Maybe dis hooman not so bad after all

So, just came home after a looong day, and when I walked into the room, George came forward to say hi. Any new sign that I'm earning their trust makes me so happy!!!

I've been continuing with the hand feeding. I try to do it twice a day. It's just the beginning of a long process, but every time I try, they hesistate less and less before they dig in to the millet, so that's definitely progress. 

They continue to be nice and active & seem like happy birds to me, which is incredible given what they've been through. They bounce around their cages and play and they LOVE chewing their toys...all good signs. Their appetites are still going strong, too. I admit, I was a bit nervous taking on 4 birds at once to rehabilitate, but everyday I see improvement. I have high hopes for these guys!

Day 2: hoomanz who give you seebs are good hoomanz

2nd full day in the House of Birbs and my first attempt at hand feeding has been a success! Behold:

And if pictures aren't enough, I also have video proof! 

I wasn't sure if I should attempt any hand feeding yet, but once I saw the birds were no longer immediately backing away when I put my hand up to the cage, I thought I'd give it a go. The first step to making a human hand inviting: put some MILLET in it. So that's exactly what I did. I started first with Ouiser and Clairee. I ever so slowly lifted the mini door on the front of the cage & put my millet-spray laden hand in there. They backed away a bit, but didn't hiss or show any signs of hostility, so I simply stood there motionless with the millet extended as far away from my fingers as I could get it while still holding it. 

The birdies were presented with a dilemma: hmmm...I want seed, but human is holding seed. I could see them both contemplating, then Ouiser very cautiously stretched her neck as far as it could go to maintain maximum distance from me & she took the tiniest nibble from the very tip of the millet. Then she moved a bit closer, ate a little more.... 

Once Clairee saw her cage mate's bravery, she too decided to test the waters, and before I knew it, both birds were eating from the spray. I very slowly pulled the millet further into my hand until the birds were both at my finger tips nomming away. At one point, it dawned on Clairee that there was a human attached to her seed, and she looked up and hissed and then sort of shrugged like "what the hell" and went back to busting a grub. 

My attempt at hand feeding George and Winston went much the same way, except these guys were a little more bold. They made contact with my fingers and didn't flinch. It wasn't intentional contact, of course, just a result of trying to get at the bits of millet spray that wound up between my fingers. Winston made more contact than George simply because of how he was positioned in the cage. 

I am so over the moon that they fell for my trick  came close enough to eat from my hand. My hope is to do this once a day with less and less millet until I can get them to physically perch on my hand and nibble a few berries from my palm. They need to associate human hands with something good to get them over their fear. This is a huge first step in that direction! 

First full day...Birbs have names!

After much debate and deliberation, each bird now has a name! My original hope was to name all 4 of them after the Golden Girls (I'm a Golden Girls fanatic...best damn show ever written, and I especially love Bea Arthur & her deadpan comedic genius...but I digress). My husband & sons shut that down as soon as I proposed it. Many names were proposed & rejected until we arrived at the following:

Meet George:

George is so named because my husband suggested it as a joke and my 8 year old (a  huge George Harrison fan( grabbed hold of it (like any good mother, I raise my kids to love the Beatles).

George is in the best condition out of our quartet. He has no big bald patches and he's the only one with a fully intact tail (the others have broken and/or missing tail feathers). He's just a bit dirty and skinny. He's also got the biggest mouth & likes to instigate whistle-offs that get the whole House of Birbs going.

Meet Winston: 

Winston was named by my 12 year old, who is a WW1 & WW2 history buff. I'm sure Churchill would be honored. 

Winston is George's cage mate. These 2 are very active-always climbing & chasing each other around. Winston is also fairly vocal, but usually it's in response to George's hooting and hollering. 

Meet Ouiser:

Pronounced "Weezah," I named her after one of my 2 favorite characters in Steel Magnolias (a movie I love so much, I can recite it word for word...I've only seen it a few zillion times.) 

Meet Clairee:

Clairee and Ouiser are cage mates. Clairee is my other favorite character in Steel Magnolias. Clairee and Ouisee are best friends who live to needle & nudge each other, which is exactly what these 2 birds do. They preen each other and cuddle & huddle to together, but they also do things like push each other off their perches (just like when Ouiser pushes Clairee off her bench after Clairee begs Ouiser's forgiveness for offering her up to M'Lynn in the iconic "Here hit this" scene). These 2 birds are fairly quiet and they're in the worst shape--neither of them have any tail feathers, they're both missing feathers on their faces, and their crests are ragged. Still, they're fairly active and playful and they both have good appetites.

