How did you find your first parrot?

[Jumpingtadpoles]

How did you find your first parrot? Did you decide you wanted one, or did it fall in your lap? How many do you have now, and how long have you had them?
How do you find birds now?

 

[kq_fan]

The first bird we had was a budgie and her name was Lollypop and she was in a cage with a bunch of other budgies and she cuddled up to my sister and that was that. We miss her dearly.

 

[getwozzy]

My *first* parrot was a Quaker named Dopey (seven dwarves) when I was 15ish years old. He was given to me as a gift from my parents, and he was sooo much fun. He would ride around in my sweatshirt pocket, waddle along after me, and was quite the character. Unfortunately, I think he went hormonal and at the time I didn't understand how to deal with it so we rehomed him to a home with bird experience.

I haven't had a bird until these last few years. A few months after hubs and I got married, we got a budgie (Quigley), and then earlier this year we adopted Jackie the Tucuman amazon. Jackie opened my eyes to the kind of care and love these guys require. After Jackie passed away, we got our little fluff n snuggle monster, Chili the galah.

 

[SilverSage]

My mom had an old friend with a bird. To make a long story short, the woman had NO business owning any pet, and thus did horrible things to the bird, culminating in adding another bird the the first one's tiny cage. Naturally there was violence, and bird #1. then names Bingo, was in need of a new home. She had never met me but for some reason she asked my mom if I could have Bingo, who she swore was a male budgie. Well she was a female and we named her Sapphire (can you guess what color she was?) and she was a little terror until tame, and then an angel for the rest of her life. Now I wait until it seems like a good idea to add one, and go looking for one that needs a new home. So many people get into it and then want out that I usually go for an unwanted bird over a baby, but right now I have a GCC who was a gift to me from a breeder, and I adore him!

 

[MissTaz]

Rory is my first Parrot, and he picked me. We walked into the pet store with the intentions of getting some feeder fish. We were walking around and wandered into the bird room. I was talking to some birds and I kept feeling like something was staring at me I turned around and didn't see anyone standing there so I went back to talking to the birds... I felt it again and this time I saw this little face with little eyes staring up at me. My heart melted.. The pet store owner saw me talking to him and asked me if I wanted to hold him. I said sure, he opened the cage and Rory flew to me and the immediately started preening me and licking me. It was so crazy.. Needless to say he went home with me that day and I am grateful every day that little guy picked me....

 

[Lovely]

I got Nips and her friend Flutter Shy from my aunt. After my aunt had gone through chemotherapy and radiation therapy to help stop the spread of her cancer. My mom wanted to get my aunt a friend. So mom bought her Nips and Flutter Shy. But my aunt didn't want lovebirds, she wanted a Quaker parrot. Lol, so as the story goes. My aunt got Mozzi she also had 3 other lovebirds Gabby, Oscar, Mr.Blu. Lol

 

[Blancaej]

My first parrot was a Quaker named Sydney. I fell in love with him at a local pet store that is now closed. That was about a little over 15 years ago. He passed away 2 years after I had him. He got out of the house and spent the night outside. I did get him back but 3 months later he died.

I now have:
Quincy - Adopted 13 years ago from a breeder at 3 months old.
Savannah - Adopted this past April. She is 20 years old and a rehome.
Coqui - I will be adopting this coming Tuesday. She is 10 years old and also a rehome.
Buttercup & Blueberry - Adopted in June from a local breeder. They are a few months old. They are my kids birds and that is why I went with baby birds rather then rehomes to make sure they had good temperments.

I hope to get any future birds as rehomes rather then adopting babies or purchasing them from pet stores. So many birds need a good home!

 

[Merlee]

How did you find your first parrot? Did you decide you wanted one, or did it fall in your lap? How many do you have now, and how long have you had them?
How do you find birds now?

My first "parrot" was in my childhood and it was a green parakeet named Sam. When I was in my early 20's I found a store called "The Bird Store" in Sacramento, CA. I was just amazed by the amazon's ability to dilate their eyes and was immediately hooked. I purchased my first BF amazon through an advertisement in the newspaper. Currently I have a 13 y/o B&G macaw and a 27 y/o rehomed yellow nape amazon.

I found my macaw through an aviary at a bird fair and the amazon from a member here who had to rehome him. I am looking for a double yellow head so I look everywhere from the paper, bird forums, rescues, and online websites.

