I was looking into fostering with local rescue

[Bebe'smom]

I have or been owned by birds for 30+ years. I was thinking of fostering for local rescue until the last couple weeks.
The beginning of this story starts about a month ago. There are several rescues in my area. One of them I donated a bunch of cages to prior to my moving here, a retirement community. The other one has alot more programs to help with nutrition, behavior and such for parrot owners. I sent email to them volunteering to foster for a cockatiel size bird, as I live apartment, and larger louder bird may not appreciated. Their response was "we are not looking for fosters for smaller birds at this time." Ok, jump 3 weeks, I get another email from rescue "we would like vet you for fostering please fill out the below application and return it to these address. After downloading the application. I found several of questions rather intrusive, especially my financial business. How much do you make in month? In year? How much do you spent on your bird in a month? A year? Landlord questions such if you rent does your residence allow pets? And does your landlord know that you are possibly fostering for us? Are you willing to use your home as adoption site for this foster?
The financial stuff really threw me for loop. I have always provided the best for my birds food and health wise. They eat better then i do at times.
I have volunteered before in a veterinarian clinic that ran a small rescue for birds out of clinic. I chose not to renew my barter contract with them. I paid all of my previous vet bills off with interest by volunteering and earned money to pay any future vet bills. The owner's son who was fresh out of college basically rip me off with charging twice the normal cost for single visit. There is another story in this but it's for another time.
There was phone number that if I wish to discuss the application I could call hmmm long distance phone number that isn't local. Big red flag to me.
Nope not going to do this.

 

[Laurasea]

I have found as I have heard others also discuss some rescues do seem to really overboard. I'm sure its because of issues they've had in the past.

If you are fostering, in my mind the rescue takes care of any medical issues with their vet.

 

[Bebe'smom]

Yes I pretty much knew that. Any of the birds that were at the clinic were taken care by avian vet there. Those of us that either volunteered to pay off vet bills or worked there with barter account after we paid off our vet bills saw the avian vet there also. The first avian vet there was ok but owner's son ripped several of us off. Then clinic closed suddenly. And was gone. It was very sad situation.

 

[Laurasea]

O wanted to rescue / adopt a collie once. I proved I owned my home had fenced yard vet reference everything. I chose tge one I was interested in. They contacted me and told me it would be to much dog for me. I said I could provide reference from shelter I volunteered at where I worked with aggressive dogs. Nope they would chose which dog I got, and if I was rescuing collies I should be happy with which ever one they chose for me( ?!?!??) I couldn't meet the dogs. They would just bring the one they chose fir me, with out ever meeting me? This wasn't foster, but to adopt and keep forever as my dog.

 

[Bebe'smom]

O wanted to rescue / adopt a collie once. I proved I owned my home had fenced yard vet reference everything. I chose tge one I was interested in. They contacted me and told me it would be to much dog for me. I said I could provide reference from shelter I volunteered at where I worked with aggressive dogs. Nope they would chose which dog I got, and if I was rescuing collies I should be happy with which ever one they chose for me( ?!?!??) I couldn't meet the dogs. They would just bring the one they chose fir me, with out ever meeting me? This wasn't foster, but to adopt and keep forever as my dog.

That is outrageous

 

[Cottonoid]

I don't have much experience with the bird rescues/fosters in Minnesota, but I've had equally disheartening contacts with dog rescues here. Also with a background in veterinary medicine and a long, well-documented history of providing well for my pets. I feel like there's something I'm not quite "getting" about the process that isn't making me an obvious superstar candidate when on paper I'm exactly who *I* would want for a "troubled" dog.

I'm sorry, Bebe'smom! I *know* there have got to be a lot of birds in our area that could use a home like yours to foster in right now, with most of the rescues closed to the public. That's unfortunate

 

[Bebe'smom]

The saddest thing is the fact almost of my birds have been rescues with tons of baggage that we have unpacked, worked thru and around and came to grips with. So I get how to work with troubled birds been there done that got the scars and T shirts to prove it. I guess I thought that fostering was about the love not the $$.$$.

 

[Squeeing_Onion]

The only rescue I've ever worked with personally is PAEP in Minnesota, as it was the one closest to where I live (and still is, last I checked!), and they were the only ones willing to actually talk to me!

When I was first looking to adopt, I contacted I think four or five different rescues in my state that weren't too crazy far away to drive, and filled out their forms. I remember that there were several I didn't qualify to adopt from, as they required people live within a certain distance of the rescue, and it didn't matter that I was willing to drive the distance and pay the gas. Some of them were incredibly strict and wanting to know super, super detailed information about my life, lifestyle, etc. I filled everything out. I was pretty impressed they were so protective of the parrots they had such an intensive adoption vetting process.

And then... I never heard back from ANY of them! I think they decided that I was too young, as there seems to be a pretty huge stigma that young people shouldn't have birds on principle. I was in my very early twenties (like, so early, I am pretty darn sure i may have been exactly twenty ), but I knew what I wanted, I had done over three months of research and had met parrots in person, and I was done with college and living on my own in my own house.

