This is a totally serious post

[LauraZ5]

We have a lot of indoor cats from rescues and we love them. Some are my babies and some are my husband's babies. A few days ago one of my husband's cats, Bastian, died in his sleep and I was the lucky one who found him. I don't deal well with these types of situations and my stomach has been upset ever since.  My husband was gone so I did a really stupid thing and put Bastian in the freezer part of the frig that I use for germinating seed out in the garage. My husband loved that cat but he was darn near 20 years old and they don't live forever. I never told my husband Bastian had died when he called home from his business trip to see how things were going. I never told him when he came home last Wednesday as it was sort of hectic around here and I was trying to shield my husband from stress because he's got a lot on his plate lately. To be quite blunt, I had cried enough over losing the cat and wasn't up to a tear fest when he found out so I sort of put off telling him until I could find the right time. Well, I didn't find the right time but he found Bastian in the feezer this past Thursday. He's not mad at me but he is rather depressed and upset. Friday I went to a few animal shelters and then to a pet shop that "show cases" pets from a local shelter that are available for adoption to see if I could try to adopt a new adult cat.  We have another very old cat that was bonded to Bastian that is not doing too well (stopped eating) and I was thinking a nice loving older cat might perk Elliott and my husband up. I didn't find a cat but I found a dove. I filled out the adoption paperwork and bought the dove and I pick it up next Friday. I am hyper allergic to birds and can't even use a feather pillow. I have no idea what I was thinking but I own this crippled bird that can't fly with a household of 7 indoor only cats and I can't breathe around feather any thing. I bought the darn thing because the lady told me it would have to be put to sleep this week as no one was interested in a bird that had to stay on the bottom of a cage. I bought the cage too. The bird is very gentle and able to be handled but... it can't sit on a perch and has to hang out at the bottom of the cage because it was born with deformed legs.

I can get a photo of the bird and cage I bought next Friday when I go to pick it up. I will post the photo for everyone. The cage is used but it is in good shape. It is a very gentle bird and would be a great "first bird" for a kid.  

Is there anyone out there in the Chicago land area who will take this bird from me? Does anyone know anyone who lives in this area who might be interested in this bird and the cage? I am not asking to be paid for my costs I just want this poor bird to go to a good home with somebody who will pay attention to it. If someone has a green house that is heated year round it could easily live there too. It's such a gentle creature. This is one of those times that I can't believe I went to go adopt a cat and ended up adopting a bird. A deformed bird no less. My husband will have a fit because not only am I allergic to birds but we have a son who has birth defects who has decreased lung capacity who is also allergic to birds.

Please guys, this is not an April Fools prank and I'm not trying to pull an 0zzy. Sorry 0zzy but you do joke around a lot and I always fall for it.

I need help and would greatly appreciate it if anyone could help me find a home for this bird.

 

[Ozzy]

Can you ship it to me?

 

[LauraZ5]

Yes I would ship it to you in a heart beat and I would pay for the shipping, but I am afraid of doing this.  How does one ship a bird safely?  Do you want me to run over and take a photo of the bird now or is it ok to wait until next Friday when I have to pick up my purchase?  The place is only an hour away?  This bird is not stable. It would have to be padded to be shipped somehow. I've seen what happens to fish when they are shipped and I often can't believe they make it alive and many don't.  The bird flops around on the bottom of the cage to get to his water and food bowl. He looks healthy to me other than the darn legs. I bought a few toys to put in his cage with him and he showed no interest in them at all. The bird is a beautiful soft gray in color. I have no idea how old it is but it has bright eyes and I held him and he was very calm. I don't particularly like birds because I am always afraid of getting bit by their strong beaks but I like this one and he made no attempt to bite or peck my hands. I don't even know what the bird's name is but there was a name on the cage card. I am sure he will make a very nice pet as long as somebody no one expects him to be able to sit on a perch or climb up the sides of the bird cage to interact. You'd have to gently take this bird out to interact with it. He didn't seem to be in any discomfort when he was being held so I doubt his deformed legs hurt but then again how do birds show pain?  The gal said he wasn't in any pain. I don't really know a lot about birds. Tell me exactly how to ship a bird please. I better use overnight on this... that's a given. Can I pad the bird up inside the cage or do I need to ditch the cage? The cage was just a common used bird cage. Nothing spectacular and I don't know if I mentioned it but the cage was not new.

 

[Ozzy]

Quote[/b] ]Do you want me to run over and take a photo of the bird now or is it ok to wait until next Friday when I have to pick up my purchase? The place is only an hour away?

