Rescuing Special Needs Birds Isn't for Anyone
I get a lot of messages from people inspired to do what I do, take in birds with special needs and or make a rescue organization around it. They see how much fun it is to be around all these amazing souls, how cute the birds are, and how rewarding it can be seeing these birds blossom. But, the reality is, it’s the hardest thing to get in to.
Not only is it incredibly expensive, I dropped $800 in 24 hours for Merlin’s (blue and gold macaw) emergency care, but there are very very few grants for bird rescues. The general public does not know bird rescues exist, so donations are also scarce unless you’re extremely well known. It’s a lot of out of pocket. With special needs birds, vet trips are frequent and with little funding and a lot of overhead, most will be coming out of your pocket. And if you have say 20 birds... that’s thousands in vet bills per month. Not to mention their food and staff wages.
It means 17 hour days no break 365 days a year. Say goodbye to vacations. Say goodbye to going out on Friday night. You don’t have time. You don’t have the energy. Or you can’t leave a sick bird for and few hours.
Also, to be successful as an organization that specializes in special needs, you need to be incredibly knowledgeable in all aspects of parrot ownership and have immense amount of experience to do right by these birds. You also need to have a top notch avian vet close by, preferably board certified. Why board certified? Because extra special birds like munchkin a regular vet or avian vet may not have the knowledge to understand him best. A board certified vet is the top of the top in avian veterinary practices. These vets also aren’t cheap. To learn how to find a good avian vet, read our blog post here.
Why do I normally advise people to not get into it? It’s not because there is too many people like me, there is not enough. But, I also don’t want people to be set up for failure. Get experience with a rescue and tell them your plans. Ask them to be more involved with management. Do that for a few years, see how you feel. If you want a special needs bird, adopt maybe just one and see how you do. There are a lot of tricks to the trade to help these little dudes out that you learn through experience and mentoring