ARTICLES – Glorious Relationships With Happy & Healthy Parrots

Help! My parrot is a picky eater

Ann Castro — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 04:02:37 +0000

Many parrots are extremely conservative regarding new foods. This is normal. However, responsible owners who want their birds’ diet to be healthy and varied with loads of fresh produce can be driven to distraction by obstinate seed eaters. There is good news. With a few tricks and some patience any bird can be convinced to try new foods. I would like to share the methods that I successfully use with our rescue birds.

Method 1. The puree trick

Start with approximately ten percent by volume – compared to the total amount in the food bowl - of the new food that you want your bird to get used to. Puree this very finely and mix it thoroughly with your bird’s regular food. This way he will get a little taste of the new food into his beak without being put off right away.

If your birds does not accept this mixture, start out with an even smaller amount, say five percent. Give your birds some time to get used to this. When they accept the mixture well, you may gradually increase the amount of new food mixed in with your birds’ regular food. Be sure to wait between increases in the amount of new food, until your bird eats the new level of unfamiliar food mixed in without problems whatsoever.

Once you have accomplished that your bird eats large proportions of the puree mixed in with his regular food, you can start to gradually increase the particle size. Thus, you go gradually from a very fine puree, to a coarser one, until eventually you can feed chunks. Again, with each step you must make sure that the previous one has been fully accepted by your bird.

Method 2. Clicker Training? Yes, Clicker Training!

You may train your parrots to try new foods with the help of clicker training. To do so, you may use either target stick or shaping methods. Essentially, the bird is rewarded for increasing interaction with the new food. For example, you may start by rewarding the bird for glancing at it, initially. Build on this in baby steps, until your bird beaks and ultimately even eats the new food.

How to Start Clicker Training

Learn how to do clicker training easily and correctly. Done right it is great fun for you and your bird. Build trust and relationship while learning basic exercises.

Please click image for more information and look-inside-the-book

Method 3. The food-is-a-toy trick

There are many ways in which food may be offered as a toy. This will lead to your bird getting accustomed to new tastes, as he plays. Eventually he will start eating some of these “toys”.

One method to offer food as a toy is to use the skewers available in pet stores which you can fill with pieces of vegetables and fruit. But you can also find other was of offering food as a toy. You can use cable ties to fix large pieces of vegetable or fruit to the cage bars. Another possibility is to wrap healthy treats into clean paper like a candy or to hide them in little containers made of plastic or cardboard. There are no limits to what your imagination might come up with.

Method 4. The we-are-a-flock trick

Parrots are highly sociable flock animals. You can utilize this by eating together with your birds. Be very enthusiastic about eating foods you would like your birds to get used to. Usually, quite soon, they will want to try what you think is so great. Of course, you should only eat parrot healthy foods during this exercise. Thus, nothing containing salt, no animal proteins, no avocadoes, no chocolate and no alcohol.

Of course, the flock trick also works amongst parrots as a flock. When put with a partner or group who are adventurous eaters, parrots quickly learn the others’ eating habits. This is of course one more argument for never keeping a parrot alone, but always with at least one same species, opposite sex partner.

Parrot Problems – Anti-Screaming Training: Don’t wait, until it’s too late!

Ann Castro — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 05:45:42 +0000

I received an email over night from a desperate parrot owner asking me for help. Her neighbor is taking her to mediation court in less than a week because her macaws are screaming too much in the outside aviary.

This is obviously a problem that has taken some time to escalate to this point:

The macaws had to develop the habit of screaming non-stop. You might say they were inadvertently trained by the owner to do so. How? Her attempts to get the birds to be quiet obviously were reinforcing the behavior instead.
The deterioration of her relationship with her neighbour probably also did not happen overnight. Plus there is the time lag of many weeks, if not months between the neighbor's first complaint and going to court.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the problem go away. But I don't have one of those. Of course I can help her with anti-scream training, but with only a week before the court appointment and a very irate neighbour I just don't think there is enough time to ward off disaster.
It is very likely that the court will rule for her to have to keep the macaws indoors at all times or even get rid of them. What a nightmare! I really do not understand why she waited this long to ask me for help.

How to Solve Screaming Problems ...

You can find detailed information on anti-screaming training in my book:
Screaming & Screeching: How to Solve Problem Behavior with Clicker Training.

