Did Somebody Say "Parrot?" Was Re: Tortoise, then Parrot , then Difficult

[msbeadsley]

Rita wrote:
> Another friend of mine has a green macaw (?) named Martha who is 75
> years old and will live to 150. She explained that Martha was the 
> pet of an old lady who loved her and taught her a great many words, 
> but the lady died and her heirs didn't care about parrots, kept 
> Martha in a cage and fed her regularly and cleaned the cage 
> occassionally and otherwise ignored her, so she forgot all her 
> words. My friend found out about this and rescued/bought the parrot 
> from them, and Martha said "hello" and "good girl" when I met her. 
> When my friend (who is, like me, over 40) told me that the parrot 
> is 75 and will live to 150, I did math in my head and 
> replied: "Then she will outlive us." My friend said: Yes, that is 
> why I have already found a little girl in my nieghborhood who loves 
> parrots to learn to take care of Martha and inherit her when I die.

If it's 18 - 24+ inches from beak to tail tip and green, it's almost 
definitely a macaw. It could be a Military (smaller), a Severe, a 
Buffons (rarer), or a couple of other things. Life expectancy 
(according to aviculturists) actually tops out at about 80 years, 
less in the wild. My housemate (who says hi, Rita, from out of the 
distant past and whose name is Bruce Miller) and I have two Amazon 
parrots (also green, about half the size of a macaw). One of those 
("his" bird) is at least 26 years old (as far back as we can figure), 
pretty obviously originally a wild-caught (who is just darling now), 
and will probably make it to 50 with no trouble in spite of having 
had some harsh life experiences before we got him 11 years ago. "My" 
bird (a domestically bred, hand-raised baby who is utterly enthralled 
with me) is 12. She will probably make it to 65 or more, having had a 
nice, healthy start in captivity. Bruce and I (also in our 40's) are 
both eyeing nieces as heirs for the birds; not so urgent, as we 
expect one of us will live longer (sniff!) and take care of both 
birds for a while longer.

Sandy

P.S. Rita, BTW: we were at both LA Con and Con Jose, with birds.