Chicken is a Goffin Cockatoo and a survivor of neglect and abuse. She lost her feathers after 20 years of terrible neglect, but she never lost her spirit.
Chicken was confined to a cage and put in a dark basement. As a result, she grew anxious and depressed and plucked out her feathers for many years. Michele Riemersma rescued her and relates that when Chicken saw her she screamed for her, and as soon as she opened the cage door, Chicken jumped into her arms. Chicken immediately understood that Michele was her last chance and she took it!
“I don’t know the exact details of what happened to her in the past but I know it was bad and that she had at least 2 untreated breaks in her leg,” Michele says on Instagram. Chicken also suffered really bad vitamin deficiencies. She may have come from a “broken life” but she didn’t stay broken.
“She just wants to be out. She wants to walk around. She wants to play in the trees. She wants to interact with people. She loves children,” says Michele of her rescued bird. “It’s really adorable.”
Chicken also loves music and dancing and flying in her own unique way. “She wants to fly like all the rest of my birds fly,” explains Michele. “So we’ve developed our own way of flying where I hold her in my hands. And she’ll flap her wings and she’ll guide me around. She’ll lean towards a direction she wants to go.”
It’s so heartwarming to see Chicken enjoying life and healing from her past trauma. Michele says, “I’m really impressed with her ability to just go through so much and then come back on the other side, trust people again and love again.”
She adds, “My family and I consider ourselves lucky to get to be her forever flock and love her to pieces!”
We love seeing Chicken flying high. Here’s another adorable clip of her out with her mom and enjoying her freedom.
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