Birds Adopted From A Rescue

I have been to a rescue and feel very bad about them being there. From what I have learned about rescues, I would never put my bird in one. Many scream, pluck, or are very aggressive. I do not believe these birds get enough one on one attention to rehabilitate them from these bad habits.

I would be interested in learning from those who have worked with rescues what the success rate is in rehabilitating them from screaming, plucking, or being aggressive. I would also like to learn how many adoptions have been successful long term. I used to be an advocate of rescues into I learned how the one in Atlanta operated.

I think the public should know the good and bad things about rescues before becoming involved so birds are not returned.

How many members actually got birds from a rescue and what is your experience with the rescue and how has the bird been since it has been in your possession?

I guess there's lots of different situations and different birds. Sometimes folks give me sanctuary birds, can't rehome,sell, trade,breed, etc. Me and my flock are their forever home. Without exception these are sweet, loving companion birds who need a home.Their owners keep in touch and really appreciate updates,stories and vids. They help out(sometimes ) with vet bills. Many folks give me rescue birds, most don't care what happens with them and i rarely ever hear from those folks again. Almost without exception these birds have loads of behavioral issues and are a real handful.It's very hard to find homes for zons you can't handle. I don't know how rescues tame down these aggressive/ fearful birds. For me it takes years and tons of time. I fear most zons from rescue aren't good companion birds when the new owner takes them home. It takes someone with some bird savvy to make them good pets. IMO most rescues are dependent on a 501 C tax exemption and donations.I'm not sure the whole system is right but i know education is the best answer. Sorry for the rant. I realize i got a touch off topic.

It's funny you should mention education in your post. You hit the nail on the head with society's problem with exotic birds. People think how cool it would be to have a bird and obtain one by whatever means without learning about exotic bird behavior and what is necessary to maintain one properly for good physical and mental health. Thirty or so years ago, I brought home a yellow nape and didn't have a clue on what it needed other than seed and water. The pet store didn't teach me anything on it's care or what it needed to be a good member of the family. I am sad and ashamed to say that I had to rehome the bird for the safety of my children. If I knew then what I know today, I would still own the bird.

I started this thread because Boysmom and I have become aware that many birds from an Atlanta area rescue have been returned. Why? Our guess is because the new owners are not educated how to deal with their bird's baggage after the initial 30 days have passed or reality sets in and the adopters don't want to deal with it after all.

For example, a person who has never owned an exotic bird took home an umbrella cockatoo from the rescue. In less than 30 days, this bird was returned and the rescue posted on its website that this bird will be used only for educational purposes and considered a sanctuary only bird. Cockatoos from this rescue are the worst screamers and pluckers. I have seen this for myself while attending an open house. Why would anyone approve a cockatoo to a self-proclaimed newbie? What was this adoption committee thinking? As it turns out, this adopter was able to try again with a different bird. We will see how this turns out.

I find it interesting that a bird club works closely with this rescue, but not a single member of the bird club admitted to adopting a bird through the rescue. The board of directors of the club is the adoption committee and the rescue volunteers are members of the club, but NOT ONE acquired a bird through the rescue that they sponsor. Boysmom and I are just flabbergasted with this revelation. Maybe it's because the birds are not being rehabilitated after all? How does one caretaker spread his/her time with 83 or more birds on a daily basis with cleaning, feeding, conducting clerical duties and still have a life? It's not possible so the birds have issues that have not been resolved and go home with new unsuspecting owners.

The public needs to be aware that unless rescue birds have been fostered in real home situations and handled regularly, the birds will not fit into their family lifestyle. In real home situations, they are exposed to other people and animals and can adjust allowing the true personality of the bird to shine. Birds in a rescue are just kept in cages with limited outside time and human interaction.

After following the rescue out of Atlanta through Facebook, I am convinced this rescue is a hoarder in disguise. Even if you are qualified to adopt a bird because you have prior experience or knowledge, the rescue seems to find a way to make the adoption process a failure.

I am still interested in hearing from forum members who successfully went through the adoption process and how the bird turned out since then. It would be nice to hear stories with happy endings.

Wow. Interesting posts. I work with a rescue and we do have a sanctuary where many birds are housed. Most of them are macaws and cockatoos with the occasional amazon. I agree that many of the birds in the sanctuary are not going to be good companions. However, I have seen birds that people thought couldn't be rehomed revert back to the loving companions they were or could have been, with a lot of work and patience. Yes, the birds, like the ones we've had at our house are easier in most cases to find a home for since they have been well socialized. I know that the people at our sanctuary are always looking for foster homes and that a majority of the foster homes become permanent residences. (I will admit that unless someone can show me that they can take care of the sulpher crested we are fostering, he will probably be with us forever.) It is always hard for me to let a parrot go that we are fostering, but I've helped some remarkable people fulfill their dreams of being a forever companion to some pretty remarkable birds that were given up on by others. I also agree with those in here that state that someone considering a parrot should be well educated before they take on such a huge responsibility. We have a screening process that may be considered a bit much for people who want to adopt, but it weeds out the uneducated and the preditors (resellers and breeders). No disrespect to reputable breeders intended. If you are looking for a companion, please consider adoption. Thanks.

