Newspaper Article

For the birds

MacLean, Mairi

2004

Overview

\"He was just a ball of feathers, hissing at you,\" says Nancy Brink, recalling Zeus's erratic, neurotic behaviour when he first arrived at her 'foster home' early last May. She'd found out about him from Feathered Friends Avian Rescue and Resource Association (FFARRA), an Edmonton group devoted to rescuing unwanted pet parrots and to finding loving homes for them. He sees up to three birds a day as part of his practice and is noticing parrots becoming more popular, although not as common as dogs, cats and 'pocket pets' such as hamsters and rabbits. The birds will often come in for routine grooming - nail trimming or wing clipping and nutritional management. But [Ken Keeler] cautions that if owners only feed their parrots seed, if they don't clean up the cage often enough, if they use sandpaper perches or don't cover the cage at night so the parrot can get enough sleep, \"all these things can cause stress and the bird can start to act ill.\" Back at FFARRA, [Isabelle Kamal] is thrilled that Zeus is relaxed, preening and a different, more joyful bird. It's one of her happy endings. She turns to another happy ending, a double yellow head amazon named Echo, who had come to the Edmonton Humane Society as a \"defensively aggressive\" bird that needed more and better care. Placed with a foster 'dad' named Roy, he has blossomed into an affectionate and chatty bird.

• Publisher: Postmedia Network Inc
• Subject: Brink, Nancy / Kamal, Isabelle / Keeler, Ken