Please click image for further information

How different would the situation be if she had done something about the issue when it first started:

The screaming would have never developed in this extreme way
The screaming habits the birds had already developed could have been vastly improved
The neighbor would have seen her efforts to do something about the problem and would perhaps have been more tolerant
Apart from the training we could have implemented other measures, such as sight and sound barriers, to reduce the sound hassle to others

Of course I will do all I can to help her in the little time she has left.

But, oh, how I really wish that you all will be smarter when you start running into issues with your birds and get help early on, before things escalate to the point of disaster.

Parrot Training & Taming Tipps With Lailah The Handicapped Greenwing Macaw

Ann Castro — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 17:41:56 +0000

This video is about Lailah, my little handicapped green winged macaw girl. She was seven years old when she moved in with me and quite afraid.

I gained her trust and started training her. In the video I explain several methods of how to gain a parrot's trust and build up a relationship via specific interactions.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Parrot Harnesses – Delight or Danger?

Ann Castro — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 11:28:10 +0000

The girl on the phone sobbed inconsolably. She had taken her African grey parrot outside in a harness. When she realized she had forgotten her wallet, she passed the bird and its leash to her friend while she ran back inside to get her money. She was gone for just a few minutes. Time enough for her friend to get startled, let go of the leash and the bird to fly high up into a tree with the harness and leash still attached.

Many times I have been asked my opinion about harnesses. Harness marketing suggests that it is easy and safe to use them. This is wrong!

The above story is just one reason why I deem them to be very dangerous. Even worse, many if not most parrot owners are unaware of the risks. However, I also know that if I tell people simply to “Don’t do it!” many of them will likely ignore such advice. Therefore I want to give you a more differentiated answer.

If you plan to use a harness please be absolutely sure to consider and strictly observe the following:

Very gently and gradually get your bird used to the harness. It is not ok to stick a bird brute-force method into a harness just because you are able to do so.
Getting a bird used to the harness goes beyond training it to allow you to put the device on. You also have to gradually get your bird used to wearing it for increasing amounts of time.
You may also have to train your bird to leave the harness alone, to not open the fasteners or chew on it. Many birds are quite easily able to free themselves from the harness or the leash which means that they could escape.
Have the fit and width adjustments checked by an experienced avian vet. Birds breathe with their whole bodies. Owners may unknowingly fit the harness too tight, hampering the bird’s breathing.
Never just hold the leash in your hands. Have it firmly attached to your clothing, for example looped though a belt, before clipping it onto your bird. This way, if you get startled, stumble, get pushed, hit by a car, or whatever, you won’t let go of the leash.
Never give the leash to another person to hold your bird as you just quickly dash to the loo, inside the house, or whatever.
Never leave a bird in a harness unattended. A harness does not protect your bird from predators (sky borne or earthbound) or theft.
Wearing a harness may damage feathers and irritate skin. Therefore you must keep outings short. Check your bird’s skin and feathers thoroughly after each outing for any signs of irritation, such as even the slightest redness or sore spots.
Make sure you do not confuse your own pleasure of walking around with your bird with the bird’s. Many birds are scared when walking around with their owners in crowded places. While your bird may enjoy visiting your back yard with you, parrots often feel uncomfortable being exposed to people (and predators) staring, coming too close, even touching them. However, many owners don’t notice this, seeing only what they want to see. Ego, showing off, projecting your own wishes and believes, etc. are not good advisors when deciding whether to take your parrot for walks or not. Most parrots I have seen do in fact not enjoy such outings, especially not extended ones.

The girl on the phone got her bird back unharmed. But will you and your bird be equally lucky?

I hope this helps you and your birds. Please be safe and keep your birds safe, too. <3

Parrot Vinegar Scare on Facebook is False Information!

Ann Castro — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:51:17 +0000

For the last few days there is a story about vinegar being toxic to parrots when heated being passed around on facebook. This information is wrong.
The writer cites “facts” supposedly from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for vingear. However checking such data sheets these “facts” simply do not exist. Thus the whole write up is a lie meant to scare concerned parrot owners.

So where does all this come from? Let me try to explain:

Background

A woman supposedly ran her dishwasher with vinegar added and her parrots died

Fact

Vinegar contains approximately 5% Acetic Acid (C2H4O2) the active ingredient) and water.

