You've got to see it to believe it!
The Trained Alexandrines have been performing faithfully for 15 years here at Parrots In Paradise, and prior to that we traveled all over for 5 years.
They have happily worked for many bus groups and visitors over the years. In that time we used positive reinforcement, rewarding them with praise and treats after a trick. Our parrots were never punished when they did not perform.
Knowing the birds are having a ball is great fun for the young and old. The bird's ability to solve puzzles and evidence of cognitive thought has to be seen to be believed.
But time has taken it's toll on not only the parrots but also on the humans.
So it was decided to do one final show for a professional vidographer in order to capture all of the show in spite of our losing one of our parrot team to a stroke and another to cataracts.
The Videographer was able to cobble in the missing performers tricks thanks to old videos.
So now when you visit you get the show in it's entirety. Nothing is missed.
We can do nothing about Lena who was taken by the stroke. But Kelele, who has cataracts will, once he is fully blind, will be given an eye operation, because this bird gave faithfully of himself for 20 years, and he will likely live at least the same again, so he deserves to be able to see in that time. So we are saving to get the $4000 for his operation.
For Bookings and info
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
To enjoy the very best experience,
when booking PLEASE allow yourself at least two hours for your visit
so you can see and do everything.
The story of baby Jo,
our first Macaw baby.
We waited seven years
for the mum and dad
to have this lovely baby.
Meet Whoppa, an Eclectus parrot who's full of
fun and sometimes a bit cheeky. Whoppa wants everyone to know who he is! He is a big star
here at the Sanctuary.
Watch the videos of him counting, singing his
own song and much more, plus a few bonus
videos of his mates. Go>
Princess' story and video
Princess joined our family in 2002. She made the seventh member of the Alexandrine team at that time.
It was quickly apparent that she was “imprinted”. This means she would have no interest in other birds and wanted to bond with a human. She quickly favoured me, and she needed a name change to Princess, mostly because it had to be her way or no way.
It was at this time I started to train the Alexandrines to see how much they were willing to learn. Daily they amazed me with their love of learning and how they would show total interest in their lessons.
Over time we developed a little show, each bird showing off their special skills, sometimes in groups or singly.
Princess blossomed: she loved to dress up, she wanted to be in almost every act. She really enjoyed the merry-go-round.
She was a lieutenant in the army, putting the troupes through the assault course with her sergeant. Princess and her sergeant would enjoy a drink in the mess together.
Her floral art items were a picture.
Princess was also a gymnast with dreams of representing Australia in the Olympics some day.
Her modelling career was one of her highlights because she loved to show off her fluffy shoulders that we would colour blue and she would sit happily whilst her nails were painted, (we never told her the varnish was actually made for dogs). She had some very special gowns which she loved, and wouldn’t share them with any of the other models.
All 12 team members enjoyed the fire fighters part, rushing to get to the buildings, some on the fire engines and the tight rope to get everyone to safety, then to swoop down on the flying fox in the grand finale.
Apart from the show, Princess, who did not have a partner, was very involved in rearing babies. She helped when they needed rearing, and helped to show them how to feed themselves. While she was mostly keen on the Alexandrine babies, she would also help out with Indian Ring Necks and Eclectus and one of the Baby Macaws.
Princess never had a cage. She had a stand and her very special PINK nest box with her name on the top, and a pink feather boa around it until it fell apart. For 20 years she shared my bedroom and not once did she ever go to the toilet in the house, always waiting to go outside to go to the toilet. While she didn’t really talk she did wolf whistle and had the sweetest “Hello”.
She was devoted to me and scared most of the staff as she was bossy.
Princess passed away on the operating table 14th Feb 2022. She will be terribly missed by myself and the rest of the team at Parrots in Paradise.
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Dail Malins.
OUR LOVELY KELELE’s Story
Kelele came to us as a young, just weaned baby. He was a big boofy Alexandrine and sooooo cute.
Very early I noticed that Kelele was different and special, at the time I had never come in contact with a parrot like this boy, he had some very strange habits, like when stressed, or nervous he would throw his head back onto his back,and look at the world upside down.
He came at a time when I was learning how to train parrots to do tricks. He was always head of the class and REALLY loved learning the tricks and was very treat motivated.
Besides the weird head thing he would do, I noticed he really could not fly, nor learn to talk, other than that he was a sweet and affectionate boy. One of the odd things Kelele would do was to cut his wing feathers, and he hated his long tail so he would chop it short. So he was instantly recognizable.
He had a sister that I got at the same time, and she too had an odd head movement and would often tip her head over to the side earning her name Leana, and when nervous or over excited she would walk in circles. These two showed clear autism like behavior. The vets call it stargazing, I still believe it is very like autism. Both birds became very much part of the developing “show” Kelele in particular wanted to be in everything.
Kelele like most of our Alex team LOVED performing in the show, and being the center of attention was heaven for them. Kelele fast became the star of the show. He happily performed for over twenty years. One day I noticed that he was developing cataracts, and took him to the vet to see what options were open to him.
This would require the skills of an eye specialist, and would also require an avian vet to be in attendance as the anesthetist, and the cost would be up in the thousands, this was right at the beginning of the Covid mess.
As Kelele’s sight dimmed he was confined to a safe cage, and all he could do was chew up to ten pine cones a day to keep himself amused. All the while we were frantically gathering funds to cover the clearly necessary operation. Once we had the funds, we had to find an avian vet to stand in as the anesthetist this proved to be a real problem as most avian vets did not want to do it because he wasn’t their patient.
One day I was up at the Unusual Pet Vets in Buderim and chatting with Alex Mastakov who did meet and treat Kelele when he was at the University of Qld and he said “let me organize it all”. Alex arranged an appointment for Kelele with James in Brisbane, and he said I was to bring Kelele to him the night before, Alex would take him, be the anesthetist, and take Kelele to his home, and I would pick him up the next day.
They only were able to do one eye, but the effect on Kelele was remarkable, he could see and better still he could do all of his beloved tricks again. He was able to go back into his familiar cage, it was clear to see he was a happy boy. However Kelele did not want to have anything to do with a pine cone ever again.
The hardest part was Kelele started to get a wet looking patch on his face, and we took ages to realize where it was coming from, when he went to sleep he would tuck his beak in at the back of his wing, he had a graze like looking abrasion that was weeping. So off to the vet we went yet again. This turned out to be terminal cancer.
Sadly it wasn’t that long before we had to let him go. He is very much missed by all who had known our sweet and funny, constantly cheerful boy.
Dail Malins.
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