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New to TP, I've come over from TB

5K views 34 replies 9 participants last post by  AngelWings 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello! :ciao: My name's Angela, and I've come over from TB out of boredom and curiosity. I'm sick with a cold and attempting to not re-injure my almost-healed wrist, and this means I need another forum! :lol:

Well let's see. I'm 26 years old and from Florida. I live with my boyfriend, my 10 year old quaker parrot Andrew, and my two budgies Sammy and Winter. Sammy's been with us for nearly two months now. Winter's been with us for almost two weeks and came to us sick with an infection (yay for quarantine), so it'll be a while before he gets to meet the flock.

Humm can't post an intro without pictures.

Andrew:


Sammy:



Winter:
 
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#3 ·
Welcome to the forum! I used to breed quakers and budgies. I no longer have to quaker but I do have my budgies hehe! Great to see a new person :D
 
#4 ·
Welcome to the forum. I am happy to have a new member with new ideas to contribute. I'm sorry to hear that your budgie came to you ill, but you have done all the right things. :thumbsup:

All of your birds are beautiful. Have you had Andrew since he was young? Did you break your wrist? I hope you feel better soon.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Thanks! :)

One thing you'll learn - be careful about asking me questions, I might respond with a novel. :p

In a way, I'm glad Winter came to me ill. When I was a teenager, we had a budgie named Bluebell. I was taking an animal science course through high school, I took 4 normal courses then got on a bus to take 5 courses worth of animal science every day. I knew Bluebell had a respiratory infection, I saw the tail bobbing and told my parents... then it developed into clicking when he breathed... my parents refused to vet him, I was young and didn't have money. The morning that I woke up to find him dead, I was destroyed - because it was preventable.

Now I'm an adult and I have my chance to make up for it to a different budgie, I guess. I dismissed the brown crusty stuff above his cere as being dirty from something he ate in the pet store, then his poop started piling up and hanging off of him like Christmas tree ornaments, some piles up to an inch wide. A lot of pet owners would've missed those two signs, and even then... not many would "bring a $13 bird to a vet." So I'm happy that the little fella is with me. I hope he'll be okay.

I got Andrew when he was a baby. :) I was 15. I wanted a new animal (not an unusal thing for me :p) and I knew my dad had a soft spot for medium-sized birds. I cleaned my room (good thing they never checked the closet or under my bed) and did a little begging, and got the cute little fluffball that tried to chew my zipper off. Well he also chewed all the cage bars right off the too-small cage that I had for him, broke out of his second cage during our first vacation while my sister was caring for him, and a whole multitude of other fun memories. :lol:

He was my baby. His cage was in our computer room, and he had a playtop there. But for the living room, I had a 2-story play gym for him. He'd fly over my shoulder down the hallway and hang out on it while I watched TV or did homework. When he wanted me, he'd fly over. When he wanted to go back, he'd fly back. Then the "terrible two's" hit and he started biting and testing me... I got scared, I hadn't researched, I didn't know it was coming. My dad came down sick with some weird lung disease and needed a hospital bed in the living room, my parents banished Andrew's cage to the upstairs bedroom where he never saw anybody. Somehow through the years of me being scared of him, me not taking care of him properly, he stayed loyal to me. Sure he's feisty and chopped a hole in me sometimes but... well, he always had his reasons, and I never blamed him for it.

We adopted a cockatiel at one point... she was older, in a tiny cage, the pet store sold her mate and she was angry, depressed, and plucking. My lack of knowledge... well, I didn't know her copper toys were toxic. There was one toy that she'd unwind the copper wire and bend it in all sorts of cool shapes. I didn't know. That lack of knowing lead to me watching her die of heavy metal poisoning, 2 days worth of seizures. That's my other regret. I swore I'd treat Andrew like a king to make up for it.

It's been 8 years but... I'm finally living on my own, with a good man, financially secure. My favorite big purchase to celebrate my holiday sales was buying Andrew his new cage. I've changed his cage a bit since this picture, I took out the snuggie for safety reasons and added a variety of toys, clickie. The other thing I wanted to do... is make up for all the years that he's been cagebound. My boyfriend and I built a gym big enough to make up for all 8 years. :lol: It's excessive, he's terrified of it. But we take him out every day and let him see it, he'll adjust to it eventually. I'm gonna add a flat surface on the right side where I'll have food/water dishes and a shallow stainless steel baking tray for a bird bath. Don't mind the mess in the background lol, clickie. Here's a picture of the net I made before I trimmed the knots down and tied it to the gym. (Yes, the rope is safe, no chemicals.) For now, he comes out for 10-30 minute bursts to hang out with us and walk around the house. In the future, we'd like him to be out for a good part of the day with us, like he used to be. The budgies will have their separate out-time in the future too, for now they're still terrified of us.

So that's my story. :) Andrew's a ball of feathery love, he comes out of the cage fluffed up for his head rubs, all he wants is attention. I can't believe he's stayed loyal to me for all this time - that means the world to me. He trusts me as if it were day 1. I'm the one that has 8 years worth of fears to get over. But we'll fix it. In the meantime, I have two budgies to earn the trust of. I have a boyfriend who has a sincere interest in bonding with the birds, including Andrew. And he's getting so into my bird passion that he's considering a bird of his own after we move to a bigger place in the summer. Life will be fun!

And no, I didn't break my wrist. Just made a tendon awful angry according to my mom the ex-nurse. I got a little over-zealous when moving furniture around. I've also been a little over-zealous with re-injuring it. It was finally better, then 10 pounds worth of Andrew-pellets came and I lifted it wrong. Then it was finally better, but I plungered a toilet with a little too much force. Figures. :lol: It'll stop protesting if I stop angering it.
 
#6 ·
Angela,
It appears you and I were both writing a novel at the same time, :giggle:.

I have my regrets from my past, too. It is wonderful that Andrew still loves to be cuddled. It is also great that you knew what to do with your new budgies.
 
#7 ·
Sorry to hear about your losses - but like all of us, you've learned from them and grown. I think we all have moments like that, mine was with my snake :giggle: My first one asphyxiated on his bedding because we got the wrong kind and he ate some, the second one bit the ^%&* out of me on a regular basis and pooped all over me and I went for a long time without doing anything other than feeding him before I got over it.

Andrew sounds like a little cutie :lovehearts: I love quakers, they're so darn fluffy! What part of FL are you in? :)
 
#8 ·
This is true! I went on a researching spree after Sammy (tiel) died, and both Andrew and Sammy taught me a big lesson about researching pets before getting them.

I live in Hernando county Jenny, Brooksville. West coast, around an hour-ish northwest of Tampa. I was born and raised in New York, just moved here 3 years ago. :)

What was getting bitten by a snake like? :eek: I'm a total wimp for pain.
 
#11 ·
Cool :) I'm on the East Coast, about an hour north of Miami. Born and raised in Orlando tho and that's where my boyfriend lives right now ;)

My snake biting me was more of a psychological issue than pain - tiny pinpricks, no blood :giggle:So it really didn't hurt much at all, you just have to get over the psychological thing of a snake coiling up, striking you, and making contact. He was only... 3 feet long? Little water snake. Ornery little bugger! Every time I held him he would bite me, usually poop on me, then after about 5 mins or so realize "oh wait... you're not gonna eat me? oh ok!" and chill :rolleyes:
 
#12 ·
Ah cool. A vacation to Miami is somewhere in our future during the warmer months. I really need to start seeing outside the little boxed area that I've been living in since I moved here.

Oh wow! When I picture snake bites, I picture like... big fangs and deep puncture wounds. :eek: In my animal science class, we kept lots of animals - including a snake. We all got assigned 1-week rotations to care for the animals, no exceptions, so we all got at least 1 turn with the snake. Me and that snake actually ended up being good buddies, he's the only one that I've liked so far. I really should be more open-minded, but they just freak me out! :lol:

The psychological part is the worst part of it with Andrew now, too. Just that look he gets and the hiss he does while he's beak's en-route to attack the webbing between my fingers. :( But thinking about it hurts worse than the bite actually does, I'll get over it.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, I was very nervous of bites when I first started working at the bird shop... after a few months? I was like "...yeah, whatever, you got nothin!" when a bird hissed and puffed :giggle: A lot of it is blustering and if you just grab em or make em step up anyways they get just as psychologically thrown off because you're NOT scared that they do what you want xD One nasty bite from a Scarlet Macaw and quakers aren't scary anymore!
 
