The more people, the greater the impact. Volunteer today!
Common Questions
Why Volunteer?
Volunteering is an incredible way to help your local animal community in a non monetary way. Rescues like Iowa Parrot Rescue rely on volunteer work to ensure our cages are clean and toys are made, which allows us to continue maintaining the social media/website, feeding, medicating, vet runs, and so much more. Parrots are highly social and really benefit from the interactions and time spent with volunteers. We consider it a great part of their enrichment. Basically, volunteering helps everybody!
Are volunteers compensated?
While we can’t pay people, we reward volunteers with time to interact physically with the safer birds and our never ending appreciation for their gifts. Many volunteers enjoy the freedom to socialize while completing daily tasks, therefore benefitting both the volunteer and the bird.
If I am from out of town, where can I stay?
Nearby Muscatine, Iowa provides relatively inexpensive housing at several hotels, or Iowa City IA is a 40 minute drive away but offers tons of B&B options! We are thrilled to offer multi-day volunteering events for folks who want to stay and help a couple times a year.
Can I bring my Girl/Boy Scout Troop, Fraternity/Sorority, union, or other society to volunteer for a day?
We would LOVE to accommodate your group! Minors have to be supervised by troop leaders at all times, and all activities will be determined based on age group. We have tons to do and everybody can learn something while here. We also have outdoor activities in the prairie to do.
Who can volunteer? Can my kids come?
Anyone over the age of 18 can volunteer by themselves. Kids and teens can come, provided they are always supervised! This means no drop offs.
Is it safe?
Mostly… We train our workers and volunteers carefully and we know which birds are dangerous and/or tricksters. Despite this, ALL parrots bite sometimes and some parrots bite ALL the time. We require anybody entering the building to sign a waiver releasing IPR from responsibility to injury and damages. We do not leave volunteers alone with birds, so somebody will always be around to assist!
Toy building is a common, and fun, task!
Make enrichment toys for the birds and keep them entertained. Or in Tiki’s case, entertain YOU.
We welcome all kinds of volunteers, even vet students and public service groups!
Construction, gardening, and prairie restoration work outside are all areas we can use volunteers! Afraid of birds but want to help? Try your hand outside.
Some Ground Rules…
Volunteers must not smoke anywhere-this means in the car, outside, anywhere.
Close toed shoes are required for all volunteers. Some of our birds (looking at you, Timot) like to be on the floor and may bite toes. Otherwise, dress code is casual! No profanity, though.
We conduct background checks on everybody over 18 that will be in our building. We have to ensure our environment is safe for us and others. A record won’t necessarily disqualify you, though it may depending on the offence how recent it was. Iowa Parrot Rescue will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender identity, orientation, or veteran status. We will reject you if you have a history of violence, are hard to get along with, prejudiced, or just generally a jerk.
What kind of things can I expect on my first day?
Your first day of volunteering, we will introduce ourselves and give you a tour of the rescue. We will talk about the common tasks that need completed, how often they get done, what your interest areas are, and any accommodations we need to provide. We will discuss safety, introduce you to the “problem children”, show you where tools are located, and start prepping for your task/s.
Most volunteers work between the hours of 11-4. You can stay for an hour and complete a task, or stay all day… You can expect to complete one section of cage cleaning and then miscellaneous tasks like sweeping, vacuuming, scrubbing the floor, or IT stuff. There will be time for socialization during your cleaning or before/after where you can interact with the birds through the cage until they are comfortable with you.
Considerations…
Parrots are LOUD! One of the most common things I hear when people enter our building is “I knew it would be loud but WOW!” We provide large over the ear headphones for protection, but if you have specific sensitivities, we recommend providing your own.
There is a lot of dust and dander. Parrots, like most animals, do shed feathers, dust, and dander so if you are especially sensitive, wear a mask and/or limit yourself away from the cockatoo room.
Feeding requires using a sharp knife to cut fruits and veggies, and accidents happen. We limit volunteers to 18+ for feeding prep!
Most of our tasks require getting dirty. If that makes you uncomfortable, consider staying home. :)
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Most of the volunteer tasks will happen inside the building. These will consist of cleaning papers, scrubbing cage bars and grates, organizing toy parts, building toys, scrubbing floors (18+), food preparation, feeding, scraping and sweeping the floor, dusting, cage maintenance like installing perches, sanitizing empty cages, vacuuming air filters, scrubbing poop off hanging structures and perches, providing supervised time out for birds, dishes, cutting and drilling wood blocks, bathing birds, and so much more.
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There’s lots of options for tasks outside the rescue, too, if you aren’t big into interacting with the birds physically. Gardening, building raised planters in the aviary, aviary maintenance/mowing and weeding, power washing cages and perches, organizing the storage shed, prairie restoration (planting and transplanting), cutting unwanted trees, even building toys at home and donating them.
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Construction tasks usually require multiple people, and here’s where you could come in! Many costruction tasks do not require being in the building. We have outdoor maintenance that needs done from time to time, to ensure our aviary is structurally sound. We also have construction IN the building like replacing chewed frame pieces, air filter hangers, baseboards, walls, hanging sound proofing tiles, and more.
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These are areas we desperately need competent people to help out. We are seeking volunteers that can help with IT issues, including suggesting website maintenance and usability, refreshing the database, and brainstorming ways to maintain records in a more efficient way (currently paper records).
We also need people who want to help create engaging social media posts and videos. Editing is not our strong suit nor do we usually have time to sit down and work on these types of things. We could use someone tech savvy who has a passion for social media.
We also would love to add a lawyer to our team, somebody willing to provide free legal advice for us when needed. We wouldn’t even need someone in the building at all, just the ability to donate their time and skills.
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We need more folks willing to do home visits for us! We’re specifically looking for Southern Minnesota, Sioux City, South Dakota, Omaha area, and Des Moines (always more needed). The more home visitors we have, the better. They allow us to adopt out even further and find really great homes for our birds. We have a whole other page for Home Visits where you can read about the time requirements and what it takes to become a home visitor.