- Jul 19, 2012
- 633
- 2
- Parrots
- Scooter -- male Green Cheek Conure "Normal" but that's a matter of opinion! Hatched in March 2010
Scotty -- Male Cape Parrot hatched somewhere between 2007-2009 we think
Caballo Blanco -- male C
Hi all,
If you don't like me, it's all Henpecked's fault. He mentioned this forum and I thought I'd fly in and check it out for a bit.
I'm Deborah and my birds are Scooter, a green-cheeked conure that rules the roost; Death Valley Scotty a Cape Parrot and Caballo Blanco, a Cockatiel that's just sweet. We also have three cats, who mostly behave around the birds, but we do exercise due caution.
We life in the high Mojave Desert near Palmdale (which is not nearly as awful as some folks on the internet would have you think). We recently moved there from the Pasadena/Glendale area and we are very happy with the change, although I still have the commute (hubby is working in Palmdale).
I'm an astronomer by training and have worked on space telescope projects most of my career, but am now suffering an hours reduction and have started teaching at community college, which I really love and hope to do full time.
My husband was the bird person, but the birds keep picking me to bond to. We had anticipated inheriting my MILs Amazon, Sake, who had originally been my husband's but who defected after being taken care of by her for a couple of years while he was in Canada (I think it may be a theme). Unfortunatley,Sake tragically and mysteriously pre-deceased his owner and we began thinking about getting a bird.
Scooter was the first. He was kind of an accident really. I would go in to Petsmart to buy cat food (I know, I know, I didn't do it on purpose) and there was this bird that would flirt with me. He was there for months and months and every time I'd buy cat food, I'd visit with him. One day when he was out on a run my husband phoned me up and said "I just have to go get that bird, he can't live like that" and we brought Scooter home. We figured he'd be just a cage decoration, but he's turned out to be a brilliant pet. WAY, way too quick with his beak, but incredibly interactive, affectionate and very talky. He talks more than the Cape and is almost as clear at times. He's very bossy and opinionated, I've never succeeded in getting him to eat pellets much, but he fortunately likes a variety of fresh foods and sprouts. His war cry is "Pretty Scoo-bird!" and his favorite things to do are get on my desk and throw my glasses on the floor, destroy Kleenex boxes and root around under cage paper talking to himself.
Scotty, named after Death Valley Scotty, was supposed to be my husband's bird. He came from a bird store in the San Fernando Valley and was reputedly a bit over a year old when we bought him, but they never came up with the paperwork and some of the store workers said he'd been there at least three years. So we know he's mature and probably fairly young, but we don't have a hatch date or exact age. He wound up bonding to me rather than my husband and has unfortunately bitten him on a number of occasions. He's a bit of a trickster. He's also a good vocalizer and has a bunch of vocabulary from his time at the store as well as things he has picked up from us. He has perfected teh sound of a burglar alarm going off by accident and being reset and the sound of something dropping as well as speaking fluent cockatiel. He's been a very good bird with me, but lately he seems a little bored, unhappy or edgy, but perhaps he hasn't settled into the new digs yet, quite. He took a good six months to settle in when we first got him and we only moved in mid-May.
Blanco, named after ultrarunner Caballo Blanco, turned up on our front porch, literally, the first day our house was on the market! The cats were taking turns climbing up to the top of the cat tree in the bedroom and I finally went to see if there was something that had caught their attention. Looking back at me, clinging to the screen was a
. My husband walked out and the bird hopped right onto his hand. We checked all the lost bird boards, looked for flyers in the neighborhood, called Animal control and checked lost and found boards at local pet stores, but never found an owner. The day we found him was windy, and was also the day my husband's acquaintance, Caballo Blanco aka Micah True, was found dead after having been missing for several days, so we named him after Micah. He's a white-faced mutation, so Blanco kind of works, although it is a bit tricky explaining to people why we have a Cockatiel named "White Horse". We have no idea of his age. He was underweight, wormy, fully flighted and had a wry tail feather when we got him. He had no real idea about stepping up or being handled and he can be a bit funny about hands, but he was people-oriented from the start and loves to be on shoulders more than anything. He seems young to us, at first he made very babyish calls all the time, but all we really know is that he's fully mature. Now he's quite a happy bird and sings all the time. I never really wanted a 'tiel, but he's so easy and sweet it's hard not to appreciate him.
