Yes, I have a Moluccan hen who is 10 years old named Sidney.
She adores her squeeky toys & is visibly delighted when I take
the time to include her squeeky toys to enrich her environment
when I play with her and handle her.
She has a definite squeeky toy immitation she makes, too.
Sidney is in our home with other parrots who are not blind.
We keep The Cartoon Channel on from 8 AM - 10 PM so there is
always noise & language stimulation. We are the 5th home for
Sidney. Her first owner threw her against a wall when she was
2 & (I suspect) also stomped on her. His girlfriend scooped
up poor Sidney's crumpled & broken body, & deposited her at
the closest vet, leaving no identifying information. I am sure
she figured that the vet would have prosecuted them (him for
cruelty and her for aiding & abbeting). Sidney has several
broken bones. The vet kept her in recovery for several months.
When Sidney's bones healed, she was left with one blind eye &
one eye that saw shadows & movements. I do not put many toys
in her cage, because it makes things more difficult when she
moved around her cage, but she seems to do well. We have a
3rd cup that we put a mixture of peppers, seeds, nuts and
other types of "parrot treats" and she seems to have no
problem locating that when it is filled. She also loves Pizza
Crust. Here is the delimma. Now that the vet has "saved"
Sidney from a fate worse than death, where does one place a
blind Cockatoo?
Sidney's vet discovered a pet shop owner who specialized in
birds & was willing to pay her vet bills. She thought perhaps,
Sidney could be a mascot in her parrot store. It did not work.
So the pet show owner called a friend of ours who raised
birds, to asked if she could find it in her heart to adopt
Sidney and give her the attention she needed. Our friend did
so for 3 years, until her Cockatoo allergies became so acute
that she could not hold Sidney more than 15 minutes until she
could not breathe. Sidney's owner then e-mailed me, knowing
we do a LIVE PARROT EDUCATION SHOW as well as parrot rescue.
She asked if we would like to have Sidney for purposes of
educating the public.
Sidney is a true pale pink-peach colored Moluccan Cockatoo.
She is NOT a plucker and is quite content to sit in her cage
much of the day without a fuss. She knows however when it is
8 PM and time for her to have her 2-hours of one-on-one with
me each night. If I am not there, she will begin to scream.
However, Sidney is the gentlest Moluccan Cockatoo I have ever
encountered & is a trained Pet Therapy bird.
She coos & responds happily / readily to my touch and time.
She has a large vocabulary -- most of which reverts back to
the time in her first home and her demenear reflects it.
After we acquired Sidney, I called The Vet School @ The
University of Florida to asked if there was any way to test
her eye sight to see if she had improved over the years. I
was told that Sidney would have to be placed under anthestic
and then her optic nerve could be tested. We opted not to do
that as it risk of losing her was more than we felt was
warranted.
I will be happy to send photos or answer any questions anyone
might have regarding Sidney.
On 3/08/07, Rose wrote:
> On 3/05/07, . wrote:
>> I live with a blind parrot and would appreciate some
>> advice on how to enrich his environment. Do any of you
>> live with a blind, or maybe almost blind bird? How is
>> your set up, etc? Thanks. You can e-mail me at :
>> [email protected]
>
> I don't have a blind parrot but something I do for my birds
> may be interesting to yours. I have tapes of bird calls for
> blind people from Cornell Labs. They have a person talking
> and then the bird calls that match. Mine find this
> entertaining and they try to imitate the wild birds' calls.
> I would just try to think about blind people situations.
> Unlike other birds, I would not move the stuff around in his
> cage. Keep it the same so he can use dishes, toys, etc. as
> landmarks and find his way around. Toys that make noise,
> such as bells, might be interesting, as would crinkly
> sounding toys. He may appreciate having the TV left on
> while you are at work to a children's channel. He might
> also enjoy the warmth of being placed in the sun for a
> while. If I think of anything else, I'll post again. Good
> luck with your bird.
Capt'n Jack & His Buccaneer Buddies
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