This issue we are please to present you with an excerpt from the recently-published cookbook entitled, "The Jellibean Project: The Complete Pet Bird Owner's Cookbook". It is filled with all sorts of recipes and stories and helpful hints. We hope you enjoy reading this story as much as we did, while learning about...

by Alexis K. Adams
www.upstateparrotsociety.com
Copyright © Apr 2003

Thirty years ago I founded and charted the Danville Area Humane Society in Danville, Va. After moving to Greenville, SC and finding that they already had a humane society, I turned my attention to other things.

In the summer of 1995 I opened a nail technology school and moved in to my first home. It was hectic, but I could have dealt with that. However, the first day in my new home, my brother was shot and killed. I was told it was a botched robbery attempt. My brother had no money on him.

This sent my frazzled body and spirit in to an endless spiral of depression. I was relieved of my teaching duties because they wanted a teacher with her mind 100% on her students, and it was evident that mine was not.

After losing my school, attending all the hearings and trials and getting through the holidays was more than I could cope with. I was hospitalized numerous times for depression, but nothing helped. I just did not want to be here any longer.

Battling depression is a difficult thing to do. All the things that you normally do, like getting up in the morning, bathing, eating, or answering the phone, are all chores that you just suddenly just can't cope with anymore.

In May of '96 I answered the telephone, and received a call that I had previously prayed for. But it could not have come at a worst time.

"Come get this blank blank bird if you want him," I heard a woman screaming through the phone.

"I beg your pardon?" I said.

"Jellibean. Its Jellibean. Come and get him right now!" she demanded.

Poor Jellibean. He was a seven year old Molluccan cockatoo, and already he had been bought sold, traded, and given away eight times. Each time he was returned.

This woman had bought him as a tiny hatchling. He cost her $2,500.00 plus the cost of the cage and his food. Forget toys. His cage had always been bare whenever I had seen him. He had been neglected and was starved for affection and attention. And now he was being given away again.

"As soon as I can, I will come for him," I muttered, hoping to buy some time.

"No, come for him now before I change my mind and just kill him," she blurted out.

"OK," I said, resigned. "I'll be right there."

It was 4 pm. I forced myself to get dressed, got into my small compact car and drove across town to her home.

Upon my arrival, I found Jellibean on the front porch with his cage and his meager belongings, a wholly pitiful sight.

His water bowl was a dog bowl on the bottom of the cage. His food bowl had mould growing on part of it and there were no toys to occupy his time.

There was no way that the cage was ever going to fit in my car. Luckily, I had bungy cords with me. I took them and eventually managed to get the cage tied to the back of the car.

But first I threw his bowls in the trash container near the street. Then I put Jelli in my lap and away we went.

I can just imagine what he must have been thinking. "Here I go again to yet another home!"

When we arrived I immediately set the cage on the porch and gave it a through cleaning. Once I got it cleaned and inside, I found a place for it that I though that Jelli would like, placed him in the cage and went to the feed store to buy the perfect food.

Once there I found that he would eat almost anything that I could eat. If it was healthy for me then chances were, it would be good for him (except avacado). So along with his regular parrot food mix, I learned that he could eat people food too.

At home I was in the habit of just fixing a sandwich or throwing something in to the microwave. But if Jelli had to eat healthy and I was going to prepare food for him, I may as well make double, and feed myself too. Right?

I found that he was fun to watch, and that he loved carrots, pasta, rice, beans, grits and eggs. And what an appetite he had!

After he finished he would have food all over his beak and as would any good mother, I had to wipe him clean. He made it painfully clear that his daytime was from sunup to sundown, and that I could adjust my schedule to his, or suffer his screaming.

I found myself holding him as I would a child. It seemed as if he was trying to tell me of all the bad things that had happened to him and I in turn told him all the bad things that had happened to me.

I found I was taking longer showers because Jelli seemed to love the shower. Then of coarse he had to be blown dry. I found muself going outside more often because Jelli seemed to love being out in the sun. Of coarse I could not leave him outside alone!

Slowly I began to realize that I could feel better, and soon I even found that I could laugh again. It was funny, really, because all the while I thought I was rescuing Jelli, he was actually rescuing me.

