Hey guys!
Was originally going to wait to post an intro until we had finished our original plan, joined to lurk and ask some questions until then... Well don't plans change!!
The ORIGINAL plan was move to BACK to Canada and get settled in, once settled and stable in our jobs THEN get a bird (CAG) we literally decided for sure on a CAG the other night. Do all the basics pick out everything we want so we can watch for sales to buy the "big ticket items" (good cage, preferably stainless etc) joined the forum to ask some questions about greys and find out if the vet my professor refered me too (and had him teach the exotic animals and birds classes) was still working, lurk around and read stories on training problems and solving them etc.
Until today. Being a vet "assistant" (comparatively the course I took I could do equivalency for tech but didn't want to pay the extra when I knew I could never work at a vets office, so I'm an assist + extra courses lol) I get calls at least once a year about some kind of animal needing help, or knocks on the door, or horses tied to the fence and gate at the driveway. SOOO today I got one of "those" messages, it was my friends day off, her boss text her (she works at a pet SUPPLY store, they don't have any animals on site they do keep a book of current adoptions etc for local shelter) someone stormed in with a cockatiel, he hadn't even had it a month "it's not a friendly bird" argued a bit left the box with the bird on the counter and left. Her boss text her she text me (because she knows I'm a sucker for the homeless lol) and voila my husband gets home from the chiropractor and get met with a "we have to go I'll explain on the way!" Our son who is three was waiting and telling his dad to "HURRY UP A BIRD A BURD!!" That was when he knew... But at this point in our marriage he just accepts that we will one day live in a zoo and doesn't bother to argue with my crazy. LOL.
We get there, we have NO cage at home I have a few toys in the closet that I got online for the rabbit (he outgrew them too quickly he's a Flemish giant lol) and that was it.
So grab the bird, grab a few things from there, hop over to another store for a decent cage (I'm a the bigger the better type of person on caging) all in all NOT including gas or the two meals we had to buy because of the distance from home we spent $426 (my hair/spa day will have to wait till next payday, my hairdresser was more than happy to reschedule when I told her why lol) another 80 spent online to buy the things I couldn't find in store that I wanted, and BAM we have a cockatiel.
Get home get her cage set up full her one dish with water, put her in the cage, my husband looked like he was going to cry, he does NOT like small birds but she was completely and totally terrified! Even me just adding a small amount of pellets and a couple nutri-berries made her freak like something was going to kill her. She spent 90% of the time shaking like a leaf in the wind and 10% screaming and flapping around. She finally settled into a corner and sat there shaking some more. Borrowed a video baby monitor from my neighbor and set it up beside the cage to keep an eye and make sure she at LEAST drank something because they tried at the store and she wouldn't touch anything.
After about 40 minutes she finally drank some water
Another 15 minutes pass and she slowly inched across to the food and ate a nutriberry
Minor freak out as she scrambled back to the top perch by the window because the dog barked (neighbor checking me to see how she was doing so of course he has to bark lol)
You could hear her every once in a while trying to talk to the birds outside, I'm 99% sure this bird has never been properly handled by a human. I'm guessing it's a pet store purchase that originally came from a bird mill, everything terrifies her.
Her feet were filthy (it was dimming outside and I didn't want to use flash to try and get a picture) so we misted it a bit which it seemed to enjoy, I don't think that guy ever cleaned the perches in the cage it's feet were gross so I aimed for them the most and made sure it was misted a bit, the whole few hours we've had it misting is the only time it didn't shake and act horrified that I was standing there. (I held the bottle high above at first so it just gently fell over and around it, and it really seemed to like it) once I knew it wouldn't freak from the water I came in closer and really gave its feet a good soak, a lot of the dirt came off from that thankfully, tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get a ceramic dish with some water in the cage to see if it will take a bath on its own.
Going to have a lot of questions with this little one, while I've worked bird rescue before it was mainly all large species or lovebirds (which I owned myself) so now I get to learn a whole new species from one of the weirder ways I've obtained a rescue (I won't lie normally people I know I jut up at my door with what needs help so getting a call about one through some from someone else was a new one for a not work situation lol)
Here is hoping for success with this little one!