I finally took a drive and went to PAEP, a rescue I had come across online. I met them when they were in their first building next to a car mechanic's shop, they've since moved to a much larger and far more suitable building in Forest Lake, next to Forest Lake Pets store. The owner asked me what i knew about parrots, answered all my knowledge-hungry questions, let me meet different birds and find out what my comfort zone was... and then I met my first parrot bestie.

Who promptly got adopted by someone else, because I went home to research as I had, at the time, never even heard of a Sun Conure. Long story short, I got an email two weeks later from PAEP's owner telling me that the family who had adopted Chicken and the African Grey he was surrendered with, began by bringing the 'Grey home.... and decided they weren't going to be able to handle two birds making a Sun Conure's shriek. She made sure I had first dibs on adopting him, and he had several people on a waitlist interested in adopting. You can guess that I jumped on it ;P

So my first bird came from PAEP, and my other two I adopted directly from people looking to rehome their bird as I hadn't met any in the rescue I clicked with enough to take home. It's given me the impression that a fair number of birds who could go to a caring rescue, are being kept in poor conditions just because their current owner really wants to "get their money back" from buying the bird in the first place, instead of surrendering them to a rescue.

I think about rescue regulations fairly often. Some are so strict it seems like they would struggle to get any animals placed in good homes, to the point of overlooking perfectly hospitable and welcoming homes an animal would be very fortunate and welcomed to live in. Some aren't strict enough, and end up placing animals in homes that may not be in their best interest.

I'm interested in running a small parrot rescue someday, and I wonder at times how strict to be or not in the paperwork side of things.

 

[HeatherG]

After my sweet Lucy passed away two years ago, I checked out area bird rescues. Like cottonoid wrote about herself, I have a veterinary and zoology background and have owned a number of behaviorally or medically “difficult” birds. They e generally done very well for a long time, and become happy birds.

I learned from the rescue that I’d have extensive paperwork and would need to visit a bird, should I choose one, at least three times and submit the application and only then would I be CONSIDERED to adopt that bird for a substantial fee.

The rescue is an hour from my home, and I don’t have a car. A friend said “I’d go with you!” but it seemed like a recipe for a lot of work and then heartbreak if I could not take in the bird.

I don’t have a lot of money but I have an advanced biomedical and avian background and my birds get very very good care. If there’s an issue that I can’t manage myself, they go to the university’s small animal clinic and I figure out how I will pay. But except for a leg fracture in my very old Quaker, that is generally not needed. I can watch my birds so well… I think I’d be a really good home for many birds BUT all they see is “poor” and “lives in an apartment.” I’ve spent so many years of my life on or working with birds.

There should be some flex, but there isn’t. So I looked outside rescues and advertised on Craigslist until I found birds that would fit my household.

Grr. Mine is a bird-centered home.

 

[Squeeing_Onion]

After my sweet Lucy passed away two years ago, I checked out area bird rescues. Like cottonoid wrote about herself, I have a veterinary and zoology background and have owned a number of behaviorally or medically “difficult” birds. They e generally done very well for a long time, and become happy birds.

I learned from the rescue that I’d have extensive paperwork and would need to visit a bird, should I choose one, at least three times and submit the application and only then would I be CONSIDERED to adopt that bird for a substantial fee.

The rescue is an hour from my home, and I don’t have a car. A friend said “I’d go with you!” but it seemed like a recipe for a lot of work and then heartbreak if I could not take in the bird.

I don’t have a lot of money but I have an advanced biomedical and avian background and my birds get very very good care. If there’s an issue that I can’t manage myself, they go to the university’s small animal clinic and I figure out how I will pay. But except for a leg fracture in my very old Quaker, that is generally not needed. I can watch my birds so well… I think I’d be a really good home for many birds BUT all they see is “poor” and “lives in an apartment.” I’ve spent so many years of my life on or working with birds.

There should be some flex, but there isn’t. So I looked outside rescues and advertised on Craigslist until I found birds that would fit my household.

Grr. Mine is a bird-centered home.

There's a lot of people who think the logic of "if the cost is prohibitive, it will weed out those unwilling to commit the effort and finances to be able to provide, reliably, for the bird long-term."

I think it's so much more complicated than that.

I've seen big, rare birds people no doubt paid thousands and thousands of dollars for, still wind up in the rescue alongside budgies and finches. Being able to spend lots and lots of money doesn't qualify you to be a good animal caretaker.

I found both Bongo and Echo through Craigslist like you did, via posting a want-ad. It was rather shocking how many responses I got, I don't think I had either listing up for longer than a few days.

 

[HeatherG]

For me it was more that I’d have gotten a ride, come to visit, applied, and paid and I still might not get to bring the bird home with me. I wasn’t willing to disappoint myself when I was already really lonely and hurting and missing my bird.