Adoption

I have always wanted a bird since I was 9. First it was a Blue and Gold Macaw, now I have fell in love with umbrella cockatoos. I don't want to have to by a baby from a breeder, I would love to adopt. Every adoption website ask for only experience large bird owners to adopt.

I know that they are like that to prevent people that can't manage them from getting them. But if they want the birds adopted then they need to fix some rules, there are only so many large bird owners that wan't to adopt. I live in Michigan and as far as I know there are no adoption facilities near where I live, or close enough to do a home inspection.

What can I do?

You need to understand that most large birds end up in a revolving door kind of life, going from one owner to another mostly because people who cannot handle them or who doesn't know how difficult it is to keep one healthy and happy buy them or adopt them just to give them up after a period of time. U2s are not easy birds to keep. They are super destructive (if you've never seen the kind of damange a too can do to a house, you have no idea of what they can and often do, these birds can chew walls right through in a single afternoon!), need constant attention (and I do mean constant!), scream very loud, are escape artists and are very diffcult to feed correctly. That's why they ask for prior experience. They are just too difficult for a first timer.

I applaud your commitment to adoption instead of buying but, if I were you, I would start with a smaller, easier bird and work my way up to the difficult ones. When one starts a new job, one needs to start at the bottom in order to learn the ropes. It's the same with birds.

I have a friend who has a U2 and it is a wonderful bird, does not need constant human attention (does have a constant feathered playmate though) and it is fairly quiet, a tad noisey in the mornings (like most birds) and a bit noisey just before sundown. It is a fussy eater. I also do not recommend this species as a first bird and also recommend a smaller bird like a Meyers or white bellied Caique.

What bird did you wind up getting, if you are still around?

This thread has been archived at Adoption in category Escaped Parrot