Welcome to The Bird Wing:
Meet the Quintessential Perch Potatoes!
We adopted
Brandy and Sunny (two female cockatiels) from Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue
in northern California in September 2006. Mickaboo runs a bird rescue/adoption center and provides education for
current and potential bird owners. Mickaboo rescues
many different types of parrots (cockatiels and budgies are parrots, too, by the way!)
as well as finches, etc., so check them out if you would like to adopt or make a donation.
They are the gold standard of bird rescues. Please, consider adopting a rescued bird, if you are in the
market for a bird. Brandy and Sunny are two incredibly sweet, calm, healthy cockatiels. A vet once told me that
rescues only have "problem" birds. Not true at all! Trust me. Do yourself a favor and check out a rescue
near you.
BRANDYWINE DANDYRIDGE CHARLENE IAMAPARROTTOO
Rescued by Mickaboo: 04/21/2006
(A.K.A. BRANDY, BANDOR, SNEAKY SNEAKER: ROBBER BARON OF SMOOCHVILLE, BREAGLE,
BRANDOSAURUS REX (aka B-REX), THE LITTLE GENERAL,
SMOOCHY SPICE)
Brandy and Sunny's Breakfast:
Brandy and Sunny's Afternoon Snack:
Brandywine is a beautiful female cinnamon (or maybe normal grey?) cockatiel. Brandy may look rather stern in her pictures, but she's
really a doll. Brandy just loves to hang out with me and nibble at any magazine I attempt to read in her
presence. One of her cutest habits (she has oh-so-many cute habits) is that she makes
the most adorable little "Shree" noise if she is getting testy with me (when she doesn't want to
get off of my shoulder or stop tugging my earrings). When she wants to snuggle up against my cheek or needs some smoochin',
she makes a much quieter, sweeter "Shree" noise. Adorable.
Brandy also has the cutest "big parrot walk." If she's on the
floor, she'll waddle/walk like a big parrot with her wings held open a bit like, "I'm a big girl! Don't mess with me!"
It never fails
to make us laugh. Brandy is funny in that she can't fly well at all, even if her wing feathers grow
out some. I suspect that's because she's a bit "pleasantly plump." Brandy has become quite the snuggle-birdy.
She wants smooches on the top of her head and
on the back of her neck and to
snuggle in as close as she can before I put her to bed for the night. We call it "good night kisses."
Occasionally, she does decide
that I can use a bit of preening myself and gives me a tiny little nibble or two on the nose or ear. I've tried explaining
that I don't have feathers to no avail. She likes to rustle around in my hair and flap like a crazy thing!
I just have to make her come off my shoulder until her nesty-testiness passes. I just gently
correct her by making her do some step-ups (stair master!). She calms right down.
Both of our "feather monkeys" (they are climbers) are low maintenance.
Brandy just wants me to sit with her and
talk to her a few hours a day while Sunny oversees the whole operation from the cage-top perch or, lately, from my
shoulder. Brandy will definitely
let me know if I've missed her daily quota by pretending she doesn't see me for a few minutes.
I just have to talk quietly to her and apologize and
she forgives me quite readily. She's got such a sweet soul.
Brandywine was apparently a prolific breeder in her past life
(her vent was very stretched out when she was first rescued--TMI!). She was rescued flying around loose in
San Carlos, CA. The assumption was that she either flew away from home (trim those wings!)
or was thrown out into the wild when she wasn't breeding well anymore. How rude!
You can see Brandy's profile on Mickaboo here.
SUNFLOWER RAMONA
Rescued: 01/26/2006
Rescued by Mickaboo: 02/01/2006
Sunny Goes to Bed (Long--with a small assist from Brandy):
Sunny Goes to Bed (Short):
Sunny: "Eek! A Snake!!":
Sunflower is a female lutino pied cockatiel. She's a bit skittish and shy (and more than a little nutty),
but she has a very sweet nature and opens up when she realizes she can trust you. Sunny's a good climber and
enjoys tearing apart and shredding her "Shredders" shreddable toys.
She also likes to eat (both girls are big eaters) and to forage as close to
Brandy as Brandy will allow. Sunny clearly adores Brandy. Sunny has also become a great shoulder-surfer. She
is really calm on shoulders. No misbehavior at all (like tugging on
earrings or buttons)--you almost don't realize she's there!
She gets a little testy if she's been on a shoulder for a long time and you try to get her to step-up on a finger, because
she simply doesn't want to come down. She never tries to bite, but she will
put her head down and fake-lunge at the offending finger.
She gets a big kick out of pecking at little pieces of lint on towels or sheets.
It can entertain her for hours on end. She really loves picking at yellow threads (naturally!).
Sunny also has a very funny habit of preening her feathers then
squawking and looking around to see who's pulling her feathers. Speaking of squawking,
if a hand or finger startles her, she puts her head down (like a bull about
to charge a red cape--what we call "Toro-time")
and lets out a
brave little screech-squawk. Then she keeps her mouth open for a second or two
like she's about to nip, but it's all only for show, of course.
It's an amusing display
from such a scaredy-bird. We just run her through a few step-ups and she's back to being a model citizen again.
Sunny was found flying in the wilds of San Ramon, CA, just before midnight. She seems to have had some sort of
run-in with a cat or dog and rammed into a window to try to escape, because she was found with some feathers yanked out
and a bruised beak! Before she went to Mickaboo, she was kept in the cat room of a shelter. Poor baby! Sunny and Brandy
have their very own room with a door that is closed ALWAYS. No cats allowed.
You can see Sunny's (aka Ramone's) profile on Mickaboo
here.
We had a hard time discovering the exact amount to feed the girls, so I'm including it below to (I hope) help others:
Every morning, when I get them up for the day, weigh them, and put them on their cage-top play area, I give the girls
their daily ration of pellets (I mix 1 Tablespoon of Harrison's Bird Food (Organic) Adult Lifetime Fine and
1 Tablespoon of
ZuPreem's AvianMaintenance Natural Diet-Cockatiel and distribute the pellets among the various food bowls).
They also get 1 (per bird) of the following "treats": LaFeber's Classic Nutri-Berries (treat balls),
LaFeber's Sunny Orchard Nutri-Berries, LaFeber's
Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries, and/or LaFeber's Classic Avi-Cakes (treat squares). I mix and match to keep life a tad more
interesting for the daring duo. They both make short work of their treats--they have hearty appetites.
On most afternoons, I give them a few sprigs of Millet or a few Popcorn Nutri-Berries.
Every evening, when I put them in their cage for a light snack
before covering them for bedtime, I give them what is left from
their morning pellets. They don't even come close to eating all of their pellets (big surprise: they
like their treats better!).
They have fresh water inside their cage and on their play areas.
You can only buy Harrison's bird food at veterinary offices carrying it (obviously) or from
the Harrison's web site itself
(check prices first; sometimes the website is pricier than our avian vet).
For a list of vets carrying it in your area or to
order food from the web site, go to
http://www.harrisonbirdfoods.com/.
We get every other food/treat (not to mention a plethora of toys)
for our birds from http://www.drsfostersmith.com/.
Click here
to go to Gracie Bird's page.
Click here
to go back to the Pets page.
