Hi! My name's Melissa, and I've got a small zoo in my apartment. I usually hang around a hamster board, but I found goosemoose and thought it would be fun to have a place to talk about ALL my critters. So I'm introducing myself on all the appropriate boards, I hope that's okay?
Anyway, since I'm on the bird board I'll tell you a bit about my birds. I've had several in the past, but right now I have two cockatiels, Charley and Milo. Charley is actually a girl - she was sort of a rescue, as she was returned to a small pet store because her owners were moving and weren't able to take her with them. Her owners thought she was a boy, hence the name Charley. She's a pretty, although fat, little pearl. I've had her for several years now, as I brought her home in 2003. The pet store told me that she was about a year old at the time, so I guess that makes her about six. She had a "husband" named Pip, who was a rescue from the same pet store, but he was quite a bit older when I got him, and always had health problems. He had belonged to an elderly lady who kept him outside, and he had a deformed foot due to frostbite. He always seemed to stay skinny, although he was taken to the vet and always got a clean bill of health. Last year he passed away, and I still miss him. He was such a great little bird. Charley missed him alot, too, but it took me a while to find a new friend for her. Finally, this March, I went to a bird show, looking for either a white or lutino boy to take his place. Pip was a normal grey, and I wanted something that looked a bit different. I've always loved the lutinos and whites, too. I found a breeder I liked, she was friendly and knowledgeable, and she had tons of beautiful birds. She had three big cages of birds born in 2007. I looked at all the lutinos, but one little grey in the middle cage kept following me around. He was a plain looking, normal grey, his crest had been chewed off by one of his cagemates (although he was in great health, the breeder told me that she had one bird that liked to "shave" the rest) - he was exactly what I wasn't looking for. But when I looked at the lutinos on the right, he went to the right, and eyeballed me, and sang and whistled...and when I looked at the birds on the left, he did the same...I kept walking around the bird show, looking at all the birds, but every time I came back to this breeder he just turned on the charm. And it was just me, too, I watched him ignore a couple other people completely. So of course, he came home with me
His name is Milo, and he and Charley get along wonderfully. He's much more active than she is, but he's made her more active just by being there. And she's so much happier to finally have a friend again! He's still a big whistler, too, heaven forbid a Zaxby's commercial come on TV while you want some peace and quiet - it sets him whistling for a good ten minutes!
Anyway, sorry that's so long! If anybody's actually made it through all that, then I'll add that I also have six hamsters (five dwarf, one Syrian), two red-eared slider turtles, and one very spoiled little mutt dog named Ella. I'll be teaching a kindergarten class next year, and I plan on finding a classroom pet (or pets) for them, too, probably either mice, gerbils, or natal rats. I really, really want pet rats, but right now there's no more room in the zoo
One day, though, when I'm not so overrun with hamsters, I WILL have rats
I look forward to getting to know everyone on the board!
