Do you own only one bird?

[corbettsmom]

nk that's it's name) that was in a cage with a big
Macaw who tormented her. They didn't even know its name or who
owned her before. Corbett looked pathetic with most of her
feathers plucked from her body. Someone clipped her wings and
she was bleeding. You could also see her ea1. What is the age, name, and species of your bird? Spectacled Amazon or White fronted Amazon - We don't know the age, but the vet said Corbett could be 14 years +

2. How much time do you spend interacting with your bird? What kinds of things do you do with your bird? We spend from about 5 - 7:30 at night together - we play games (peek-a- boo and ball throwing ) He lets me hold and pet him - If he's tired. And on the weekends we spend more time together. He'll sit on my shoulder for long periods of time.

3. Does your bird appear content without any other birds in the household? Does it ever appear lonely? I know he wants my attention all the time, so yes, I guess he is lonely when he is left alone and we are in work.

4. Do you have any other pets within the home? Does your bird interact with these pets at all? No other pets.

5. Have you ever considered adding another bird to your household? Do you ever worry that a bird needs fellow avian companionship? I would like another bird. I do worry that he needs an avian friend.

6. If you were to purchase another bird, would you worry at all that the two might bond to each other to the point of affecting your one-on-one relationships with them? No, that would be selfish of me. I would love to see two of them interacting together. Double the pleasure.

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about this topic? I added a story that I wrote about Corbett at the bottom of this email.

Here is something I wrote for another site...birdsnow.com

Helen sent in this great story about Corbett.

Corbett is a White-Fronted Amazon, also called a Spectacled
Amazon because it looks like she has glasses on.


"My husband took our little bird from a friend who had Corbett
(we thirs. Well we nursed
her to health and she turned out to be a beauty."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sidenote from Jim.... This is just a great story. Lessons for
all of us! Read on....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Helen continues, "Soon after she started to recover, one night
while we were doing dishes, she started whistling and saying
"Shut up Corbett." We cracked up. We didn't even know she
could talk! She started saying "Quack Corbett" and "Corbett
Corbett". We were a bit sad about her saying "Shut up
Corbett," because we thought that maybe someone always said
that to her.

This person got the bird from someone else and they didn't
know anything about it. So we determined that her/his name was
Corbett. I have no history on her, so it took a long time for
her to warm up to me, but she came around.

She loved my husband first since he rescued him. My husband
doesn't have time to spend with Corbett, so I took over.

Corbett plays ball with us. We throw the ball (she sits on the
refrigerator) and she throws it back. All I have to say is
"get the ball" and she runs for it and throws it. It's a
stuffed animal type ball.

When I'm down on the floor with her, she seems to talk
gibberish. She makes the sound of crunching Doritos, which she
loves to eat. Corbett is very social and wants to be around
everyone.

When we first got her, one Thanksgiving, it was so funny
because we had a tableful of people and she got passed around
to everyone. She does bite strangers though if she feels
threatened. Strangers can't touch her.

We used a cheap cane, the kind people give as gag gifts for
people over the hill. She steps up on it and then gets passed
around without people getting bitten.

Well as time passed, Corbett wouldn't let me pick her up. I
was determined for her to love me, so I got a little stuffed
animal parrot and showed it to her and started talking to the
stuffed animal and saying "You're a nice parrot" and I started
petting the stuffed animals head and making a fuss over the
stuffed parrot. Corbett was watching me like a hawk. Well
guess what? I can now pick up Corbett and rub her head and
I can hold her to my chest and rub her eyes, head and ears -
I'm in heaven.

We cover her at night and in the morning you hear the sweetest
"hello." I just melt. Corbett talks and yells with the water
running and when I vacuum too! We whistle back and forth to
each other from room to room, changing the kind of whistle by
me or her. Never thought I would love a bird so much. She is
such a nice companion!
-Helen
This year we found out that Corbett is a male. Now Corbett wants to be close to us (no more than 2 feet away), if we are too far away he yells.

[corbettsmom]

1. What is the age, name, and species of your bird? Spectacled Amazon or White fronted Amazon - We don't know the age, but the vet said Corbett could be 14 years +

2. How much time do you spend interacting with your bird? What kinds of things do you do with your bird? We spend from about 5 - 7:30 at night together - we play games (peek-a- boo and ball throwing ) He lets me hold and pet him - If he's tired. And on the weekends we spend more time together. He'll sit on my shoulder for long periods of time

3. Does your bird appear content without any other birds in the household? Does it ever appear lonely? I know he wants my attention all the time, so yes, I guess he is lonely when he is left alone and we are in work.

4. Do you have any other pets within the home? Does your bird interact with these pets at all? No other pets.

5. Have you ever considered adding another bird to your household? Do you ever worry that a bird needs fellow avian companionship? I would like another bird. I do worry that he needs an avian friend.

6. If you were to purchase another bird, would you worry at all that the two might bond to each other to the point of affecting your one-on-one relationships with them? No, that would be selfish of me. I would love to see two of them interacting together. Double the pleasure.

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about this topic? I added a story that I wrote about Corbett at the bottom of this email. This was posted on birdsnow.com about a year ago.

Here is something I wrote for another site...birdsnow.com

Helen sent in this great story about Corbett.

Corbett is a White-Fronted Amazon, also called a Spectacled
Amazon because it looks like she has glasses on.


"My husband took our little bird from a friend who had Corbett
(we think that's it's name) that was in a cage with a big
Macaw who tormented her. They didn't even know its name or who
owned her before. Corbett looked pathetic with most of her
feathers plucked from her body. Someone clipped her wings and
she was bleeding. You could also see her ears. Well we nursed
her to health and she turned out to be a beauty."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sidenote from Jim.... This is just a great story. Lessons for
all of us! Read on....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Helen continues, "Soon after she started to recover, one night
while we were doing dishes, she started whistling and saying
"Shut up Corbett." We cracked up. We didn't even know she
could talk! She started saying "Quack Corbett" and "Corbett
Corbett". We were a bit sad about her saying "Shut up
Corbett," because we thought that maybe someone always said
that to her.

This person got the bird from someone else and they didn't
know anything about it. So we determined that her/his name was
Corbett. I have no history on her, so it took a long time for
her to warm up to me, but she came around.

She loved my husband first since he rescued him. My husband
doesn't have time to spend with Corbett, so I took over.

Corbett plays ball with us. We throw the ball (she sits on the
refrigerator) and she throws it back. All I have to say is
"get the ball" and she runs for it and throws it. It's a
stuffed animal type ball.

When I'm down on the floor with her, she seems to talk
gibberish. She makes the sound of crunching Doritos, which she
loves to eat. Corbett is very social and wants to be around
everyone.

When we first got her, one Thanksgiving, it was so funny
because we had a tableful of people and she got passed around
to everyone. She does bite strangers though if she feels
threatened. Strangers can't touch her.

We used a cheap cane, the kind people give as gag gifts for
people over the hill. She steps up on it and then gets passed
around without people getting bitten.

Well as time passed, Corbett wouldn't let me pick her up. I
was determined for her to love me, so I got a little stuffed
animal parrot and showed it to her and started talking to the
stuffed animal and saying "You're a nice parrot" and I started
petting the stuffed animals head and making a fuss over the
stuffed parrot. Corbett was watching me like a hawk. Well
guess what? I can now pick up Corbett and rub her head and
I can hold her to my chest and rub her eyes, head and ears -
I'm in heaven.

We cover her at night and in the morning you hear the sweetest
"hello." I just melt. Corbett talks and yells with the water
running and when I vacuum too! We whistle back and forth to
each other from room to room, changing the kind of whistle by
me or her. Never thought I would love a bird so much. She is
such a nice companion!
-Helen
This year we found out that Corbett is a male. Now Corbett wants to be close to us (no more than 2 feet away), if I'm too far away he yells.

[McCaille]

1. What is the age, name, and species of your bird?
Zorro - 7 Months - Nanday Conure

2. How much time do you spend interacting with your bird? What kinds of things do you do with your bird?
Zorro gets anywhere from an hour to 2 hours in the morning and several hours (If I had to average I would say at least 4 hours) in the evenings. This of course depends on our work schedules.

3. Does your bird appear content without any other birds in the household? Does it ever appear lonely?
-I believe he is ok being alone. I think I'm the one that suffers more for him being the only bird. I'd prefer him to have a bird buddy to preen and play with at times, but I don't think it affects him negatively being alone. He gets plenty of attention. Even if he's in his cage we talk to him.

4. Do you have any other pets within the home? Does your bird interact with these pets at all?
-Yes, we have 2 Cats and Several (30 atm) Chinchillas. Zorro is NOT allowed to interact or go around the chinchillas. The cats on the other hand he enjoys chasing them and latching onto their tails while they drag him around. They interact quite well together, though of course never without supervision.

5. Have you ever considered adding another bird to your household? Do you ever worry that a bird needs fellow avian companionship?
-Yes, we had considered a Jenday Conure just after bringing Zorro home, but decided against it, as Zorro did demand so much of our attention. As stated above, I think I'm more the one affected by him not having a birdie buddy. Zorro really doesn't seem to notice.

6. If you were to purchase another bird, would you worry at all that the two might bond to each other to the point of affecting your one-on-one relationships with them?
-No, I think even if Zorro were to attach to another bird were we to bring another into our home, we would still have a bit of our relationship. (Used to a diminishing relationship with the chins...haha) I can see it being not as strong. I would be more concerned about not developing a relationship with the new bird coming in. My biggest concern now, considering it, is if they DIDN'T get along.