Christina and her younger sister, Brienne, are the birds' primary care givers, but with cages covering nearly every flat surface inside the home, everyone gets involved. Christina and Brienne begin their day about 5 a.m. preparing food, refilling water cups and cleaning cages. As they work from cage to cage, Christina makes notations on each bird's appetite and appearance in a journal. This is an important step. By 10 a.m., the birds are settled for day and the teens begin their home-school day, often working at the table or on the computer with parrots, cockatiels, and lovebirds, perched on shoulder, head and nearby.
Cages take up nearly all the extra space in the home.
At 7 p.m., it's time to get their flock settled for the night. They're beautiful, many can be taught to talk and they're unique. But because they are unique, few people know how to care for them. Even feeding the birds can be a problem, she explained, noting some of the specialty birdseed blends sold in pet stores can be deficient in vitamins and minerals for some species. Through research and trial and error, Christina and Sharon have developed bird food recipes for the exotics and sell it over the Internet to help support their rescue efforts.