Rescued parrots looking for homes

THEY NEED THEIR OWN HOMES, THEY NEED TO BE SPOILED INDIVIDUALLY

DELTA, B.C.• Jan Robson walks through the five-bedroom house on a country road in Delta, B.C., greeting its feathered tenants one by one.

Simon and Garfunkel are about to move out — they’ve been adopted by a family in Nova Scotia. She strokes Ruby’s beak before Dexter hops beside her to see what’s going on. And when she starts singing the theme song to The Addams Family, Joey bobs his head to the beat.

Robson, a spokeswoman for the Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary, says the 70 adoptable rescue parrots are lucky to have this space, which volunteers found the way many house hunters do these days: Craigslist

“Fortunately the (landlord) is an animal lover,” she said.

The sanctuary has signed a one-year lease on the property, and Robson hopes the birds will find their forever homes before it expires.

The rescue parrots have come a long way since they were among 584 collected from the World Parrot Refuge in Coombs on Vancouver Island in 2016, after the owner of the sanctuary died. Many were in rough shape, including the love bird that Robson adopted, which had broken wings, beak damage and missing toes.

Many are still being treated, but most are well on their way to recovery, said Robson, pointing to a cockatoo named Lancelot who used to cower in his cage in fear, but is now well adjusted to human contact.

Since the parrots left the Vancouver Island facility, most have either landed with other rescue groups or been adopted by families across the country.

As fabulous as the new sanctuary is, Robson said it’s time for the parrots to find their forever homes.

“They need their own homes, they need the opportunity to be spoiled individually as opposed to in a group. And we see them really blossom when they get that opportunity,” she said.

Anyone interested in adoption should do their research in advance, she said, and be aware of the demands of parrots as pets, including noise levels, medical needs, and long lifespans.

But she said they can be rewarding pets.

“If you want a companion in the truest sense of the word, you can’t go too far wrong with a parrot,” she said.