In case you missed the thread, I had to give up my beloved Conan the Wonderkitty last week after doing everything humanly possible to break him of peeing in corners of the living room carpet (yes it was behavioral, yes I tried everything, so don’t ask, it still hurts to talk about it), which left me a sobbing wreck for a couple of days. Once I pulled myself back together, I found myself contemplating a petless existence, and realized I can’t exist without a pet. OK, we still have O’Brien the budgie, but he had bonded with the cat and, while finger tame, generally doesn’t enjoy being handled by the humans in the house,and, due to the fact that my mother likes to look at and talk to nonhumans, but isn’t really into the whole cuddling and playing with thing (unless they snuggle right up and demand it), he has pretty much become Mom’s bird. And I have found that I have a deep-seated need to be made to feel guilty about leaving for work in the morning.
I’ve been wanting a bird for a while, and after my efforts at trying to find a bird for adoption proved to be a bust, I decided to get a cockatiel. I got hold of a phone number of a lady who could refer me to a reputable breeder, and, since I work during the day, had Mom give her a call. The lady gave her a couple of numbers, then said, “If that doesn’t work out, call me back”. Mom was going to hang up, then decide to ask, “Why?”
Why? Because the lady had a Senegal parrot, hand raised, bit less than a year old, that she was willing to sell for $100. Apparently the bird had been sold, but the lady who bought him decided she wanted a breeding-age female, so, well, Shamus ended back up at the original owner’s former store- apparently the family is getting out of the breeding/retail bird business and is going over to boarding birds and selling cages and supplies. Oh, and also, Shamus is visually impaired. He isn’t totally blind, just very nearsighted.
So, Mom picked me up at work last night, and we went to meet the bird. It was love at first sight. To sweeten the deal even more, Mom (a master haggler if I ever met one) managed to negotiate a discount on the cage, so bird, cage, food, toys, and a book on parrot behavior cost just a bit over $200 - and Senegals normally retail for about $600.
So, we brought this shy, nervous, skittish little parrot back to the apartment, where he proceeded to make himself right the hell at home. He sat on top of the carrier cage the lady at the store gave us and watched us assemble his new house. He munched on a couple of grapes and a cracker, then when we sat down to eat supper - leftover mac & cheese and smoked sausage, Shamus came over and insisted on eating off my fork. I think he ate more than I did, though I was careful not to let him have too much sausage because I don’t think the nitrates and ites are good for him. Then he settled onto my wrist for an hour or so of cuddling and feather scratching before I put him in his cage for “sleepy-pie nite-nite”. He was a bit nippy this morning, but after I walked away from him a couple of times, he seemed to get the message and accepted his grape graciously. Then he came out to hang on his cage door until I came and got him and I carried him around with me while I got ready for work. He sat on top of my shower door while I took my shower, and when I turned my back on him to rinse off, he peeped at me. “Peep!” he said in no uncertain terms. Mom found a little soap caddy that I can suction cup to the wall so I can let him take a shower with me.
Now, I know next to nothing about Senegal parrots, except that they’re quiet and therefore good apartment birds- they weren’t on the list of species I had been researching, but I do have the good fortune of working with a former Petco manager (yeah, I know, but in his store, if an animal was sick or injured, he would say “Screw calling the district manager, this animal is going to the vet”), and he became something of an armchair expert on birds. I also have the lady who acutally raised him from a newly-hatched chick available to call for questions. Oh, and a really good book on bird behaviour, so if I run into any problems or potential problems, I have an idea how to deal with it appropriately.
Anyhoo, if anyone out there can recommend a really good book or can steer me to a really really good website on Senegals, I’d appreciate it mightily. Under normal circumstances, I would have done thorough research on a parrot species before bringing it home, but I just couldn’t pass Shamus up.