Yes I want the pic now. Since it's only and hour away, I'll expect it within 2 hrs and 5 mins.
LOL

I don't really care about the pic, I'm in no hurry to see it.

I have no idea how to ship a bird, I'm sure we can wait for finch's advice. He may even want it instead of me.

 

[LauraZ5]

Pretty stupid move on my part huh? It's ok, I know it was pretty stupid. I had a parrot when I was growing up but my Mom took care of it and clipped its wings and fed it and such. I can't believe I bought a bird and didn't even know how to take care of it

I have a girlfriend who owns a pet shop. She used to sell birds and I am going to call her and find out how they were packed when she received them from breeders. There has to be a proper way to ship a little tiny bird so as to ensure he ends up safe and alive on the other end.

 

[LauraZ5]

OK, I sent Finch a private message. I think Finch is a her not a him but I'm not sure. My girlfriend who owns the pet shop stated she bought her birds from local breeders and either her or her husband went to go pick them up. Great, I wasn't expecting that. I thought they bought them from suppliers out of state like how they bought their fish.

I had planned on dumping this bird on April until I realized she had more indoor only cats than us and that was just asking for the dove to be killed when cats started sticking their paws with claws through the wire to the cage or knocked over the cage. House cats are very destructive at times.

Say 0zzy, I know you don't want this bird but I appreciate you taking it.

April, if you run across this thread... for God's sake don't say anything when you are over here. He doesn't know I bought a bird and I'd prefer to keep it that way until it is in a home because then he won't mind. If you want to see the bird, you and me can go take a run for a visit.

 

[Starman]

poor bird

I would love tot ake him but youre in the US and im in europe so it wont work

 

[LauraZ5]

And Dino, I would love to send him to you (0zzy probably would love for you to have the bird too) because you'd be a great Daddy but there's that issue with you being across the big pond and all. Bummer.

 

[Ozzy]

I don't mind taking it. I wouldn't go out on my own and get one, but if it needs a home I can give him that. But if somebody else like finch, who is into birds wants it, I think the dove would be better off with them than me.

 

[Finch]

Do not ship birds trough the postal system.

Unless the person who is willing to adopt or someone willing to shuttle the bird can do a direct pickup, it should not be done. There is no guarentee that the bird can get enough water and food to sustain it through the journy that could last from days to weeks if there is a mistake. This is why proffesional breeders normally do not ship live birds through the postal system unless theres a guarentee of no delay. Usually the recipiant pick up the bird. Birds need lots of food because of high metabolism, and even a short starvation period may do permenant damage. With water yes, unless the birds are desert adapted. My finches usually drink every day, but studies show that zebra finches can go a year without water. But its really bad fro them and does damage and weak ones did not survive the study. With normal birds water should always be available.


Id love one, but doves are idealy housed in a aviary wich i do not have.

 

[Rubra]

Here is the website for a Chicago bird club. I'd see if anyone in the club is willing to adopt. My sister would love to care for another bird if only it could be shipped. Good luck finding a home!

 

[Finch]

On second tought i think you could send by air mail if its like the fastest service possible..


you should ask this brid club on the best way, im mostly familiar with small birds, brhaps bigger birds are more flexible.

As for aviarys, that is for fit birds, not crippled birds. They can be housed in a smaller space with adequate floorspace to move around alot.

 

[aprilh]

Laura, I'd take it in a heartbeat if I could, I love birds. Check out the local bird club link and see if someone could take it. If not..and since shipping can be so rough...my opinion is that it should probably be put down. I'll ask around at work tomorrow...there's a lady there I know who is nuts about birds.

 

[jimscott]

Laura, I would like to express my sympathies for the cat and empathies for being i9n the awkward position to have to tell him. 23 years ago, while I was in Texas, our favorite cat died. Actually, it was Lynn's as a kitten, and later adopted me as a buddy. But 2 yeats later, when came home and asked how "Zeke" was doing, there was that awkward silence. Better some pain now, than more pain later.

 

[RL7836]

Quote[/b] ]Yes I would ship it to you in a heart beat and I would pay for the shipping, but I am afraid of doing this. How does one ship a bird safely?

Ship via commercial airlines. I forget which ones do it (they don't all do it) and which ones do it well (there was one airline that did a very good job)(Delta? / Continental?).

Specifically, you will want to ship "counter to counter". You ship the bird in a small animal carrier (roughly 1' x 1' x 2'). Find some bird breeders for expensive parrots on the web or in a bird magazine (anything from macaws to sun conures to eclectus parrots). Talk to a few of them. Anyone who has been raising birds for more than 2 years will have a pretty good idea of the status of today's shipping environment.

