Pets of Mav
Meeting neighbors
- Joined
- 5/25/18
- Messages
- 31
Hello!
After a time away from online forums, I have decided to get involved again as I simply miss talking to other parrot enthusiasts. I have been the proud owner of my pearly conure Amigo for just about 10 years now, and my blue-headed pionus Niko for 7 years.
Quick background. I was born in Norway, and decided to study in Australia. I am currently living in Australia with my partner. My birds are currently in Norway, and being apart have been challenging but I have been able to spend about 3 months with them every year (going back twice a year). My parents have generously looked after the two family members in my absence, and they are healthy and happy as ever. I am going home in a month to see the family and the birds, and moving home a few moths after that towards the end of this year.
I wasn't more than than 15 when I got my first bird, Amigo but ever since we have been best friends. Amigo was hand raised and is by very tame. He loves cuddles, and his favourite spot is inside my t-shirt peaking out.
I was afraid that he would be slightly lonely when I was at school or work, so I decided to get him a buddy about a year and a half after.
Say hello to Paco, a rainbow lorikeet. Few birds can match these guys in colour, and he seemed like a good match. Paco turned out to be a boy (I'm pretty sure) and he was raised by his parents. When I got him, he was about 4 months old from memory and a young bird. The taming process went great and although he wasn't the cuddliest bird he was still very entertaining. He was not a good flyer when I got him, so I trained him with click and target and he soon mastered the flying skills. Unfortunately though, his tail feathers were damaged in an early age of unknown causes, and fell out with little to no resistance, so he ended up looking like a bird with short tail feathers for a while. He did manage to grow them out after a year, but extra care had to be taken to ensure they didn't fall out, so he rarely had a full set of tail feathers. This didn't seem to impact his flying after some more practise, although it was mainly a straight-forward flight in the early stages.
Sadly, once he hit sexual maturity he became very attached to Amigo and very jealous around me and I lost contact with him. I saw it best to try and find him a good home as he did not fit in to our household any more. I was able to find one that had 4 rainbow lorikeets in an aviary and was willing to offer up a good home for Paco. So I decided to re-home him and he ended up loving his new flock of companions, and I was following him up four months later to see that he fitted in. By that time he had gotten a "girlfriend" and was enjoying his new home.
About 6 months later I went through some research to figure out which bird would fit in with, and that is when I discovered the pionus species. They ticket all my boxes and after a couple of months I decided to get one. I ended up with a beautiful baby pionus, raised by his parents. He was shy when I first got him, but we soon started training and I gained his trust. We worked most days for a couple of months, and by the end of it he would come flying to my hand, would sit on my shoulder and handled just fine. I then started introducing him to Amigo, although they had been outside together before this. They were a little sceptical to start with, but quickly became best friends. They then proceeded to live together and are now inseparable. Two years later I would start university in Australia and could not be more happy with my choice of the pionus.
My parents bring them with them wherever they go, and they have now got two aviaries which I built, one at our vacation house and one at home. Every summer they spend all nice days outside, they get to fly free most days in my parents care and all days in my care, and they seem to be very happy although I could not be there with them. I am very excited to go home and take them back under my care, which is probably the reason why I decided to sign up here.
I hope to upload a few post here and there, share my knowledge of keeping pet birds and upload a few tutorials on build that I have done and will be doing in the future. The focus is of course on bird-safe solutions and they are fairly easy to build if you have some experience. I have also done a lot of smaller builds like climbing trees and perches, and would also like to share the process I go through to choose suitable materials and products, as well as showing the steps on how to make a long lasting and good looking parrot accessory.
Okay, so this ended up being a lot longer than I first intended, but I hope you enjoyed it if you stayed till the end. If you have any questions, please fire away!
After a time away from online forums, I have decided to get involved again as I simply miss talking to other parrot enthusiasts. I have been the proud owner of my pearly conure Amigo for just about 10 years now, and my blue-headed pionus Niko for 7 years.
Quick background. I was born in Norway, and decided to study in Australia. I am currently living in Australia with my partner. My birds are currently in Norway, and being apart have been challenging but I have been able to spend about 3 months with them every year (going back twice a year). My parents have generously looked after the two family members in my absence, and they are healthy and happy as ever. I am going home in a month to see the family and the birds, and moving home a few moths after that towards the end of this year.
I wasn't more than than 15 when I got my first bird, Amigo but ever since we have been best friends. Amigo was hand raised and is by very tame. He loves cuddles, and his favourite spot is inside my t-shirt peaking out.
I was afraid that he would be slightly lonely when I was at school or work, so I decided to get him a buddy about a year and a half after.
Say hello to Paco, a rainbow lorikeet. Few birds can match these guys in colour, and he seemed like a good match. Paco turned out to be a boy (I'm pretty sure) and he was raised by his parents. When I got him, he was about 4 months old from memory and a young bird. The taming process went great and although he wasn't the cuddliest bird he was still very entertaining. He was not a good flyer when I got him, so I trained him with click and target and he soon mastered the flying skills. Unfortunately though, his tail feathers were damaged in an early age of unknown causes, and fell out with little to no resistance, so he ended up looking like a bird with short tail feathers for a while. He did manage to grow them out after a year, but extra care had to be taken to ensure they didn't fall out, so he rarely had a full set of tail feathers. This didn't seem to impact his flying after some more practise, although it was mainly a straight-forward flight in the early stages.
Sadly, once he hit sexual maturity he became very attached to Amigo and very jealous around me and I lost contact with him. I saw it best to try and find him a good home as he did not fit in to our household any more. I was able to find one that had 4 rainbow lorikeets in an aviary and was willing to offer up a good home for Paco. So I decided to re-home him and he ended up loving his new flock of companions, and I was following him up four months later to see that he fitted in. By that time he had gotten a "girlfriend" and was enjoying his new home.
About 6 months later I went through some research to figure out which bird would fit in with, and that is when I discovered the pionus species. They ticket all my boxes and after a couple of months I decided to get one. I ended up with a beautiful baby pionus, raised by his parents. He was shy when I first got him, but we soon started training and I gained his trust. We worked most days for a couple of months, and by the end of it he would come flying to my hand, would sit on my shoulder and handled just fine. I then started introducing him to Amigo, although they had been outside together before this. They were a little sceptical to start with, but quickly became best friends. They then proceeded to live together and are now inseparable. Two years later I would start university in Australia and could not be more happy with my choice of the pionus.
My parents bring them with them wherever they go, and they have now got two aviaries which I built, one at our vacation house and one at home. Every summer they spend all nice days outside, they get to fly free most days in my parents care and all days in my care, and they seem to be very happy although I could not be there with them. I am very excited to go home and take them back under my care, which is probably the reason why I decided to sign up here.
I hope to upload a few post here and there, share my knowledge of keeping pet birds and upload a few tutorials on build that I have done and will be doing in the future. The focus is of course on bird-safe solutions and they are fairly easy to build if you have some experience. I have also done a lot of smaller builds like climbing trees and perches, and would also like to share the process I go through to choose suitable materials and products, as well as showing the steps on how to make a long lasting and good looking parrot accessory.
Okay, so this ended up being a lot longer than I first intended, but I hope you enjoyed it if you stayed till the end. If you have any questions, please fire away!
What kind of bird do you have?