I can totally see why some rescues & sancuaries wouldn't be good.

I personally love my local parrot rescue, they only do fostering and a limited amount of birds are in each home to make sure they get the attention they need. They have nearly 500 birds right now and a dedicated following of supporters, and volunteers, and of course foster parents. They are very thorough about checking each foster home. Many people complain they are too fierce about their selection after being rejected, but people forget this is all about the birds welfare not the fun of fostering them.

Different rescues do things differently.

Some will keep their birds in cages and this can be disastrous for one to two people who receive in more birds than they can adopt out. Cleaning and feeding all those birds can be exhausting!

Some incorporate aviaries for their birds, which makes cleaning and caring for the birds so much easier! You don't have to clean single cages, just one big enclosure that houses multiple parrots!

Some rescues are only operated by one or two people working out of their home. Some operate out of a large building with multiple people working to take care of and interact with the birds. Some don't have a personal building, but they do work out of their home, and they also have foster homes and volunteers helping them out.


Birds are better off if they enjoy interaction with humans but are independent birds rather than being so dependent on humans that they can't function being alone.

Thanks for responding, but still waiting for those who actually adopted from a rescue organization. I am pretty sure we have members who have, but would like some feedback.

I think there's a misunderstanding about sanctuaries and rescues. Rescues rehome birds, sanctuaries don't. You can not adopt birds from a sanctuary. A lot of "rescues" will use the word sanctuary, but it's not true. Sorry 'i'll quit posting while your waiting for replies from folks who gotten birds though a rescue.

OK I have to tell my side of this story. Merlee found this rescue as it is governed by the bird club we were looking into joining, so we started looking at the adoptable birds on the rescue's facebook page. I decided to put in an application a week prior to our visit to the monthly open house. This rescue is ran out of a woman's 2 story home, and she alone cares for the birds, with the exception of the occasional volunteer from the bird club. We visited and I fell in love with a plucked Ekkie male. He just kissed me the entire time we were at the rescue. I spoke to the rescue owner and voiced my interest in this sweet guy. I was told he was quite and quite the kisser, but that there were 2 others with interest in him and that they would have to be notified before I could move forward on adopting him. After 3 weeks I finally had my home visit and passed it with flying colors. After 2 more weeks I emailed to see what the hold up was, but was never replied to. I emailed all the board of directors to seek a reply, and received a telephone call. Now take in mind others who had applied the day we visited had already taken birds home by this time, so I was begining to become frustrated. The rescue owner emailed me back finally stating that I couldn't adopt the Ekkie because she felt he would make Ruby hormonal, and that I should consider a grumpy perch potato amazon that has been there for many years. This bird refused to eat anything but seed. I did say I would consider it. After a few more weeks with no contact, The board told me that 4 out of the 5 voted to allow me to adopt , but the one holding out was due to the fact that I was an outdoor smoker. He told me it WAS NOT the intention of the rescue to ever adopt out a bird, and that if left up to the owner, no birds would ever be adopted out. So why hold open house to entice adopters ? After 2 and a half months and jumping through many, many hoops and personally meeting with and talking to all board members, plus another visit to open house, I finally received an email telling me I could adopt any bird I wanted. By this time I had already taken in a Lilac crown amazon that I had been back and forth with her previous owner with for 6 months. So I simply didn't respond to the email. This rescue is a hoarder situation and almost every bird out of 83 I counted is plucked badly. Many are aggressive and never leave their cages. It is so loud that they offer ear plugs to visitors at open house. This woman also boards and does rehab for behavior problems for outside people. I would NEVER send my bird there for boarding, as it would def come home with issues or screaming. Over half of the 83 birds there are all cockatoos, and probably 40 % of the rest are all greys. I personally spoke to the woman adopting the U2, that returned it, and she told me she had never as much as owned a budgie before, and had only applied for adoption 2 weeks prior, but I witnessed her leave that open house with the U2. This board makes very poor decisions regarding adopting.

I may have left out some detail, and if I did Merlee will surely post them, as she went through this horribly, stressful situation alongside me. She kept me sane through this for sure ! I consider her my Best friend and value our friendship greatly. All she has posted about this rescue is true by our personal account.

I spoke with Denise about this rescue, even looked it up. Without an ounce of doubt is she a hoarder!!

You wonder why they have 'open House" every month? It's not to find homes for the birds, it's to bring in donations!
I won't adopt out zons that aren't good pets, I want folks to visit them and see if they "click". It's crazy to push aggressive birds on newbies. What does that solve?