I think we are done growing our flock for now, unless someone else flies up to the doorstep!
So that's my flock. Nice to meet y'all!
If you don't like me, it's all Henpecked's fault. He mentioned this forum and I thought I'd fly in and check it out for a bit.
I'm Deborah and my birds are Scooter, a green-cheeked conure that rules the roost; Death Valley Scotty a Cape Parrot and Caballo Blanco, a Cockatiel that's just sweet. We also have three cats, who mostly behave around the birds, but we do exercise due caution.
We life in the high Mojave Desert near Palmdale (which is not nearly as awful as some folks on the internet would have you think). We recently moved there from the Pasadena/Glendale area and we are very happy with the change, although I still have the commute (hubby is working in Palmdale).
I'm an astronomer by training and have worked on space telescope projects most of my career, but am now suffering an hours reduction and have started teaching at community college, which I really love and hope to do full time.
My husband was the bird person, but the birds keep picking me to bond to. We had anticipated inheriting my MILs Amazon, Sake, who had originally been my husband's but who defected after being taken care of by her for a couple of years while he was in Canada (I think it may be a theme). Unfortunatley,Sake tragically and mysteriously pre-deceased his owner and we began thinking about getting a bird.
Scooter was the first. He was kind of an accident really. I would go in to Petsmart to buy cat food (I know, I know, I didn't do it on purpose) and there was this bird that would flirt with me. He was there for months and months and every time I'd buy cat food, I'd visit with him. One day when he was out on a run my husband phoned me up and said "I just have to go get that bird, he can't live like that" and we brought Scooter home. We figured he'd be just a cage decoration, but he's turned out to be a brilliant pet. WAY, way too quick with his beak, but incredibly interactive, affectionate and very talky. He talks more than the Cape and is almost as clear at times. He's very bossy and opinionated, I've never succeeded in getting him to eat pellets much, but he fortunately likes a variety of fresh foods and sprouts. His war cry is "Pretty Scoo-bird!" and his favorite things to do are get on my desk and throw my glasses on the floor, destroy Kleenex boxes and root around under cage paper talking to himself.
Scotty, named after Death Valley Scotty, was supposed to be my husband's bird. He came from a bird store in the San Fernando Valley and was reputedly a bit over a year old when we bought him, but they never came up with the paperwork and some of the store workers said he'd been there at least three years. So we know he's mature and probably fairly young, but we don't have a hatch date or exact age. He wound up bonding to me rather than my husband and has unfortunately bitten him on a number of occasions. He's a bit of a trickster. He's also a good vocalizer and has a bunch of vocabulary from his time at the store as well as things he has picked up from us. He has perfected teh sound of a burglar alarm going off by accident and being reset and the sound of something dropping as well as speaking fluent cockatiel. He's been a very good bird with me, but lately he seems a little bored, unhappy or edgy, but perhaps he hasn't settled into the new digs yet, quite. He took a good six months to settle in when we first got him and we only moved in mid-May.
Blanco, named after ultrarunner Caballo Blanco, turned up on our front porch, literally, the first day our house was on the market! The cats were taking turns climbing up to the top of the cat tree in the bedroom and I finally went to see if there was something that had caught their attention. Looking back at me, clinging to the screen was a
. My husband walked out and the bird hopped right onto his hand. We checked all the lost bird boards, looked for flyers in the neighborhood, called Animal control and checked lost and found boards at local pet stores, but never found an owner. The day we found him was windy, and was also the day my husband's acquaintance, Caballo Blanco aka Micah True, was found dead after having been missing for several days, so we named him after Micah. He's a white-faced mutation, so Blanco kind of works, although it is a bit tricky explaining to people why we have a Cockatiel named "White Horse". We have no idea of his age. He was underweight, wormy, fully flighted and had a wry tail feather when we got him. He had no real idea about stepping up or being handled and he can be a bit funny about hands, but he was people-oriented from the start and loves to be on shoulders more than anything. He seems young to us, at first he made very babyish calls all the time, but all we really know is that he's fully mature. Now he's quite a happy bird and sings all the time. I never really wanted a 'tiel, but he's so easy and sweet it's hard not to appreciate him.I think we are done growing our flock for now, unless someone else flies up to the doorstep!
So that's my flock. Nice to meet y'all!
