Parrot on Board

This is the best thing I've ever read on this site. If I ever drive a sleeper cab again I am voodooing it out.

 

One time we had a house sparrow or chikadee to be precise get out of it's nest. It had not grown feathers yet. What to do?

Well we stuck it into the box after failing to find mommy and nest. (Storm?) and feeding time presented a problem. What to feed that mouth which was all it is. We cut up lunch beef and stuffed it. Small pieces.

#### thing survived believe it or not. Grew feathers, learned to fly and so on.

Then it discovered coffee at the table. First it got under the hand trying to get to it then up on the rim and take a drink. NOOOOOO.... SZOOM! and we're off. Chase after it with napkins now and then to wipe. #### thing ate birdseed for treats and human food the rest of the time right there. Lived 7 years. We tried several times to kick it out into the wild but it would go straight to the next person walking down the street and land in their hair which sets them to running away. HA... a whistle calls it back easy enough.

 

No feathers as far as most of the body. I should have said very few feathers.

We knew nothing about feeding birds in those days this is like the late 70's time period. Bird seed? no. Run around catch bugs in a net? Whew. what do we do?

That affair has always been something of a problem. Be that as it may it did thrive, learn to fly and do everything that a bird of that type is expected to do. But one could tell that it's not "Right" when with other birds outside at the feeder. We left the door open a time or two to get it to go out and associate with 15 of it's own kind. They did not treat it too good believe it or not.

Truth? No, just a failed description on no feathers. It had a few by then. Grew more quickly as time went on. In a matter of weeks it had learned to get out of the box, then learned to fly. After that we're off to the races.

Modern internet and so forth with the link describing the feeding and what to feed would have been awesome in those days. But nothing existed then. What knowledge was at the zoo literally. Do we call the zoo and say hello, we have a house bird, what do we do with it? HA. like that would fly in those days. It was a different time.

Now a word on the Baltimore Zoo complex in those days. They actually had maintained a conservatory with birds of all kinds that had a reputation in the world. A road trip downtown to visit with that bird would have benefited that thing in so many ways. And us too with education. However it was not thought of in those days.

Thats one of the reasons why I put out bird seed to support about 60 birds, many of whom are couples. And their young does show up to birdseed school with the parents easily identifiable as very young children learning the world. And future visitors to the bird seed.

But to take them into the house? no. Nature will just have to take care of itself. Now when we visit the pet store they have birds that are domesticated and some are quite good. A touch expensive I would say. Sometimes I wonder.

 

That would have been iffy. If I thought about pet stores in our area, I suspect the one I remember would have been throwing bad things out the door. It was easier to get a rat to feed a pet snake than it is to talk to the owner for any information at all. ugh.

Pet stores today are really good considering what we had back then.

We had a neighbor above us in the complex who was really the one to talk to about birds. He kept like I think 30 finches in his unit. Bushes everywhere in the place for all of them. These are really small birds I don't understand them too much, but that owner did.

 

I have a similar story except it was a stripper and her bedroom. The burning candles of random saints in the corner along with a small plate of food and some cash had me asking questions I wish I hadn't.

 

Heres one question for the OP. Parrots in particular. Every time I get one on my shoulder the #### thing wants a bite of my ear. Why is that?