noblemacaw
New member
- Sep 23, 2011
- 1,056
- 3
- Parrots
- Valentino - Red Fronted Macaw - Hatched August 12, 2012
On March 11th I packed up Valentino's favorite toys, food, his security and bonding blankets and extra perches and then started our road trip out to Fort Wayne Indiana. I used my best biggest travel cage for Valentino and draped a light colored blanket over the carrier to help give him some security.
At first Valentino would pace back and forth on the perch and was making small noises. After about an hour he began to SCREAM. I was still on I-94 coming up on the I-94/I-90 bypass when I pulled over to a rest stop. I was stressing out so much I went into the restroom and cried. My sister traveled with me for companionship so I would not have to travel out there alone and I was glad she was with me. Her help was invaluable. I know the screaming was stressing her as well but with me they tend to trigger me because of the pain and the migraine that was growing.
I pulled back out onto the highway and the screaming continued. Finally I could not take it anymore so I turned up the volume of the music (I was playing my Ipod) so loud I drowned out the volume of the screams. Valentino quieted down before a very loud song ended. Every time he began screaming I cranked up the volume until he quieted then turned volume back down to a acceptable level.
As long as I played music he remained quiet. I believe after he realized he was not going to get his way and be let out of the carrier he stopped screaming. He was quiet while I stressed drove though Chicago. I got to the area around 12pm so taking the western suburb route (260 and 355) I cruised though Chicago without having to experience stop and go traffic. It was very busy but not anything more busy than it is here in the cities. It was I-80 that was the most busiest highway I ever drove on. OMG! Not only was it crowded with cars but the semi's were EVERYWHERE. There was more often than not I was behind one with one behind me and one on the side of me. My car was cradled with semi's and for some reason I felt safe in there protected by the giant trucks. On I-80 people drive very fast. There was more than once I looked down at my speedometer and it read 80MPH!
All during the Chicago and I-80 race Valentino was quiet. I was very thankful for that believe me. On the drive to Indiana I did not experience one panic attack.
We got to Cynthia's house about 6pm. We unloaded Valentino and she had a cage all ready for him. Although it is not as big as my cage he will have a lot more out of cage time than he does with me. I trained him early on that after morning feeding and training he needs to amuse himself in his cage until around 6pm while I work in my office. Cynthia is retired so she has a LOT of time for taking care of the birds.
Across the living room is another cage with Scarlett Cynthia's 2 year old RFM. She still have the dark baby eyes and that round baby head. She is hard in her season molt with pin feathers all over her head. I had to resist the urge to work the pin feathers opening them up with my fingers. Cynthia has a rope strung across the ceiling and Scarlett is very adept with working that rope. When I put Valentino on it the poor guy could not balance himself upright because he is not use to it. His playdate buddy's house had rope strung on the ceiling also but it has been over 6 months since I took him over there. My poor baby is going to need to gain the strength in his feet to handle moving around on the rope. Scarlett was not too keen with the "intruder" so we kept the birds separated and let them look at each other from across the room. Cynthia has kept parrots since the 80's so she is very knowledgeable and knows very well how to care for them. I don't worry about Valentino's care but I do miss him very much.
Cynthia continues to send me pictures of my boy and what he is doing. It seems while I am not there he will fly to her no matter what part of the house she is in. She commented that he is a very good flyer and will hover over her until he gets permission to land on her. He is courteous with her but for me when he is flying to me he will come at me 90 MPH slamming into my body sometimes smacking his beak against the back or side of my head. LOL. Cynthia loves how friendly Valentino is and how well he flies. From what I understand her little girl came to her clipped. Cynthia let the primaries grow back out so Scarlett is learning how to use her new feathers. I told her she should pick up flying very quickly and be good at it right away. Cynthia confirmed that her parrot is doing very well with flying as well. Scarlett rather stay in the living room than fly around the house looking for her like Valentino does.
I honestly do not think Valentino is stressing because he is a new environment and I am not there. He is behaving much the same way he behaves here. He is eating well and Cynthia does give him "momma time" with the bonding blanket. LOL.
Sometimes I get weird thoughts in my head like "What if Valentino falls in love with Scarlett and does not want to come with me to our new home?" What if he falls in love with Cynthia and does not want to be with me anymore? What if I realize he is better off staying where he is at?" I just do not think I could part with my Valentino even though Cynthia does not live far away from where I will be living.
I am happy things are going well for Valentino and he is not stressing out.
For me it is a different story. The freight truck is being delivered on March 23rd and will be packed that same day. On the 24th the drive comes for the truck and it is driven away. From the 24th until April 1st when I sign the lease I literally have no place to stay. Later today I will be looking into some options of where I can stay for the 7 days I am between homes.
I have little time to finish packing (i'm mostly done though) and will have a moving/estate sale this weekend to try to sell what I am not taking. Saturday is my birthday which puts me a year older. I wake up sore every morning and think "I'm to old for this ****."
After everything is over and I have my Valentino back living with me I know all this stress and inconvenience and my week stint of homelessness will be worth it. I have a great job waiting for me and my trip last week to Indiana revealed to me very polite and helpful people. Eventually things are going to be alright again.
