As many of you know from my previous post, Silas passed back in December. The pain and loneliness of not having a bird was pretty awful, but I didn’t want to rush right into getting another.
However, four, yes *four* Senegals happened to practically fall into my lap in the last 2 weeks.
Shannon, the owner of Birds & Beaks Rescue out in Michigan is a Facebook friend of mine and while we were chatting, I found out she had three older male Senegals who were brothers and bonded to each other. She called them the “Three Wise Men”. They came from a hoarding situation and were in a cage with a 3 foot mountain of feces. They’re all in their early 30s and we think they may possibly be wild caught, but they definitely were not handled or socialized, and are completely wild and terrified of people (and when I say that I mean they freak out and start flailing when someone even gets near their cage). I knew that I would never have a bond with them like I did with Silas, but these three old brothers needed a good home and were pretty overwhelmed by the noise and bustle of the rescue.
So, I drove the 9 ours out to Battle Creek to get them, and instantly fell in love. As you can see they have a huge cage full of toys, and are so happy and content *as long* as they’re left alone to do their own thing. They have the cutest relationship with each other and they bathe together, preen each other, play, chew on their toys, hop and fly around, share food...I love watching them do their thing and they seem super happy here.
And now for the fourth...Eliot. His story is kind of long, so bear with me. I got all this information from Nick, the guy who rescued Eliot from his first home.
Eliot (previously José) was bought at a Petco store in Minnesota circa 1992, by a lady named Joan. So he is believed to be around 28 years old, although he seems younger to me (much younger than my other 3 old men). Joan also had an African Grey named Maxi, and a green cheek named Trixie, who were both also rescued by Nick. Nick said that what he gathered from Joan is that early in Eliot’s life, he was handled by Joan’s young son, who was possibly very rough with Eliot. We think this because he knows how to step up, but once he’s on your finger he freaks out, digs his claws in and starts screaming and flapping and ends up falling, and he seems to particularly distrust men. Nick said Joan also told him Eliot used to ride around on her dog, Beau’s, head. Eliot still says “c’mere Beau”.
So Eliot was kept in his cage for years without being handled, and Nick said when he got there the cage had at least a couple years’ worth of feces and filth in it. It also had a locked padlock on it because Eliot had figured out how to open the door, and Joan didn’t even know where the key was when Nick showed up. Good thing there was never a fire or other emergency...
Eliot and his flock were of course all fed cheap seed mix and had never been to a vet.
Eliot has a sort of deformed wing on one side, it almost looks like he was pinioned. When Nick asked about it, Joan initially said it happened years ago when Eliot fell. Nick found that hard to believe. Later when pressed, Joan all but admitted that Maxi and Eliot had fought. We suspect Maxi took off part of Eliot’s wing, and Eliot took one of Maxi’s toes (Maxi has an unexplained missing toe that Nick said hasn’t calloused over yet). Presumably neither bird was taken to the vet for their injuries, and Eliot’s wing never really healed properly. If he falls or flaps around too much, it opens back up and starts bleeding. Nick took him to two different avian vets while he had him, and they’d both said nothing could be done about it, but I plan to get a third opinion, because he drops like a rock and it scares me. Anyway to further prove our theory about the fight, Eliot and Maxi were reintroduced at Nick’s house, and they both immediately flipped out and started screaming and flailing, and had to be kept far away from each other in separate rooms.
So Nick rescued all 3 birds from Joan’s horribly neglectful situation, and he immediately fell in love with Eliot. But he said that it quickly became clear that Eliot much prefers women. It’s just Nick and his husband in his house, so he reluctantly rehomed Eliot to my friend Genevieve. Gen has followed my whole story with Silas from day one, and she’d had Eliot for just a few weeks when Silas passed. Gen has a huge flock of everything from finches to macaws, and she said she could tell that Eliot needed a lot of one on one attention and patience. When Silas passed she said she immediately thought of Eliot for me, and felt like we would be perfect together. She waited a couple weeks out of respect and by then I already had my three old men, but I had been looking to get a 4th single bird to bond with, since the brothers want nothing to do with people. So Gen and I connected and I drove down to Chicago the next day to get him. The moment she held his carrier up to my face, he came right to the front door and pinned his eyes and did happy beak like Silas used to, and I knew he was meant for me.
I’m his 4th and final home, and it’s going to take time for him to open up and trust me. He’s very engaging inside his cage and loves attention, and when someone new comes over he immediately starts flirting with them (catcalling, “hey baby”, etc.). I can tell he really wants companionship, but I’m taking things slow. I know it will be worth the wait. He is like crazy smart though and talks constantly in context. When the brothers get loud or rowdy, he tells them “hey, stop it!”. I opened the fridge the other day he said “what’s cookin’?” When I show him something new he says “what’s that?”. If I’m sitting next to him and we’re having our bonding time and I start looking at my phone, he says “hey!” to get my attention, or “what are you doing?”. When I cover everyone for night night he says “go goodnight”. When I grab my purse and put my coat on, he says “goodbye!”. He also says full complete sentences sometimes, but he speaks too fast and I’m never near him to understand what he’s saying. Oh, and one of the things he says over and over is what sounds like “neener neener”. I asked Nick about it and he said Joan named him José, and would call him “beaner beaner”, which apparently is a horrible racial slur for Mexicans I’m going to try to get him to say “beeper beeper” instead, since I used to call Si my little beeper.
