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Pet Tales

By Nancy McRae

Coronado is Parrot-dise for Rehabilitated Birds

Coronadan Mary Lou Lindberg was mystified when her fox terrier, Maggie, began gaining weight. Every evening she carefully measured
Maggie’s low-calorie food into her dish and lectured her daughters and husband about secretly feeding the dog scraps from the table. Despite more exercise and even leaner meals, Maggie continued to resemble a football. The mystery was solved when Lindberg arrived home early one afternoon and heard her pet bird, a sun conure named YoYo, calling to the dog. When Maggie happily trotted to the bird’s cage, YoYo scraped some of his food out of the cage and onto the floor for Maggie’s dining enjoyment.

Since birds require a diet of fresh fruit and vegetables every day, in addition to pelletized food, beans, pasta, rice and other assorted goodies, this was quite a feast for the little dog. Apparently mealtime can be a social experience not only for humans, but for their pet companions, too!

Since 1996 Lindberg has served as a halfway house for exotic birds in need of rehabilitation. Her forlorn feathered friends come from Bonnie Kenk, founder of Parrot Education & Adoption Center (PEAC, pronounced “peace”) in San Diego.

“There are about 250 parrots flying the not-so-friendly skies of San Diego. These birds don’t migrate here; they are the descendants of wild-caught birds brought here from their native habitat in Mexico, and don’t need our help,” Kenk explains. “But sometimes a bird ‘escapes’ when the owner walks outside, forgetting there is a parrot on his shoulder, or is ‘set free’ by a well-intentioned but misguided owner who has tired of his pet. A bird that has spent its life in captivity does not have the skills and knowledge to survive on its own. You may find one of these birds landing on your shoulder as you relax on your patio!”

According to Kenk, birds are among the most time-consuming animals in captivity. They are said to have the intelligence of a 5-year-old child but the emotional maturity of a 2-year-old.

“If you don’t pay enough attention to your bird, it’s like having a child who never gets past the terrible twos,” Kenk says. “Birds require four to six hours a day outside their cage. They love to be with the family, watching television, eating dinner, playing, working at your computer. Whatever you’re doing, they want to do, too.”

Since an average-sized parrot lives to be 60 years old, and even small parrots easily reach the age of 20,
welcoming these birds into the home is a long-term commitment. PEAC receives most of its calls for help from people whose lifestyle has changed, frequently by the addition of a human baby. To help educate and prepare potential bird owners, PEAC offers monthly seminars on caring for bird companions. To qualify as a foster parent Lindberg had to attend 12 seminars and pass a home inspection. Cory, a blue-fronted Amazon, was her first bird.

“Cory was so hand-phobic that we had to wrestle her out of her cage by prying her beak and claws off the perches. She had been left on a patio for eight years with minimal human interaction. It took us six years, but now she relishes being petted,” Lindberg says with satisfaction. “Another favorite is Lorita, a white umbrella cockatoo. She lived with a Malaccan cockatoo, but they suffered from human neglect. These two were so bored, they over-groomed each other and she was practically featherless when we got her. The only place she felt safe was her cage, and she’d run along the ground like a chicken to get back in. Now she sits on my lap, does the Mexican Hat Dance and generally presides over our living room.”

Since these birds mimic what they hear, Kenk says she is often able to learn a lot about the prior owners even if she’s never met them. One bird calls out “I’m not home!” every time the phone rings. Another says “Here kitty, kitty” and then screeches like a scalded cat. A bird named Santa fell off its perch and, while laying in a little fluff of feathers with its feet sticking straight up into the air, uttered “What a stupid bird.” Yet another’s favorite sounds are straight from an X-rated movie. That one was, um, hard to place in a new home, Kenk chuckled.

The birds’ loquaciousness has had other unintended consequences. Lindberg confesses that a neighbor once asked if she was having trouble with her children.

“She was concerned, so I invited her in to meet Sacha (a yellow nape Amazon), who did indeed yell ‘Ouch, help! Let me out!’ and cry like a child.”

Lindberg estimates she has rehabilitated 20 birds, from tiny budgies to large birds weighing over 15 pounds, and the cause has become a passion for her and her family. With their love and patience, they have cured birds of screaming, biting and other antisocial behavior.

“One bird would wander from plate to plate at the dinner table, like Helen Keller in ‘The Miracle Worker.’ And just like Helen, this bird threw awesome tantrums when we prevented that. But birds have to learn the rules, just like the rest of us,” says Lindberg. “It’s very rewarding work. An Indian ring-necked parakeet we adopted bit everyone, until we learned that she was blind. We taught her ‘cue’ words, so that she would know, for example, when we were opening her cage. She became a delightful bird. Once, when she accidentally walked off the edge of the table and fell into a pile of shredded paper, we learned that she loved to ‘play in piles of autumn leaves.’ Working with these birds is like having a foster child. It’s wonderful to see them put into a loving home where you know they’ll have some quality of life.”

For more information on PEAC, call (619) 287-8200, or visit the website at www.peac.org.


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