I'm wondering what kind of bird club would want to be affiliated with a hoarder that has an unhealthy environment for these poor birds!

WannaBeAParrot said:

I'm wondering what kind of bird club would want to be affiliated with a hoarder that has an unhealthy environment for these poor birds!

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Many bird club members are hoarders themselves. When your number of large birds gets over 10 you need to stop and take a hard look at what you are doing. I am not saying that everyone with more then 10 is hoarding, but if they are stuffed into your basement/outbuilding and its now a "chore" to care for them...

I'm afraid it's a "feel good" thing. The folks from the club are trying to do something right, they just don't understand everything that is involved. Sorry Merlee for stealing your thread.

Boysmom got all the details out correctly. The one thing that was not mentioned and absolutely blew our minds is that the rescue operator also personally owned 6 birds and kept them mixed in with the rescues. I think that qualifies her as a hoarder. lol.

I have to say in the rescue's behalf, each bird had toys in its cage, received fresh fruits and vegetables daily, and most were fed Harrisons pellets. There were a few who refused to convert from seed to pellet.

Richard, you are always welcome to post on any of my threads. We may not always agree, but it's all good. lol. I never thought that the open houses were just designed just to bring in donations. If that is the case, this lady has it made.

In one of the e-mails that Boysmom received from the rescue, it was mentioned that its PRIMARY mission was not to find homes for the birds in the rescue. We were just shocked from that because everybody associates rescues with rehoming unwanted birds. Maybe another reason for open house is to socialize the birds because one person cannot do it all alone.

I am really surprised that no successful adopters have come forward since the original post. What does this tell you?

I did rescue a bird from a horrible so called rescue. If you google "wings over the rainbow" Dayton Ohio, you will see what happened. She was/probably still is a hoarder. She ran this rescue out of a store front, she also slept in a room in the middle of this place with her husband and dog. When you walked into the place it smelled so bad that your eyes would burn. She had hundreds of birds all over the place. She told different stories about what happened to each bird, many plucked. When I walked in she handed me a lilac crown amazon that she told me had just come in. I had heard from many, many people that she wouldn't let any of the birds go to people to be rescued. In fact I asked about several badly plucked but very sweet birds, she kept telling me they were unadoptable. For some reason she did let me visit with this lca. I am a germaphobe so this place was my worst nightmare. I would sit outside with the lca. Her wings were clipped by this woman so short she couldn't do anything but drop like a rock. She also had a big bulge on the side of her neck. Of course this woman did not vet any of her birds. I went back and visited with this bird on three separate occasions, she was as sweet as can be. I knew that this was a bird that needed rescuing/vetting. I was allowed to take the bird home for a weekend (with a $100 non refundable deposit) I took her home with her filthy cage. I gave her a bath, and bleached out the cage. I then took her to an avian vet. We took care of the bulge on her neck, ran tests etc. Well a lot of money later I decided that this bird had to stay away from this woman and I paid for her and took her home. I want to add that after cleaning her cage and giving her a shower I placed her on top of her cage, when I went to pick her back up she started screaming at me and attacking me. Once I finally got her into her cage, I was unable to get her back out. I got a lot of help from henpecked when she first came to us. I worked with her a lot, she became a very nice bird. She allowed me to eventually take her out of her cage. She would speak after getting covered at night. She seemed to like me but not anyone else in the family. I really felt good about her progress. About a year and a half after getting her I had some people in my home for a party. One of the women that came was a young single mother. She had a good job and was able to properly care for a parrot however the 800 plus price tag for one was a bit of a stretch for her. She had wanted one for a long time, as a former single mom I could understand that its hard to part with that amount of money. When she walked over to my lca's cage Kiwi perked up. She climbed down off the playtop to get as close to this girl as she could. She started talking to her and making all kind of noises. She allowed her to pick her up. Up until then only I could handle her. I wondered if it was just the party that she was acting unusually. I invited this girl to my house several more times. Everytime she came Kiwi just got so excited and seemed so animated (the way an amazon should be) I decided that Kiwi picked out her human. She liked me but not in that way. I felt like this bird deserved to be as happy as she could be. Well I let this woman have her and we are now friends. They have the best relationship and Kiwi is doing great! I knew when I got her that I probably would try and rehabilitate her and find her a forever home.
I'm sorry for the long post but I do think that many many of these rescuers are hoarders. Not all certainly. This woman was, She has also done so many other reprehensible things I cannot even tell you! I would love to find a rescue to get a bird from, I enjoyed working with Kiwi and would love to find one that would like a forever home with us. However, there are not any around here. If you find a good rescue I think it is a great idea, however they are not easy to find.

