Becoming a first time parrot owner to Diva my four month old baby quaker parrot who I've had for a month and is my baby and is treated like the child I never had and reading some of the threads has made me feel extremely sad and guilty for my childhood bird Bam-Bam the blue crowned conure.
My parents got me and my brother a bird when I was five and my brother seven. He was an untamed blue crowned conure and that poor little bird sat in a corner in a large cage basically alone and mostly ignored until he died he didn't live long I think I had just turned 10 or 11 when he died.
Bam-Bam wasn't tame my dad got him off a work college who gave him to us when he around a year old. Us children were fascinated at first at the little bird who whistled and clicked his Tongue and spent ages by the cage trying to befriend him and arguing over who's name we wanted him to learn and trying to talk over each other to get him to talk which he never did outside a whistle. Looking back now we likely were scaring him more.
The novelty wore off and although Bam-Bam was allowed out to fly around each day so my mother who was obsessed with cleanliness could clean his cage he was a lonely neglected little bird with no friends human or other birds.
Me and my brother became afraid of him after our attempts to be his friend lead to some hard bites. He was fed budgie seed, ocassionally frozen veg from a bag although I can't remember him ever eating any of the veg and cuttlefish and nothing else. It breaks my heart now thinking of him now I understand just how complex emotional and intelligent parrots are.
I can't help feeling as I sit typing this while playing with Diva who is happily running in and out of behind a cushion on the couch as we play peek a boo and I'm gonna get you before I get up to make up some more chop that yet again she'll likely not eat but I'll keep trying that what Bam Bam was put through was the equivalent to torture for a parrot.
I brought up the subject with my mum but she shrugged it off she thinks I'm silly for the amount of love and attention I give Diva as it is. She's horrified at the prep I put into her chop, the various play stands around the apartment and the taking I do to Diva. "Your thirty three years old for god sake why are you spending so much money and time and talking nonsense to that bird that bird should be a cage. It doesn't need two cages the cages are too big and take up room the bird shouldn't be out of the cage all it does is poops everywhere just keep it in the cage. It doesn't need a play stand it's a bird not a child. You can get cheap bird seed birds eat seed it doesn't need all this human food" is my mums running commentary about Diva. She's never been exactly happy that I'm a complete introvert who has always prefered my pets company over humans including family she was the same with my dogs. Treating pets any better than feeding them the cheapest garbage pet food filled with cheap crap and fillers you can get and filling their water dish is over the top according to my mum. To her dogs belong outside in back yard and birds belong in cages. Her only comment on Bam Bam when I asked if she remembered him was "he was a bird birds belong in a cage and eat seed not all the nonense your doing with this bird". I I think she really dislikes Diva too because Diva doesn't like her and is always hissing and growling at her if she gets close. Despite her dislike of other people Diva is a little show off and is all too happy to perform her tricks to an audience and my mum hates been wrong but the truths plain right in front of her when Diva is demonstrating clear understanding and intelligence while my mum is trying to tell me birds are pretty much cage ornamates and don't have any understanding, feelings or intelligence. Anyway I'm just feeling horrible about Bam Bam despite me been a child and having little control of how he was cared for.
My parents got me and my brother a bird when I was five and my brother seven. He was an untamed blue crowned conure and that poor little bird sat in a corner in a large cage basically alone and mostly ignored until he died he didn't live long I think I had just turned 10 or 11 when he died.
Bam-Bam wasn't tame my dad got him off a work college who gave him to us when he around a year old. Us children were fascinated at first at the little bird who whistled and clicked his Tongue and spent ages by the cage trying to befriend him and arguing over who's name we wanted him to learn and trying to talk over each other to get him to talk which he never did outside a whistle. Looking back now we likely were scaring him more.
The novelty wore off and although Bam-Bam was allowed out to fly around each day so my mother who was obsessed with cleanliness could clean his cage he was a lonely neglected little bird with no friends human or other birds.
Me and my brother became afraid of him after our attempts to be his friend lead to some hard bites. He was fed budgie seed, ocassionally frozen veg from a bag although I can't remember him ever eating any of the veg and cuttlefish and nothing else. It breaks my heart now thinking of him now I understand just how complex emotional and intelligent parrots are.
I can't help feeling as I sit typing this while playing with Diva who is happily running in and out of behind a cushion on the couch as we play peek a boo and I'm gonna get you before I get up to make up some more chop that yet again she'll likely not eat but I'll keep trying that what Bam Bam was put through was the equivalent to torture for a parrot.
I brought up the subject with my mum but she shrugged it off she thinks I'm silly for the amount of love and attention I give Diva as it is. She's horrified at the prep I put into her chop, the various play stands around the apartment and the taking I do to Diva. "Your thirty three years old for god sake why are you spending so much money and time and talking nonsense to that bird that bird should be a cage. It doesn't need two cages the cages are too big and take up room the bird shouldn't be out of the cage all it does is poops everywhere just keep it in the cage. It doesn't need a play stand it's a bird not a child. You can get cheap bird seed birds eat seed it doesn't need all this human food" is my mums running commentary about Diva. She's never been exactly happy that I'm a complete introvert who has always prefered my pets company over humans including family she was the same with my dogs. Treating pets any better than feeding them the cheapest garbage pet food filled with cheap crap and fillers you can get and filling their water dish is over the top according to my mum. To her dogs belong outside in back yard and birds belong in cages. Her only comment on Bam Bam when I asked if she remembered him was "he was a bird birds belong in a cage and eat seed not all the nonense your doing with this bird". I I think she really dislikes Diva too because Diva doesn't like her and is always hissing and growling at her if she gets close. Despite her dislike of other people Diva is a little show off and is all too happy to perform her tricks to an audience and my mum hates been wrong but the truths plain right in front of her when Diva is demonstrating clear understanding and intelligence while my mum is trying to tell me birds are pretty much cage ornamates and don't have any understanding, feelings or intelligence. Anyway I'm just feeling horrible about Bam Bam despite me been a child and having little control of how he was cared for.
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