#14 ·
:eek: Macaw beaks scare me, too! I read about someone who got their finger broken by a macaw... the bird was playing on its back and used their finger to flip itself back over. The bird simply didn't know its own power, was all.

My boyfriend is really interested in getting a grey, the more he reads and watches videos and such the more he falls in love. I keep telling him about other kinds of birds (I worry about the size of their beak, the intelligence level and responsibility to keep their brains used that comes with it, the noise, the huge lifespan, the dividing of out-time between the flock) and he's interested but... then he goes back to the grey. :lol: So we'll see, if he gets one later this year it'll be his bird and his responsibility, but I'll be there working with it from day 1 too. A few bites from that and like you said, a quaker will be nothin compared to it.

Me, well, I got budgies for a reason. Compared to a quaker they're tiny beak and tiny noise! Though right now Andrew's screaming his tribute to the sun, and Sammy is screaming at him to shut the heck up. It's pretty funny - and loud. But funny. Besides, budgies are collectible. I could get a flock of like 10 budgies and be able to care for them all. A flock of 10 quakers... :eek:
 
#15 ·
:giggle: Angel, my mom's Pionus, screams in the mornings and Goober, my macaw, will scream at her to shut up! I want to get a Grey badly, and I would love a baby, but one of my customers is going to be leaving her Grey to me in her will, so I don't know if I should get one or not... dunno if I want 2 :giggle: It'll be a long ways away but one never knows what could happen. I say go for the Grey, as long as you understand the noise level, the needs as far as stimulation, the potential for being a one-person bird (which you know well with a Quaker :giggle: ) and the potential for feather mutilation. They are also dusty, so if anyone u know has asthma or allergies, be cautious.

My honest advice? Are you two planning on having children? If so, wait until you're completely done and your youngest is, I would say, 5-6 years old. There are many reasons behind this, one main concern being the bird potentially biting little fingers which get stuck in the cage, as well as the bird learning to scream like an infant which it will then do for the rest of it's 60 year life :svengo: Not a pleasant experience, I have customers who speak from experience on that one!
 
#18 ·
Thanks all! :)

My honest advice? Are you two planning on having children?
Nope. :) One of the things I'm very glad we have in common, is both of us have known our whole lives that we don't want kids.

Our current place is at its' noise level for bird capacity, but we plan on moving from this 2-bedroom condo to a much larger house in the summer. Still renting, but, very close to being able to own, give it a few years. We both work from home, and neither of us do phone work (though his job can change to phone work at any point), so bird time is pretty easy right now. Even if his job were to change to phone work, out-of-cage times would be easy enough to juggle.

I don't know, I just worry that a grey is too big of a commitment. There's one other thing that Andrew taught me. I love him, I'd never give him up for the world, and if I went back in time - I'd make the same choice and get him when I did. That said, I learned what getting a 40-year-long responsibility does to you. When I graduated, I wanted to go to the University of Hawaii. But I couldn't, quakers were illegal there and Hawaii quarantine drama, I went to a local college at home instead. I wanted to move to NJ or CT but, both illegal. When my dad died and we moved to FL, had to check up on legal issues for the drive down. Even now looking at our future, Chris' family is in RI - illegal, we'd have to live in MA to be near them. Andrew will, hopefully, be alive til I'm 55 and Chris is 59. If we go away on vacation, we need someone to bird-sit. When he goes on a screamfest, I have to worry about the neighbors upstairs and on the other sides of the walls (hence renting a house in a few months). I've always had to pick out apartments based on what I felt was the most noise-proof so I wouldn't get in trouble. You know.

