the birds that own us

[Wilbur1111]

(Ok, Tom... this may be a shocker but here goes...)
Did someone say "other pets"??
We got Birds...
our parrots have their own room..actually was at some point built as a "sunken living room"..we have converted it to a bird jungle of sorts...

1 African Congo Grey (Isadora)
2 red-bellied parrots (one female, one male—they arent really a couple) (Tye-Dye and Simon)
1 Senegal parrot (Wilbur—King of the whole room)
and finally-
1 Jardine parrot named Chips

This is our bird room here in Wisconsin (near Milwaukee)—
5 parrots live here together (for many years); they all get along and give each other "space.".
Their cages remain open with Harrison pellets, clean water, and veggies, but they like to make a mess out of their cages too.

Floor tiles allow us to use a scraper to clean floors once a week (there are other nic nacs that huzzbund (accent like Carol Burnett) designed..they have a radio..tv..we can watch them on reolink..paper roll easy to tear sits under a cage to replace old paper with, etc)

 

[Yvonne G]

The only thing missing is live non toxic plants!

 

[Wilbur1111]

You are absolutely correct Yvonne!! These guys chew everything though! I will see if I can find some that will thrive indoors here in WI. I wonder if a " rubber plant" would work .we have a huge one

 

[Yvonne G]

No. . . the rubber plant latex sap is toxic

 

[Wilbur1111]

Oooohhh, can you recommend a plant that would work?

By the way, isn't that photo of Isadora the African Grey nuts? I caught Isadora munching on a pepper or butternut squash, (?) staring into the mirror comfortably, looking at herself eating away when I walked around the room that day taking photos of them. These guys are truly flying 5-year-olds! Chips is the chew destroyer and munches on all furniture in the room no matter how many toys or veggies he gets. We had to detox and empty out shelves—you name it, every single item—because of him and Simon (red belly), another "bird wannabe architect/destroyer.".

 

[Tom]

First, WOW! I'm in awe of that bird room. Second, no one even knows the Poicephalus genus, much less has any, and even when people do know of the genus, no one has even heard of of a Jardines, much less has one of them. Jardines are my all time favorite parrot. I fell in love with them in the late 80s/early 90s when a bunch came in to the country. I had one that would follow me around my ranch free flying. It got some weird viral disease that is apparently common in northeastern aviaries and died at about 5 years old. It came from a breeder in Illinois. I'm waiting for the CA breeder here to have babies for sale to get another one. Love them.


I currently have 10 parrots:
1 Green wing macaw
1 Harlequin macaw
2 Double yellow head amazons
3 Cherry head amazons
1 Sulphur crested cocktoo
1 Major Mitchel cockatoo
1 White bellied caique

Adding another green wing soon. I also have two Harris's hawks, lots of pigeons and chickens, and 5 emu for my final bird tally.

 

[Wilbur1111]

These guys make a huge mess, and it is a lot of work, a lot of daily cleaning (all that mess is from 1 day), but they are worth it.

 

[Wilbur1111]

OH WOW TOM!! You have a great bird jungle too! Amazing! Yes Jardines are super outgoing and amazing birds. Chips the Jardine likes me but loves my husband more than anything.
He sits on his shoulder and mumbles "Hey Boo" to him, clicks, and wolf whistles.
He makes soft sounds (I really have no idea what they talk about) while he does his computer geek stuff.
Yes, I got heavy-duty into poicephalus after getting Wilbur the Senegal.
Tom, do you have a website about your birds or anything that shows pics? A Harris hawk? A cockatoo! More than one! They are like 3-year-old babies; do they all get along? How are they housed? Ok too many questions I am in awe here. A Caique Those are incredible little clowns! You do have a huge family.

To tell the truth, all my guys are rescues. They weren't so friendly when I first got them, and it took many animal behavior courses (Dr. Susan Friedman) to help me decipher their body language and understand how my own behavior effected them, what their needs are, and how to provide them with enrichment continuously, etc.

Do you train your birds? Do they live together? There really are not many bird owners near me, so it is really great to "talk bird.".

 

[Tom]

OH WOW TOM!! You have a great bird jungle too! Amazing! Yes Jardines are super outgoing and amazing birds. Chips the Jardine likes me but loves my husband more than anything.
He sits on his shoulder and mumbles "Hey Boo" to him, clicks, and wolf whistles.
He makes soft sounds (I really have no idea what they talk about) while he does his computer geek stuff.
Yes, I got heavy-duty into poicephalus after getting Wilbur the Senegal.
Tom, do you have a website about your birds or anything that shows pics? A Harris hawk? A cockatoo! More than one! They are like 3-year-old babies; do they all get along? How are they housed? Ok too many questions I am in awe here. A Caique Those are incredible little clowns! You do have a huge family.

To tell the truth, all my guys are rescues. They weren't so friendly when I first got them, and it took many animal behavior courses (Dr. Susan Friedman) to help me decipher their body language and understand how my own behavior effected them, what their needs are, and how to provide them with enrichment continuously, etc.

