Man's best friend

It was the peak of summer. May-June in a rocky city like Tamil Naidu, Chennai, are pretty torturous. I was at my office and received a call from my husband asking me to come home immediately. I rushed home to find two small feeble chicks (kids of parrots) in a shoe box. ‘What is this?’, I cried.

“Thieves were trying to steal these chicks from the Neem tree situated outside my office. They took one baby parrot. I rescued these two. They are too small, so I brought them home,” said my husband. I suggested we put them back in the tree. But their mother had flown somewhere. Who would take care of them? My husband was right. And I became mother to two baby parrots (chicks). Once they were with us, the search began. What do they eat? How to feed them? I had placed them in a shoe box along with some hay. I fed them soaked gram and flour. I pushed food under their beaks, gave water through a dropper. They peed and shat inside the box. That night I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking they must be feeling insecure, vulnerable, without their mother. I got up many a times to lift the flap of the shoe box only to see them cuddled upon one other. The morning sun saw them shifting and moaning. I thanked God. Then began my nursing period. I came from office several times only to feed them. They could recognize my smell. As I moved near their box, they chirped. The kids were growing from black-brown to green. Slowly their feathers grew. The shoe box was replaced by a bigger box, and then they found home in our latest TV box. There was enough space to hop, move and even try flying. The older one was more anxious. He wanted to come up every time. I had to cover the TV box with a net. I called both of them ‘Mithoo’. They used to often hang upside down! Our friends, who knew the story, often came to see them. Later, I kept them in a veranda with no ceiling fans. The elder one had learnt flying while the younger one was still trying. They had grown into full parrots but did not copy our voice. One day the younger one slipped while trying to fly. I was heartbroken and took him to the vet. He prescribed some medicines. I used to struggle to push the medicine through a dropper inside his beak. To my relief, he recovered. Both of them had started flying. We kept the doors closed, and fans off. They ate biscuits. I admired the way both of them caught the biscuit like humans and ate. They were a source of attraction for our visitors. They sat on my husband’s, and my son’s shoulders. People coming to our house were often surprised to find a parrot gliding on to their heads and sitting there. One day the older one escaped. He flew in the garden. As it was evening, I was worried lest some cat caused him harm. I asked him to come inside, and he did. But after a few days, he flew away and did not return.

The younger one was still with me. He would perch on my shoulders when I went to leave my son to his bus in the street .The children in the bus felt I was some magician. Then it was his turn to fly. I was a staunch supporter of letting everybody live freely. We took him to the garden and bid adieu, tears welling up from our eyes. I felt empty; even my son was quiet. The next morning seemed gloomy. I withdrew my curtains and went to the kitchen to make tea. As I opened the windows, something flew up to my shoulder. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He had come back. Overjoyed, I called the whole family. The Thinner Arroot biscuit box was opened and there was no stopping him. The younger one came back to the house anytime he felt like. I called out ‘Mithoo’ and he would glide into the drawing room, on to the terrace, inside the bedroom... wherever I was. Our neighbor's kept soaked grams for him as he became the most desirable bird in the entire colony. Parrots are supposed to have a short-lived memory but my child was an exception. But eventually, he stopped coming. The memories linger. Birds and animals spread love and cheer. They give unconditional love and loyalty. If you love them, set them free. If they love you, they will come back...We offered the young parrot a ripened red tomato and it ate it. Afterwards it flew and perched on a wire which was tied near our bathroom to hang clothes. It spent the night peacefully perching on the wire. This is the first time in my life that I came to know that parrots sleep perching on the wires and ropes in this way. I was wondering that it did not fall down in his sleep. I was surprised to know this god-gifted quality of parrots. Its parents kept visiting the terrace garden for a few days, but the young parrot did not go with them and in stead stayed back in the terrace garden and slept on the wire as usual every day. We kept on feeding it with tomatoes. There was no fear of any cat pouncing on it, because the pent house and terrace is on the third floor and has a single door to the stair case which was kept closed. The parrot got a natural habitat to live because there are no other high rise buildings around my pent house. Gradually, the parrot started coming inside my living room after we kept something or the other for it to eat. Since it was small and we feared that it would fly away, we kept it inside a cage for a few months. One day I left it out to see whether it flies away or not. It flew away for sometime around the houses but came back again to my terrace. We did not disturb him during the day but at night, we brought it inside the room. Slowly it got used to staying in the room. During the day, it flew around the houses but came back to the terrace again and again and at night it started coming into the room on its own. This is the reason why I don't want to compare its habits with other pet parrots which are kept in cages. I would like to write what I kept observing about its habits over a long period of its stay with me. I never clipped its wings or shortened its nails as advised by some writers on the internet.

Eating habits of my parrot

For the first time I came to know that parrots don't have teeth when I observed it eating. He swallows any soft food given to it. It breaks hard food like nuts and seeds with its sharp pointed hooked beak. We enjoy its breaking the seeds of guava which produce breaking sounds as it eats them. Parrots have long black tongues and use them to move the food to the esophagus. The food does not go straight to its stomach from there. The parrots have a cavity near its throat called crop. The food is broken down in the crop and moistened and turned into a sticky paste-like mixture. Sometimes it takes this mixture out of its mouth and again swallows it down to its stomach. I read later that parrots don't produce much of saliva and that function is performed in the crop. I also read that chocolates are harmful to parrots and the parrots cannot digest dairy products, parrot eats everything what I usually eat. It eats vegetables like peas, tomatoes, carrots, beans etc. and fruits like guavas, apples, bananas etc. It also likes to squeeze the juice from orange slices and grapes. It is very fond of guava fruit. It especially likes the seeds of guava fruit. It can very neatly take out the seeds from peas bean, and then removes its outer skin and eats the soft pod inside the seed. Parrots are in the habit of only part of the food which is given to them. They would bite out the flesh of guava fruit and throw it away. It leaves back the half eaten fruit or vegetable. I also usually feed my parrot with cooked rice, chapatti chewed and made soft by me, idli, dosa, vermicelli. It is also fond of chicken, mutton and fish when given to it after crushing the same. Its favourite is the yolk of the egg just roasted a little on a hot roti tawa. I also feed it biscuits dipped in tea to make them soft. The first thing in the morning, I give him to eat two-three almonds after removing their skin and crushing them with my teeth. It does not eat almond which is soaked overnight in water.