Frank & Abi have 2 very different stories, yet as they stand side by side on this sunny Saturday, they are breaking barriers. Miracles really do happen. Abi was very sick & in a home where she was abused, called so many nasty names for simply trying to live. Abi was only months old & had already earned the labels ‘mental’ & ‘more trouble than it’s worth’. She had never eaten fresh food before & we were told that she never would. Abi was obese & had a shocking length of health problems for such a young Bird. Nobody wanted Abi, she had already been written off as a fussy, mad troublemaker who won’t stop screaming.
Frank belonged to a child & never had the correct levels of love, care or attention. The child went to university & Frank was dumped off. Frank has an exhausting (for him) desire to please & perform, high levels of anxiety & used to pluck under his wings. Frank was 6 or 7 years old when I got him & had never eaten fresh food or had enrichment. It has taken years of trial, error & hard work to find the right group for Frank to live with & he is so happy now. Frank is the kind of Bird who would have been dumped off time & time again due to his complex needs.
There is a myth that Cockatiels won’t eat fresh food, but this myth is cemented when Birds are already written off. Both Abi & Frank were Birds who would never eat fresh food, never take part in enrichment activities, never live in with their own kind & never be happy. Yet with love, care & patience they have, as they stand excitedly side by side, smashed all of those barriers into thousands of pieces. Abi & Frank are shining, did you hear?
Oh, Abi & Frank are shining!