My husband and I reside with 8 birds. We are an older couple with no kids at home, so they are our "kids". We both work, but our off-time is totally devoted to taking care of, and sharing time with, our flock members. They consists of Poot (female green cheek conure), Nibbles, Noodle, and Nod (all three are male sun conures), Pirate (female Nanday conure), Wii-bits (female budgie), Bahboo (male Senegal), and Punkin (sex unknown green cheek conure). All but Poot are rescued birds. All have their own large cages, but get out and play every day (all are flighted). We live in Alaska, and use special lights for birds, and each cage has a heated perch should one get chilled. We feed them pellets and veggies, grains, sprouts, and fruits. We cover their cages at night, and run an air exchanger and two air filters for their health as well as ours. For ease of cage cleaning we buy rolls of butcher paper and cut papers to cage size. Papers are changed every night. Because most of our birds were rescued from abusive and neglectful situations, we work very hard at re-learning trust. So far we have been successful at gaining their trust, and the birds are happy and healthy. Our senegal still has issues with men, but is getting much better at tolerating my husband touching him (as long as there are cage bars between them). We will continue to work with him on that. We adore every one of our birds and find it hard to understand why people don't educate themselves better before obtaining a bird as a pet. We are grateful for this bird forum, as it will help educate us all in providing the best home we can for our feathered friends. Here is my favorite quote when it comes to caring for the life of any pet: "Many have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You remain responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
— Antoine de Saint - Exupery (from THE LITTLE PRINCE)