Cheers!
Was originally going to wait to post an intro until we had finished our original plan, joined to lurk and ask some questions until then... Well don't plans change!!
The ORIGINAL plan was move to BACK to Canada and get settled in, once settled and stable in our jobs THEN get a bird (CAG) we literally decided for sure on a CAG the other night. Do all the basics pick out everything we want so we can watch for sales to buy the "big ticket items" (good cage, preferably stainless etc) joined the forum to ask some questions about greys and find out if the vet my professor refered me too (and had him teach the exotic animals and birds classes) was still working, lurk around and read stories on training problems and solving them etc.
Until today. Being a vet "assistant" (comparatively the course I took I could do equivalency for tech but didn't want to pay the extra when I knew I could never work at a vets office, so I'm an assist + extra courses lol) I get calls at least once a year about some kind of animal needing help, or knocks on the door, or horses tied to the fence and gate at the driveway. SOOO today I got one of "those" messages, it was my friends day off, her boss text her (she works at a pet SUPPLY store, they don't have any animals on site they do keep a book of current adoptions etc for local shelter) someone stormed in with a cockatiel, he hadn't even had it a month "it's not a friendly bird" argued a bit left the box with the bird on the counter and left. Her boss text her she text me (because she knows I'm a sucker for the homeless lol) and voila my husband gets home from the chiropractor and get met with a "we have to go I'll explain on the way!" Our son who is three was waiting and telling his dad to "HURRY UP A BIRD A BURD!!" That was when he knew... But at this point in our marriage he just accepts that we will one day live in a zoo and doesn't bother to argue with my crazy. LOL.
We get there, we have NO cage at home I have a few toys in the closet that I got online for the rabbit (he outgrew them too quickly he's a Flemish giant lol) and that was it.
So grab the bird, grab a few things from there, hop over to another store for a decent cage (I'm a the bigger the better type of person on caging) all in all NOT including gas or the two meals we had to buy because of the distance from home we spent $426 (my hair/spa day will have to wait till next payday, my hairdresser was more than happy to reschedule when I told her why lol) another 80 spent online to buy the things I couldn't find in store that I wanted, and BAM we have a cockatiel.
Get home get her cage set up full her one dish with water, put her in the cage, my husband looked like he was going to cry, he does NOT like small birds but she was completely and totally terrified! Even me just adding a small amount of pellets and a couple nutri-berries made her freak like something was going to kill her. She spent 90% of the time shaking like a leaf in the wind and 10% screaming and flapping around. She finally settled into a corner and sat there shaking some more. Borrowed a video baby monitor from my neighbor and set it up beside the cage to keep an eye and make sure she at LEAST drank something because they tried at the store and she wouldn't touch anything.
After about 40 minutes she finally drank some water
Another 15 minutes pass and she slowly inched across to the food and ate a nutriberry
Minor freak out as she scrambled back to the top perch by the window because the dog barked (neighbor checking me to see how she was doing so of course he has to bark lol)
You could hear her every once in a while trying to talk to the birds outside, I'm 99% sure this bird has never been properly handled by a human. I'm guessing it's a pet store purchase that originally came from a bird mill, everything terrifies her.
Her feet were filthy (it was dimming outside and I didn't want to use flash to try and get a picture) so we misted it a bit which it seemed to enjoy, I don't think that guy ever cleaned the perches in the cage it's feet were gross so I aimed for them the most and made sure it was misted a bit, the whole few hours we've had it misting is the only time it didn't shake and act horrified that I was standing there. (I held the bottle high above at first so it just gently fell over and around it, and it really seemed to like it) once I knew it wouldn't freak from the water I came in closer and really gave its feet a good soak, a lot of the dirt came off from that thankfully, tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get a ceramic dish with some water in the cage to see if it will take a bath on its own.
Going to have a lot of questions with this little one, while I've worked bird rescue before it was mainly all large species or lovebirds (which I owned myself) so now I get to learn a whole new species from one of the weirder ways I've obtained a rescue (I won't lie normally people I know I jut up at my door with what needs help so getting a call about one through some from someone else was a new one for a not work situation lol)
Here is hoping for success with this little one!
Cheers!
