 |
| |
| Skittles |
| |
| Is a Blue Front Amazon. |
| |
| Skittles came to us in April of 2008 |
| |
| When we first went to see Skittles we knocked on the front door
(as you would) and from there we were led to see
Skittles for the first time. Her prior owner
indicated to us that she was 4
½ years old, very tame and simply "not
used to strangers". |
| |
| Why would we not believe the owner? |
| |
| We have a few of our own personal flock that always
seem to be on their best behavior when we have company
over. As soon as they leave, they are up to their old
tricks, talking up a storm and just being their normal
selves. So, we thought no more of it and believed what
we were told. |
| |
| At this point in time, we did not know her name, so
we ask the owner. All we knew was that she was a Blue
Front Amazon. After a short break a a quick thought, the owner told us that
her name is Mrs. Jones. This put up the first red flag.
Maybe we were just weary due to past experiences. To us
it seemed as if her name was picked out of a hat at the
last minute because a name had to be produced. |
| |
| We were now in a long & narrow family room that had
a makeshift playstand in it that the owner
told us she did not like and an approximately 18" x 18" x
24" cage on a stand with Skittles inside. She had one
small chewed up toy, her food bowl was empty and her
water bowl had green water in it. |
| |
| (Guess they forgot to fix
that before we got there, but we were an hour early)
We will never know and it does not matter anymore. |
| |
| Her cage door was then opened by the owner and out
rushed Skittles. She headed to the top of the cage in double
quick time and started to explore the two bowls that
were on the play top and both were empty. We
approached and started our human gibber jabber language
that most of us do and she hung back on her feet as if
to say "stay away", her wings opened up and she started
to thrust & lung toward us. |
| |
| That is a far from normal reaction for a tame bird.
The owner then proceeds to try and entice her down with peanuts while trying to ensure us that she is just
nervous at the same time. It is not happening or
working. By now we realize that the whole truth
is not being told here. |
| |
| Dee is very persistent and does not give up that
easily. We leave the room and Dee takes over to try one
on one. Eventually, she succeeded in getting her to show
a slight sign of what seems to be a welcome to human
interaction. A peanut helped along by her voice and
experience with similar birds in similar circumstances. |
| |
| We could easily see that Skittles had started to
pluck her self. Her wings were all chewed up, she had no
fantail feathers, her thighs were pretty much bald. Put
that with the behavior we had already seen from her and
there was no doubt in our minds that had to rescue this
bird now before she got any worse. |
| |
| We simply listened to whatever the prior owner had
to say to us after this point and let it all in one ear
and out of the other. |
| |
| Skittles obviously had issues and needed to be taken out
of her current environment. We could tell that at one
point she had been a pet, but as with so many birds. How
she ended up in this situation will always be a mystery.
|
| |
| This owner is not going to tell us anything. They
are just out to sell a bird. |
| |
| After agreeing to purchase her we were told that the
cage that she is in, is only her temporary cage that she
visits while she is in the house. We were then taken
into the back yard and shown a pile consisting of around
30 cages of all shapes and sizes that were lying around
and told to pick whichever one that we wanted for her. |
| |
| We declined the offer. They were all piled up with
rust all over them. Who knows what disease carrying
critters have been snooping through them. We have a lot
them in Florida as I am sure the rest of the country
does. |
| |
| While in the back yard, we both looked everywhere
discreetly just to make sure there were no other
birds on the property at the time just for our own piece
of mind. There were beaten up makeshift
aviaries hidden down the side of the house but they were
all empty. It was very obvious to us that these people
just buy and sell birds or may have been breeders at one
point in time. |
| |
| That should tell you, all you need to know and is
probably another story all on it's own. |
|
| We purchase her and take her to her new home which
is about a 30 minute car ride. |
| |
|
| |
| We named her "Skittles" due to her
beautiful variety of colors. The name Mrs. Jones just
did not work, if that ever was her name. She has a lot
of the colors in her that you would find in a packet of
Skittles and her name is very appropriate. She now knows and says her
new name along with a lot of other things.
