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.
Based on the fact Rico’s toes are entirely healed and cause no nerve pain, I am sure it happened years ago.
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.
Parrots are non-domesticated animals. Farm fowl, canaries, and Pigeons are the only domesticated bird.
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!
If you are located in the Twin Cities, MN and are interested in him, feel free to send me a message and I can get you more info as I’m the one fostering him !!
lmao on the edinburgh zoo site it says “there is a daily penguin parade at 14:15 but it may be cancelled last minute as it is a voulntary parade, we do not coax the penguins with food, and they may not want to go out” lmao anarchopenguinism