IcyWolf
New member
- Jul 5, 2011
- 1,542
- 3
- Parrots
- ~Alexandrine Parakeet~2 Red Lored Amazons~Blue Fronted Amazon~Black capped conure~4 Green Cheeks~4 Parrotlets~2 lineolated parakeets~9 American budgies~9 English budgies~ And lots of babies :)
I'm not sure what exactly made me start thinking of this but I did, and I feel like I should share, but as a warning, I tend to ramble so this may be a long story...
When I was still in highschool, probably about 16 or 17, my cousin told me that she wanted to get an african grey and that she talked it over with her mom and they were going to the local "bird farm" to look at their birds. At the time, I had about 30 or so reptiles, bred rats and had a hedgehog. I did educational shows with the reptiles and pretty much did nothing but read, learn and teach as much as I could about animals, so she asked me if I would come along. We went together and spoke with the people that ran the place, they were very nice and you could tell that they really loved all of their birds, they weren't just going to sell you one of their babies just because you had cash in hand. They had some baby timnehs and after speaking with them for quite some time, we agreed to come back several times a week to handfeed the babies and learn everything we could until he was ready to go home. Once he got down to two handfeedings a day and we had been going and feeding for quite some time, they agreed to let her take him home. The new baby(named gray, I know, very original lol) was doing good, although he wasn't the friendliest bird in the world, not sure why, he just had his moments I suppose. After having him for awhile, a friend of her mother's called, knowing that they had a bird and said that her mother in law would be moving in temporarily and that she was allergic to their two birds and asked if they could keep them for the duration of her stay. It was an amazingly friendly umbrella 'too named charmin and an amazon named gonzo that hated everyone. They agreed to keep them and I went along to pick them up. They couldn't stress enough how mean gonzo was and even warned us not to let our fingers get inside the cage while moving it into the vehicle. We took them to their house and set them up in a room we had emptied and designated the new bird room. It may have been about a week after they had them(I was there everyday) and I decided to see exactly how mean gonzo was, I reached my hand in his cage while talking to him and wouldn't you know, he stepped right up! I took him out of his cage, gave him lots of scritches, there didn't seem to be a mean bone in his body, or so I thought. It turned out, that anyone else that tried to reach in his cage or pick him up while out of his cage got a nasty bite, he was down right vicious! However, if I was holding him, I could hand him to anyone and he would be this sweet lovable bird. As much of a pain as it is to have a bird that will only let one person interact with them, you have to admit, that it does make you feel a bit special when they "choose you" and allow you to hold them and love on them
Anyway, about two months passed and they got a call from the owners of the birds, the mother in law would be staying permanently and they wanted to know if they could keep the pair indefinitely. Of course, they said yes but asked if I would want to take Gonzo since I was the only one that could ever do anything with him. Of course I wanted him, probably more than anything but there was one big problem. My mom had a very strict no birds policy. It seemed I could have all of the reptiles and exotic animals that I could care for but birds were off limits in her house. (Which is kind of strange considering when I was young(under 5) she had an amazon named bert that she really cared for. I am not sure whatever happened to him, I was so young and I have never asked, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with her not wanting another one. I will be sure to ask her what ever came of him next time I see her. ) I was quite devastated to say the least, in fact, I was downright angry with her about it. Then the worst happened... only a few weeks later, my cousin and her mom weren't home for the night, I can't remember where they went but they took care of the birds for the night before they left and they were gone all night. It was the middle of winter and the electricity went out, it ended up getting so cold in the house that when they came home they went into the bird room to find all 3 of the poor babies had died It was so heartbreaking, it was like loosing family members, gray was less than a year old, charmin was one of the sweetest birds I had ever met and loved everyone like she knew them for years, and Gonzo was my special baby that chose me to be the one person he trusted. I was so upset and still am to this day, I keep thinking that if I could have just taken him, he would still be with us, it wouldn't have saved all of them, but I could have atleast saved him. I know it probably sounds a little melodramatic but it actually put my mom and I through a pretty rough patch in our relationship. I blamed her for what happened and I definitely didn't hide the fact that I thought so. Actually, when I found out, I am pretty sure the first thing I said to her was that Gonzo was dead because of her...I know, not very nice but I was a passionately upset teenager I wasn't going to post about this but I thought it may be a good reminder, always be prepared for those emergency situations that can come up, something as simple as a power outage can be deadly. I'm not really sure what could have been done, but I make sure that if I am going to gone for more than a few hours that there is someone that can keep an eye on our little girl now.
When I was still in highschool, probably about 16 or 17, my cousin told me that she wanted to get an african grey and that she talked it over with her mom and they were going to the local "bird farm" to look at their birds. At the time, I had about 30 or so reptiles, bred rats and had a hedgehog. I did educational shows with the reptiles and pretty much did nothing but read, learn and teach as much as I could about animals, so she asked me if I would come along. We went together and spoke with the people that ran the place, they were very nice and you could tell that they really loved all of their birds, they weren't just going to sell you one of their babies just because you had cash in hand. They had some baby timnehs and after speaking with them for quite some time, we agreed to come back several times a week to handfeed the babies and learn everything we could until he was ready to go home. Once he got down to two handfeedings a day and we had been going and feeding for quite some time, they agreed to let her take him home. The new baby(named gray, I know, very original lol) was doing good, although he wasn't the friendliest bird in the world, not sure why, he just had his moments I suppose. After having him for awhile, a friend of her mother's called, knowing that they had a bird and said that her mother in law would be moving in temporarily and that she was allergic to their two birds and asked if they could keep them for the duration of her stay. It was an amazingly friendly umbrella 'too named charmin and an amazon named gonzo that hated everyone. They agreed to keep them and I went along to pick them up. They couldn't stress enough how mean gonzo was and even warned us not to let our fingers get inside the cage while moving it into the vehicle. We took them to their house and set them up in a room we had emptied and designated the new bird room. It may have been about a week after they had them(I was there everyday) and I decided to see exactly how mean gonzo was, I reached my hand in his cage while talking to him and wouldn't you know, he stepped right up! I took him out of his cage, gave him lots of scritches, there didn't seem to be a mean bone in his body, or so I thought. It turned out, that anyone else that tried to reach in his cage or pick him up while out of his cage got a nasty bite, he was down right vicious! However, if I was holding him, I could hand him to anyone and he would be this sweet lovable bird. As much of a pain as it is to have a bird that will only let one person interact with them, you have to admit, that it does make you feel a bit special when they "choose you" and allow you to hold them and love on them
Anyway, about two months passed and they got a call from the owners of the birds, the mother in law would be staying permanently and they wanted to know if they could keep the pair indefinitely. Of course, they said yes but asked if I would want to take Gonzo since I was the only one that could ever do anything with him. Of course I wanted him, probably more than anything but there was one big problem. My mom had a very strict no birds policy. It seemed I could have all of the reptiles and exotic animals that I could care for but birds were off limits in her house. (Which is kind of strange considering when I was young(under 5) she had an amazon named bert that she really cared for. I am not sure whatever happened to him, I was so young and I have never asked, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with her not wanting another one. I will be sure to ask her what ever came of him next time I see her. ) I was quite devastated to say the least, in fact, I was downright angry with her about it. Then the worst happened... only a few weeks later, my cousin and her mom weren't home for the night, I can't remember where they went but they took care of the birds for the night before they left and they were gone all night. It was the middle of winter and the electricity went out, it ended up getting so cold in the house that when they came home they went into the bird room to find all 3 of the poor babies had died It was so heartbreaking, it was like loosing family members, gray was less than a year old, charmin was one of the sweetest birds I had ever met and loved everyone like she knew them for years, and Gonzo was my special baby that chose me to be the one person he trusted. I was so upset and still am to this day, I keep thinking that if I could have just taken him, he would still be with us, it wouldn't have saved all of them, but I could have atleast saved him. I know it probably sounds a little melodramatic but it actually put my mom and I through a pretty rough patch in our relationship. I blamed her for what happened and I definitely didn't hide the fact that I thought so. Actually, when I found out, I am pretty sure the first thing I said to her was that Gonzo was dead because of her...I know, not very nice but I was a passionately upset teenager I wasn't going to post about this but I thought it may be a good reminder, always be prepared for those emergency situations that can come up, something as simple as a power outage can be deadly. I'm not really sure what could have been done, but I make sure that if I am going to gone for more than a few hours that there is someone that can keep an eye on our little girl now.
