A place to Humblebrag about your animals.

I found this one...Mary Jane at around 12 weeks old...so it was taken in June. She is such a pretty cat and just full of the dickens.

That kitty looks adorable!

simtress yes, Mary Jane is adorable and looks like she is just about the same amount of mischievous too! She must keep you from getting bored. I have known quite a few people who although they might like looking at birds, they don't like them flying around their head, perhaps because they are unpredictable (from being hard to "read" if you don't know them well). I think the unpredictability is also sometimes a feature of horses. I was attacked once by a very temperamental rooster when I was about 6 years old (half an inch lower and I would have lost my left eye) but chicken shepherding continued to be part of my daily chores after that, so fear or not, I had to go on with them and just learn how they communicate. It is only one-directional for me though, I can often understand them but I cannot tell them what to do (so I did not get to be the chicken whisperer).

plovernod I like what you said about Frodo giving Maddie his own tag... Always so lovely for your pets to love each other *sigh* Our two dogs are quite jealous and territorial with each other and they go nuts about the cats... and birds...

Bakie I have lots of photos of birds, both the ones who live inside and outside. I'm not against aviaries per se, by the way - it's just that it is so often that people think birds (or any pets) are like robot plants, and only think of giving them a cage that looks nice to "them" but does not occupy "too much space", and think one kind of food is fine, all day, and they don't understand the concepts of how many hours of natural sunlight, how much grit, how to add fruit and vegetables, how to syringe feed, don't want to invest in a temperature and humidity meter.... it IS complicated if you want to do it right, so I prefer to say, just don't do it. I do not favour any species over another, but birds are particularly difficult and sensitive to environmental changes and people's reactions, so if you are not prepared to do the research and put in the hours and value your bird's health over your own personal comfort, then perhaps another kind of pet is more suitable, if only because many other pets are "easier" to understand, when sometimes birds only just look sad or pluck feathers and it could be for 100 different reasons.

Here are some of the first parrot chicks we had in the family, a lot of the pics I took with just a very bad webcam so I apologize for the quality. I was still new to Photoshop too so the collage isn't very well made.

They are African greys, I took care of the youngest (the runt) as he had a deformed leg and needed special care. I named him Djinn, after the elemental air spirits of the desert, so that even if he could not walk well, perhaps he could fly well. I spoon fed him several times a day and had flight training with him and his brothers.





Only my chick was sold, not my sisters' who had Gryphon and Copper, but even in that, I/we were lucky, Djinn went to a good family who had lots of time for him and allow him to fly free sometimes, whereas Gryphon and Copper spent most of their time alone and bored in cages, which I did not agree with (still don't).

Here are two little videos of Djinn with me:

believe&become

I'm so jealous about it all! I don'have an aviary anymore, but I allways kept Australian Parakeets like budgies, Cockatiels, Eastern Rosellas and Cimson Rosellas like the one on your last photo I believe.. I also love Kakarikis, but they're from New Sealand of course, but that's the from the same corner of the world
I think it's also because of my patient and my behaviour, that the birds trust me and will come very close to me after some time. But as I don't live with my parents anymore, my dad takes care of my birds. But if I go into the aviary now, they're much more scared. And I don't like that. It's a great feeling if they trust you and start "talking" if they see/hear you.

But I agree it's much more fun to see them in the wild. I definitly want to visit Australia sometime. I also got some Zebra finches by the way. Both the normal ones as the black cheek zebra finch which I like the most of those two.

And again..all those kookaburras! Damn, that's absolutely great!

And taking care of young birds is always great to do. In that park I helped raising baby stork, different sort of crane birds, hornbills and different sorts of toucan. And much more, but it's already a while ago. And all my photos and videos of that time were saved to a Hard Disk drive that crashed recently. Though my mom still has all of those footage I think, but I have to buy a new HDD and copy-paste for a couple of days I think.

Ow and nice videos of you with the African greys! There were al lot of those in the park too. Both The African Grey and some Timneh African Grey.

Meat Princes Silver Toes, this used to be my husbands cat till he had his nephew move in with him who is allergic to cats. She lives with my mother-in-law and is a sweet cat, we will be seeing her for Christmas.

@countrykris Princess Silvertoes is really beautiful and very aptly named. Probably one of the most elegant girls I've seen. She looks like she knows it too lol.


sweetsorrowsims Thank you - it was a special experience, though I'm sure if I lived there most of the time I would get used to seeing them. We have bird feeders  for them so I very much doubt they're there for the excellent conversation.


Bakie Your experience at the park is very interesting. How long did you work there? Would you ever go back? If you do get the chance, it would be nice to see the photos. I haven't interacted much with big birds, except emus in Australia (once). We also have bred Crimson Rosellas, I'll have a look for the pictures. I have always loved Zebra finches, please let me see if you have any of those photos too. I also had Diamond Doves that were so beautiful, though they were so much shyer than even wild birds that come and see me, they didn't really like being touched or having us near them.



In our house animals outnumber humans 6:2, and that's just the permanent residents, other animals "stop by for breakfast". But the Queen of the house is Apollito, a lovebird who is blind in one eye, has 4 toes missing and is pretty old and flightless. She bosses EVERYONE around (me, hubby, dogs, cats), she has various shrieks and shouts that mean, "Hey! Ya lazy cows, get out of nest! I want breakfast!", "Oh my friends have arrived! Shut up, I'm trying to have a conversation here!", "That light is pissing me off! Let the lady get some winkeye, what do I look like, an owl?", and various more that I'm not going to translate but involve cusswords and ferocious pecking. We thought she was a "he" until "he" laid eggs.



We found a bleeding bird huddled in the corner of a cage in a petshop about six years ago, the other birds had pecked her eyes and toes terribly, and the petshop owner said he was going to sacrifice her. We paid 30 euros to take her home and try to save the little lady. She made it, though the scarring on the left eye made her half blind, and obviously her toes never grew back. Otherwise she was pretty much OK but starting plucking her own feathers. We tried everything and then resorted to ... giving her a husband. Or rather, we were told she was male and we were given a female. Well, they had it the other way around. And us thinking that blind, lame, old bird was not going to have babies HOW WRONG were we. Every year, twice a year... sigh... It's sweet though, in saving her, over a dozen were born, and that's not counting the heap of eggs I kept on taking away for her own health (she screamed to high heavens whenever she found out).



Anyway, we've given most of babies away (and some insisted on being free and joined local flocks), her husband Diana (I know, but remember, the sexes were miscommunicated lol) passed away last year, but she's still giving us Hell every day.



Here are some of the pics.












The one below is taken after syringe feeding, you can see that his crop (it's like between the throat and the stomach, like a pre-stomach) is full.
This one is Henry, separated because he was the runt and was being underfed.



This is Dad Diana. Best Dad EVER. Really, really, he was the one feeding ALL the babies and his wife several times a day, every day, that man was like Husband of the Century (especially because of Apollo's temper).





And this is me with Henry who was really cuddly and kissy. I later found out that Henry was a she... unfortunately she died due to egg binding (an egg got stuck inside). I had a hard time recovering from that, I still feel really bad that I did not recognize the symptoms - it didn't even occur to me since we always thought *he* was male. It also hit me that even though I had been caring for birds since I was about 5 years old and had read and learnt so much, they can be difficult to care for properly. Unlike for example dogs, very often there are no symptoms until it is much too late. *sigh* I miss my Henry.