Getting a grey... 50-70 year lifespan... I'd be 76-96, he'd be 80-100. Can we take care of a bird at that age? Maybe a selfish question but - do we want the responsibility of a big bird during our golden retired years? Do we want the risk of dying and leaving this bird to someone in our will? Being we're not having kids, will we know anyone to leave it TO in our will? What if we end up in a nursing home and can't bring it with us? While Andrew's happy with some noisemakers and headrubs, how much work will it be to keep a grey's mind used properly? The more intelligent, the more responsibility to use that intelligence. And yeah the 1-person bird thing, Andrew's doing well at tolerating Chris but I'll always be his momma. What if the grey bonded to me instead of my boyfriend? I want my focus to be Andrew first, the budgie flock, and maybe a white-bellied caique. I don't think I can spread myself thinner than that. And do I really want a bird that big around that merely tolerates me, til I'm a little old lady?

I mean don't get me wrong, I LOVE greys and had a baby grey fall in love with me (and vice versa) in a pet store once. I just worry about the logistics of it. Another reason that I love budgies - a 10 year commitment is much easier. I mean there's always rescuing an older bird, but I miss the experience that I had with bringing Andrew home as a baby.

We'll see, we'll think and talk about it. If he has his heart set on a grey, I support him. :) He has a good head on his shoulders and I respect that. Sometimes, things just can't be planned and have to be taken one day at a time.
 
#16 ·
Hey Angela! Welcome to TalkParrots! You had lots of experiences to share, that was entertaining to read. Your Quaker is adorable!
Tell your boyfriend that I don't blame him for wanting a Grey. I want one so dearly! Once I graduate, I am definitely buying one.
Looking forward to seeing you getting involved with TP. I personally love it, I'm sure you will, too. :)
 
#19 ·
Angela,
You have thought of all of the issues that owning a grey can bring. Nevertheless, you will support your boyfriend if that is what he really wants. I think that is great! I actually don't think you would regret having a grey. The thing is, the bird is just as likely to choose YOU as its preferred human as your boyfriend, even if he interacts with it the most.
If your boyfriend really only wants a grey, nothing else will satisfy.
 
#20 ·
This is true. :) I show him pictures, look up videos, of other types of birds and he's interested. But then the grey comes back up in conversation. :lol: I love that in our relationship, we talk about things, the pros and the cons, the wants and the don't wants. We respect each other's desires and each other's rationality for things. If we throw all the questions out on the table and he still wants a grey and thinks it'll be okay despite those things, who am I to stop him? The fun of a grey but the work for the grey is all his. :lol: I make off well in the deal anyways. I'd love one! I'm just a big think-it-through kinda person.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Why is that? And is that 20 years with proper nutrition, exercise, vet care, etc?

I always plan on the full lifespan of a pet, so that I'm prepared for the longest scenario. I know some things happen (accidents, diseases, cancers) and that some things out of my control affect how long the bird will live (genetics, previous living conditions before I got it). When I get a budgie, I plan for it to be with me for 7-15 years or more, and I plan to work my butt off to make sure it stays healthy enough to do so. Be it a low-fat seed mix or pellets, fruits and veggies, lots of flight room in the cages, hours of out-of-cage time daily, lots of mental stimulation, etc. It will take time to work with my budgies to earn their trust and get them to that point, but that point will come.

Something could always claim my loved one early, but, I'd rather assume 50-70 and then get a surprise when it dies at 20... than assume 20 and get a surprise when it dies at 70. ;)
 
#23 ·
Yeah, you're best off planning on the longest term. Most people I know who have had greys have had them live 20, 40 years max. All on proper diets for the time, which may be part of the problem - 20-30 years ago diet wasn't that great. A lot of them develop heart problems due to being overweight, much like people.

I wonder what will happen to Goober sometimes - I'm 23 and she's 2. She could live about the same - 40-60 years! :svengo: I'm hoping to raise my kids to love birds so when the time comes one of them will care for her :)
 
#24 ·
I've decided that this forum is not for me, personally, so I won't be staying. But it's been wonderful having conversation with some of you. :) Thank you for your kind hospitality, and anyone's welcome to keep in touch with me on Talk Budgies, my Andrew videos will be on the "other birds" subforum there.
 
#27 ·
My vet tells me that most large birds don't make it past 30 because of heart disease. They can live much longer, but most don't. She recommends providing as much exercise as possible. I hope my birds live longer than that, but I suspect at least some won't.

Jenny, don't you plan to live into your 80's? :confused: You are sooooooo young.
 
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