Arkansas Parrot Rescue

06/01/2026

05/31/2026

Billie decided I’m ok enough for kisses…

05/31/2026

Treat Parrots Like Children!
Families with dogs and cats routinely turn everything off when they leave home. This works perfectly with the nature of a predator. They eat and sleep, and for a period of the day they socialize.

You can't do that with birds. If they laze around all day in the dark, they will have vitamin deficiencies, poor exercise, and be under-stimulated. It dramatically affects their behavior and health. A friendly bird will become overly excitable and people will get hurt then retaliate by caging it and reducing its stimulation more.

Parrots need lights and TV on for stimulation. We have full spectrum lights on 12 hour daily timers, plus I turn on the house lights. And I don't mean any TV or random noise like many people do. PBS Kids is ideal for birds. It has stories. It teaches language. It is engaging.

Music is fun once in a while, but given context, especially if you are singing and dancing along. But by itself it is noise. Bird sounds is also noise. Imagine you are hostage to aliens and they play you monkey sounds. You'd go out of your mind. Or they play random clips of people chatting. Again just noise. Don't run nature shows, they are horror shows. And regular cartoons are too violently stimulating. PBS Kids is just right. AND FREE! You can find it on ROKU and live stream it or pick it up locally with an antenna.

You wouldn't leave your child in a small room in the dark with no stimulation every time you leave right? Of course not. If you wouldn't do it to a child, don't do it to a bird. Leave the bird with things that stimulate it, like boxes and papers to tear up, toys, and lots of space to play and fly in.

If you have other dogs and cats you worry about being safe around, close them in another room. Caging the bird creates a foraging toy and reduces their stimulation. The dog and cat are fine nesting in a den. Forcing a bird to nest can create hormonal issues. Parrots need lots of choices and space just like human children.

05/31/2026

Billy is 22. Lost his mom. Likes tall mature women with long hair. He has a very large cage that needs refurbishing and a small perch stand in need of a good scrubbing.

Adoption process outlined here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18vbKv9i2r/?mibextid=wwXIfr

05/30/2026

The center of the room is drying now. I figured night best for this so I could drive cockatiels away to the sides for the night.

I used this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/45997418?sid=FF905A35-EB4C-42F6-B960-E61F8C52E54E

It is water based and safe to use without toxic fumes. Unfortunately it is not ideal, but it dries within hours and is safe. The alternatives can take days and have toxic fumes.

05/29/2026

Nana was tearing up the faux/vellum wood tiles. We replaced with ceramic. Check….

05/29/2026

Re-sealing the great room floor. This is a water-based paint that does not put off fumes. Not perfect, but the alternatives take days to dry and have toxic fumes. https://www.walmart.com/ip/45997418?sid=FF905A35-EB4C-42F6-B960-E61F8C52E54E

05/28/2026

Pebbles passed last night. She was 40. She came to us December 6, 2017. In the pictures, I am wearing a blue shirt kissing her in an e-collar that same day.

She had been in foster homes for several years following her mom going into a nursing home. She was a happy and loved baby who cuddled me every chance she got, and went everywhere with me.

Her medical life was a constant struggle.

In the picture you can see her wearing a vest. The vest is a velcro dog harness with a piece of leather sewed on. She more commonly wore collars, but she was always able to keep the wound on her chest open. She had creative ways to get at it. It only healed a handful of times. Each briefly before it was re-opened.

She was our first documented avian ganglioneuritis case. Initially we had no idea. The vet in AZ did a CT scan and saw every bone in her body looked like it has been broken. Her spine, like all her other joints, was crooked. She didn't perch, walk, or climb well, and flew exactly once in protest of me giving the wrong bird attention.

Another vet thought maybe she had a bone spur on her keel. He did surgery, removing the scar tissue. A few days later she blew out the stitches and it took 18 months to close up the huge hole over her breast. A couple years later a vet in CA pointed me toward Dr. Dahlhausen’s work on ganglioneuritis. We now had a proper diagnosis that ultimately inspired the book Parronting.

Peaches respected and loved her as an elder. She would come over and they would argue and play, take over each other's nests, or Peaches would just climb up inside Pebbles' nest and pretend to be her baby.

I personally think she has known a long time she was in decline that the vet and I had not noticed. I think she also knew as she made space for Sarge and even allowed an umbrella (Angel) to cuddle me without protest. Her weight had gone down, and we did occasionally need to fight infections with her wounds, but nothing major.

Her vet had planned to start her on a bee venom therapy that is supposed to help with AG/PDD/ABV. We all knew she was on borrowed time. She was vulnerable on many levels.

Many said we should put her down. Did she have pain? Yes. Was she miserable? No. She had joy. She had quality of life. She wanted to live. She had joy and love to her end.