The boys’ setup in my living room with full spectrum lighting, air purifier, and padded cage bottoms since they all tend to fall at times:
However, four, yes *four* Senegals happened to practically fall into my lap in the last 2 weeks.
Shannon, the owner of Birds & Beaks Rescue out in Michigan is a Facebook friend of mine and while we were chatting, I found out she had three older male Senegals who were brothers and bonded to each other. She called them the “Three Wise Men”. They came from a hoarding situation and were in a cage with a 3 foot mountain of feces. They’re all in their early 30s and we think they may possibly be wild caught, but they definitely were not handled or socialized, and are completely wild and terrified of people (and when I say that I mean they freak out and start flailing when someone even gets near their cage). I knew that I would never have a bond with them like I did with Silas, but these three old brothers needed a good home and were pretty overwhelmed by the noise and bustle of the rescue.
So, I drove the 9 ours out to Battle Creek to get them, and instantly fell in love. As you can see they have a huge cage full of toys, and are so happy and content *as long* as they’re left alone to do their own thing. They have the cutest relationship with each other and they bathe together, preen each other, play, chew on their toys, hop and fly around, share food...I love watching them do their thing and they seem super happy here.
And now for the fourth...Eliot. His story is kind of long, so bear with me. I got all this information from Nick, the guy who rescued Eliot from his first home.
Eliot (previously José) was bought at a Petco store in Minnesota circa 1992, by a lady named Joan. So he is believed to be around 28 years old, although he seems younger to me (much younger than my other 3 old men). Joan also had an African Grey named Maxi, and a green cheek named Trixie, who were both also rescued by Nick. Nick said that what he gathered from Joan is that early in Eliot’s life, he was handled by Joan’s young son, who was possibly very rough with Eliot. We think this because he knows how to step up, but once he’s on your finger he freaks out, digs his claws in and starts screaming and flapping and ends up falling, and he seems to particularly distrust men. Nick said Joan also told him Eliot used to ride around on her dog, Beau’s, head. Eliot still says “c’mere Beau”.
So Eliot was kept in his cage for years without being handled, and Nick said when he got there the cage had at least a couple years’ worth of feces and filth in it. It also had a locked padlock on it because Eliot had figured out how to open the door, and Joan didn’t even know where the key was when Nick showed up. Good thing there was never a fire or other emergency...
Eliot and his flock were of course all fed cheap seed mix and had never been to a vet.
Eliot has a sort of deformed wing on one side, it almost looks like he was pinioned. When Nick asked about it, Joan initially said it happened years ago when Eliot fell. Nick found that hard to believe. Later when pressed, Joan all but admitted that Maxi and Eliot had fought. We suspect Maxi took off part of Eliot’s wing, and Eliot took one of Maxi’s toes (Maxi has an unexplained missing toe that Nick said hasn’t calloused over yet). Presumably neither bird was taken to the vet for their injuries, and Eliot’s wing never really healed properly. If he falls or flaps around too much, it opens back up and starts bleeding. Nick took him to two different avian vets while he had him, and they’d both said nothing could be done about it, but I plan to get a third opinion, because he drops like a rock and it scares me. Anyway to further prove our theory about the fight, Eliot and Maxi were reintroduced at Nick’s house, and they both immediately flipped out and started screaming and flailing, and had to be kept far away from each other in separate rooms.
So Nick rescued all 3 birds from Joan’s horribly neglectful situation, and he immediately fell in love with Eliot. But he said that it quickly became clear that Eliot much prefers women. It’s just Nick and his husband in his house, so he reluctantly rehomed Eliot to my friend Genevieve. Gen has followed my whole story with Silas from day one, and she’d had Eliot for just a few weeks when Silas passed. Gen has a huge flock of everything from finches to macaws, and she said she could tell that Eliot needed a lot of one on one attention and patience. When Silas passed she said she immediately thought of Eliot for me, and felt like we would be perfect together. She waited a couple weeks out of respect and by then I already had my three old men, but I had been looking to get a 4th single bird to bond with, since the brothers want nothing to do with people. So Gen and I connected and I drove down to Chicago the next day to get him. The moment she held his carrier up to my face, he came right to the front door and pinned his eyes and did happy beak like Silas used to, and I knew he was meant for me.
I’m his 4th and final home, and it’s going to take time for him to open up and trust me. He’s very engaging inside his cage and loves attention, and when someone new comes over he immediately starts flirting with them (catcalling, “hey baby”, etc.). I can tell he really wants companionship, but I’m taking things slow. I know it will be worth the wait. He is like crazy smart though and talks constantly in context. When the brothers get loud or rowdy, he tells them “hey, stop it!”. I opened the fridge the other day he said “what’s cookin’?” When I show him something new he says “what’s that?”. If I’m sitting next to him and we’re having our bonding time and I start looking at my phone, he says “hey!” to get my attention, or “what are you doing?”. When I cover everyone for night night he says “go goodnight”. When I grab my purse and put my coat on, he says “goodbye!”. He also says full complete sentences sometimes, but he speaks too fast and I’m never near him to understand what he’s saying. Oh, and one of the things he says over and over is what sounds like “neener neener”. I asked Nick about it and he said Joan named him José, and would call him “beaner beaner”, which apparently is a horrible racial slur for Mexicans I’m going to try to get him to say “beeper beeper” instead, since I used to call Si my little beeper.
The boys’ setup in my living room with full spectrum lighting, air purifier, and padded cage bottoms since they all tend to fall at times:
