{"id":2344,"date":"2013-09-06T09:26:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T14:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2344"},"modified":"2013-09-06T09:51:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T14:51:16","slug":"glimpses-into-the-world-of-pet-bird-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2344","title":{"rendered":"Glimpses Into The World of Pet Bird Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is an exception to the\u00a0‘no fluffy pets’ parameter on my blog.\u00a0 Well, technically\u00a0birds aren’t fluffy, are they?\u00a0 Once they’re through the fledgling stage they’re ‘feathery’.\u00a0 So its OK just\u00a0this once.\u00a0 I could always claim I am inspired to design a quilt\u00a0 on the theme of birds… now that’s an idea perhaps.\u00a0 But, anyway\u00a0I do have just a little experience\u00a0with\u00a0pet birds – as a kid I\u00a0had several budgies<\/a> in a cage, and later\u00a0I worked in an office where I was a co-owner\u00a0of a lovely male canary we named Mario (Lanza) for the quality of his voice; and our nextdoor neighbours here have a medium sized parrot\u00a0which is often out\u00a0in the garden; his wings are clipped and he can climb around.\u00a0 He\u00a0can’t see us, but plays Marco Polo with us over the fence, and babbles a running commentary on things, in Spanish of course,\u00a0often demanding the attention of “Abuela!”\u00a0 (Grandmother)\u00a0 I didn’t see Daniel and Maria\u00a0 move in, so for the first couple of days this racket over the fence had me\u00a0wondering about\u00a0the noisy naughty child that was being made to stay outside all day it seemed – I had begun to think ‘child abuse’ …but all is well at #2043.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over here we balance things up with our loudly vigilant dog, and no one complains.\u00a0 Parrots often live 60+ years and they’re often mentioned in wills.<\/p>\n

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When you move to another part of the world, most\u00a0countries will happily accept you and your children without any quarantine as long as your shots are up to date, etc.\u00a0 But animals of all kinds, not just dogs and cats,\u00a0are a different matter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I recently met a new arrival to Montevideo and he opened my eyes to the difficulties of\u00a0relocating internationally with a bird.\u00a0 I have friends who have had cats, dogs and sheep coming and going, but until \u00a0I met new arrival here, Mick, I just had not thought about how strongly a\u00a0bird owner\u00a0might want to bring his pet along too.\u00a0 Mick’s bird is a small parrot called a\u00a0Wierro or Cockatiel.\u00a0 Native to Australia, these little birds are cheeky, fun, curious and, because they learn to talk well too,\u00a0they’re popular as family pets.\u00a0\u00a0 You can find many lovely images\u00a0of them here<\/a>\u00a0, gorgeous.\u00a0 Bobby is pictured below, but\u00a0he\u00a0just could not resist pecking and clawing\u00a0the camera’s shiny bits and pieces, making it impossible for a good clear shot.\u00a0 When I tried to sharpen the image\u00a0he looked OK but then the arm\/perch he was on and the background looked rather grainy – impossible!\u00a0Hence, the link to the\u00a0images which will show he’s a classic little specimen in every way.<\/p>\n

\"Bela<\/a><\/p>\n

Mick and Erica\u00a0wanted to\u00a0bring Bobby with them on assignment\u00a0here for a few months,\u00a0and contacted Australian and Uruguayan customs authorities, to learn\u00a0what they had to do for this to happen.\u00a0 Heaps of paperwork\u00a0covered a mandatory month of supervised domestic quarantine both before and\u00a0after travel, the cost of that plus vet\u00a0and permit fees at every turn, and then doing all that in reverse a few months later.\u00a0 Once they realized how costly and involved this would be, they dropped that approach and\u00a0looked around\u00a0for someone to board him with for the few months they’re here.\u00a0 They discovered\u00a0extensive networks\u00a0out there for bird owners, on- and off-line,\u00a0exactly like what’s around for dog and cat owners, and if truth be known, probably goldfish and gerbils, and other creatures great and small.\u00a0 There are vets who specialize, there are search and rescue groups, there are adoption and humane groups, and, online, there are chat lists and discussion forums.\u00a0\u00a0 And boundless opportunities for networking while exhibiting your bird and competing with other owners.<\/p>\n

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Someone put them in touch with Kaylene, a dedicated bird lover and\u00a0owner\u00a0who’s become the\u00a0temporary carer\u00a0for Bobby.\u00a0 She takes it very seriously, as the following message to Mick recently shows: “Bobby won’t eat any of the yellow fruity\u00a0‘Pretty Boy’\u00a0\u00a0items, nor the one yellow thing in the cockatiel seed mix I bought. Should I just throw them out? Does he hate yellow? I tasted them–can’t see any difference in flavor or texture between the little red, orange, green balls, and the crescent shaped yellow items?\u00a0 Bobby isn’t really happy, misses you I’m sure. He squawks like crazy when I leave the room or talk on the phone, but doesn’t trust me enough to come out of the cage yet. Every evening around 5 he whistles and sings–very sweet. Does he have a problem with yellow foods?”<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I laughed hearing this, but Mick had more gems, too.\u00a0 Read on.<\/p>\n

