Apologies ahead of time, I tend to write a lot without realizing it. I tried to put a very basic introduction into my 'About You' section, but it keeps saying that it's registering as spam. I've tried typing out the simplest of statements (i.e. 'I love parrots) -- still registers as spam.
To be perfectly frank and up-front, I haven't visited any forum since my early World of Warcraft days (i.e. 2004-2005), so I was a bit hesitant to make a thread. Typically I lurk, hope others ask the questions I may have, and get my answers that way - but I digress. Here's my introduction (apologies again for the length).
My wife and I are both retired military, have 2 children (15 and 9), and our family has had a pet bird nearly every year for the last decade. Back in 2013, I was transitioning out of the military and moving back home, wife and son in tow. We found a mom/pop pet store that I'm assuming opened while I was away for the previous 8 years, and went inside to give ourselves a break and just see what animals they had. My son at the time was 5 or so, and instantly fell in love with the birds. We all did honestly. We didn't leave with a bird that day, but we left with a curiosity that expedited our getting one. Instead of dropping a few hundred bucks right there, we went to the military base in my area to finish up my DD214 copies and get our ID's renewed/replaced.
After we unpacked, I went into the local FB group for military members and was going to give away the boxes we used to move, and saw someone giving away a free Budgie. The member was PCS'ing (changing duty stations) and couldn't take him with her. We jumped at the chance and drove back to town and picked him up, my son immediately giving him the name Bunny. He came with a cage, toys, etc. -- all free, so with it being so close to his birthday, it was a win-win for all of us.
We were told Bunny was almost 2 years old, but we never knew the better. Bunny and my son were inseparable. Bunny immediately chose him in the way a bird can only do, but we all loved him, and he loved us. Though he was perplexed when our daughter was born, which was fun and stressful to watch. However, Bunny lived a good and happy life up until his passing, which right around his 7th birthday (5th year for us).
It broke our son's heart when we lost Bunny, hell it broke all of our hearts honestly. Hearing his little whistles and half-mumbled words were missed for almost 2 years. It took that long until my son decided that he wanted to get a new feathery-friend. Luckily the mom/pop shop is still around, and they frequently have budgies, cockatiels, g/y cheek conures, etc. so we surprise him on his first day of Summer break and he picks the new bird - a cockatiel. The 'tiel was only around 3-4 months old when we bought it, and it was labelled as a female. We didn't care, no intent on breeding it, my son just loved the grey head, speckled yellow, and peachy cheek. Our youngest and him picked the name (with some help from me) 'Peachy'.
Peachy turned out to be a boy, but had been getting called 'pretty girl', 'tweet girl', etc. all day every day. She had her own words, whistles, sayings, etc. for each of the 4 of us. She was learning the Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, and Zelda from me, and any/all parrot whistles on YT that my kids could find and replicate. Peachy was our perfect new flockmate after losing Bunny, and he was just ... everything to us. Sadly, we only had him for about 2 years. Peachy's recent incident is what really pushed me to stalk the forums and do everything I could find to try and fix the issue.
Our daughter is 9, so to say she doesn't think before she acts and speaks would be the grossest of understatements. Normally the birds morning routine occupied both our IRN (Ele) and Peachy with toys & breakfast then straight to preening between a certain timeframe. However, it's Thanksgiving week and our routine went out the window on Friday when their half-day ended. In a nutshell, my daughter didn't notice peachy perched atop the door frame of the back door, and was running outside to play (since it was a nice day) and our sweet Peachy got spooked with the veracity in which she opened it, and then terrified when my daughter screamed at realizing what had just happened. Needless to say Peachy flew up high and never came down. She sat high atop a tree the entire day about 200 yards away from our house, and we left her travel cage, treats, blankets, etc. out for her to try and lure her down. We sat and stayed, but at dusk we had to head in since it was clear she wasn't coming down (it's also deer season). I live in the country, so she was about 150+ feet atop a 100+ year old Southern Pine Tree on the edge of farmland that was not over myside of the property line. There was no climbing it, or getting her down outside of using my chainsaw to bring the entire tree down, which was not an option. We saw her 1 more time the next day, and she was still in the same area (she answered our calls), and flew over our land (7-8 acres) back and forth 3 or 4 times during the afternoon. That was our last sighting.
I've been lurking any/all forums and comments trying to find a method could maybe help lure her back. I've been wanting to get an IRN for a few years and finally got the chance to buy one a few months ago. She's a Violet that I named Ele (i.e. Ellie), named after what my Bachelor's degree is in -- Space Studies/Interplanetary Science. Anyway, with Peachy's situation and Ele growing up, I figured it'd be better to have somewhere permanent to come to and ask questions if I need to. I really appreciate the wesbite/forums, and look forward to talking with all of you! I hope everyone has a great week, and a Happy Thanksgiving!
