

More to come... ]]> PlaxMacaws https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?19-plax-blog-(8-28-14) https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?18-plax-blog-(8-27-14) Wed, 27 Aug 2014 23:55:25 GMT Introduction
I've decided to write a blog entry or two. I'm not sure that updating a blog will become an ongoing thing for me, but I'm willing to see where it goes from here. I hope that none of the things I write about will end up offending anyone too terribly. If any of them happens to do so, please accept my apology in advance. As some of you may know, I'm prone toward expressing my personal views and I have the habit of airing my passions and plights. All I can say is that's simply who I am.

About My Love for Parrots
I've adored parrots for as long as I can remember. When I was quite young, I kept Budgies and I once had a Half-moon (Orange-fronted) Conure. The first time I saw a parrot holding food with its foot -I must have been about 4 years old or so- I felt a powerful fascination emerging within me for these captivating, feather-clad, hook-faced characters with graspy feet and clownish personalities. It was from that point forward that I hoped to one day have a larger parrot in my life as a family member and best friend. My interest in and love for all parrots have never waned!


I present my 4 Macaws...

Jack (Blue & Gold Macaw)
My very first Macaw. He came to live with me in 1981. Jack is indeed a great bird! I purchased him from a pet store at a shopping mall and he's been a terrific friend ever since. Jack is a wild-caught, imported Macaw.

Maynard (Military Macaw)
I acquired Maynard in 1982 from a feed store where he was on display in a glass cabinet for sale. It broke my heart to see him there, afraid and screaming. I was living alone and working a lot, so I decided that Maynard would be great company for Jack when I was away. They formed a bond that was immeasurable. Twenty-three years later, Maynard would develop extreme hostility toward poor Jack and reject him. Maynard is as well a wild-caught, imported Macaw.

Zaffer (Hyacinth Macaw)
Zaf came into my life in 2005. His owner had passed away 18 months or so prior; the widow had placed Zaf in boarding at a veterinary clinic. He'd been living in a cage at the clinic for at least one year. The clinic staff never allowed Zaf out of his enclosure. They claimed that they were too afraid of him. To this day, it's so hard for me to imagine that :(. Zaf is the sweetest bird I've ever known. He's truly my best friend! While he does have a few emotional issues, we've successfully worked through many of them and we are continuing to deal with the others.

Salsa (Green-wing Macaw)
Sals belonged to my dear and cherished friend, Terrie Morris. Tragically, she passed away in May of 2012 from a brain hemorrhage. Terrie purchased Salsa at a bird fair in 2008. He was only a few months old when he came to live with her. She vetted him, hand-fed him, and loved him dearly. Salsa was her pride and joy! Terrie and I became the best of friends, despite living such a great distance from one another. She asked me if I would agree to adopt Salsa and love him forever in the event something were ever to happen that precluded her ability to care for him. I vowed to accommodate her request. The rest is history.

More to come soon... ]]> PlaxMacaws https://www.preciselyparrots.com/entry.php?18-plax-blog-(8-27-14)