Yesterday we took in Pekos, a presumed male 27 yr old Blue and Gold Macaw. We took him in from a home where he was very much loved but the owner was getting older and was having trouble caring for him properly. I can't imagine the difficulty in giving up a beloved friend and companion like Pekos, but she was deeply vested in finding him a good home. Hard as it was she did the right thing as here at PEARL it is our undying goal to find birds like Pekos a FOREVER home where they will loved and cared for all their lives.
Pekos is settling in and slowly adjusting to our foster home. He has a large cage, plenty of toys and will get lots of attention and love till we find him a home. We are just getting to know him so there isn't much to tell at this point. He is fully feathered and seems healthy with no know issues. He has never been to a vet but will see one soon just to get checked out. So far he seems to prefer women, but in the past was very bonded to the her husband so he might just take more time to adjust to men. He let Jen give him brief head scratches yesterday and loves peanuts as treats. He will take one from me, but will come to the side of the cage to get one from Jen!
One last comment on rehoming birds. Because she cared so much for Pekos she surrendered him to PEARL, but many other birds get caught in a detrimental cycle of Craigslist sales. People looking to get rid of a bird are often doing so for a reason such as problematic behavior, screaming, biting, or just being over their head because they didn't understand the commitment of owning a bird and are in over their head. So the bird gets sold, and sometimes it works out. But very often it doesn't. The bird continues the screaming and the problematic behaviors and because the new owner is just a far in over their head they sell it to someone else. The problems get worse and worse with each sale. This is where rescues like PEARL come in. We don't sell birds, we rehome them. We require classes and home visits to make sure it is a good environment for a bird. We vet the birds to make sure they are healthy. Our fosters work very hard to train birds out of problematic behaviors. We carefully screen adopters and make sure they are not getting in too deep. We require cages that are big enough for the bird to stretch it's wings and ideally even fly in. We work to adjust them to a healthy diet of fresh foods and quality pellets. Lastly we support or adopters, we are always there to give advise or work with the adopters to help them adjust to their new life with a companion parrot. All because we put the bird first.
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