Soon, word spread that I would take in unwanted birds. My flock began to grow. I found that there was such a great need of care for unwanted birds that I decided to officially start a refuge, a sanctuary for birds with nowhere else to go.

I call it "The Jellibean Foundation" after my first feathered rescue. From that start came the "Upstate Parrot Society".

We are dedicated to the welfare and preservation of all companion birds through education of the public and rescue operations. At present there are 100+ birds living at the refuge.

A free flight aviary is being built, with the hope of a large free flight expansion and an educational facility where people can come and interact with the birds and learn how to properly care for them before purchasing one.

We do not breed nor sell any bird in our care. There is an adoption procedure, but for the long-term safety of the adopted birds, the 'foster' humans never actually own the bird they adopt - it remains a 'ward' of the foundation, and we ensure that our guidelines for their care are followed.

This way, we can ensure that the bird is not sold six months or so down the road and put into another cycle of neglect.

We have a board of directors and an adoption committee and we offer memberships to our society, to interested parties.

And what of Jellibean today? He still rules the roost, even though he now shares his cage and play area with a multitude of other birds. On any given day you will see a grey, a green cheek or a sun conure snuggled up next to him.

He and his friends have found their final home.

by Alexis K. Adams
www.upstateparrotsociety.com
Copyright © Apr 2003

From Spacious Pet Cages To Breeder's Flight Cages

Keeping birds is wonderful, but proper cages can be very expensive, and quality is almost always an issue - too often cheap cages have been found to be damaging to the health of a bird who lives in them, something no caring bird owner wants!

The folks at Bird and Cage Co have made it their goal to provide birdkeepers with a great selection of quality cages for the best possible prices - and if you live in the continental US, there's an even nicer bonus - for now at least, shipping is free!

We've reviewed cages carried by Bird and Cage Co, that Robirda recommends you consider if you are thinking of getting one or more new bird cages, here.

For a full selection that includes some great wrought-iron parrot cages, visit www.birdandcage.com

My birds love the variety of brown rice cooked with oat groats, wheat berries, mung beans, and chunks of dried fruit, along with plenty of cinnamon and other such spices - when the smell of it cooking begins to steal through the house, their calls get louder and more demanding. As soon as they have some, each and every one begins picking happily through it, selecting and eating all the precious little bits - never mind that each little bit is, in the end, as precious as all the rest!

To make some, get a tempered glass, iron, or stainless steel pot, and add 1 cup of dry brown rice. Then fill the same cup with a mixture of other grains and small beans - this mix varies, depending on what I have on hand, but usually the mix is something like half oat groats, (whole husked oats), perhaps a quarter wheat berries, and for the rest I will usually use a few small chinese mung and/or red beans, or maybe some lentils or crushed corn - anything that will cook in about the same time as the rice.

Put this cup of mixed grains and beans into the pot with the cup of dry rice, add four cups of cold, clean water, cover the pot, and bring it rapidly to a boil. DO NOT STIR! As soon as the mixture boils, reduce the heat to low, and leave it to simmer gently.

While the rice mix is simmering, make up another half a cup of dried mixed fruit - naturally dried raisins or cherries, chunks of unsulphered dried figs, papaya, bananas, apples, peaches, etc... and add a scant teaspoon of sea salt, a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamon, and a sprinkle of nutmeg, allspice, and clove. Stir to coat the pieces of fruit with the powdered spices.

Briefly remove the lid from the pot of simmering grains, and gently pour the fruit and spices into the pot, trying to pour so that you get a fairly even layer of fruit across the top of the cooking beans/grain mix. Again, DO NOT STIR! Just quickly replace the lid, then leave it to simmer gently until the last of the liquid is fully absorbed.

I love to use tempered glass pots for cooking rice, since you can easily see exactly when the liquid is gone! If you don't have a glass pot, begin to check after approximately fourty-five minutes or so of cooking - gently use a fork or a knife to push a few grains aside, to see if there is still any liquid in the bottom of the pot. Be very careful not to stir, or the rice will get starchy and stick, something you do NOT want.

Once the liquid is absorbed, remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then uncover and stir gently. Serve while still warm, or store in fridge and serve a little at a time - this mix will keep for several days in the fridge.

Beware, though - you may find yourself enjoying eating this healthy, yummy treat as much your birds do, so do please be prepared to share!