A PARROT FOR LIFE

It’s been an amazing privilege to have my parrot, Ika, as a devoted companion for the last 19 years. She’s a Blue-Headed Pionus and I rescued her in 2002 from a PetCo store in San Diego; the last time I lived in that great city. Sadly, she’d spent the first two years of her life in an under-sized cage set up in a glass bird room with no privacy or off-site time for her. Human interaction and diversity in the first two years of a parrot’s life are critical in creating a calm, socialized, and well-rounded bird. The only contact she encountered was a daily feed and clean, and the occasional customer request to check her suitability as a house pet. Understandably, she had become completely wild and couldn’t really be handled or touched. The loud noises, bright lights, and lonely isolation of a large retail pet store had taken their toll and I really wasn’t sure that this lovely blue and green parrot could be rehabilitated. One of the reasons PetCo has so much trouble with long-term occupancy of the parrots they, unfortunately, have in their stores is pricing. It’s usually much too high and most serious buyers will look to a reputable breeder or bird shop, instead of a discount chain store. Most consumers go to these stores to buy a Budgie or a Cockateel, not a $1200 dollar parrot. And the birds languish in their lonely environments because of it. My hope is that stores like these will change their policies and stop carrying live animals completely. I had made up my mind that I wasn’t leaving San Diego without her. When we finally rescued her before moving to the East coast, the asking price had dropped $700 dollars. That was never the issue with us. Giving her a lifetime home was the only thing that really mattered and I haven’t regretted it for a second. It took at least a year of patient handling and trust-building to undo most of the damage done during Ika’s first two years at the pet store. It’s was a long and slow process, but that’s the only way I was able to bring her back. After 19 years, she's calmed down dramatically and allows her beak and claws to be trimmed at home with a dremmel drill. Wing trims are done with little fanfare, as well. To the untrained eye, she would seem to be a perfectly normal, well-socialized bird, and given her early upbringing, I’m amazed at the progress I’ve made over the years. Strangers are mostly tolerated as long as they keep their distance, children seem to be somewhat interesting, and large unfamiliar objects like the ironing board and sweeper no longer cause wild, uncontrolled launches from the top of the cage. I am, for better or worse, the main focus of Ika’s life, Wherever I'm at downstairs, she’s almost always zeroed in on me and whatever I’m doing. It’s pretty normal behavior for a parrot to bond with one human in their life, but in her case, I think that bonding is a bit more pronounced. I’m certain that in the first two years, she had little human interaction in her life, and then suddenly I was providing all of her needs, every day. It’s really not too surprising that her life revolves around me. To be honest I wouldn't have it any other way! Fortunately, Pionus Parrots have a lifespan of 30-35 years. She is incredibly healthy and I will do everything possible to keep her that way. She's gotten me through some difficult times in my life. Hopefully, we'll continue our wonderful journey together for many years to come. She is my Parrot For Life.