GTL Parrot Rescue

31/10/2024

20/10/2024

With more than 150 items to sort through and get ready to be posted in the GTL Parrot Rescue Online Auctions we are likely looking at another week or so before the next auction starts.
A huge heartfelt thank you to everyone who donated!
Here's a sneak peek of a few of the items that will be up for bids.

22/08/2024

Shout out to Rens pets Sarnia for a generous donation of food and treats for the flock ❤️
We appreciate you!!

23/04/2024

Thank you Danielle Goodvin for your generosity!
Greatly appreciated!

28/01/2024

Thanks to Christyann for her generous donation in memory of Killer.
The birds will love destroying them!

23/11/2023

Miss Dakota was off to the vet yesterday to have a check up and her nails and beak trimmed. She is a very good traveler and was incredibly well behaved.

05/11/2023

This moustache parakeet named Koji was lost on November 3 from Baldoon Rd in Chatham. There is a reward offered for his safe return. If found please contact for owners information.

31/10/2023

03/10/2023

Thank you Kelly Mulholland!

28/09/2023

Another huge thank you to Jacqueline Fraser and Gwyndeline Vishnu-Pink for another incredibly generous donation. You ladies are such beautiful souls and I know your mother is smiling.
We are still trying to get photos of the birds playing with their toys but they stop in hopes of climbing on the human jungle gym whenever we get near lol

14/09/2023

Thank you Kim!!

27/08/2023

Thank you Jacqueline Fraser for your incredible generosity! The birds will be playing happily for a while now :)

27/08/2023

Thank You Chelsey Pozdyk for your donation!

01/07/2023

Happy Canada Day!

31/05/2023

These birds are not in the rescue, I am posting for a friend.
Please get in touch if interested for contact information.

The banded canary is probably close to 5 and the unbanded one is around 2, the Finch is probably the oldest at probably close to 8 years old.
I want them to go to a good home so they will not be free.
Rehoming because my cat won't leave them alone and I feel it's not fair to the birds.
Cage is wooden, not in the best shape but will go free with the birds, if wanted. I want them to be in a large cage.

30/01/2023

(Last Updated On: January 22, 2023)Wild parrots begin foraging for food shortly after the sun rises. Food can sometimes be hard to find or reach during extreme weather conditions. Small […]

28/01/2023

This rescue is about the parrots.
Getting them to safety, making sure they don't have any health issues, making sure they have a healthy diet and mental stimulation. Making sure that at the end of the day we hear that content, happy beak grinding that tells us that everything is wonderful in their world.
It's about having fosters who are on the same page who go above and beyond and do not have to be micromanaged.
It's about being diligent in screening potential adopters and making sure that the bird responds to the potential adopters in a manner that tells us that they are comfortable and showing no signs of stress or apprehension.
It's about sometimes having to bring the birds back into care due to death or other unforseen circumstances.
Prior to covid it was about spending all extra time canvassing for donations and organizing auctions to raise funds to keep the birds happy, healthy and spoiled.
Since the beginning of covid donations have been scarce at best, help for volunteers and fosters dwindled and doing auctions was no longer a possibility.
Through this time out of pocket has become the norm.
I have been quite accommodating to potential adopters when things come up in their lives and plans get changed. I have been attacked when a bird clearly doesn't like a person and shows signs of stress when in their company which prompts the adoption being declined.
I could go on with negative things but I choose to focus on the good and happy.
I am currently trying to decide if I want to continue this path as the nasty is taking a toll. Since the start of covid we have all struggled so asking for help seemed almost selfish to me. I continued on my own as I figured I could handle it on my own in the difficult times. Hard on the pocketbook, yes, and even harder physically some days.
Today, some words wounded deeply and I just really don't care for people much anymore. I was taken aback and found myself speechless. For every absolutely lovely person I meet there are 3 that I could do without.
I need to do some serious soul searching while I continue to do the very best for those in my care.

22/01/2023

Jayda has been here a week today. She's a very good eater, seems to love everything (except me)
Today she met another grey who may or may not decide to make her family. For today, the meeting went well and she's full and ready for a nap. 🩶

22/01/2023

The truth told.
I couldn't have said it better if I tried!

January is National Adopt a Rescued Bird Month 🦜🏠
Let’s talk about something we hear all too often: “I want a baby parrot so it won’t have any of the issues I see in all the parrots at the rescue.”

Our answer to that (besides the obvious “just because it’s a rescue doesn’t mean it has issues”) is: What do you think these rescue parrots once started out as? They didn’t pop into existence as an adult parrot who plucks, bites, and screams!

Then we ask, HOW do you think these parrots developed their “issues?”

The root of many emotional issues such as over bonding, obsessive hormonal behavior, and separation anxiety is… Are you ready? Hand raising the parrot. Yup. When you hand raise a parrot, you are setting them on the path to failure once they hit sexual maturity.

And although many people THINK they want that super lovey, cuddly velcro bird, the novelty wears off when you have a parrot who screams at over 100 decibels when you leave the room. Or when the parrot repeatedly attacks your spouse or 2 year old child. Or when your parrot starts ripping all their own feathers out.

Hand-raising baby parrots leads to an emotionally stressed parrot who develops all the “issues” you don’t want from one of those used-up rescue parrots.

As UK behaviorist Greg Glendell states:
‘The process of hand-rearing has adverse effects on the behaviour of African grey parrots when they mature (Schmid, Doherr and Steiger 2005)… [T]he hand-rearing, or what we might more accurately call parental deprivation, sets in place a behavioural time-bomb with a 2- to 5-year delay in behavioural problems. Indeed, according to Schmid, et al. the maladaptive behaviours of hand-reared birds appears to be largely in proportion to the amount of parental deprivation they have experienced. Where birds are part-parent raised (not removed from the nest until at least 8 weeks old) they suffer fewer behavioural problems as adults than those which have been solely hand-reared from the day of hatching. In addition to adverse behavioural issues caused by hand-rearing, there can be adverse physical effects including osteodystrophy (Harcourt-Brown, 2003, 2004).’

Even if you buy a baby parrot, chances are, it will grow up to have “behavioral issues” simply as a result of being hand raised and then placed in a human home.

Parrots are extremely complex creatures. They are wild animals trying their best to adapt to an entirely inadequate environment (our homes). We have taken an animal hard wired to live in a large flock, have lifelong relationships with one another, reproduce, fly, and forage for food… And stuck them in a cage in our living room, often alone.

There is a lot working against a captive parrot, young or old.

So, no, buying a baby parrot will not guarantee you “a perfect parrot.” The idea of a baby parrot being a clean slate is a myth. The Perfect Parrot doesn’t exist. You are bringing home a complicated, intelligent, completely wild animal for whom you will need to alter your lifestyle. All parrots, whether a baby or adult, will need a person who understands a parrot’s natural behavior and instincts. Every parrot needs to be trained, fed, and housed properly for the entirety of its long, long life.

There are too many homeless parrots who need you. Adopt, don’t shop.

11/12/2022

Thank you Patricia and Sally for your generous donations!!
The birds will be very happy with the goodies!