(no profanities). In fact,
now if she is playing or munching away and you say
"Skittles" or "Skittle Whittles" she will pause and look
over at you as if to say "I am busy right now, what do
you want" , it is so cute to see. |
| |
| Once in her new home and a new cage, we left her
alone to chill and readjust to her new surroundings.
After a few days she seemed to be brighter in herself,
but something was not right and we had no idea what it
was. Her new cage was a 36" x 28" x 65" dome
top that had plenty of toys of different types and we
thought that she should have been in her apple cart. |
| |
| We rattled our brains, lost sleep
(literally) wondering
about what could be wrong and came up with no answers. |
| |
| One day Skittles is hanging out on a 32" x 22" x 27"
stacked flight cage and takes herself inside to explore.
Well, that was it. We could not get her out of it, she
seemed to love it, so we left her in there. To this day
she is still in the same flight cage and does not want
anything to do with a more appropriately sized cage for
her breed. |
| |
| It turned out that Skittles was terrified when a
human reached out to interact with her by trying to get
her to step up or tried to get anywhere near her while
she is in her castle. She would move around her cage
like something possessed to get away from you and make
noises that sounded as if you were trying to murder her.
She would never bite and you could see that she was
desperate for attention and interaction but at the same
time she was so afraid. |
| |
| What on earth could have happened to her in her past
to make her so afraid of humans? You have no idea as to
how much I wish she could talk to us & tell her story.
She is such a sweetheart. |
| |
| Once out of her cage (but
with it still in sight and reach), she becomes a
different bird altogether but is still very much alert
and weary about humans. |
| |
| She would move across the couch between and onto the
two of us and showed no preference to who she is with.
Go to pet her and she would make a few noises and then
enjoy the affection and show no aggression what so ever. |
| |
| Rub her beak, stroke her chest, tickle her feet,
caresse her back, run your fingers through her feathers,
massage her head, tip her upside down. She loves all of
the above. |
| |
| As said earlier, Skittles came to us in April of
2008 and she has made unbelievable progress. She has not
plucked a feather since the day she arrived and you
would never know to look at her now that it is the same
bird that we took in. She is fully flighted but never
takes flight unless something spooks her but any bird
will do the same. |
| |
| Skittles still has a way to go with human
interaction and needs a home that can provide a
lot of one on one attention
to help her regain her human trust. It is very obvious
that she wants the interaction but she still has
insecurity in her mind as far as humans are concerned. |
| |
| She still makes her noises when you go to take her
out of her cage but she is now so much better. She is
realizing again that, not all humans are bad. She is a
very sociable bird and does like to befriend other
birds. "that is a whole other story". |
| |
| Skittles is a very low maintenance bird and also a
very quiet bird. After experimenting with many different
types of toys, we have come to the decision that she is
a plastic, rubber and thin wood toy lover. Put a thick
wooden toy in her cage and it will still be intact three
months later. |
| |
| She loves, loves, loves
her toys and spends a lot of time hanging upside down
while playing with them. She does not simply destroy
them as a lot of birds do. She will chew them gently
into tiny pieces until the entire toy is gone. |
| |
| She will even put them into her food bowl and
if she can, dunk them in her water bowl as a bird in the
wild might dunk it's food to soften it up. We call it
"Skittles soup". You never know what toy flavor it will
be from one day to the next. She is a happy camper,
which is the only thing that really matters. |
| |
| Bye the way. Skittles loves spending time on her
playstand & roaming around it and playing. She likes to
perform and tackle various toys from angles that only
Skittles could do. We were initially told that she does
not like playstands. |
| |
| Skittles is now ready for adoption to the right
home, but will remain a resident bird for however long
it takes to find the perfect loving "Forever" parents
that have the time to give her the one on one attention
that she so desperately wants and deserves. |
|
| If you would like to adopt Skittles and can provide
a "Forever Home" for her.
We would love to hear from you. By "Forever". We really
do mean "Forever". |
| |
| Although we have called Skittles her and she
throughout her story, I would like you to know that we
do not know which sex that Skittles is. To us she is
simply a wonderful bird that needed help and we
are proud to be a part of her success story. |
| |
| |