At first Valentino would pace back and forth on the perch and was making small noises. After about an hour he began to SCREAM. I was still on I-94 coming up on the I-94/I-90 bypass when I pulled over to a rest stop. I was stressing out so much I went into the restroom and cried. My sister traveled with me for companionship so I would not have to travel out there alone and I was glad she was with me. Her help was invaluable. I know the screaming was stressing her as well but with me they tend to trigger me because of the pain and the migraine that was growing.
I pulled back out onto the highway and the screaming continued. Finally I could not take it anymore so I turned up the volume of the music (I was playing my Ipod) so loud I drowned out the volume of the screams. Valentino quieted down before a very loud song ended. Every time he began screaming I cranked up the volume until he quieted then turned volume back down to a acceptable level.
As long as I played music he remained quiet. I believe after he realized he was not going to get his way and be let out of the carrier he stopped screaming. He was quiet while I stressed drove though Chicago. I got to the area around 12pm so taking the western suburb route (260 and 355) I cruised though Chicago without having to experience stop and go traffic. It was very busy but not anything more busy than it is here in the cities. It was I-80 that was the most busiest highway I ever drove on. OMG! Not only was it crowded with cars but the semi's were EVERYWHERE. There was more often than not I was behind one with one behind me and one on the side of me. My car was cradled with semi's and for some reason I felt safe in there protected by the giant trucks. On I-80 people drive very fast. There was more than once I looked down at my speedometer and it read 80MPH!
All during the Chicago and I-80 race Valentino was quiet. I was very thankful for that believe me. On the drive to Indiana I did not experience one panic attack.
We got to Cynthia's house about 6pm. We unloaded Valentino and she had a cage all ready for him. Although it is not as big as my cage he will have a lot more out of cage time than he does with me. I trained him early on that after morning feeding and training he needs to amuse himself in his cage until around 6pm while I work in my office. Cynthia is retired so she has a LOT of time for taking care of the birds.
Across the living room is another cage with Scarlett Cynthia's 2 year old RFM. She still have the dark baby eyes and that round baby head. She is hard in her season molt with pin feathers all over her head. I had to resist the urge to work the pin feathers opening them up with my fingers. Cynthia has a rope strung across the ceiling and Scarlett is very adept with working that rope. When I put Valentino on it the poor guy could not balance himself upright because he is not use to it. His playdate buddy's house had rope strung on the ceiling also but it has been over 6 months since I took him over there. My poor baby is going to need to gain the strength in his feet to handle moving around on the rope. Scarlett was not too keen with the "intruder" so we kept the birds separated and let them look at each other from across the room. Cynthia has kept parrots since the 80's so she is very knowledgeable and knows very well how to care for them. I don't worry about Valentino's care but I do miss him very much.
Cynthia continues to send me pictures of my boy and what he is doing. It seems while I am not there he will fly to her no matter what part of the house she is in. She commented that he is a very good flyer and will hover over her until he gets permission to land on her. He is courteous with her but for me when he is flying to me he will come at me 90 MPH slamming into my body sometimes smacking his beak against the back or side of my head. LOL. Cynthia loves how friendly Valentino is and how well he flies. From what I understand her little girl came to her clipped. Cynthia let the primaries grow back out so Scarlett is learning how to use her new feathers. I told her she should pick up flying very quickly and be good at it right away. Cynthia confirmed that her parrot is doing very well with flying as well. Scarlett rather stay in the living room than fly around the house looking for her like Valentino does.
I honestly do not think Valentino is stressing because he is a new environment and I am not there. He is behaving much the same way he behaves here. He is eating well and Cynthia does give him "momma time" with the bonding blanket. LOL.
Sometimes I get weird thoughts in my head like "What if Valentino falls in love with Scarlett and does not want to come with me to our new home?" What if he falls in love with Cynthia and does not want to be with me anymore? What if I realize he is better off staying where he is at?" I just do not think I could part with my Valentino even though Cynthia does not live far away from where I will be living.
I am happy things are going well for Valentino and he is not stressing out.
For me it is a different story. The freight truck is being delivered on March 23rd and will be packed that same day. On the 24th the drive comes for the truck and it is driven away. From the 24th until April 1st when I sign the lease I literally have no place to stay. Later today I will be looking into some options of where I can stay for the 7 days I am between homes.
I have little time to finish packing (i'm mostly done though) and will have a moving/estate sale this weekend to try to sell what I am not taking. Saturday is my birthday which puts me a year older. I wake up sore every morning and think "I'm to old for this ****."
After everything is over and I have my Valentino back living with me I know all this stress and inconvenience and my week stint of homelessness will be worth it. I have a great job waiting for me and my trip last week to Indiana revealed to me very polite and helpful people. Eventually things are going to be alright again.
I've driven "around" the cities and the traffic is always OMG! lol it's worse for me because we've always lived out in the boonies (small farming community) Sounds like even though the trip to your friends house was stressful Valentino is settling in fine. I'm sure he won't forget the person who loves him so much!