Do you train your birds? Do they live together? There really are not many bird owners near me, so it is really great to "talk bird.".

-Jardines remind me of Bobo the mechanical owl in "Clash of the Titans". The 1981 version. Their cute little noises are endearing rather than annoying like a conure. I know exactly what you are talking about!
-No websites or YT channels for me. I don't want the attention.
-2 Harris Hawks. I'm a falconer. You wanna talk about free flying...
-I let my auntie take one of my cockatoos, but the other lives with me.
-I don't mix my parrots. They all have individual indoor housing and large outdoor housing too. I have a 20x60 for flight cage/playpen for them too.
-My caique is a wonderful little clown, yes.

I train animals for the film industry. My birds and other animals work in movies and TV. I have caretakers and other trainers that work and care for them all with me. Some live at my trainer's houses and some live at my house and ranch.They all get worked with and travelled around daily. It's a wonderful life. I'm typing this while on set right now on a rat job. Two of my other trainers were on a dog job this morning. Animals for fun and hobbies, animals at home, animals at work all day, and animals on my days off. All animals all the time. It's not for everybody, but it suits me fine. I feel weird if I drive somewhere without animals in the car.

 

[SinLA]

Wow birds are absolutely one of those things where I am like “I’d love to have one” in fantasy but the reality is— no way. Too much work, and I stay away from bird rescue sites online because it’s maybe worse than reptiles rescue.

Your room is amazing,

I had parakeets growing up, I shudder to think how terrible we were to our pets as kids, but thought we were good owners.

 

[Wilbur1111]

-Jardines remind me of Bobo the mechanical owl in "Clash of the Titans". The 1981 version. Their cute little noises are endearing rather than annoying like a conure. I know exactly what you are talking about!
-No websites or YT channels for me. I don't want the attention.
-2 Harris Hawks. I'm a falconer. You wanna talk about free flying...
-I let my auntie take one of my cockatoos, but the other lives with me.
-I don't mix my parrots. They all have individual indoor housing and large outdoor housing too. I have a 20x60 for flight cage/playpen for them too.
-My caique is a wonderful little clown, yes.

I train animals for the film industry. My birds and other animals work in movies and TV. I have caretakers and other trainers that work and care for them all with me. Some live at my trainer's houses and some live at my house and ranch.They all get worked with and travelled around daily. It's a wonderful life. I'm typing this while on set right now on a rat job. Two of my other trainers were on a dog job this morning. Animals for fun and hobbies, animals at home, animals at work all day, and animals on my days off. All animals all the time. It's not for everybody, but it suits me fine. I feel weird if I drive somewhere without animals in the car.

I completely understand as I am animals all the time - but in painting/ art , I paint wildlife as well as animal portraiture. I have even painted rats very very cool what you do T. Very very cool.

 

[Tom]

I completely understand as I am animals all the time - but in painting/ art , I paint wildlife as well as animal portraiture. I have even painted rats very very cool what you do T. Very very cool.

I love my job. I look forward to going to work. I've been on this rat job for a couple of weeks now and it's remarkable how many crew members never knew how awesome rats are. Many have related stories to me of having rats as pets growing up, and many that had never heard of this became aware of what great pets they can be. The two rats I'm currently working with have been the best species ambassadors you could imagine. Over a two week span at least two dozen people have held them and taken selfies with them to share with friends and family. One guy took a 3 minute video for his kids to watch the next morning while having their cereal. I open the cage door, and they hop right out and climb on to my hand. They ride around on my shoulders and they bring smiles wherever they go. The whole crew knows them by name and can tell them apart now... And I'm getting paid to be there!

I did a fair amount of painting during and after high school. I loved it, but I'm not very good at it. Definitely not my talent in life. I do appreciate it when I see other people who do have that talent. I'm not a skilled photographer either, but I try to get good pics of the hawks when we are out hunting:

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

My aunt has a rescue male sulphur-crested cockatoo that was seized from the previous owners. He had lived alone in his cage in a room that was rarely visited for about five years. His estimated age is 30 to 40 years old. He has unfortunately lost the ability to fly. Even though his cage is pretty much always open he rarely ventures far from it. He has a little fake tree canopy built around the top of the cage and he likes to hang around in there.

 

[Tom]

My aunt has a rescue male sulphur-crested cockatoo that was seized from the previous owners. He had lived alone in his cage in a room that was rarely visited for about five years. His estimated age is 30 to 40 years old. He has unfortunately lost the ability to fly. Even though his cage is pretty much always open he rarely ventures far from it. He has a little fake tree canopy built around the top of the cage and he likes to hang around in there.

How has he lost the ability to fly? They often lose the desire to fly, but not the ability. Sounds like he's in good hands with your aunt.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

How has he lost the ability to fly? They often lose the desire to fly, but not the ability. Sounds like he's in good hands with your aunt.

