Beignet's Beginnings

Beignet is an Congo African Grey parrot who was rescued with the help of the police department and animal control. She had been living in a small cage with 20 other African Grey Parrots, in a house with more than 60 birds in similar condition. When she was rescued she had plucked all of her feathers out and had begun to self mutilate her skin. She lived at an Avian Hospital for a year and a half after her rescue before she chose me to live with. This is the beginning of her story. She is making a remarkable recovery and is enjoying living with me and my husband, our other parrot which is a Celestial Parrotlet and our Balinese cat.

African Grey parrots live a very long time, sometimes up to 100 years. For this reason, I wanted to adopt a "used" parrot. I had seen babies and they were so cuddly and swee, but I am not a young person in the beginning of adult life, so I couldn't morally buy a baby. I wanted to live my life with a parrot who would not need a lot of owner changes.

I have a lot of experience training animals and the patience it takes to make them want to do different behaviors. For instance, our cat is trained with basic dog training: sit, lay down, lay down on the side, roll over, stop, no, up. Isabo our Parrotlet can tell colors and talks, though her consonants are unheard to my ears. I can hear the appropriate vowels when she talks. A Parrotlet voice is very high pitched, so it is uncommon to hear what they say. It is quite obvious that Isabo knows what she is saying.

I will attempt to post things that will be of help to others who are rehabilitating parrots, or who want to know different methods of training.

Your comments are welcomed.