I seem to have lost touch with my 'blogger self'; so let's rectify that right now. Hmmmm? What shall we talk about. Oh..I've got it, let's talk about birds.
Now, some would think that I am not a 'bird person' because there hasn't been a bird in my house since I was 8. Well it's not true. I like birds ,,,,, a lot actually. What I am NOT, is a bird cage cleaner. When I was 8, we had a little blue budgie (parakeet) named "Pretty". It was not my job to clean the cage, but one day it was fairly messy and no one else was around. So I decided that I should clean the cage; it never occurred to me that there was actually a system to cleaning a bird cage. No one ever told me that if you take the cage outside and slide the bottom out... well, you're probably going to loose the bird. And of course that's exactly what happened. Pretty flew right out of that cage and up into a cocoanut tree.
I stood there a long time, with my little finger held out in front of me, calling
"Pretty..PREETYYY!" But I guess we just didn't teach Pretty a reliable recall because he never did come back. Needless to say, my older brothers and sister were not amused with me. Years have gone by and I have since learned that you don't take the bottom out of a cage in the backyard. In truth, I don't take the bottom out of a cage anywhere. Cleaning birdcages is just not my forte'. Therefore, all of my personal birds live outside.
They get lots of food and water and they don't have to live in a cage. They are happy and I am happy. It's a win-win situation.
BUT, some of my clients do have birds and I do quite well with them. I've learned over the years that there are many types of pet birds from large birds such as parrots, to small birds such as finches or a budgies. There are loud birds like the Macaw and quiet birds like a finch or dove. Birds can eve
be TV stars. However there are no silent birds, they all coo,chirp, sing or talk and, in some cases screech. The other thing
I've learned is that, just like everyone else, birds have their
own personalities. They need love, attention and care just like everyone else. So if you are thinking about getting a bird do your research. Some of these birds live a very long life, they can go up to a hundred years. Before getting a bird, consider size, temperament, time requirements and what is going to happen to him if you go before he does. Do your research!
One of my favorite birds is probably the African Grey. I took care of one
that would yell out "Hey Bird!" when I walked in the door. And when he wanted a peanut butter cracker he would look you in the eye and say "Yum Yummy, Yum Yummy." And then I had a friend with an African Grey who would start a conversation whenever the phone rang. In fact, sometimes he would take the part of the ringing phone and go on from there. It was not always easyto tell the difference between that bird and the phone.
Most of the pet bird species in this country were imported from other places such as Europe and South America. So I'm going to leave you with this little tidbit about canaries:"Among the first ones to breed canaries in Europe were Christian monks who gained a monopoly on this type of pet bird by only selling male canaries to the public and keeping the hens for themselves."