He has probably lost the desire to fly yes. Apparently the vet was the opinion that his muscles have weakened. I don't know much about birds, but I have seen him try flying a couple of times and it looked similar to the flight of a chicken. My aunt is worried that if he ends up on the floor of the room he wouldn't be able to get back to his cage.

I also think that he is in good hands, but my aunt feels guilty sometimes for the fact that she isn't able to provide bird friends for him. She is of the opinion that birds are the happiest with their own kind.

 

[SinLA]

Me and Spot, age 5. Was not mine, but a relatives. Unfortunately in hindsight he did not have the best life…

 

[Tom]

He has probably lost the desire to fly yes. Apparently the vet was the opinion that his muscles have weakened. I don't know much about birds, but I have seen him try flying a couple of times and it looked similar to the flight of a chicken. My aunt is worried that if he ends up on the floor of the room he wouldn't be able to get back to his cage.

I also think that he is in good hands, but my aunt feels guilty sometimes for the fact that she isn't able to provide bird friends for him. She is of the opinion that birds are the happiest with their own kind.

A bird like that simply needs conditioning. I certainly could not go run a marathon tomorrow, but with time, training, and steady work, I could get there. I've done it many times... the bird training, not the marathoning. When I work with a bird like that, I first examine the flight feathers and feel the keel to ensure everything is as it should be. Then I begin getting daily weights, sometimes twice a day, and I make the bird "work" for its food, just as it would in the wild. If the bird is aggressive and won't step on to my hand, I teach it to step up onto a stick of some sort, which takes all of five minutes even for the worst case scenarios. I then start with short hops to a perch or to me, and gradually lengthen the distance and/or number of flights. I never feed these birds sitting in a cage. All their food comes from my hand or a feeding cup on a perch that they have flown to while they are out of the cage. It takes time and effort, but the positive benefits and the effect on th birds mentally and physically is glorious!

Many times imprinted birds like that do not want or like their own kind and will lash out aggressively. I say imprinted because since about 1990, all parrots in captivity are captive bred and not wild caught. Cockatoos even earlier than that, as Australia stopped exportation in the 60s. This means that humans hand fed and raised that baby bird and it imprinted on humans and likely never saw its mother or father cockatoo. I can tell you with 100% certainty that humans can take the place of conspecifics when it comes to socialization and emotional fulfillment. This is true of any social animal. I'm speaking of someone who spends a lot of time with the bird all day every day, as I do because I can simply bring them with me when I go to work, or leave them with other members of our "flock" that tend to them and work with them while I am away at work. People who work and commute 8-12 hours a day and leave the bird sitting alone at home in a cage is not what I'm talking about. Those people should get a pet reptile, not a social animal that thrives on attention.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

I train animals for the film industry. My birds and other animals work in movies and TV. I have caretakers and other trainers that work and care for them all with me. Some live at my trainer's houses and some live at my house and ranch.They all get worked with and travelled around daily. It's a wonderful life. I'm typing this while on set right now on a rat job. Two of my other trainers were on a dog job this morning. Animals for fun and hobbies, animals at home, animals at work all day, and animals on my days off. All animals all the time. It's not for everybody, but it suits me fine. I feel weird if I drive somewhere without animals in the car.

May I ask what films/shows your birds have been in?? That’s SO cool! Curious if I’d recognise any!

 

[Tom]

May I ask what films/shows your birds have been in?? That’s SO cool! Curious if I’d recognise any!

My cherry heads were on the Bernie Mac Show, and we've done countless commercials. Many times I work as a subcontractor and don't even know the name of the show. I do this all day every day, and even when I did know the name of the show, I can't remember it now. It's been 30 years of doing this. I often can't remember what I did last week without looking it up.

Here is a commercial we did a couple of years ago. The green wing is my baby and the blue and gold belongs to another company that we work with. The perched green wing is my parent raised young female. The flying green wing is all one bird. He's my hand raised baby and he flew to me all those times just to be with me. No food involved. Notice the blue and gold never flies...

Here's an Ed Sheeran music video we did with a bunch of our birds as a background element:

Here is a Chewy commercial I did for another animal company with my dog Radar. The timneh gray belongs to them, but he was a gift that I gave them a year or two before we did this commercial.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

My cherry heads were on the Bernie Mac Show, and we've done countless commercials. Many times I work as a subcontractor and don't even know the name of the show. I do this all day every day, and even when I did know the name of the show, I can't remember it now. It's been 30 years of doing this. I often can't remember what I did last week without looking it up.

Here is a commercial we did a couple of years ago. The green wing is my baby and the blue and gold belongs to another company that we work with. The perched green wing is my parent raised young female. The flying green wing is all one bird. He's my hand raised baby and he flew to me all those times just to be with me. No food involved. Notice the blue and gold never flies...

Here's an Ed Sheeran music video we did with a bunch of our birds as a background element:

Here is a Chewy commercial I did for another animal company with my dog Radar. The timneh gray belongs to them, but he was a gift that I gave them a year or two before we did this commercial.

Oh incredible!! This is so interesting! Must be an amazing job!