Sorry I don't have detailed/current knowledge. I stopped breeding parrots over 5 yrs ago.

Good luck with your situation, if there's anything I can do - holler.

 

[LauraZ5]

Yes April, I know you would have taken it were it not for your cats. At the time I totally spaced out that you had more cats than me. Putting it down is not an option because the bird is healthy and gentle, it just can't use its legs. I'm not too good at putting anything down anyway not even horses that collicked that weren't long for this world. I would have preferred to drive the bird and its cage to somebody local to avoid shipping it but it is going to 0zzy or somebody that one of us at Terra knows personally such as your lady friend at work or rubra's sister who loves birds. I'm not too trusting of people these days and I don't want to find out somebody stuck my bird in a cage with their hungry snake or took the bird to give to a raptor rehabber. I volunteered time at the animal shelters for far too long and people came in all too frequently asking if there were any small rabbits or wild kittens they could have for their snakes for free. Somebody feeding this bird to a snake would really upset me. Best to deal with people I trust like 0zzy as opposed to going for the unknown.

Now I have some very good news for me... poor 0zzy because I know he is only taking the bird for the same reason I bought the bird... but I can ship the bird-
http://www.birdshippers.org/
http://www.internationaldovesociety.com/Articles/ShippingDoves.htm

I have to ditch the birdcage and swap it out for a travel carrier or other appropriate shipping container as mentioned by Ron-
http://www.plannedparrothood.com/shipping/shipping.html

Other information-
http://shilala.homestead.com/shippingeggs.html

And, I can definitely overnight the bird on Delta via the USPS as a lot has changed in just the past 3 years. Getting my hands on the proper shipping crate will be interesting but it looks as if PetSmart carries just the right size airplane carrier. So now I feel a lot better as the bird will go bye bye.

Jim, I had been waiting for a good time to tell him because my husband hasn't been up to par lately. Before I could tell him, he went to that freezer to check for ice packs and Bastian sort of fell out frozen. There's not much in that freezer other than ice packs and a shelf so I must have put him in there wrong and he must have sort of rolled up against the door before he froze. He was a very big cat but then you have seen photos of him and know how huge he was. Anyway, I never expected my husband to have any reason to go into that freezer for anything. As luck would have it, we were going to a Halloween Party on Saturday night and my husband wanted to make sure we had ice packs for the cooler.

Ron, thanks for your info and offers. I'm definitely shipping!

 

[jimscott]

I understand. And of course friends and family have enough knowledge of any situation to be dogmatic, dangerous, insensitive, and just plain innacurate. You know your husband better than any of us.

 

[LauraZ5]

The little dove's name is Colin. He is almost 1 year old. I do now have the entire history on him.

I spent an hour with him this evening. At first he shook like a leaf but after a little bit of me stroking his head he actually began to reciprocate by preening my fingers. That shocked me but there was a young man there who said that he had a particular fondness for the bird and had been holding him on his breaks ever since Colin had come in. He said there was a gal on the day shift who was also taking Colin out for lunch. Colin is every bit as crippled as what I said but he is far more socialized than what I ever imagined.

I apologize in advance to people on dial up. I am going to split the photos in half and post two here and two in another post. I am so sorry if your pages don't load because Colin has a very sweet little face.

Here are the first two images of 0zzy's bird-

 

[LauraZ5]

Here are the other two photos-

He really is a very sweet bird. He will twirl his head around and rub it on your fingers to prompt you to rub his neck. If you don't pay attention to him, he does it again until you rub him.

I also found out that he can hover. He can actually get off the ground and hover in the air for a little bit. They mentioned that they like to take him out to hover a few times a day for exercise since he can't sit on a perch.

Because of his birth defects, he needs low and wide water and food bowls that are stable and I bought those tonight and will ship them with other accessories for Colin in a separate box.

I found a bird groomer who is going to give him a bath before he gets shipped.

So, now we have photos of 0zzy's new baby.

 

[Finch]

Awwwww

Well i dont know, but to me it looks like splayed legs, a condition where the nestlings are in an unsuitable nest and their soft feet splay outward because they have nothing to hold onto then harden that way.
a example of splayed legs in development- the young must stay in this position for legs to harden

A adult hen with splayed legs. her legs are now permanantly hardend in this position. she will never walk

Its a shame because this is really a preventable thing; properly textured floors that the chicks can grip will aleveate this problem

Or it could just be a natural bith defect. but i doubt it

Thats eather a turtle or eurasian collerd dove. Pretty birds. Common in captivity. i have a wild or escaped one that regularyly visits my feeder. and he has young, too!