In and Out

When I first met Miracle and Blessing at the animal rescue, only one bird, Miracle, would come out of their cage. Blessing stayed inside. The only way to get M back in was to bribe her with goodies, especially if she saw that B was enjoying them.

On one very terrible day I arrived at the rescue and decided to start working downstairs with the big birds....macaws and cockatoos. But I needed something from upstairs. As I approached the room, I could hear all kinds of screeching....the quality of which seemed different from normal.

When I entered....havoc! The night before someone had left a cage unlocked and now several cockatoos were out of their cages running from cage top to cage top, displaying grandly and screeching at top volume. Blessing--the grey who never got out of her cage--was on top of the cage near the door quivering and bleeding.

At one point in time long before I arrived, a goffin cockatoo named Jimmy, completely feather free from neck down, had been allowed out and he had gone into the cages of several of the greys and bitten their toes off. Blessing and Miracle are both missing toes. That must have been a horrible, horrible experience.

When M & B first arrived here only M would come out. But then soon, B came out too.
And then all too soon they both would NOT get back in the cage for anything except dire hunger. I spent a couple of nights in a recliner near the cage afraid for what could happen if they fluttered down which they often did.

Now, altho it is not something they enjoy, they do accidentally fall from the cage...Blessing has more wing feathers than M and so she has an easier landing. M has only one fully fledged wing...the other appears to have been permanently clipped (?)...
and so she plops to the ground with no intervening flaps. And it would seem that that would hurt.

So I decided to pad the area around their cage....which has led to B plucking out all her chest feathers. Both of them have plopped down but I dont know if it resulted in a better landing.

What I have noticed is that they are both more fluid in their comings and goings in and out the cage. I have left the door open for several days and last night one slept in and one out. Blessing still is more likely to be in the cage and Miracle out.

The way I would like for them to be is to remain with the cage open most of the time, free to come in and out. I am hoping to make the room very bird friendly with all kinds of perching opportunities, and lots to explore....but a little at the time is the rule with these guys.