A Bird Story

Ian, who loves all animals has wanted a bird for sometime, I don't know that I really have anything against birds, but I really am more of a cat person.  The co-op we live in has a three pet rule and we had three cats so I was able to use that as a valid reason not to get a bird... then one of our cats got really sick and we had to let him go to cat heaven. That opened up room for the much desired bird. I kept saying we have cats, you can't have cats & birds together, we know nothing about birds, they cost too much, you get the picture.  Enter strike  number one: a neighbor of my mom and dad (up-north) knew someone who would give us a bird for free!  Ok, Ok, but you still can't have birds and cats together... or can you?  I told Ian he needed to find me someone reliable that has had both and it worked-not one of his school friends someone I could believe-he found Sister Berger from church, strike two.  Sister Berger went so far as to send me an email telling me it would be fine and I should let him get a bird. Alright, I give up! We can get a bird-one bird-we'll bring it home with us after our "up-north" vacation.  But the story doesn't end there, Ian goes up-north a few weeks before to spend some one on one time with grandma & grandpa and I tell him to see if he can get some more information on the bird we are going to get so I can do some research and be prepared to have what we need and the proper care.                                                          
Ready? Strike three, the "bird lady" no longer has the one bird to give us so Ian decides on two doves and he's bringing them home with him! My anxiety is so high I can't sleep at night, and then, yes it gets better, Ian sends me a text that says he's worried one of the birds seems to have a hurt toe, I have no idea what to do so I suggest he call the bird lady and see what she knows, no help found there. (On a side note did you know that you can't take a bird to just any vet it has to be an avian vet?)  I got the name of an avian vet from Pruess Pets (they were life savers the first couple of weeks) and called to make an appointment for a bird I hadn't even seen yet, they too were wonderful, I'm sure I sounded like a crazy women telling them my story. So, birds coming home, appointment at the vet, how do you get the bird there?  I have a cat carrier that should work right? Nope the bird can get caught in the mesh and hurt itself, back to Pruess's for a bird carrier.

To back track a little we also didn't know if the birds were boys or girls (there is no easy way to tell on birds) and female birds will lay eggs without a male they just won't be fertile and if we have a boy and a girl there is no way to stop them from laying eggs-which would mean baby birds, this knowledge resulted in more sleepless nights for me.

Ok back on track, the birds come home and off we go with one to the vet. At the vet we find that somehow his toe has either been bitten or pinched and he will lose it, because he is a pet and not in the wild it shouldn't cause a problem... unless it gets infected. The bird gets a shot, some ointment for his toe and a liquid antibiotic that has to be given to him twice a day for 10 days. OMG how do you give a bird an antibiotic? Do I care? It's Ian's bird he can do it, but wait! He's going to scout camp in two days so mom gets to do it! Two things that worked in my favor; the bird didn't feel well so it didn't fight me a much as it could have and I learned that birds don't have a gage reflex so once you get the medicine in it's not coming back up. This bird and I became friends-well maybe not friends exactly-whether we liked it or not and I managed to get the medicine down his throat twice a day all the while saying to myself "please don't break it's neck" which was my biggest fear. This same bird (the gray one above now named Echo) had to make another trip to the vet a couple weeks later because of extreme molting that the vet couldn't explain but he did compliment me on how well the toe looked. And then last but not least I needed to figure out what to do with them when we went on vacation (remember they weren't suppose to be coming home until AFTER vacation.) With cats you can just have someone come in every other day or so to make sure they have fresh food and water, with birds you really should have someone come in twice a day. My brother came to the rescue, he was able to recommend someone that he has used in the past and was willing to come himself in the evening so I only had to pay for one visit.

So in conclusion, Echo, Coco and I have survived, they now have a new larger cage that they seem happy with.We have been able to change their food from seed to pellets (something the vet recommend for their health) and I even kind of like them. Oh! and we haven't had any eggs so we must have two males. Echo seems to be the dominate one but all and all they get along pretty good or this story might be longer yet.  If Ian ever says I'm not a good mom I will quickly remind him of what I went through for his birds. 8~)