1. Decomposition

At dishwasher temperatures acetic acid does not decompose. The decomposition temperature is way above the operating temperature of a dishwasher. If only vinegar was used in the dishwasher it would need to decompose in order to be able to form new compounds.

2. Chemical Reaction

It is possible that a chemical reaction between the detergent (base) and the vinegar (acid) occurred. But without knowing what exactly was in the detergent, no one can say what chemical compound might have been created or if it even was this and not something else that killed the birds.

However, this is not relevant when talking about using vinegar for coffee machine descaling. Just don’t mix it with bases.

3. Evaporation

As the boiling point of acetic acid lies above that of water (the main ingredient in vinegar) you also do not have the problem of acetic acid evaporating before the water and forming a highly concentrated acetic acid cloud which would be corrosive to the respiratory system.

Conclusion

Vinegar when heated is no more dangerous than when used cold. However, vinegar is an irritant to the respiratory system, thus should be used away from birds and in well ventilated areas.

Apart from that: Citric acid works way better for decalcifying coffee machines than vinegar. Make sure you calculate the correct concentration for your coffeemaker based on the manufacturer recommendations.

Here is a MSDS for White Vinegar from Flexo for those of you who would like to dig a little deeper.

As to my qualifications? I am a Chemical Engineer. And I am very cautious with the lives of my parrots. But this is just a non-sensical pointless scare.

Parrot Rescue | Carlo’s Song | One Macaw’s Story

Ann Castro — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:51:13 +0000

Carlos was a beautiful blue & gold macaw who had been wild caught. His plight inspired me one late night to write a song about all the wild caught parrots and their sad plight.
A friend helped me to put it to music. I am not a singer and I apologize for that. If you are a music expert you will wrinkle your nose. But if you love parrots as I do, you will understand.

Carlo’s Song

I’m a parrot
born to fly
I should always
Be in the sky

Papua Neuguinea
was my home
In the jungles
I loved to roam

Refrain
And I…..I loved so to fly
And I…..I loved so to fly

I had friends
with feathers blue and red
the hollow of palms
was our bed

But bad men came
Late at night
The air was filled
with screams of pain and fright

They caught us all
They held us tight
They broke my wing
I’ll never again take flight

Refrain
And I…..would so love to fly
And I…..would so love to fly

In little boxes
with no air to breath
they crammed us tight
So many of us in agony died

I was sent
To a new home
To sit in a cage
Sad and alone

They said they loved me,
They said they’re my friend
When will
This agony ever end?

Refrain
And I…..would so love to fly
But I…..was caught on the fly

Today my owner died
Her son does not want me
He wants to kill me
I am so afraid

I want to live
Be with some friends
See the sun and sky
Just once more, before I die

Refrain
But I…..was caught on the fly
But I…..was caught on the fly

Today they brought me
To a new home
There’s lots of parrots
And space for us to roam

Am I in heaven?
Am I alive?
Is this the end at last
Of all my strife?

The say they love me
They’re good and kind
A sweet wife for me
They are going to find

I get hugs and kisses
Every day
Sweet words and treats, too many
For me to say

Refrain
But I…..would still love to fly
But I…..would so love to fly

Parrot Training & Parrot Fun

Ann Castro — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:47:28 +0000

Parrot training is an important part of having a good life with your parrots. However an equally important part of good parrot care is to have lots of fun and laughter with your birds. It builds your relationship. In fact, every time that you can laugh with your parrots is like pure cash in your relationship account. So try to have some fun activity every day with your parrots.

To illustrate this, I am showing you a silly little video here of three of my Greenwing macaws singing and bopping away. We’re having a lot of fun as you can see, but the deeper purpose of this is to get Lailah my handicapped Greenwing macaw who is fairly new to the flock accustomed to the other Greenwings which she is afraid of right now. Singing and dancing together makes her connect the other parrots not to fear but to fun in her mind which will help her to get used to them.

Beyond Parrot Training: Sadness & Mirth

Ann Castro — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:17:02 +0000

Today it hit me again out of the blue. I think I am fine – really I do and then I stand in the kitchen as tears start pouring down my face again. Clearly, being involved in parrot training or writing parrot books does not teach you one thing about handling grief.

