Hello!
So, long story, but here goes:
My boyfriend works as a bird keeper at a local zoo with a walkthrough lorikeet aviary. Several months back, a little rainbow lorikeet's wing started drooping. After a week or so, vet said it was getting better so no further medical treatment was given. A month after that though, the droop was back. X-ray was done. It had fractured its wing and no one had picked up on it, so it had now fused back together on its own accord. Because of the way it fused, the bird is now unable to fly and was unable to go back into the nesting area. It was placed in the quarentine room and looked after by the 3 keepers.
Fast forward to now. Someone higher in the zoo (don't know who), has said that they need the quarantine space and, as it has been several months and with no signs of re-introducing it back into the aviary, the lorikeet needs to go. Que frantic bargaining from keepers to keep it one month more. Higher up was adiment it had to go; Take it home, put it to sleep, either way, it couldn't stay. My boyfriend, being the wonderfully soft soul he is, said that we would take it (we're also making room somewhere for 2 royal pythons that he said we'd take because they're in surplus and also "needed to go").
I do not have a problem taking this bird, in fact I'm ridiculously excited. My only problem is, I know that rainbow's tend to get attached to one person and can be "jealous". As one of the soul carers for it for the past 4 months, it's likely to already be attached to my boyfriend. I'm only going to be working 2 days a week next month due to health issues (I work as an inverterbrate keeper/presentation host at the same zoo) so I was wondering if there's any tips you guys have to help the bird and I have a good bond between us?
Also, any enrichment ideas for a bird that can't fly?
Thanks
So, long story, but here goes:
My boyfriend works as a bird keeper at a local zoo with a walkthrough lorikeet aviary. Several months back, a little rainbow lorikeet's wing started drooping. After a week or so, vet said it was getting better so no further medical treatment was given. A month after that though, the droop was back. X-ray was done. It had fractured its wing and no one had picked up on it, so it had now fused back together on its own accord. Because of the way it fused, the bird is now unable to fly and was unable to go back into the nesting area. It was placed in the quarentine room and looked after by the 3 keepers.
Fast forward to now. Someone higher in the zoo (don't know who), has said that they need the quarantine space and, as it has been several months and with no signs of re-introducing it back into the aviary, the lorikeet needs to go. Que frantic bargaining from keepers to keep it one month more. Higher up was adiment it had to go; Take it home, put it to sleep, either way, it couldn't stay. My boyfriend, being the wonderfully soft soul he is, said that we would take it (we're also making room somewhere for 2 royal pythons that he said we'd take because they're in surplus and also "needed to go").
I do not have a problem taking this bird, in fact I'm ridiculously excited. My only problem is, I know that rainbow's tend to get attached to one person and can be "jealous". As one of the soul carers for it for the past 4 months, it's likely to already be attached to my boyfriend. I'm only going to be working 2 days a week next month due to health issues (I work as an inverterbrate keeper/presentation host at the same zoo) so I was wondering if there's any tips you guys have to help the bird and I have a good bond between us?
Also, any enrichment ideas for a bird that can't fly?
Thanks
