Wild caught Hispaniola Conure

[TurquoiseMel]

I know I've been gone a while! Been busy with work and transferring universities etc. also I got a puppy!! Not sure if I mentioned it here or not. Lol. Hope everyone here is doing well. & Happy new year!

Anyway I'm in the Dominican Republic visiting my father and my aunt has come into possession of a parrot which I believe was caught wild. It's flight feathers and tail feathers are gone. Not sure if it was purposely caught and the poor thing was mangled to keep it from flying or if it was injured somehow.
But my aunts friend came to have this bird and handed it over to my aunt because at her house she has a lot of animals and they had no idea what to do with it. If it was caught and mangled a lot of time people here (animal people like you and me) just buy them, nurse them back to health and let them go. This is my aunts plan- to be able to let the bird free again. But she can't yet as it wouldn't survive.
I know this way of doing things still supports the illegal pet trade but a lot of people just can't stand to see the poor animal in the hands of such an idiot. What are you supposed to do?
*sigh*
I know people feel very strongly about this topic. I do too but that's not what I'm here to get into. I'm here to try to help this one bird right now. No matter how it came to be it is. And I am doing my best for her.

It is very unlikely to find pellets in this country. My cousins are feeding her sunflower seeds, which she does not like, and bread mostly. I informed them to give her all kinds of fruits and veggies. While I was there I gave her all sorts of stuff and got her to eat. According to them she hadn't been eating much at all.
-____-

Is there anything else I can feed her as a staple diet?? Other than a very varied diet- probably not right ?

To me other than the missing feathers she seems healthy. Pretty lively, the feathers she has left are vibrant and fully colored, her poops were normal. Only thing abnormal was how quiet she was. But when a flock of parrots flies over the house she perks right up and calls to them. It breaks my heart. I got her to chirp to me a little but other than that she's silent as a mouse.

I am going to be here another week or so. It's not much time but I offered to take care of her at my house here until I leave back to the US (I'm in no rush trust me. I hear they're buried in snow over there D: ! )

My next question is- if there is any possibility of taming her? Or at least getting a wild bird not to bite me! ? Lol. She is a hispaniolan conure. A bit bigger than my green cheeks with a bigger beak to match. The cage she's in is pretty small- it's all they had at the store. It's probably ideal cockatiel size. It'll do for now I suppose but I def wouldn't want her living in it long term and her lunging everywhere when you have to do stuff in the cage gets scary.

I don't intend to keep her and neither do they but I'd like to make her my friend while she's here. She's calm with me in my lap if she's toweled. But if she's free she just wants to bite (she's out of the cage most times since she can't fly anywhere anyway). I understand she's probably terrified and hates all ppl and on top of that she's wild - not hand fed and handled since birth like our pets and not even a pet type so all her meaningful relationships in her life have been with other birds only.. Does that throw my idea out the window? Should I just wear gloves to do stuff in the cage?

Thank you for reading
-Mel

 

[MikeyTN]

This should give you some insight on their diet!
Hispaniolan Conure (Aratinga chloroptera) | Parrot Care

To me if you were to release it later, why tame him?

 

[SpotsandSally]

I would let her spend most of her time outdoors. Let her see all the wild birds, call to them - keep her inner bird alive! And don't tame her.

If she's from there, can't they collect wild foods? Fruits and such? She's used to eating those.

 

[TurquoiseMel]

Didn't mean really tame her. Wrong wording I guess.. Just meant not get attacked when I feed her and stuff Lol. Yes at my house she's right at a large window and were on the 6th floor. We have a tree-line view. She sees her friends passing my here a lot. But not that close and they never stay long as we're in the city

 

[TurquoiseMel]

You know what forget the last question. I'll suck it up and take my beating -_______- you guys are right I should be keeping her as wild as possible.

Fun for me. Hur hur..

 

[SpotsandSally]

Lol! It's not a problem, def what I would think - sometimes we need a but of a reminder


So can you get local fresh foods? And are you able to let her spend more time outside around other flocks - er, make sure they do this (and make sure if it rains, bring her inside, keep her in the shade, etc.).

 

[TurquoiseMel]

Well I'm waiting to try more local stuff before reporting back but she eats very little of anything. (I think it is because she's unhappy ): and unaccustomed to her situation. )Haven't really found anything she really enjoys all that much. Passion fruit, papaya and apples are what she pays most attention to. Every thing else as of now is a miss. She's refused to touch peas, celery, lettuce, seeds, melon, cantelope, corn, & carrots.
Today I will try adding banana and orange. I want to find some nuts too maybe. I know they're high in fat. I just don't want her losing weight since she's probably not eating as much as she would if she were free.

I'm also very happy to report the flocks around here today have been very active!! Since about 7:30 am they've been around making a ruckus. About 30 of them. She's very excited. Not letting anyone sleep in today but that's ok. Sleep is for the dead right ? (; lol

Were in an apartment building so I can't leave her outside (if we had the pent house upstairs I'd let her hang out on the roof) but our living room is just huge sliding windows all around. She's there when she's caged. And I let her have some free time in my room she she can walk around and climb curtains and whatnot for excersize. It's a poor form of excersise I know but that's all I can do for her /: I don't leave her in the living room when she's not caged so she doesn't get excited and try to fly out a six story window with no feathers.

 

[SpotsandSally]

So her wing feathers are missing, or trimmed?


That's good to hear!