It appears I am fine only as long as I do not think of Mr. Darcy, nothing reminds me of him, like a forgotten syringe at the back of the counter top, or a jar of vitamin powder that I forgot to hide.

In all this misery Lailah has been such a blessing distracting me with her antics. Her progress has made such a huge leap that it cannot be explained merely by a bit more time spent with her. It seems as if she decided to reach out to me and help. And her distractions work. Most of the time.

Just look at this silly picture of her. She was lovingly grooming my hair. It was so adorable that I wanted to take a photo. In the moment that the flash went of she grabbed her beak as if to say: “Do you think my beak’s too big?” How can I help smiling at this. Perhaps we should do some parrot training for camera posing.

The Parrot & The Slave

Ann Castro — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:02:43 +0000

Lailah is certainly relishing the extra time I now have for her and is progressing in leaps and bounds. My little girl and I are making great progress in her “Up” and “Down” training. I can now lift her up by her healthy foot and also by holding her body without her showing any signs of distress. It is a cooperative effort between the two of us to get her handicapped body on my arm or shoulder (and to keep it there).
On the other hand, she is also turning into an ADS slave driver as she is unable to get around by herself, using me as a willing cabby to help her explore her surroundings.

This Morning

“Up Up Up” “Get up you lazy bones and take me downstairs with you!”
Wow … kitchen sink, running water. “Sink’s too slippery. You cannot expect me to sit on here.” “You need to hold me under the water by hand.” “No, I don’t care, if you get wet … slave’s duty.”
Ohhhh “Up Up Up” swinging perch in front of window. “No, it is not too wobbly for me and I do not want to sit on the boring solid perch” … (5 seconds later) “Up Up Up” “I told you it was too wobbly, you stupid human.”
Ohhhhhh Fridge … wow … heaven. “Gimme some of that juice.”
Ooooohhhh Freezer … “Gimme some of those veggies.” “I said, GIMME some of those veggies!” “Ughghghgh … how could you give me cold veggies?!” (spits them out)
Oooohhhhh coffee maker … wow … exciting noise … “Lemme, lemme, lemme look” …. ohhhhh foamy stuff (oat milk foam)
“Up Up Up” “I wanna sit on the banister”. (keeps sliding down but insists on going there) … “Hold me, hold me, hold me” …

… and so forth …

Her further exploits this morning included

having a chair shower,
sitting on the sofa side looking into the bird hall,
going back upstairs only to decide she really wanted to be downstairs,
trying the other banister which she seemed to think for some reason would be easier to sit on,
and trying the wobbly window swing perch one more time

I am now having five minutes peace as she is eating her breakfast, recovering from the best personal trainer a gal could have.

Angel Hugs

I need to tell you about last night, too. It was supercute. I had put Lailah back on the macaw platform ( an 80″ x 80″ wooden construction I suspended with stainless steel chains from the ceiling in my bedroom) while I was cleaning & feeding / watering the birds. She hobbled to the part that is right at the door watching me dash in and out emptying water bowls in the adjacent bathroom. All the while telling me that she really did not want to be stuck there: “Up up up!” … and when I bent down to let her climb on my shoulder she gave me an angel hug … her good foot on my right shoulder, her wonky foot on my left shoulder & head resting on my shoulder. So adorable.

Here’s a photo of Lailah showing me exactly where she would like me to scritch her. Look at her wonky foot … do you see her nails? I have been filing a bit of them every day and they are getting down to a decent size. This morning, I even managed to file one claw on her good foot a tiny bit. That is the next goal: To get Lailah comfortable enough to groom the claws on her healthy foot, too.

Mr. Darcy’s Final Day

Ann Castro — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:57:24 +0000

Hello my dear Parrot Friends. Thank you so very much for your overwhelming show of support. I know it won’t make Mr. Darcy alive again, but it is a comfort to know that he was loved by so many of you.

As you can imagine I am still reeling. It hurts so much. Yet, I cannot fathom a life without him. Any moment I expect to hear his claws clicking on the tile floor as he goes in search of me, to be lifted up by his beak with a big welcoming greeting & hugs & kisses, before he proceeds to go for a nap snuggled against me.