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Kaylene herself has a new young little budgie, Sweetie,\u00a0everyone knows these little cuties<\/a>\u00a0 they’re easy care, and lots of fun, but\u00a0Kaylene is currently a bit concerned about Sweetie, as she posted on the chat\u00a0board that Mike now follows:\u00a0 “…he\u00a0sleeps hanging upside down like a bat, the only time I’ve seen him\u00a0asleep he’s\u00a0hanging upside down. Is this normal? He seems fine when he wakes up.”\u00a0<\/em> <\/span>And sure enough\u00a0once she posted this, someone was there with helpful advice: “Budgerigars like to sleep high in their cages. You might try putting a small sleeping perch or shelf\/roost close to the top of his cage to see if he prefers it.\u00a0 \u00a0I prefer shelves for sleeping and I prefer them to be fairly small and one-per-bird so if you have multiple birds they won’t fuss and fidget for position on the same perch. Obviously if you currently just have one budgerigar alone in a cage that is not as much of a concern but IMO you should still build out his cage as if he is going to have a roommate someday, because he probably should.”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 What a hoot – this budgie expert fancies the birds will be better sleeping on shelves for heavens’ sakes!!\u00a0 and has obviously never seen them in the wild or even a small flock in a large zoo or bird park – because they DO jostle on perches and branches, constantly, with a whole lot of soft chattering going on.\u00a0 It’s probably the pecking order thing that needs every\u00a0bird\u00a0to get in their right position\u00a0before the group\u00a0can calm down.\u00a0 Shelves indeed.\u00a0 I could add here I had budgies once and they loved the little swings we had in the cage.\u00a0 Trees blowing in the wind kind of motion?<\/p>\n

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Then the new budgie owner wondered: “Should I mist him? Is bathing critical\u00a0?”\u00a0 <\/em>and\u00a0a more experienced owner responded<\/span> :\u00a0“Definitely – I mist my birds with warm water and they love it! You can mist them daily or a few times a week – it helps keep their skin and feathers healthy.\u00a0When you mist Sweetie, just mist in the air above his head; not directly at him. See how he likes it that way first, so it isn’t so traumatic.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And the response demonstrates Kaylene’s anxiety for all this care and responsibility:\u00a0“I have a mister, must try it out soon. I’m sure he will run away from\u00a0it, so I’ll only mist him a little bit at first.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span>Like any other new carer of a little young life, she must have been\u00a0somewhat calmed by this advice:\u00a0“Regarding mist baths, spray into the air and let it waft down on him to\u00a0 get him\u00a0used to it. Be persistent and give him time. If he is scared of the mist bottle, let him slowly get used to seeing it from across the room, then successively closer to his cage until he is comfortable around it.”\u00a0<\/span><\/em> Shades of Dr. Spock or a modern\u00a0parenting magazine,\u00a0 LOL.<\/p>\n

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The chat forum produced this one, too:\u00a0\u00a0“Kiki, my\u00a0parakeet has taken up drumming, rat-a-tat on a cardboard box. Almost every day. Are little drums for parakeets available? ”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em> <\/span>Someone responded:\u00a0 “LOL \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 she needs a friend to sing to her drumming \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 ”\u00a0<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n

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But, back to the bird importing process Mick and Erica had started but then just let lapse.\u00a0 Within a couple of days of their arrival in Montevideo, they were visited by very worried customs officials demanding to immediately inspect (and possibly impound) Bobby the cockatiel – and they took some convincing that after all the bird did not come with them.\u00a0 Of course,\u00a0Mick and Erica\u00a0hadn’t notified customs this import wasn’t going to happen after all – why would you?\u00a0\u00a0I guess the customs people\u00a0believed the bird had been smuggled in to get round the paperwork and costs.\u00a0\u00a0 Clearly, once a bit of paper is in the system here, it’s on the record and difficult to remove.\u00a0 \u00a0But I’m not going to inflict bureaucracy stories on you in this post<\/em><\/span> –\u00a0 like the 9\u00a0hours it took to get a duplicate driver’s licence, or the incredible difficulty we had changing something on our fixed line phone account because someone hadn’t entered my husband’s ID# on the account years before, leaving the original subscriber’s ID# in place.\u00a0 That man died several years before we came along, and\u00a0despite that we’d been paying the monthly statement that always came addressed to us, in the end it needed a paralegal with good table thumping ability to sort that one out.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is an exception to the\u00a0‘no fluffy pets’ parameter on my blog.\u00a0 Well, technically\u00a0birds aren’t fluffy, are they?\u00a0 Once they’re through the fledgling stage they’re ‘feathery’.\u00a0 So its OK just\u00a0this once.\u00a0 I could always claim I am inspired to design a quilt\u00a0 on the theme of birds… now that’s an idea perhaps.\u00a0 But, anyway\u00a0I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-BO","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2344"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2353,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2344\/revisions\/2353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}