 

[Birdman666]

When I was 7 years old we lived in Venezuela and my parents had five amazons and two macaws. We inherited them. They came with the house.

I couldn't get near any of them. They were wild caught, only semi-tame, and not especially friendly to children. So, I almost find it odd that I am so hooked on them as an adult...

Then, when I was in my mid 30's, and my wife and I were broke, I had to find a way to entertain my young daughter... we would go to the park, and the pet stores, and there was a bird shop. And there was a particularly friendly sun conure that we used to go in and play with. Eventually, it recognized us, and used to be overjoyed to see us...

We played with that bird for hours...

So, eventually, when I got a little money, I decided to buy that bird. My wife threw a fit and essentially said, no friggin' way... and reluctantly, my daughter and I passed on our little friend.

Well, about two years went by, and by then our marriage was in serious trouble, and as a peace offering, my wife went out and found another little sun conure and bought me the bird...

The marriage still ended badly, but that little bird lived inside my shirt with just his head sticking out for about 12 years...

And the divorce was so ugly, and I was broke again, so I had to find something constructive to keep my mind off the ugliness... and I ended up volunteering down at the local bird rescue, rehabbing parrots, and working with about 350 birds...

WHICH, OF COURSE, LED TO FULL BLOWN PARROT ADDICTION!

 

[SandyBee]

For us it was the wild birds that got us to look at parrots.
We live in a house surrounded by trees and we have all kind of birds that come visit us on our deck. There has been many beautiful stellar jays over the years that keep us amused but last summer there was a family and one of them got shunned from the group, he lost his feathers and he was all alone, his siblings used to try and chase him away. So he would come perch on a tree by our deck all day and chirp and call. We fed him and starting learning about birds. He eventually left one night to never return after a thunder storm(poor birdie) but by that time our interest had been peaked.

One day hubby hears birds as he as a meeting, goes next door to find a pet shop with parrots More research and we find a local rescue and there is my Bosley's picture. There was something about his face, his story......


3 weeks later I am the proud momma to an amazon parrot, never owned a bird before, never touched a bird before and only know what I've read on the internet and on this forum.

Best decision of my life!!!

 

[antoinette]

My ex went to the Congo on business
He had bought an AG off the side off the road cage and all for $20
He came across the border hiding the bird under a blanket.

When returning to South Africa, he first stopped by our place......
And said...........
I am sure you will love this bird.........
I was totally shocked and bewildered, I had never ever had a bird before.

Long story short.... we named him Congo

He was not hand reared and only spoke a black language.
Within a year, he began speaking fluent English and became completely tamed.

I loved this bird with all my heart. We were together for 7 years. Unfortunately I had an ice skating accident, injuring my hand and could not handle Congo at all. My ex took him in, and I often went to visit him. He became vicious, no one could pick him up or kiss me except me. My ex had him for 5 years.
They were going on vacation 7 years ago, and asked if I would look after Congo..... OF COURSE I AGREED........

They were taking Congo to the vet to have his wings clipped and nails trimmed before bringing him to me..........

Congo never made it home......

When being placed on the vet's table, Congo had a stroke and died.

I will never forget that day, a part of me died as well.

From then onwards it's was always an AG.

 

[jbail1026]

My dad made a pet store run to get some food for my 1-year-old budgie (I was 12). He heard "Hello" behind him, turned around thinking it was a person, and there was George's big green face staring at him. My dad talked about George all week and we pretty much had to go and get him. Our family had a budgie for a year...we thought we were bird people! Well, talk about a learning curve (and there was no parrotforum.com in 1990, I don't think!) but 23 years on George is still his BFF and I can't imagine our family w/o him.

 

[forbey]

Our first "parrot" experience was in 1982, while in the United States Marine Corps. We found a home-made bird cage made out of an old wine barrel at a yard sale. It came with 8 Budgies. Before we shipped home, we had to unload the barrel and budgies. We managed to sell 7 of the budgies, one escaped into the wilds of Camp Pendleton, California during the sale. The next beak we got was Skittles, our son needed to rehome him earlier this year, so we volunteered.

