Introducing Elliot!
Boy, this one is overdue. Told you I had a lot of blog to write.
I have been to a number of parrot club meetings over the years, and have never once found one that met all my requirements. The biggest issue has been with flighted parrots - many of the clubs that I’ve gone to either refuse to believe that a person can safely keep a flighted parrot, or freak out if a parrot goes to the meeting and flies. The second one is about positive reinforcement and good training - I really prefer to be around like minded individuals.
I decided to give it a shot again and went to the January meetup of The York Region Parrot Club, and it was absolutely awesome. I spent half the meeting with parrots flying to my shoulder, and made special friends with a few greys who were absolutely the social butterflies of the evening, and then listened to a great presentation on trick training. We joined that evening. Madam Tlalli will be attending the March meeting with us, which should be a really interesting adventure.
Anyways, as part of being a member, I was on the Facebook group in which (to no one’s big surprise) a number of parrots are posted needing new homes. A few days after the January meeting, someone posted about a parrot, and I had the gut feeling I was doomed.
See, my SO has wanted a Poicephalus for literally a decade now, and I’ve been making faces at the idea because he wanted a Senegal, and I don’t really like them much. Something about the way they look and the way they interact with the world just doesn’t do it for me. I suggested a Meyers, he made faces, and we were at an impasse. And it never really seemed to be the right time.
Elliot is an almost five year old male red bellied parrot (Poicephalus rufiventris) who was given to a group that does parties for children. They tried to see if he would work out well in that high stimulation environment (which some parrots thrive on!), but he was inconsistent with the staff. We brought him home on January 25th, and he’s the most delightful little parrot.
Red bellieds are sexually dimorphic, so we know he’s a he - hens have a greyish green chest.
He moved into Tea’s old cage, and has settled in very well. He’ll probably be doomed to the land of fewer pictures taken (like the Amazons) due to the fact that he’s not my parrot, and thus spends most of his time out of his cage somewhere that I can’t photograph. :) He matches the walls in the library gloriously though, doesn’t he?
Welcome to the madhouse, Elliot!
Originally published at Rational Parrot Blog. You can comment here or there.