New addition to our family

[Sue13]

Anyone who reads Xavier's posts, will have read about the new addition to our family.

For several months now, I've been looking around to find a companion for our 13 year old male CAG, Freddie. Of course, there seemed to be all kinds of CAGs for sale when I wasn't looking for one. Finally, a couple of weeks ago I came accross an add for a female CAG for sale. Although we had talked about it and thought about for a long time, now that the possibility of a second CAG became more real, my husband and I had to contemplated the idea for several days ... finally I decided to pick up the phone and make the call ... the next day I made my way to the other end of the city to take a look at her. When I arrived, I was warned by the lady of the house that Teeka was not very friendly and that she could get agressive at times and bite ("ok, what bird doesn't have a bad day at times", was my hopeful thought ) We walked over to the cage where I sat down a few feet away so that Teeka could take a good look at me while I talked to the owner about the bird. When it came time to take Teeka out of the cage, the owner carefully covered her hand with her sweater and reached in ... Teeka was not very happy to step up and it took several attempts. Once out of the cage, Teeka immediately took off in full flight and hit a nearby window ouch. After the owner recovered Teeka, I decided that I would not make her step up as she looked terrified of me.

Upon closer insepction of her cage, I noticed that the cage had not been cleaned in some time. The owner must have noticed the look of horror on my face as she quickly told me that she cleaned the cage by hosing it off outside twice a year Also, Teeka only had one perch in her cage - the dowel supplied with the cage when they bought it three years earlier. When I commented on Teeka being fully flighted and whether that was a problem, she told me that it wasn't an issue as Teeka was rarely let out of the cage anyways. Also, as Teeka aparantly did not like showers, she had not been bathed in the three years that these people had owned her.

You think Teeka had it bad there, aparantly the lady bought Teeka from a breeder who kept her in the basement and the breeder used a net to catch her in order to put her into a travel cage when she was bought Upon further discussion with the current owner, it turned out that she had intended to use the bird for breeding. Thankfully, her plans had not worked out and she decided to sell the bird instead.

My gut reaction was to take Teeka and run .... However, it sounded like she was a problem bird (no feather plucking, mind you) and my cautious/realistic side took over. After much discussion with the breeder, she agreed to let me take Teeka home on a trial basis for several days ... she also agreed to drop the price to $800 Cdn including the cage (which would have to be sandblasted ). I decided to leave the cage with the owner for the time being and house her in our large collapsible cage.

To make this LONG story shorter, it turns out that Teeka is a sweet little girl who just needed some structure and tender love and care , a nail trim to blunt her razor sharp talons , a couple of mist showers (ok she's not too fond of water, but too bad so sad ) and a LOT of time out of the cage. She is absolutely cute and comical (and adores my husband). I ended up going back to the owner that evening to pick up Teeka's cage. Of course, I had to stop at a car wash on the way home to blasting off most of the caked on layers of dirt first. Two days later, Teeka was whisked off to our avian vet for a full checkup, to clip her overgrown nails and have her wings lightly trimmed (we will probably let her become fully flighted again after she's adjusted to her new home).

Teeka's been with us for 6 days now and so far so good ...I know it is still the honeymoon phase, but I do not see her becoming agressive with anyone - knock on wood and cross my fingers.

I do have one question: aparantly she was an avid wood chewer at her previous home, going through toys (by God, they did supply her with toys) like a sawmill. In the week she's been with us, she's checked out her toys and only put a few chew marks in one or two. Do you think that this is a sign for concern?

[Doyle'sMommy]

Congrats on Teeka! I am so glad she is in a good home! I wouldn't worry about her not playing with the toys, she is still adjusting to a new home and new people. Give her some time. Make sure you give her different thicknesses and shapes of wood, it could be just a preference thing. Good luck!

And do we get any pics?

[Sashagirl]

Sue

Good luck on your new FID.You've done a very good thing for Teeka.I'm so happy for you.Isn't it amazing how bad people treat their FIDS.Wow no bath in 3 years.I've seen some serious cases of neglect in my 10 years of doing rescues.I have my fair share of re-homed FIDS.I hope everything goes well with Teeka.I look forward to hearing more about your FIDS.

[Shades of Grey]

Great that Teeka has found a new, loving home - better late than never. Maybe she is not paying too much attention to her toys as she is now happily busy receiving attention ..for a change.

[Sue13]

Thank you for all the good wishes. We've had Teeka for 2 weeks now and it feels like she's been a member of our family for much longer. Despite the fact that we've had her feathers trimmed, she is able to fly several feet from my arm to my husbands (of course not the other way around yet).

I've see that someone else has a 12 year old CAG for sale in our area. Argh ... so tempting. Either my husband finishes the basement soon so that the birds can have their own room (it's a walkout with windows) or we'll have to find a home more suiteable for FIDs.