 

[Jumpingtadpoles]

I grew up with 2 pair bonded cockatiels, the female was gentle and quiet and really only liked my mom. The male loved anyone who would pay attention to him and loved to sing and dance. I don't remember him talking though. When we moved across the country my sister took him. I remember the female dying when I was fairly young... So he was alone when we moved.
When I grew up my daughter was given a budgie. We named him blueberry, and he sang sooooo beautiful. He was fully flighted. One day we came home from shopping to find him gone. We had just recently got him a mate to play with. The most annoying screamer EVER. When we came home and found blueberry gone we found dusty his mate a new home with a lady who had a bunch of birds in a larger flight cage.
A few years later I decided I wanted a cockatiel. I found a pet store that got hand raised ones in and put my name on the list. I got to have first pick from the store and I spent a good two hours trying to figure out which one was whistle calling. I was lucky in my pick. When I brought my boy home he was amazing. Affectionate. Funny. Animated. And he learned to talk and do SO MUCH. He was truly a dream come true. I miss him dearly.
I used to put him outside in his cage on nice days to chew the grass and sing with the outside birds.
Then on the dreaded day (my eyes tear remembering) my baby girl went out the open back door (I left it open to keep an eye in him) and gave him a cracker. She didn't close the cage. When I came out moments later I could hear him calling for me. I ran up the road desperate to catch him calling back to him. He went further and further and it was getting dark. I went back home and cried. I never got him back. And I put the cage away. Decided I would one day think of getting another bird. Perhaps when the hurt went away. It never has to be honest. I hate thinking of him.
But now I have met a family that introduced me to a local rescue group. I am very excited and looking into larger parrots. I still very much want a cockatiel, but not yet.
I am hoping to meet an orange winged. They have really caught the glimmer in my eye....

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I loved reading everyone's Origin stories. Ant's was so sad, I'm so sorry you lost Congo like that.

I've always loved birds because of my birder parents. My entire life I wanted a parrot, everytime I saw one in a pet store I would beg my mom for it lol I wanted to watch all the bird movies, and loved reading bird books as well as finding feathers.

In high school one of my best friends introduced me to a elderly couple that lived down the street from her. Lou and Betty loved parrots(Betty especially). When I met them they had a blue and gold named Sun Dance, 2 Congo African Greys named Bonnie And Earnie, a male lutino indian ringneck named Sweets, and several cockatiels(I remember one was named Cheeks).

I became very good friends with Betty, I found it so sad that we were so alike yet separated so much by age. I would visit with Betty at least once a week and just talk for hours on end. She told me lots of stories from when she was young, such as meeting Grace Kelly and being open palls with her until she died, how her himalayan cat was the cat from homeward bound, and how the Italian mafia gave her family(when she was a little kid) in chicago one giant piece of meet that they would share with the other Italian families.

A few years after I met Betty she got a galah that she name Rosie. A women was sitting out side of a local chain pet store trying to give her away. As Betty walked in she told her she had a beautiful bird(although Rosie really looked pathetic). The lady asked if Betty would take her bird, because her husband was going to kill the bird. Not knowing what the birds name was Betty decided to call her Rosie, as it's a very common galah named and she might have been called that at some point in her life.

Rosie was in a tiny cage, Lou had to cut the cage to get her out. She was terrified of men, and unhealthy. If a guy walked by she dropped to the bottom of her cage, often hurting herself. She also had a broken leg, but Betty didn't relize it. She did know that there wasn't something wrong, and made sure Rosie walked a little everyday thinking that it would help

Betty had Rosie for 5 years, and over time her memory got worse, her bad back restricted her to staying in the house and kept her in constant pain and on a lot of pills. The last few years it was very hard for her to give Rosie any attention other than opening up her cage. Luckily Rosie's cage, as well as her surviving African grey Earnie's cage were in the living room that she spent nearly all her time. Whenever I visited I always sat next to Rosie's cage and would pet her the whole time, and she grew very fond of me. Betty said if anything ever happened to her that Rosie was mine.

One day when I went over to visit they asked if I would like to take Rosie, it was just getting to hard for her to care for her birds. At the time I didn't relize it, but Rosie was horribly u healthy from eating her staple seed diet(with jelly beans as daily treats). She was emaciated, had organ failure, terribly weak legs, learned hopelessness. She was catatonic. When I realized how unhealthy she was a few months later I cried for not realizing it.

I could never bring myself to tell Betty that the diet she gave Rosie was killing her. I knew it would have crushed her, she was so loving and kind. Sadly she passed away in October. Although I miss her, I know she was in so much pain and was perfectly fine with passing away.

