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Mousebird release

Moonbabi

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Birdie
Good day.



I rescued two mousebirds one October. Upon rescuing them, a rehab centre told me they can’t be released after imprinting on a human. Which they both did. They are the greatest bird ever and I love them. I want them with me forever, but the one mousebird (Newton) looks very eager to be outside. The issue is I can’t released the other one (Galileo) as well because she only has one leg. Newton doesn’t always pine to go outside and it isn’t every day that he does this. He usually sits happily in his Christmas tree or on the old tree inside and plays with Galileo. I won’t be able to do a soft release where I live because our neighbourhood has a cat problem. (It’s really a neighbour problem). Please help me with ideas. They are allowed to fly in a 4mx4m room every day all day and I take them to the rest of the house daily as well for more space. I love him and I never want to lose him and I don’t want Galileo to lose him, but he deserves happiness. Please help me. Can I take him to a farm and let him out for a while at a time whilst I read or something?
 

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JJ_Brown

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Justin
Hi Birdie,
Did you ever release your pair of mouse birds?
I have a pair of female speckled mouse birds that I've had since they were newly hatched. I suspect they might be siblings as I picked them up within one week of one another immediately after a highveld thunderstorm (did the usual thing spent hours observing from inside the house whether any other mouse birds came to their aid). They've been with me for the last 2 and a half years and I feel the time has come to release them.

Both are laying eggs like they're hens and a flock of wild mouse birds hang around the window area where I have their cage situated. Every time they spot a wild mouse birds they go absolutely berserk and look like they desperately want to interact.
For the last 3 weeks I have been limiting my contact with them and have left their cage in a sheltered area of the garden. They do still however seem very eager to interact with me when I replenish their fruit bowl.

I am still very worried that they might not cope. Both birds have distinctive personalities, the one is very much a leader and the other is her shadow and will follow her all over the house. Both birds are exceptionally tame and spend most their time out the cage nesting in my collar under my hair. As a "bird parent" its probably frowned upon to admit you have a favorite but I love these mouse birds more than what I do my grey. At the end of they day I want to do what's best for them.
 

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Shezbug

ASK ME FOR PICTURES OF MY MACAW!
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I would not consider releasing them if I were you.
If you raised them from hatching they will not be able to survive out in the wild.
They won’t know how to find safe foods to eat and they won’t know or understand many other natural habits that birds raised by birds learn nor will they have learned how to interact properly with the wild birds.
 

ode.to.parrots

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I'm no expert, but I do remember viewing a documentary about reestablishing wild populations of scarlet macaws. It takes a TON of planning and resources to prepare a captive animal for life in the wild. They were raised as chick's with that goal in mind with surrogate parrot puppets to disguise human hands and large, expansive aviaries to learn versatile foraging skills and to develop as agile fliers. Even then, they use microchipping tracking to ensure all of thr macaws have survived the rewinding process.

Basically, the only time you should release a bird into the wild is if that was the plan from the beginning and if you've been preparing them for that goal since day one.

The right thing to do for birds who are already used to captivity is to give them the best life in captivity as possible. It seems your mouse birds love you, and I can see you love them. They deserve to live out their best lives with you.
 

WikiWaz

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I'm no expert, but I do remember viewing a documentary about reestablishing wild populations of scarlet macaws. It takes a TON of planning and resources to prepare a captive animal for life in the wild. They were raised as chick's with that goal in mind with surrogate parrot puppets to disguise human hands and large, expansive aviaries to learn versatile foraging skills and to develop as agile fliers. Even then, they use microchipping tracking to ensure all of thr macaws have survived the rewinding process.

Basically, the only time you should release a bird into the wild is if that was the plan from the beginning and if you've been preparing them for that goal since day one.

The right thing to do for birds who are already used to captivity is to give them the best life in captivity as possible. It seems your mouse birds love you, and I can see you love them. They deserve to live out their best lives with you.
I think that documentary was, "Watch Nature: Parrot Confidential" from PBS. It's a great documentary.
 
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