Nevertheless, I did promise you a final poop update to help you and me to get closure in some way, even though I will miss my dear boy for the rest of my life.

If you are a bit squeamish or easily grossed out, you may want to stop reading here. I will be giving you the whole honest recount of the events of yesterday morning. Some of it is not that pretty.

I understand if you will not read it and for those who won’t I want to thank all of you now for taking such a dedicated interest in Mr. Darcy during the many weeks of his illness and for continuing to send us both love, light, prayers & energy. It did and does make a difference.

The Final Poop Update

I suppose the end really started a few days ago when Mr. Darcy kept crawling under my bed. The space there is very tight and confined. It was suggested that he may be reacting to weather conditions and barometric pressure, but my thought was that dying animal seek out hiding places. Because of safety considerations for Mr. Darcy and Lily the Congo African Grey girl who also likes to hide under the bed, I took to confining him to a carrier for the last two nights. At this point he was constantly pooping small amounts of diarrhea so that for sanitary reasons I could not have him in bed. Remember, he had multi-resistant bacteria that are also dangerous to humans. My vet had been preaching to me for a while about not having him so close to me in bed. Also both of us slept there so restlessly and we both needed the rest for our strength.

That evening, I took him into the bathroom with me for a short while while I was filling the bathtub and then by his own wish transferred him to the bedroom perch while I was having my bath. When I entered the bedroom that evening and looked after Little Lottchen who is also ill and also in the bed room, Mr. Darcy immediately reacted to my voice and crawled out from under the bed looking for me like he always did. We had been only separated for half an hour but he always wanted to be with me.
Since I have been on a leave of absence from work for a while we did have the luxury for the last months of spending every waking and most sleeping moments together.

I took him with a fleece rag to protect the bedding into bed with me while I was watching TV and cuddled with him for a while. Then I put him into his carrier for the night.

The next morning I could see that during the night, he had many many squirts of diarrhea but no real poop. I put him on the scale and saw that his weight remained constant from the day before, but his crop had not emptied properly and he was still not defecating. I fed the other fids and him, but he refused to eat or drink. While I was giving him his meds and cuddling him again, he turned his head all of a sudden to face me straight in the eye and gave me “The Look”. I don’t know how else to describe it. Any of you who had animals die with them probably know what I mean. it is a look, a glance, that clearly conveys that they are done with struggling and ready to leave this earth. I have seen it before and recognized it immediately. I selfishly and tearfully begged him to reconsider, told him I loved him and to please, please, please not give up.

As an answer he climbed from the backrest of my chair onto my lap and tucked his head under my right arm in clear solicitation of his tummy and cloaca massage which I gave him frequently to stimulate his intestines. He had gotten again some crusts on his cloaca, which came and went during the whole time he was ill and even before that. I softened them with vaseline as before and carefully picked away at them to make sure the cloaca opening was clear from obstructions. As I massaged, felt around, and kept cleaning him, I noticed his cloaca opening had distended so the I could slip the tip of my forefinger in. I did this very carefully, to see if there was any obstruction there as well. The vet & I had been doing this manoeuvre with a Q-tip on several occasions. Sometimes we were lucky enough to trigger him to defecate.

Well yesterday when I did it with my forefinger, it worked wonders. All of a sudden he let go and a huge amount of poop flew out of him – with it a huge one of those “thingies” that I had told you about on quite a few occasions before. We had not seen any of those for about two weeks and thought that this was a good sign. The lab had determined them to be solidified inflammation slime material with fibrin – a sign that his intestinal lining was battling with something. Thus, no thingies should have meant his intestines were calming down. It turns out this was just the quiet before the storm. The “thingy” that passed was almost the size of the tip of my forefinger as you can see in the image.

I was so glad that the blockage had passed and thought this was really good.

I took him to the kitchen sink for a clean-up and noticed that he seemed somewhat exhausted like after child birth – except that he birthed a “thingy”. After clean-up I put him back on his chair-back where he even ate a bit from the food bowl that I had attached to my chair for him together with his perch. Altogether he seemed a bit tired but doing ok.

I proceeded to clean myself up, rinsed the thingy, took a photo of it to show you guys. Then went back to my computer to get it ready for posting together with my poop update. As I was finalizing the image, Mr. Darcy climbed back onto my lap and presented his butt again for further massage. I thought that maybe not all had come out yet. So I placed another rag over my lap under him, and rubbed his tummy some more. I also went back to manipulating his cloaca which resulted in another huge bowel movement. Altogether he must have excreted at least 200 ml of poop. I took him back to the kitchen sink for clean up. He had really soiled himself on that one so I carefully turned him on his side and then even on his back to gently run some warm water over him. He does normally not like to be turned on his back, but he did not struggle. At the same time I noticed he was fisting his feet. Writing and reading this is taking longer than the seconds it took for this to happen.

I grabbed a towel to dry him with, sat back down at my desk and called my vet whom I luckily was able to reach immediately. She explained that significant volume losses can cause cardio-vascular problems. They see this in egg binding cases a lot and give an infusion before removing the egg to ward off such issues. Needless to say it was too late for this and I had not seen this huge defecation coming. She said, if he was not better in two hours to bring him in for an infusion and to keep him warm without overheating. I told her I had him lying on me so I would notice if the heat lamp got too hot. She replied that body warmth was great.

We hung up and I took him to the sofa with me covering us with a blanket for extra warmth. He seemed content. As I kept stroking Mr. Darcy I noticed that his rump felt colder. So I put my heat-frisbee into the microwave for a few minutes, wrapped it into a towel and placed it between my body and Mr. Darcy for extra warmth. Next his upper body started to get colder too. So I left the sofa and sat with him on my desk-chair where I have an infrared lamp duct-taped to a standing light for him.

I noticed his system crashing so I sprayed a homeopathic remedy (carbo vegetabilis) and Bach flowers (rescue remedy) into his beak. The homeopathic remedy often will revive a collapsed living being. But he reacted to neither. I considered taking him straight in to the vets. But then I paused and reconsidered: He had severely crashed and the vet is about an hours’ drive away. The trip in awfully cold winter weather, being bumped around in his carrier, could be the final straw on his severely compromised cardio-vascular system. There was a very high chance that he would not survive it. And I had to ask myself the question if I wanted him to die alone in his carrier on the way to the vets which he hates or resting on my chest with me holding him and telling him how much I love him. I decided the latter and resolved to take him in for the afternoon office hours, if he had remained stable until then.

Mr. Darcy was still awfully cold in spite of the three heat sources (me, the heat-frisbee and the IR lamp). And then he stretched his legs out behind him with his claws fisted. They were really stiff. After massaging his legs for a bit they loosened enough for me to tuck them back under him and quasi perch him on my hand as he loved to do.

He flapped his wings two times as if he were flying somewhere. Then his moved his tongue around a bit like he does when he tastes some yummy treat. And then softly, softly, like a whisper, I could feel his soul leave his body. It was 11:30 – not even an hour since I hung up with my vet.

The Aftermath

I held Mr. Darcy a little while longer, rocking him and myself and telling him how much I loved him. Then I called my vets and made arrangements to bring him in for an autopsy in the afternoon. I found him a large box, cushioned it with bunched up papers wrapped him in a soft fluffy bath towel and placed him in there. It is hard to explain, but that body is not him. And I really want to know what destroyed my love so beyond healing. It may also be important for my other flock members and maybe even for other parrots whom we may be able to help with that knowledge.

Far harder than giving up his body is to see all over the house little signs of our lives together and his illness. I start crying every time which is pretty much non-stop.

I know that over time the pain will not be quite so devastating. But I also know that I will miss him for the rest of my life. He was an incredibly special bird who chose to give his love and trust to me unreservedly in spite of what humans did to him.

Gratitude

I am incredibly grateful for the time we had together, even if it was much too short. My hope had been that we would grow old together. Our three years that we had passed like the blink of an eye.
I am also incredibly grateful to Mr. Darcy for the love he gave me and his ultimate loving act of protecting me from having to make that horrible final decision.
I am grateful that we could experience his death together the way we did in such a gently loving way. He was special in life and special in the way he chose to die.

Instead of a photo, I am including my favourite video of him:

R.I.P. Mr. Darcy

19?? – January 22, 2013

You were and are deeply loved

Donations in Mr. Darcy’s name may be made via Paypal to my parrot NFP and will be used to cover vet costs and help for Mr. Darcy and other parrots in need.