what got u into the parrot world?

[feathermum]

i think this fits here...
for me i'v always kinda liked birds, watching them outside or looking @ parrots in pet stores, but always thought it would be mean to have a bird inside & not let them fly. ( obviosly i didn't know much) but i have always been a huge animal person. then about 2 yrs ago a friend got a baby scarlet macaw & had a older sun conure, needless to say i was in love!! they were amazing & not sad or sick & they could FLY! that started the 'bug" then my cousin got her African grey...sooo funny & sweet! that was it. i was getting a parrot. so my husband & i got a conure cage,as we desided that was what we wanted. The search began last fall for my birthday, we looked @ lots of pet-stores in the area...i mostly walked away feeling sad for birds in there, then we stoped @ this very diffrent kinda pet store. they had a whole big parrot rm. w/ parrots out & being held. awesome! they all looked happy, clean cages, clean water...but they had no sun conures : / however the girl showed us a baby nanday conure..deff. love @ 1st. sight. he was still handfeeding 2 x a day so we couldn't take him home yet. but i wanted to know more, so i asked if i could volenteer, i started m-f for about 2 mos, learning all i could. then i got hired & i love my job, & always learning something new about a diffrent speacies so, how bout u guys?

[Cockatielsongs]

Lets see it started about 2 years ago when I was 11, I loved animals since I was 3, from the biggest lion to the smallest mouse. I had always want a dog and one day when I gave my one millionth shot at trying to convince my parents to get me a dog my mum said "Why dont you get a bird?" I wasnt to happy since I thought all you did was feed seeds and clean the cage, basically a living decoration, still I told myself at least she hadn't suggested fish. Being a girl who loved reading simply because I was bored that day I researched birds, of course I realised who wrong I was, there was so much more to birds than I thought. Of course natrually I fell in love with Macaws and Rose Breasted Cockatoos.

However the more I learned I forced myself to forget the above birds for now as I was young and very inexperienced with birds. Eventually I fell in love with cockatiels. You would easily find me in the library surrounded by everything and anything on cockatiels and pet birds in general. I researched and prepared for 7 months and shortly after my 12th birthday I got my very own cockatiel who I tamed and trained on my own.

Now im 13 and got one of my dream birds!! A Rose Breasted Cockatoo, I was a little uneasy about raising a cockatoo on my own at this age but I got Bandit and never looked back! Hard work but worth every bite and difficulty in the end. And soon I will be getting my peached face lovebird in June! I cant wait! I had always since I was 3 wanted to be a vet, always, and since I was 11 narrowed it down and now I hope to be an Avian Vet one day!

[marie83]

Well ever since I was a very small kid I was always into the animal world, you wouldn't find me without some sort of animal book or magazine in my hands. In the local library I never ventured anywhere else bar the animal section but there were no bird books apart from one very basic budgie book, whilst I read it and was interested my main interest was dogs.

At 16 I had a budgie practically dumped on my doorstep (not quite), I was supposed to be looking after it for two weeks but that budgie never left. Information on them in my area was almost non-existant, there was no internet etc to research. I learned as I went along but I have to say this poor budgie did not have the life it would have recieved now. The first thing I learned was how much personality they have and I started to question about how right the only two books I had on the subject were. The advice was feed seed, let it out for 30 mins per day, they are ok to be alone as long as they get 30 mins of attention a day- that kind of thing. I then considered getting another bird for company, although I didn't really want another bird as much as I loved Madison, whilst I was working, it ended up being a scatty untamed rescue cockatiel. The cockatiel books were no better than the budgie book. Again over time I fell in love with the bird I had housed as I worked on giving him a better life. By this point a peach fronted conure was rehomed with me because the owners kid was allergic apparently, it was around now information was becoming more available to people who didn't already have contacts, the info was still frankly rubbish but the experiences my birds and the info given was opening my eyes rapidly and there was no going back....

[feathermum]

awww! what an awesome mum u have!! & such smart choises you have made i hope u follow your dream and become an Avian vet!!

[Cockatielsongs]

awww! what an awesome mum u have!! & such smart choises you have made i hope u follow your dream and become an Avian vet!!

Haha I think she is having second thoughts about suggesting birds because she is constantly asking "Where has all my broccoli gone??" And my dad is like "Where are the almonds??" And my sister is like "Who ate my banana??" Bandit causes mayhem and he just sits there watching and screeching along, imitating my laugh while everyone is looking for things he ate, he took a bunch of bobby pins from my sister and hid them in his cage and my sister was hunting all over for them to pin her hair for school photo day

[Pajarita]

My grandmother. She used to take me to the flea market when I was a little girl and buy one or two quaker babies (the farmers would knock down the nests and sell the babies in the flea market but the ones that did not get bought would starve to death because they would not feed them -the entire purpose was to get rid of them) to raise and then release. I hand-raised my first one when I was 8 years old. Then, many years later, back in 1992, my ex-husband's wife called me to ask me if I wanted a parrot a co-worker of hers wanted to give away and I said yes.

[pennyandrocky]

my grandmother had cebal for as long as i could remember. when we were little we would poke our fingers in his cage to scratch his head, he always loved children never biting us. my grandmother died when i was 16 a few months later my mother came in the door carrying a gray coweb covered cebal telling me the aunt who had moved into my grandmother's house put him in a closet. we immediately bathed him and as soon as it was warm enough put him out in the sun during the day. he regained his health and natural colors back to his feathers.my mother was loudly complaing about cleaning his cage one day so i told her to move him in my room that i would take care of him. i was hooked after that i had him for 17 years until he passed 2 years ago.now i can't live without birds in the house.

[feathermum]

isn't it funny how diffrent ppl got into the "parrot" world?! i love seeing diffrent stories, weather u had that love & intrst as a small child, got thrown into it,so to speak or even later in life just fell in love w/ them. all diffrent stories,ages & yet here we all are, loveing our Fids,& doing our best to take care of them now, if only we could stop the extiction prossces before any more amazing creatures are gone forever

[Strawfrawg]

Marie...I know what you mean about your first bird not having the life it would have had now. In some ways I feel very much the same about my first cockatiel. It pains me to think of the little mistake I made out of novice and relative absence of easy information.

Cockatielsongs...you're 13 years old? Did I read that right? I never would have guessed by your posts!

My first bird was a gift, actually. My friend, who years later is now my boyfriend, bought me a baby cockatiel when I was going through a period of deep depression over a failed marriage. He is a musician with an irregular life schedule, also prone to depression, and his Senegal had been instrumental in helping him keep getting up in the morning and giving him something to be responsible for. It was exactly what I needed, and with his guidance I raised a wonderful little companion. Even though I had known David's parrot, I was very surprised to find how bonded and empathetic a bird could be with a human. It made me totally re-examine everything I thought about all birds, and I became a big fan of feathered friends both wild and tamed. The death of my first bird was a great loss to me...as painful as the death of a family member...and I waited a year before getting my own Sennie. I feel much more prepared for birdie parenthood now. This little guy is going to have a fantastic life. Because he takes so much time (and he deserves every minute) I may choose not to have a second bird. Marvin may be my last if he lives to the life expectancy of his species. But I am now a true admirer of all birds.