Super sad parrot MIA

[kaizasosei]

I am real upset about our parrot flying away yet again(the fourth time). Every other time, he was never gone for more than a few days to almost a week, but now it is over a month and he hasn't popped up yet. Just the other day i was called out to a far away district as there was a parrot sighted, but when i arrived, i saw right away that it was a different bird of the same kind-grey.

Weird thing, since my parrot left, we found an young crow that cannot yet fly and brought it home. It's been living in the parrot cage for some weeks now and is eating mass amounts of dog food. Getting slightly tame too, but we are wondering if it is not better to keep the bird as wild as possible so that he'll have better chances out there when we release him. The wingfeathers are all worn away. looks like the birds had been walking and hopping for at least days wearing the feathers down to half their length.



Our parrot is very clever, and well trained in many skills. I even saw him fighting crows in the air one of the other times he had flown away. That time, i was sure the crows would all gang up on him and he'd be a goner. But when he resurfaced that time he had a small wound in his ear, another time a few scratches on his face, but otherwise, fine.

Of course, he can't be lucky all the time, maybe some falcons or group of crows or other critters got to him...but more likely i think that somebody has found him and kept him because he is so cool...in that case, i hope they return him. He must be calling our names by now. He can talk many words, count to ten and actually knows what many words mean, example- 'water', 'danger'- good',bad'
knows all our names in various tones and nicnames.

i sure hope that he surfaces soon. I dream of the bird almost every night. What sucks is that one cannot know for certain what happened? Nothing. no trace.



j

 

[Jade Tigress]

Hope you get your bird back. Many years ago we had a very cool parakeet. He loved to ride around on our shoulders, play with the dog (he would sit on the dogs back, and was so funny when he'd actually chase the dog around, the bird would actually walk on the floor and chase the dog, lol).

Anyway, we always left his cage door open and he loved to greet us when we came home from work by flying to our shoulder when we walked in the door. Well, one day I arrived home from work, opened the door and the bird, coming to greet me, missed. He ended up flying right out the door. We never saw him again.

 

[kaizasosei]

Thanks for the good wishes! We have had ours since he was around 6 months old back in jan 2000. I sure hope he makes it! We were just getting round to getting him/her?? a suitable partner....
would really be great if he made it back. I know that the bird will have a hard time being happy anywhere other than home and with my mom whom the bird curiously adores most(save maybe the rainforest). He took off while my mom was on vacation.

Different species of birds have very different habits. Also depends on the hormones and desires of breeding etc. some birds or animals in general are particularily wary of humans. african grey parrots are extremely sensitive and many tend to become somewhat withdrawn as well as viciously unpredictable. The cool thing about ours is that we treated him quite well, giving him lots of affection and as much freedom as possible. so among greys, ours is quite social and sane. greys are so weird, they are sortof like little people. They are very smart and communicative, but in their hearts they long for the jungle and being among their own kind very strongly.

If greys can be broken or truly made to bond with humans in a gentle way, then rather the timneh subspecies because the congo(which ours is) are extremely independant and wild. I mean, our parrot is tame and eats with us and we can handle him easily albeit with respect. But when it comes to flying away, congo greys are specialists. A cockatoo will easily bond with people and stick around, but greys take off. And when they do, unlike conures or other parakeets, they usually don't stop anywhere close whilst they have energy, they do not look back, so to say. They fly high fast and out of sight asap, spooked by something or what not, the fact that you spend years and years treating them right is meaningless in the face of their hearts desire.
I've learned much about greys now, and know even better how to treat them. Actually, the crow that we have now is a little similar in character to a grey.
Major verbal crapage......sorry

thanks again...i hope that the bird is safe and also hope that he makes it back home.

One good thing is that i taught the bird some aikido and kenjutsu, so i'm thinking he's probably still out there. fingers crossed

 

[Empty Hands]

If your parrot ever comes back...CLIP ITS GODDAMN WINGS! Completely irresponsible. Plus, this is the FOURTH time its happened! You should have learned better. You're making other responsible owners like myself look all the worse.

 

[kaizasosei]

Too true. My bad. I keep trusting him and he has never had his wings clipped even once. I vowed that if we get him back, i would give him his first taste of flightlessness- must say it would be a bit difficult because he uses flying to get around indoors-it would hurt me too a bit and i'm sure he'd be really pissed at first. Whatever the case i most definately told myself i would tie a paracord noose around his leg. Tie him up like a dog. What a rascal. Even though, yes, true, it is my fault for letting him out again(it's been my fault all 4 times).

j

 

[celtic_crippler]

Parrots are expensive... I hate to be a wet blanket, but if somebody gets their hands on your bird you it's quite likely you won't get it back.

 

[kaizasosei]

Yeah, that is one of my worries too. Since he's been gone, two other greys have been spotted and returned to their owners. For one of them, i drove super far super fast to get to the place where a bird was spotted in a cherry then a apricot tree. I was really let down to see that it was not ours. Just today another grey turned up-also not ours. Apart from our bird being really smart and able to talk and know what he's saying, the ring on his leg has a unique colour different from the others.

One can only hope and pray. It's not in my hands, i can only keep looking, asking and calling animal shelters, putting ads in the paper with rewards-some people put 1000 dollar rewards for their greys. It's probably an appropriate reward for something like a family member, but my reward is limited to 150 roz -last time it was 100- gave it to the elderly couple that called us straightup.

j