**************************************
Thanks very much for all of your helpful responses. I do realize that I might very well lose Pickles affection toward me. I have thought about this a lot, especially since he started plucking his feathers. I have had his undying love and affection for four years now. It's been wonderful. However, the more he pines for me and plucks himself, the less important his affection is to me. His health and well being FAR outweigh having him as a buddy to me. I also realize that getting him a cagemate may not completely alleviate his plucking habit. But the bottom line is that he has to think of another BIRD as his mate and NOT me. It is not healthy for him to be this way. Essentially, a bird should not pluck his feathers. It's just not right and it is making me crazy. I don't care if I'll only be able to watch him in the future, I'll be watching a happy bird not a nuerotic freak.
Since I made the mistake of getting him so bonded to me I know that in the end it will only be him who suffers when I inevitably have less time for him. I know there are going to be plenty of changes in my life. I want to get married and start having a family someday and I know I am not going to have the time for Pickles that I have now. And Pickles will be around for a long time. I plan on eventually putting him in an aviary, if I can, with another pair of lovebirds or even cockatiels. I'd love to have an aviary in my backyard someday.
I know it'll be somewhat of a bumpy road finding him a buddy, but I am up for the challenge. I will be ready for eggs and do what I have seen suggested here. I will practice responsible "birth control" with my pair if they decide to breed. I don't want to be a breeder, there are simply enough pet breeders and we certainly don't need any more.
Thanks ya'll, I will update you on my progress.
***************************************
I didn't WANT another lovebird, but I see now that I have no choice. Having Toby isn't helping, as Pickles is just jealous of him. He needs his own kind in his cage with him. He is driving me INSANE with his attachment to me. I can't climb into his cage and sit with him all day so I'm going to start looking for a little female for him. That will involve taking him to parrot stores and putting him in a divided cage with other lovebirds to see how he reacts toward them. Gotta let him choose his mate. I hope this will make him happy. I just can't be all that he wants me to be.
I'm NOT going to make the same mistake with Toby. I'm not going to spend so much time with him that he bonds to me like velcro. I want him to be independent. I love to watch him play with his toys and talk to him. The way to keep him independent is to only give him about 30 minutes of individual attention each day. Sometimes I'll skip a few days, too. I don't want another overbonded bird. It's a common mistake with first-time parrot owners. Pickles was my first parrot and he was very afraid of me when I brought him home. I wanted a very tame bird so I spent loads of time with him. I didn't think it was too much, but apparently it was. I spoiled him. Now I realize that was selfish of me. So I'm gonna give him a little girl so's he can finally wet his lil' birdy carrot...
And Toby is starting to talk! Well, to ME anyway. I'm the only one who can understand it. It's just little chirps right now, but he's starting to get the syllables down. I've been working on, "Hi, Toby" with him. I say it really slow, H-eye Toe-beeee...three syllables, right? Yesterday I went up to the cage and I heard him sqeak those three syllables in EXACTLY the way I've been saying it to him since I got him. It was so fucking cute I almost shit my pants. Yea. Almost. So I'm gonna keep doing it along with, "Whatcha doin'?" and see if he learns. I'm sure he will. Most likely, no one will be able to understand it but me but it's still so much fun and so adorable.
Alright, it's Monday. Time to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment