Feathers & Fur

We were never told why Rico lost two toes, but I call that foot his lil bipedal 🥰

He has no mobility issues or balance issues, and has adapted so well you’d never even notice unless you saw pictures of the missing toes.

This is unfortunately a somewhat common thing to see in captive older rescue birds, especially larger parrots. It can happen for various reasons, most commonly getting them stuck on cages or toys, or even them getting chomped by other parrots if they are on another one’s cage.

TRIGGER WARNING: non-bloody bird bites

Some people don’t talk about the reality behind the screen in regard to owning and/or fostering parrots — especially the large cuddly ones we all see.

Rico, my Moluccan Cockatoo foster, is the sweetest most cuddly bird I have ever met, but even he has his bad days. Birds are like people and even they can PMS, wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or get fussy for whatever other reason.

Rico had never bitten me before, and this was very out of the blue. He had a bad couple hormonal days suddenly and decided to take a few comps.

The fat boy is doing so well. He is hand-skittish but really loves company and is quite talkative. He’s very active and LOVES his bath time.

He is not quite up for adoption yet as we still need to cut his tags off, but I’m so excited to see him go to an amazing home. Fostering is always so bittersweet!