Our New Friend Fred!

We went to meet the lovely Paula and Rick just over two weeks ago to pick up our gorgeous new friend Fred. It seemed like everything was against us at the time because I don’t drive, couldn’t find a lift and had literally just moved in to my new house, had no internet and my phone was playing up. Luckily at the last minute I found someone to take myself and Chris to Reading. Unfortunately Paula and Rick were stuck in horrendous traffic on the way to meet us and the person driving us was having a panic because she thought she was going to miss her holiday flight. Luckily, before she decided to drive away (which we were not impressed with) I got a text and we spotted Rick driving in to the car park.

Can you fit a 5ft parrot cage in a Ford Fiesta? Yes you can! “Where there’s a will there’s a way”

The first time I saw Fred I was in awe. I’ve always wanted a Timneh and he was perfect, even more gorgeous than his photos. Once we had managed to get everything in to the car we set off and made it home relatively quick. Poor thing must have been on the road for so long.

We got home and left Fred in the travel cage for about an hour to settle in. After that we set up his cage and put him in. We left him alone for the rest of the night as he was yawning a lot and must have been knackered.

The next day I made Fred and Riddle some mash (including pellets) and Fred happily ate it all. I put it in a buffet ball which he seemed to love and play with a lot. When I took the buffet ball out for cleaning, I had an idea. Using a spoon, I put some pellets on to the cage mounted plate and he instantly started eating them from the spoon, then from the plate. I had already ordered a big bag of Tidymix but was incredibly happy that in such a short time Fred is now on pellets. He still gets Tidymix as a treat but seems to prefer Harrisons.

We opened Fred’s cage and he climbed out, had a fly around and went straight back in. We have left his cage open a lot but he isn’t that eager to come out yet and when he does he doesn’t stay out for long.

Fred\'s \"high four\"!

It took him a week to start talking, before that we had only heard little kissing noises but now he talks and says “hello” in all different ways as well as “go away” “you’re a manky bird” “good boy” and others in a cute old man voice! He whistles and makes other interesting sound effects. He has copied some of Riddle’s sayings now and between rooms they repeat things back and talk to each other a lot. It’s really lovely to watch/listen to, and amazing because you couldn’t get more different with these birds. They are total opposites.

As we speak, Fred is climbing all over the outside of his cage. He flew over briefly but quickly went back to base. He’s a really great flyer and doesn’t seem too shy of new things. He has all the toys and food we’ve given him. He doesn’t care if you put your hand in his cage to change toys and even takes food from your hand. I am able to touch his feet and beak but he lets you know when you’re too close by shuffling away. I don’t want to jinx anything but so far, I’ve had no bites as it’s very easy to read his body language.

I absolutely love him and am so glad he’s a part of our flock. He has really symbolised the settling in to our new home as we’ve all gone through a similar experience at the same time.

A huge thank you from myself, Chris and Riddle to AGPC for giving us the opportunity to re-home such a wonderful creature.