Rock

STORY OF ROCK

It was May 1997 and we had just returned from holiday. We had been away on holiday in Cornwall and had a bit of cash left over. As we were passing a house in the farming area of Hadlow displaying a "Birds For Sale" sign, we decided to stop in and see what they had. We chatted for a while to the owner and she pointed out two Maroon Belly Conure babies which were about four months old. She said that the two had been removed from their parents as they appeared to be trying to kill the chicks. She was unsure of what sex they were as she had not investigated that. I asked what she wanted for one, as she had said that they made adorable pets. She gave us the price and we continued looking at her other birds. We had seen some Rosellas that we rather liked and decided on those. Aileen was rather taken with the Conure and said she would like to get it, so the owner caught it and placed it in a box. The remaining chick looked so lost and lonely and the two kept calling to each other, so after a bit of price negotiation, we settled on taking both.

We knew that the cage we had at home was more than large enough to be their permanent home as it had housed Shayne before she died.

We got the four birds home and cleaned both cages thoroughly, disinfecting them, as they had been in storage in the garage for a long time. We then first housed the Rosellas, without any problems. When we let the Conures out into their cage, it was a mad scramble and wriggle session and they were both through the bars, demonstrating that 1" (25mm) spacing was far too wide to accommodate them. Storm hit the window with some force and Rock avoided doing the same just in time. We ignored Rock and rushed over to rescue Storm. The bird was extremely stressed and quite stunned, but otherwise appeared to be okay. We gently placed her back in the box after putting some water and seed in the box. (At this stage I refer to both as her but sexes are not confirmed, and they are assumed to both be female. Now came the hard part, as Rock was still flying around the large kitchen, stopping briefly before taking off again. Fortunately no windows were open, so no escape from the building happened.

As this was our first attempt at keeping smaller parrot family, we learned a valuable lesson:

ALWAYS MAKE SURE THAT THE BAR SPACING ON THE CAGE IS CLOSE ENOUGH TO PREVENT THE "ESCAPE ARTIST" SQUEEZING THROUGH.

ALSO, ALWAYS ENSURE THAT ALL DOORS AND WINDOWS ARE CLOSED BEFORE TRANSFERRING YOUR NEW PET TO ITS NEW HOME.

Eventually, Rock landed in the plants on the kitchen window sill and could not get out as fast as we got to the plants and capture was inevitable. We placed Rock into the box, checking that Storm was okay. She appeared to be so we had a very fast "brainstorming" exercise. It was decided that chicken wire, or something similar would achieve the required result and prevent any "escapees". We drove to the local DIY and found some wire which we could "wrap" the cage in. Sufficient was purchased to encapsulate the whole cage, and this was taken home and after a long time lapse, we had safely covered the entire cage.

Once again, the "babies" were released into the cage. They searched frantically to find any small gap and tried to squeeze through it. I had anticipated this and they were thwarted at every hole.

Eventually, after much agitation, both birds settled down.

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