I begin the drive up to the breeder's place,
to pick up my new pet. I remember the bird-related things, like the
carry case (which isn't QUITE the right style, more below) a bowl for
water, and of course water. And two towels to line the case with. I
should have had more towels, but two worked. It is a little over an
hour drive in good traffic from my place to the breeder's.
Finally, I get there, and this time don't have to call for directions
mid-trip.
They already have him out, along with two Amazons, playing on their
jungle gym sort of setup. (I really wish I could get a stock of those
sticks they use to build their own setup, or rather get them cheaply.
The setup I have is sorta wrong for Nyassa I think.)
While I remembered everything about transporting the new critter home,
I forgot the contract. That's ok, we filled out and signed a new
one, and Nyassa approved, although we had to wipe his signature off.
I was a little worried about the contract (which I looked over several
times of course) since it had a clause that the breeder could keep the
bird and offer another, or a refund. I understand why that's there,
but when I called ahead I heard how sweet and gentle he was. Luckily,
they didn't decide to keep him (whew!) and so he needed a nail
clipping.
I don't know if you've ever held a baby Grey on your hand/arm before,
but those nails are like eight little pin pricks. They got cut back
one by one, causing a small squeak of surprise from the towel-wrapped
Grey. I also chose to have him DNA sexed at the same time, so they
intentionally trimmed one nail too close, and drew the blood sample
from that. And an application of Kwik Stop raised quite a squeal from
Nyassa. When they let him out from under the towel, he ran to me,
since I was one of the three who didn't just hurt him.
He got over that quickly, and made up with his caretakers before we
left. So, now it's into the carrier, car, then down the road we go!
Of course I hit traffic on the way home. Go figgure, it's California.
In any case, we made it home without so much as a squeal, but there
were a great deal of whistles, little squeaks, "whoop!" sounds, and
other not-too-frightened bird sounds.
The carrier was one of the ones that is open on the top with a metal
cage, and the sides have slots in them. For a bird, who often is more
at ease in uncomfortable situations with a roof, this was exactly the
wrong setup. I think I'll get one that is a mini-cage, with a solid
top, for any longish trips. The carrier I have is plenty for short
trips, and Nyassa is already familiar with it.
So, we made it home. I already set up his cage, have food ready for
him, etc. He decides to almost totally ignore the food, but he takes
a long drink of water. He then takes a nap on my hand. Try as I
might, he wouldn't step off, unless it was on my shoulder. So, I held
him for about 10 minutes while he rested. It gave me time to study
his feathers.
The first night was hard on us both. He really hated being in the
cage at all, but after I covered his cage on three sides, he calmed
down. I had to leave the light off for a while first but he was still
tired, and slept through the night.