I have done some volunteer work for a local rescue that deals primarily with small breed dogs. Occasionally, they may have a medium sized dog, but it's mostly small dogs. They also do birds, ferrets, rabbits, sugar gliders and miniature pot bellied pigs. This rescue operates out of a few different homes with the animals divided through the foster homes and the rescue founder's home. I've never seen any of their homes, only the building they have done fostering out of which is also to help bring in donations.

Animals appear healthy, except for dogs brought in with health issues. Those with health issues get medical care when the funds are available. One small poodle needed *major* dental work, another pug mix required surgery to remove an eye (idiot kids forced eyes open before they were ready to open), another dog received multiple medications to try and resolve a skin issue which is believed to be linked to allergies.

Some dogs are adopted same day as they put in their application as long as their home-check is clear, others may take several days before their adoption is approved, usually based on when a home-check can be approved.



No, I've never adopted from a rescue. I've adopted from people who have done their own fostering of birds but they themselves are not rescues. Jayde and Charlie both came from different homes where they were being fostered by owners who just wanted to get them out of the situation they were in. One from a pet store and the other from a breeder who had a bird they bred returned to them. It's not that these places were bad, just that the birds were not thriving where they were at.

Guess you could say that's the closest I've come. I was going to adopt a conure through my local bird club, but I ended up not getting the bird because I was too afraid that I'd upset the bird by adopting the bird, getting him home, then immediately moving after that. I wasn't comfortable with that situation. When next I inquired about the bird (after having moved and getting settled in), I never received a response.... only to later learn that the bird had passed away.

When we asked about fostering at the open house, we were told they would never allow the birds there to be fostered in a home. Merlee is correct that they all had toys, but they were all plastic toys that couldnt really be chewed to destroy, I believe it helps to prevent some feather plucking when they can destroy something other than their feathers. They do have a donation jar at open house and they sell toys now that the owner makes and some donated books also. The club stepped in to take over the adoption process due to the fact that the owner never approved anyone, as no one met her standards. Yes she did have 6 personal birds mixed in with the rescue birds, plus her son and daughter ( neither live in the house ) each had a personal bird there also. We do know that the birds are all well vetted by a reputable avian vet at least. She does take good care of the birds, but IMO she is a hoarder and the adoption process is very flawed, as they make up the rules as they go along for different people.

Richard, The Zon they tried to push on me was VERY aggressive. On my second visit I spent a lot of time visiting this Zon. When a board member opened his cage he tried to take a her fingers off and when I tried with him he did the exact same thing.

I know for a fact that the Ekkie I was interested in had been there for over 3 years and had already been adopted and returned once.

On the rescue facebook page currently, a woman adopted a cockatiel and decided she didn't want it. She was allowed to adopt it to her aunt, who is having problems with it and wants to return it. Their policy is that you can return a adopted bird at any time, no questions asked. Yet the owner posted on FB that this aunt can not return the cockatiel.

WOTR web site is still up and they are still taking donations...

Boysmom said:

When we asked about fostering at the open house, we were told they would never allow the birds there to be fostered in a home. Merlee is correct that they all had toys, but they were all plastic toys that couldnt really be chewed to destroy, I believe it helps to prevent some feather plucking when they can destroy something other than their feathers. They do have a donation jar at open house and they sell toys now that the owner makes and some donated books also. The club stepped in to take over the adoption process due to the fact that the owner never approved anyone, as no one met her standards. Yes she did have 6 personal birds mixed in with the rescue birds, plus her son and daughter ( neither live in the house ) each had a personal bird there also. We do know that the birds are all well vetted by a reputable avian vet at least. She does take good care of the birds, but IMO she is a hoarder and the adoption process is very flawed, as they make up the rules as they go along for different people.

Richard, The Zon they tried to push on me was VERY aggressive. On my second visit I spent a lot of time visiting this Zon. When a board member opened his cage he tried to take a her fingers off and when I tried with him he did the exact same thing.

I know for a fact that the Ekkie I was interested in had been there for over 3 years and had already been adopted and returned once.

On the rescue facebook page currently, a woman adopted a cockatiel and decided she didn't want it. She was allowed to adopt it to her aunt, who is having problems with it and wants to return it. Their policy is that you can return a adopted bird at any time, no questions asked. Yet the owner posted on FB that this aunt can not return the cockatiel.

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The Ekki and Amazon have been at the rescue for 3 years which is exactly now long it has been open. We both were told that these birds had great personalities and could be handled. Boysmom was told the Ekki was not a screamer and I was told the amazon was hand tame once he got to know you. At the second open house, she learned that none of this was true. For being at the rescue for that length of time, they should have been able to go to new homes from all the attention received via rehabilitation.

Yes, the owner disallowed fosters because she didn't feel they could take care of the birds as well as she. I feel this is so wrong because birds are supposed to have 1-4 hours outside of their cage a day. How does one do this with 84 birds in the house? What about the birds she personally owns? Which birds get preference? A rescue or your own?

I am glad to read at least one bird had a happy ending!