Maggie our Red Lored Amazon

by Danielle Kuhn
(St. Thomas, ON, Canada)

I am a budgie and cockatiel person, I regularily rescue and rehome these small parrots. I was not looking for a larger bird nor did I want one when Maggie's owner contacted me about 6 months ago. She had purchased him from a pet store in Kitchener, Ontario as a pet and he was not that pet. No one wanted him, so being a sucker for the outcasts I agreed to take him. When he arrived we noticed immediately that he had an injury on his wing. His beak was scissored and his diet was very poor.
We switched his diet to pellets, veggies and seed mix, among other things. The poor thing was unmanageable. Terrified of hands, toys, paper anything. People told me he was a lost cause. I don't give up easy. My husband sat one night for eight hours with his hand unmoving in the cage getting Maggie used to it. Crazy, maybe but it worked!
Our estimate is that Maggie is between 20-25 years old. We know that he is wild caught and imported through California. He was pinioned (the wing injury) and will never fly. The scissor beak is caused from malnutrition.
Now Maggie is my attachment. He leans my ears and finger nails, mumbles sweet nothings in my ear and serenades me each evening (though not in tune). He is cuddly with me and will allow others to scratch his itchy spots. He also does children's programs to teach about companion birds.
I guess you could say that even though I wasn't looking for a parrot, one found me and I would never change him!