It’s very important for us to see and experience the environment where your bird will be living, so we require in person home visits ONLY. We do not offer video or photo home visits unles explicitly stated in a bird’s bio (may be the case with budgerigars). We currently always service an hour to hour and a half of these areas: Des Moines, Quad Cities, Muscatine, Le Mars, New Boston IL, Iowa City/Cedar Rapids, Kirksville MO. Occasional visits are possible near Fairbault MN and Madison WI. We make yearly visits to Rochester MN and West Chicago IL and applications can be considered and stored for future trips if noted- it will be understood that visits will happen on our schedule.

At our discretion, we may travel further for a home visit for great applications. If we opt to travel beyond our standard range, we will require a gas fee (reimbursement for full gas cost). Please understand this is not for difficulty- rather, we operate as a 2 person team running the entire rescue, and one person being gone for a home visit for a day takes a toll on the schedule. As such, we must manage our time the best we can. We are likely to refer people to closer rescues that we like within reason. We are ALWAYS looking for more home visitor volunteers! Please visit our volunteer page for information.

Now, onto what a home visit consists of! Some birds like to be the center of activity, while some enjoy a more secluded area to feel safe. Lots like to listen to music, or watch TV, or even be near a window. We can help identify potential dangers and eliminate them before your bird goes home with you.

Our safe home checklist below is something you can read ahead of time so you know what to expect during this and how to prepare. This is another good time to discuss caging and placement of the cage. This can vary depending on the bird you want to bring home, so having a plan ahead of time will be beneficial to you. We don’t expect you to have a cage prepared during your actual home visit if you aren’t sure yet what bird you’ll be bringing home. Most home visits don’t fail-only in situations that cannot be fixed immediately like evidence of smoking or mold damage to the house. You may have things to change before adopting, but we ensure you have the time to do this if everything else checks out.

Once the home visit is complete, we can move forward with your second visit here.

This visit consists of much more hands-on time with the bird/s of interest. Sometimes the bird chooses pretty quickly and they go home faster than expected (even the second visit for small birds). If you are considering a medium or larger bird, it’s better to plan to make at least three trips here so you can really form a relationship and be confident in your decision to adopt… Plan on 4+ visits for Cockatoos. Remember-it truly is like bringing home a toddler in many cases. The smallest birds here will live 20-30 years, the largest over 80. It’s not a process to rush into and we will be sure that you don’t feel pressured into taking or not taking a bird before you are ready. We want to work together to get you the right bird the first time and continue to offer support well after adoption.

Sometimes, finding the right bird happens very quickly. Other times it may take a while to find the right match and we ask for patience. We like to assist in pairing you with the right bird based on your application, lifestyle, experience, and environment. Parrots, given the proper environment and diet, can live very long lives so we make it a priority to take time and find the right fit. Iowa Parrot Rescue does NOT place by order of application! We place birds with the homes that are ideal for them and sometimes that means you won’t get the bird you originally wanted. It also means our application asks a lot of questions, and we look for thorough answers to help us begin thinking about a nice pairing. We communicate with you through the whole process to ensure everyone is on the same page.

There have been situations where the bird just doesn’t settle well into the routine at home. These situations are rare, but can often be worked through.

***We get asked a lot about how much the birds cost… We don’t charge adoption fees at all, though we do encourage you to volunteer or make a cash/check donation to the rescue. We love for adopters to spend money on purchasing enrichment toys, extra perches, and a really quality, large cage for your bird and putting in some work cleaning cages at the rescue. We always need extra hands with cleaning and maintaining a nice environment, if you have the physical ability.

Some birds already come with cages and in the situation that one does not, we likely have a used cage available to sell.

If choosing to donate, adopters should budget around $300 for our organization to offset medical bills. Each intake (medications not included) costs us $250 baseline and this adds up. All contributions are tax deductible and go right back into caring for our birds! This is never required to adopt. Some people donate much more, some donate nothing. All contributions are appreciated.