Saturday, January 26, 2008

In The Beginning......




I first met Eve in a pet shop. I walked over to this strange looking parrot and wondered what kind of bird he was. At this point I had been involved with parrots for many years, but have never come across this kind before. I asked the workers what kind of parrot he was. I was dumbfounded as to the answer I received…“All we know is that it is some rare kind of parrot, but we don’t know what”
How is that possible????? So home I went. I delved into my books and on line and discovered that they unknowingly had a vasa parrot. I started visiting Eve on a regular basis. I first noticed that Eve was very playful yet very aggressive. Looking into his food dish I saw seed and one or two nuts, and a few pellets. But the dish was dumped on the floor of the cage. I asked about this and was told that he dumps his food every day and that they are sick of refilling it. I than noticed that Eve would stick his feet through the bars in order to fetch the nuts and pellets. But there weren’t many of these items. I began to wonder if diet played a role in his aggression. So I started bringing him in some treats. Things like nuts, and hard boiled egg. He ate them like he was starving! After about three days of me coming in this shop and basically feeding their bird I noticed that Eve was no longer aggressive. I asked to take Eve out of the cage. They said I could but at my own risk, since Eve has left scars on them. I started taking Eve out every day and researching vasa’s by night. Eve didn’t know how to step up, and was very scared but at the same time very interested in his surroundings and new found freedom outside of the cage. Throughout my research it became apparent that a pet shop is no place for a vasa, and that most people probably wouldn’t have done their homework on this bird if they decided to buy him. So home Eve came. I honesty wasn’t looking for another bird. I had my painted conure Crayon and that was enough. But there was no way I was going to let this poor bird suffer at the hands of this shop or someone who was not well versed in parrots. Eve was a year old at the time, it is now 6 years later. I love him to pieces, and have learned much about him and his kind.

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