March 2008

Dear Humans, Birds and Elephants,

Weight Watchers move over; I have a diet that works more efficiently. You make yourself a really tempting breakfast, such as a sharp cheddar cheese omelate with caramelized onions, add to that a toasted roll or bagel with cream cheese and a cup of coffee. Then, when you sit down to eat it, have your yellow naped Amazon parrot with you. He will immediately jump down off your shoulder onto the table and share this delicious repast. He will actually eat more than half of what is on your plate and you will therefore be dieting because you only get half your meal to eat. Think about peddling that idea in our weight conscious society. Buy a green parrot and lose weight...............What a great idea.!

You can actually use any kind of parrot you may have handy if you do not have a yellow nape. Just make sure the bird is a glutton and you enjoy sharing your plate with your feathered friend. I find that it works every time. I used to do it with Moonflower, my African grey and Valentine, my Rosey. Now that they are gone I still do it with Zeke, my cockatiel and even Aristophanes, my scarlet macaw. Aristophanes, depending on his mood, sometimes thinks fingers are more tempting than food, so you have to watch out. Emma, my nape, still makes the best eating companion. I think that Emma may one day have to go on the TV show, The Biggest Loser; he likes to eat as much as I do. For his sake, we don't share our meals too often.

We haven't talked about bird recipes (food made for the birds, not with them) in a long time. I know that my birds love French toast and pasta in various forms and sauces. If you have some special foods that you make that your birds really enjoy, why don't you share them with us. These can be foods that you make specially for your birds or even stuff you make for yourself that you share with them. It would be fun to print them in our newsletter and share them with our club.

I was going through some of my files the other day and found many of the adoption contracts that I have had signed when I adopt out a pet bird to a new home. I contact the people who were involved in the adoptions and see how all these birds are doing periodically. There are some that I hear from all the time and others that I do not. Those are the people with whom I would like to get in touch. Our adoptions are not too complicated, actually much less than other animal organizations. I just look for someone who has the time to give to the bird. This would be someone who takes the bird out of the cage daily for exercise, play and affection. No parrot should be confined to a cage all the time; that is cruel and I try never to adopt to such a person. Also, I make sure that the people involved will take the bird to an Avian Veterinarian, when necessary. The other stipulation is that if the bird cannot be kept for whatever reason, it is returned to us as I do not want to see birds going from home to home.

There are some other issues involved in our bird adoptions. I do not adopt out a pet bird to become a breeder. To begin with, I find that the way birds are bred for the pet industry is cruel. Pulling a baby bird from its parents at a few weeks of age for hand rearing shows absolutely no compassion or mercy to the parent birds who want their baby. Not every kind of cruelty is physical. Most, if not all, breeder birds are stuck in their cages forever, too. Our club's policy is kindness and being aware of the birds' feelings and today's kind of "factory bird farming" does not fit into what we are and what we believe. The people who adopt from us are made aware of this policy and must agree before I will give them a bird. I try to do my best to find proper homes for the birds that come to me or any other of our club members like Matt or AnnMarie. Sometimes it really works out and those times are truly wonderful. See the article on "Alice and Yago" to see how wonderful an adoption can be. That article is currently on line on our website. If you have the edition of the newsletter where it was originally published, you can see the beautiful pictures of that happy pair that Matt took when we went to their home..

Tonight we are supposed to be listening to Dr. Laurie Hess, board certified Avian Veterinarian, but I got a call from her that her mother is very ill and she had to reschedule her meeting. We, of course, wish her mother well and hope she recovers. We will, instead, be watching a very interesting video on bird behavior and have a group discussion afterwards. Next month, we have Steve Baldwin, the man who is working to save the Brooklyn parrots. There is a wonderful website about him and the work he is doing. You might enjoy reading it. It is simply, BrooklynParrots.com. May looks to be exciting as Juan Romero, of the Bronx Zoo, is coming back to do his bird training seminar and June brings us Dr. Lonnie Kasman, a wonderful Avian veterinarian.

Have a great month and be kind to birds and elephants,

Richie