The first full day with the birds was pretty easy. The birds, while cautious, are not hostile to my presence. When I was changing their paper and giving them fresh food and water, they didn't hiss or do the classic cockatiel "I'm about to bite" stance with the open mouth & the flattened crest. They backed away when they saw me open the little doors to their food and water cups, but that was it. I assured them in a soft voice that I didn't want to hurt them and I told them what I was doing the whole time. 

My hope is that frequently talking to them calmly will help put them at ease. I am happy to see they don't back away when I approach the cage and I love the way they sort of just check me out and tilt their heads as I talk to them. It's only when my hand goes beyond the bars of the cage to retrieve the cups that they get a little nervous. I just want them to feel comfortable with people moving and living around them and so far, they are. They dont seem to be angry or inherently grumpy little birds, they've just been through a lot and they need some TLC to get over that.

Henlo I have new birbs

I have not kept a blog in years, but I just rescued 4 cockatiels and I thought a blog would be a great way to track their progress. Here's their backstory:

  The cockatiels came out of a situation of hoarding and neglect--they were part of a group of 38 cockatiels that were surrendered to Worcester Animal Rescue League in MA. The birds were all found stuffed into a single cage.  The shelter took them in, had them all medically evaluated & split them up into pairs. I found out about them when I saw the shelter post about it on Facebook. My heart instantly went out to the poor little guys and I contacted the shelter with my interest in fostering and adopting

I am an avid parrot lover. I have a cockatiel named Vashti, and a budgie named Lucy (she was once part of a flock of 4 budgies, but her friends passed and she's the last old lady left). I've also volunteered at parrot sanctuaries. They are such fascinating creatures--highly intelligent, playful, sensitive, and beautiful. They are also very misunderstood pets.

 Parrots are constantly being surrendered to shelters because the people who take them on have no idea how much of a handful they are. They require as much attention and stimulation as human children. When they don't get the attention they need, they become destructive to the point of self mutilation.

Cockatiels especially get purchased by people who don't know how to care for them because they are relatively inexpensive and they are marketed by pet stores & breeders as "good starter birds." There is no such thing as a "starter bird." All birds, no matter how big or small, require the same level of love, stimulation, and attention.

I'm so happy these cockatiels fell into the hands of this wonderful shelter. Once the cockatiels were medically cleared and I was available to come pick them up, I made my up to Worcester--which is about an hour and a half away from me. I was amazed at how helpful and generous the folks at Worcester Animal Rescue League were. They sent the birds home in cages with food, toys, vitamins...everything they would need to get started in their new home. It took some creative space managing to get both cages into my car for the journey back to CT, but other than that, the transport went off without a hitch.

3 of the cockatiels are white faced lutinos (often called albino cockatiels, but that's a misnomer since they're not true albinos, but the result of the mating of lutino and whiteface gray tiels) and one is a lutino--all impossible to sex visually (vets usually have to do DNA tests on these birds to determine males & females). It's reasonable to believe these guys are related and inbred since they were all kept together. They are all in rough shape--ratty, broken feathers, and big bald spots. While lutino tiels can sometimes have bald patches behind their crests (a result of how the mutation was originally bred), these birds are bald in several different places and missing their tail feathers because of crowding.

These guys are not socialized and very wary of humans for obvious reasons. The goal right now is simply to get them healthy--feed them & give them water and vitamins to get their weight up and help their feathers grow back. I stand at the cage and talk to them in a soft voice as I go about the house just so they get used to having loving people around them giving them attention. They're already showing promise, climbing and playing in their cages, and eating and drinking well. My hope is that their health is fairly good and they're just looking ragged because they were on top of each other for all of their lives. The lutino is the most vocal, which leads me to think it might be a male since male tiels tend to run their mouths more than females (my male tiel who I've had for 5 years sings, wolf whistles, and talks).

Here are some pics of the birds paired up in the cages the shelter gave me. The 2 white faced lutinos in the bottom pic love to preen each other. I'm so excited to start helping to get them healthy and happy!