Rosie's Blog

[copperarabian]

Most people who talk to me on this forum will know I love my bird, I've had her since the summer and have been working on rehabilitation her. She was abused and neglected by her past owners, the wife then sat in front of a pet store and eventually some older friends of mine came and accepted her. The women said her husband was going to kill her. Poor Rosie had a broken foot, part of her upper mandible was missing, her gray feathers where a disgusting yellowish color. She was also completely terrified and in a budgie cage they had to cut open to remove her.

They loved her and without them who knows where she would be now. 4 years later they let me take her home since she liked me because she knew I would pet her hours on end when no one else could. I taught her to step up and did months of therapy on her legs to get her strength back in her feet and legs. Now she seems like a different bird, she is more playful and healthier then I've ever seen her before.

I hope people enjoy reading about Rosie, and if you have any parrot questions you can post them here as well. I also have a Parrot Tumblr http://rosiethegalah.tumblr.com/

I'll also try to include a photo with each of the post that are a update on Rosie

[copperarabian]

The scary thing about Rosie seeming more healthy is that she's a very unhealthy bird.

Today Rosie had a visit to the local avian vet. Her calcium levels are very low and if she lays an egg it would destroy what I’ve accomplished with her so far and has the possibility of even killing her. She has a cuttle bone, but I’ll need to make sure she gets calcium in other ways as well as removing any warm foods from her diet that might cause her to want to lay an egg. Her blood count is pretty high too. They also tested to see if she had any bacteria infections that came back clean. Her heart, lungs, eyes, ears, and nose all look healthy and she didn’t see any fatty tumors on her. The other test will tell us more about her organs and should take a day or two.

Because Rosie was so underweight when I got her the vet thinks she was starting to get organ failure from her sun flower seed diet, luckily I quickly changed her diet and included fresh foods and finally pellets and she gained 17 grams(so now she’s at 167). Her diet is also helping with her feathers, when I got her she still had a fair amount of yellow and brown feathers and each time she molts they look more beautiful. She could tell she’s started her recovery process and gave me a few pointers on things I should remove from her diet and highly recommended Harrison’s organ diet that I’ll be starting her on.

As she continues to get healthier and eats her new organic diet she should continue to recover and her body will sort itself out. Her liver is bound to have some problems and the recovery process is going to take a while but will be worth it.

She said I’ve been doing a great job with her and she’s impressed by how much she’s recovered so far, I’m glad I’ve been doing it right so far because I would of felt horrible if I hadn’t been. In 6 weeks we’ll redo one of the test to see if she’s still improving.

[copperarabian]

I must admit, Harrison’s seems like a very good organic pellet and it’s so much cheaper then Feed Your Flock. Yesterday I introduced a few pieces to Rosie and she nibbled on it then ate her normal pellets. Today I changed it up some and gave her mostly the new pellets and only a little bit of the old pellets, she’s taken right to it and is eating normally. I’ll be watching her closely to make sure she is eating the proper amount of food, if not I’ll add more of her older pellets.


http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/

[Sena Hansler]

Rosie is really pretty what makes me sad is how people don't care for their pets! good for you I personally love birds....but... I don't feel ready for one, so I won't get one

[copperarabian]

Thanks, She is fantastic :D and that's very wise of you to think that way :)

[Luimeril]

i went through the Tumblr. :V she's a beautiful bird, and you're a wonderful person for taking her in. do you have any pictures of how she looked around the time you got her? i'm curious to see how far she's come.

Ma wants a parrot. she's kept birds my whole life, and it's lonely in the house, not having one. :I

[copperarabian]

Originally Posted by Luimeril

i went through the Tumblr. :V she's a beautiful bird, and you're a wonderful person for taking her in. do you have any pictures of how she looked around the time you got her? i'm curious to see how far she's come.

Ma wants a parrot. she's kept birds my whole life, and it's lonely in the house, not having one. :I

I sure can :) What type of birds did your mom have? The nice thing about Rosie is she'll live a long time, I don't think I'd ever be able to get a short lived parrot because it would be heart breaking when they go. I hope I have Rosie for a very very long time and I don't even want to think about when she passes away.


This is a few months after my friends got her. Her foot is swollen, feathers look horrible and are discolored and greasy, feces is visible on her vent feathers, she is very unhealthy and has extremely weak legs. That's only the beginning of the list too. We know nothing about her past except the lady's husband was going to kill her.


This is about a month after I brought her home, and about 4 years after the above photo. She is still unhealthy, has no feather dust from not getting enough calcium and eating mostly sun flower seeds, her feathers are off colored and brownish still and she's underweight and her feathers are greasy.


Now is the happy part, these are 2 of her photos from yesterday. She has close to no feather dust(better the none), is eating pellets instead of seeds, is still underweight but rather then 250 grams she's now 270grams. She's sleeps less and is more playful then she used to be and sometimes even plays with her toys. Her legs are super strong now and she is getting more exercise in flying exercises.

[Sakura8]

You've done wonders with her, Copper. Rosie looks so much better. Her poor foot looks so painful in those early pics of her. That's very frightening that she was in a cage that had to be cut to remove her. I'm really glad she came into your care because such a beautiful bird deserves a wise, knowledgeable and loving owner. Her eyes are shining now and her personality is blossoming so much. Kudos, Copper!

[Luimeril]

what an amazing change! O_O she looks amazing!

.... how can you kill such an intelligent animal?! if you don't want a bird, give it to a pet store! or craigslist, or the local SPCA! people amaze me at how cruel they can be. :I

[Sena Hansler]

that is what I say! actually here it is mostly pigeons in the spcas :( Some people just do not realize, when you have a pet that isn't a hamster or something short-lived you are spending 5-100 years caring for them!