How did you get into parrots?

[Jcas]

I love all of these stories! My dad's only pets growing up were budgies so he always had a fondness for birds. My maternal grandma was an avid bird watcher so I guess I get it from both sides of the family! I didn't really get into birds until I rescued a naked little Chipping Sparrow baby. Chip ended up being my heart bird. When he died and left me broken-hearted, my brother and sister-in-law got me a beautiful blue opaline budgie. He was so confident and full of charisma that I named him Humphrey Bogart after the movie star. When I found out that budgies do better with a friend, I brought home Gregory Peck, a green recessive pied. Of course, Bogey was older than Peck, so when he passed away, Cary Grant came home to be Peck's new friend, etc, etc. I currently have Gary Cooper and Fay Wray. Although I love my budgies, I always told myself that I could not handle a bigger bird, they were just too much. . . and then JJ the Quaker suddenly needed a place to stay, "hopefully for just a couple weeks." I knew from the beginning that it would probably be a permanent situation. And he is a lot to handle, but he's also an awesome little bird. I definitely can't handle anything bigger than a Quaker though. . .nope. . . probably not. . .maybe. . .

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I really don’t know. Although, I like to say that in my heart it felt right.

I guess, as a kid I always was deeply fascinated by birds. I would always sit outside and observe them as best as I could with my (already poor, and constantly deteriorating) poor eyesight. At my grandma’s condo, she had a bird feeder on the deck that overlooked a lake. I would see so many birds that I always called “chickadees” or “birdies!”. Looking back, it was mainly redpolls, chickadees, and nuthatches, but I’d occasionally see a woodpecker. I would always watch them with such fascination and wonder, wishing I could fly with them through the trees. I didn’t really know that you could have any bird as a companion until I was about six or so years old. I always wanted to have a pet bird. I particularly wanted a black capped chickadee. Then, when we moved, we went to a pet store to get fish (I know, you can imagine the horrors those poor fish lived through. It was bad.), and I saw the budgies and I. Went. NUTS. I would Ooh and ahh and aww at the budgies. I would always stare longingly at the blue pied budgies. I would ask if we could get one every now and then but I always knew the answer. When I was about 9 or so, I was watching budgie videos RELIGIOUSLY and I saw a budgie care video and I fell down the rabbit hole and watched them so much. And I do admit, I didn’t watch the most reliable channel (AlanAXP wasn’t super great at the time, but it was fairly good. The only thing I don’t really agree with is the extreme breeding he does. It doesn’t really sit right with me. at the time, he would put around 3-5 budgies in a cage fit for one budgie.) but it got a lot right. Like nutritional things for example. And when I was 11, I got my first budgies after begging and presenting my research and agreeing to a really dumb thing.



TLDR: I really like birds

It's hard to watch AlenAxp videos and NOT want a bunch of budgies! I don't agree with everything he says or does but it's obvious that he absolutely loves his budgies and they love him too!

So, I'm dying to know- what's the "really dumb thing" you agreed to do?

 

[Rico_Tiel]

It's hard to watch AlenAxp videos and NOT want a bunch of budgies! I don't agree with everything he says or does but it's obvious that he absolutely loves his budgies and they love him too!

So, I'm dying to know- what's the "really dumb thing" you agreed to do?

I agree! I wanted to have 5 budgies at one point! But then realized that I had some issues with just 2! And I don’t agree with some of the things he does or says either, but if we are talking about his channel as a whole and just for general info, I’d say it’s pretty solid, especially now.

The really dumb thing? Well, I have an unusual identity (therianthropy, therianguide.com will answer most of your questions that you may have) which you wouldn’t even know until I said anything, but anyway, I trusted my parents enough to tell them about it, it backfired, my mom berated me, told me it’s not real and it’s all in my head, and I’m insane, until I cried, and just because a few million identify that way doesn’t mean it’s real, and she was just so mean to me about it. I don’t remember what I did to annoy her to the point where she told me she’d get me budgies if I quit being myself around her, but I know it was something fairly small. It was a dumb deal but it turned out okay in the end.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I agree! I wanted to have 5 budgies at one point! But then realized that I had some issues with just 2! And I don’t agree with some of the things he does or says either, but if we are talking about his channel as a whole and just for general info, I’d say it’s pretty solid, especially now.

The really dumb thing? Well, I have an unusual identity (therianthropy, therianguide.com will answer most of your questions that you may have) which you wouldn’t even know until I said anything, but anyway, I trusted my parents enough to tell them about it, it backfired, my mom berated me, told me it’s not real and it’s all in my head, and I’m insane, until I cried, and just because a few million identify that way doesn’t mean it’s real, and she was just so mean to me about it. I don’t remember what I did to annoy her to the point where she told me she’d get me budgies if I quit being myself around her, but I know it was something fairly small. It was a dumb deal but it turned out okay in the end.

I think it's pretty safe to say that starting when we're teenagers, very few of us have parents that wouldn't be surprised, shocked, upset, or disappointed to some degree if they knew everything about our internal world, how we think, and what we do.

 

[Rico_Tiel]

I think it's pretty safe to say that starting when we're teenagers, very few of us have parents that wouldn't be surprised, shocked, upset, or disappointed to some degree if they knew everything about our internal world, how we think, and what we do.

Yeah, my parents would lose their absolute minds over how I perceive things, who I TRULY am, what I do, etc. most things I like, believe, identify as, etc. goes strongly against their beliefs. They really do wonder why I keep things from them, but when I trusted them enough to tell them I am a therian, they were outraged about it and they belittled me and were downright disrespectful and rude to me. I honestly don’t know why they didn’t say “I don’t really understand that. Could you please elaborate on it and why you feel this way?” Or just be like “okay, cool.” Like, they could have been nice and respectful but I guess because I am their child, that I don’t deserve respect but they do?

They get so angry when I stand up for myself when they bully and belittle me and they call me mentally ill and sick in the head (for having a different identity than them, and being not straight) and blatantly bully me and make me feel bad for being different. They can disrespect me but god forbid I give them the same respect and energy back. So the fact that they feel like I should share more with them is quite laughable. Considering how they reacted over me being a therian, I don’t think they could handle me confirming I am not straight to their faces. They could literally just up and disown me, be like “I don’t love you anymore because your sexuality goes against my beliefs. Good luck in your new home girliepop 🥰💅” or they could send me away to some “conversion center” or whatever bs.

anyway, point of that whole rant is that if they knew, they would go bonkers, rant, rave, probably disown me, and whatever else they could. Because “oh sweetie, I love you but not if you are part of the ‘alphabet mafia’ (something she unironically says), because it goes against what my beliefs say and what my Facebook and truth social pages say 🥰 So I know I gave birth to you and I said I’d love you no matter what, but you being attracted to not men? Ugh be gone 😤 I don’t liek u no more👎”

Truly amazing reasonings, i know!!!!!😍💅