 

[Fae88]

Growing up my family had a pair of Budgies. But they were not very tame and spent the majority of time in their cage. I know one was yellow and one was green. I can't remember their names for the life of me...They were more my sisters pets than mine. But I remember watching them play and talking to them for hours on end. I was a easily amused kid since I did this with the family fish tank as well lol.

When I was 14 my parents got divorced and as a result my mom and I were forced to move into a apartment. We were told no dogs or cats but that birds and fish were fine.

We had a family friend that had a AWESOME U2 and was the most social and friendly bird I have ever come across. My mom always expressed a want to own a Too someday...But after some research we discovered that a Tiel was a much better fit .

We went to our local Petsmart and I picked out Scooter. He was a BEAUTIFUL lutino Cockatiel, he truly was a dream bird to own. He learned to step up quickly and caught on quickly to mimicking. He could whistle the Andy Griffith theme song, say "Good morning Scooter", "Scooters a pretty bird", and many other words. He also was a major wolf whistler.

He was never a biter and never gave us a single headache. He passed away 3 years ago to unknown causes. And I miss him everyday. I never wanted to own another parrot after Scooter. It hurt so much to build that bond and then to have him ripped away so suddenly. It was so unfair and I didn't want to go through it again.

But here I am. All thanks to a couple parrots in need. I just can't not these beautiful birds in my life.

 

[Urgula]

My first parrot was a quaker named Kesha (common parrot name in Russia).
My parenths had just got rid of my puppy, so when we was at the local market (Argentina), I saw like 20 quakers in a tiny cage. Theywere litterally packet on top of each other.

I begged my mom to buy me one, but didn't think she'll get me one. I was still feeling sad for my puppy and I was at that stage when a teenager needs a dog.

It was 40 degrees celcius and the birds were unactive. I think she got me one because she thought it would die soon. We picked up the one that moved the most and went home. It costed $5.

I thought it was a male, 'he' learned some tricks, like protecting my room from unwanted parents, attacking teddy bears in the eyes, and not popping my bed (the houses don't get heated in Argentina, it's cold and wet in winter, so Kesha sleeped with me in the bed)

A family friend asked me to watch his parrot while on vacation. Kesha meet her love and I've discovered he was a female. Shortly after, she flew away, because I didn't ever thinkg Kesha can go away. it seemed like the most attached bird ever. Hormones...


Shortly after that, someone wanted to get rid of his quaker, so I got it for free.
He destroyed completely the cage (and the next ones I got him) and lived in a plastic pepsi box.
He didn't want to chew on my stuff, he only wanted freedom, so once outside, he would just sit on top of the cage/pepsi box. Ocasionally, he would eat my palm tree.
He lived with me for 5 years, but I had to give him away because my family was moving to Canada.

Once in Canada I had like 10 budgies each one lasted about 2 weeks (they got sick and lost feathers around the cloack, then died).

I still wanted a parrot really badly, so my parents saved some money and got me a lovebird.
He's name is Barankin. He's crazy, bald and lives under my shirt. I go work with him and nobody notices.

Somewhere during those years I god parrot brain issue and had to get a bigger one.

Now I have Tihan(rehomed) and Barankin. Tihan does not fly, but he talks. Baranking is a living helicopter. He makes 50 degrees turns, flies vertically, flies into almost closed dors, etc... Tihan says 'Bye, I love you' and 'kiss kiss' when I leave.

When I come home, both are over exited. Baranking tries to destroy his cage and Tihan talks like crazy.

I'm glad I could not keep that puppy.

 

[Mike17]

My wife and I minded a friend's budgie ( a tiny wild colour guy one of whose legs ended at the knee) and my wife was very taken with him. We got two budgies but not tamed and we didn't know how to tame them. Later, we got a hand-raised lutino 'tiel called Custard from a bird place in Perth and we had him for 5 years before he got into a box and killed himself trying to get out. In the meantime we have had quite a few birds and currently have around 22 or 23, not all tame. We're keeping a lutino from our 'tiel clutch of 5 and my wife's called it Custard although it's most likely female. The original Custard had been returned to the shop as a biter- which he did to me often, but not so much to the wife, and he was an amazing whistler. In fact he scared the pants off me in the car on the way home (1300km drive) when he started whistling a long and involved opera