Very Respectfully,
Diglet
To be perfectly frank and up-front, I haven't visited any forum since my early World of Warcraft days (i.e. 2004-2005), so I was a bit hesitant to make a thread. Typically I lurk, hope others ask the questions I may have, and get my answers that way - but I digress. Here's my introduction (apologies again for the length).
My wife and I are both retired military, have 2 children (15 and 9), and our family has had a pet bird nearly every year for the last decade. Back in 2013, I was transitioning out of the military and moving back home, wife and son in tow. We found a mom/pop pet store that I'm assuming opened while I was away for the previous 8 years, and went inside to give ourselves a break and just see what animals they had. My son at the time was 5 or so, and instantly fell in love with the birds. We all did honestly. We didn't leave with a bird that day, but we left with a curiosity that expedited our getting one. Instead of dropping a few hundred bucks right there, we went to the military base in my area to finish up my DD214 copies and get our ID's renewed/replaced.
After we unpacked, I went into the local FB group for military members and was going to give away the boxes we used to move, and saw someone giving away a free Budgie. The member was PCS'ing (changing duty stations) and couldn't take him with her. We jumped at the chance and drove back to town and picked him up, my son immediately giving him the name Bunny. He came with a cage, toys, etc. -- all free, so with it being so close to his birthday, it was a win-win for all of us.
We were told Bunny was almost 2 years old, but we never knew the better. Bunny and my son were inseparable. Bunny immediately chose him in the way a bird can only do, but we all loved him, and he loved us. Though he was perplexed when our daughter was born, which was fun and stressful to watch. However, Bunny lived a good and happy life up until his passing, which right around his 7th birthday (5th year for us).
It broke our son's heart when we lost Bunny, hell it broke all of our hearts honestly. Hearing his little whistles and half-mumbled words were missed for almost 2 years. It took that long until my son decided that he wanted to get a new feathery-friend. Luckily the mom/pop shop is still around, and they frequently have budgies, cockatiels, g/y cheek conures, etc. so we surprise him on his first day of Summer break and he picks the new bird - a cockatiel. The 'tiel was only around 3-4 months old when we bought it, and it was labelled as a female. We didn't care, no intent on breeding it, my son just loved the grey head, speckled yellow, and peachy cheek. Our youngest and him picked the name (with some help from me) 'Peachy'.
Peachy turned out to be a boy, but had been getting called 'pretty girl', 'tweet girl', etc. all day every day. She had her own words, whistles, sayings, etc. for each of the 4 of us. She was learning the Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, and Zelda from me, and any/all parrot whistles on YT that my kids could find and replicate. Peachy was our perfect new flockmate after losing Bunny, and he was just ... everything to us. Sadly, we only had him for about 2 years. Peachy's recent incident is what really pushed me to stalk the forums and do everything I could find to try and fix the issue.
Our daughter is 9, so to say she doesn't think before she acts and speaks would be the grossest of understatements. Normally the birds morning routine occupied both our IRN (Ele) and Peachy with toys & breakfast then straight to preening between a certain timeframe. However, it's Thanksgiving week and our routine went out the window on Friday when their half-day ended. In a nutshell, my daughter didn't notice peachy perched atop the door frame of the back door, and was running outside to play (since it was a nice day) and our sweet Peachy got spooked with the veracity in which she opened it, and then terrified when my daughter screamed at realizing what had just happened. Needless to say Peachy flew up high and never came down. She sat high atop a tree the entire day about 200 yards away from our house, and we left her travel cage, treats, blankets, etc. out for her to try and lure her down. We sat and stayed, but at dusk we had to head in since it was clear she wasn't coming down (it's also deer season). I live in the country, so she was about 150+ feet atop a 100+ year old Southern Pine Tree on the edge of farmland that was not over myside of the property line. There was no climbing it, or getting her down outside of using my chainsaw to bring the entire tree down, which was not an option. We saw her 1 more time the next day, and she was still in the same area (she answered our calls), and flew over our land (7-8 acres) back and forth 3 or 4 times during the afternoon. That was our last sighting.
I've been lurking any/all forums and comments trying to find a method could maybe help lure her back. I've been wanting to get an IRN for a few years and finally got the chance to buy one a few months ago. She's a Violet that I named Ele (i.e. Ellie), named after what my Bachelor's degree is in -- Space Studies/Interplanetary Science. Anyway, with Peachy's situation and Ele growing up, I figured it'd be better to have somewhere permanent to come to and ask questions if I need to. I really appreciate the wesbite/forums, and look forward to talking with all of you! I hope everyone has a great week, and a Happy Thanksgiving!
Very Respectfully,
Diglet
