I was almost 6 years old and it was the christmas season. Just another ordinary day at home just before bedtime. My parents were fussing over taking a picture of our pretty parakeet on my finger. Our beautiful parakeet was completely white and her name was cookie. I really didn't know what the fuss was about. I was already in my pajamas when they insisted I take a picture with cookie. They decided I should sit on the couch and they would put cookie on my finger. I liked the idea until cookie got on my finger.....and ouch did those little claws hurt. The picture was taken. It's an old black and white photo, and I simply love it. Cookie was much more adorable than I was. And that's how my love for parakeets began. It was completely my parents fault, and I am so grateful.
As I grew older all parakeet responsibilities were mine. My siblings weren't as happy to see them as I was when we got home from school. It was my duty to call them "silly babies" whenever they made the food tray fall to the floor. Yeah, I cleaned their cages, and let them fly around my room while I did my homework. Only problem was getting them back in the cage when it was time for me to have dinner. I wouldn't leave them alone knowing all to well that they would seek out all the things I did not let them gnaw on the minute I walked out. Gosh, it was hard getting them back in the cage. Eventually, they'd fly back home.
As a teenager, I was able to buy the parakeets on my own and sneak them into the apartment we lived in New York . Of course, my mom always knew what was in that little box in my jacket. It was ANOTHER PARAKEET and to her it meant "more mess"! I usually kept 4 keets at a time.
When I moved into my own place, I was FREE...and my flock grew to about 25 parakeets. I now had a home to myself, and was able to live my dream and breed my parakeets, without having to hear my mother's disapproval. She simply didn't understand that one or two parakeets were just not enough!
Yet, I wasn't very lucky with parakeets breeding until my brother brought parakeets for his children. They began to breed and I was so jealous. So he promised he'd give me two parakeets that would definitely breed for me. I was thrilled the day I got home from work to find my two new keets. I named them Pilot and Copilot. They were the beginning of my new journey breeding keets.
There was a slight problem though. You see, as baby keets I didn't know what gender they were. It turned out my brother had given me two female keets. What now? Luckily, two of my other keets were male, and they took one look at those lovely green keets and fell instantly in love. So up the breeding boxes went, and to my amazement, they each chose a separate breeding box at opposite ends of their very large cage. Both pairs of parakeets started breeding at the same time. I knew my brother wouldn't let me down.
Pilot and Copilot were both green. One male keet was green and yellow, and the other male keet was blue and white. When I saw the first egg in the box I was so thrilled to know a baby was growing! Seventeen days later, in the early morning hour, I heard a tiny little chirping noise and I knew the baby was ready to come out of the egg. Since they were in the breeding box, I couldn't see anything going on inside, but the noises allowed me to follow the process of the egg breaking and baby appearing! I'M A MOMMY!! I showed all my family members the babies, and of course, they thought they were "sort of...ugly"….big head, little body, and no feathers. But what do they know? Once their feathers came in they were in love with them! Who on earth could resist such adorable parakeets?
So that was the beginning of my life as the "bird lady" in the neighborhood. I sold the keets to a local Pet Shop. It made me feel good to know other people could enjoy these little feathered beauties.
Pilot just wouldn't stop breeding! She had clutches of 5 or 6 eggs one after the other. I loved each time a bird was born. It was my private moment of "the miracle of life" each time a keet was born.
Pilot was an excellent mother. Never leaving her clutch, keeping them warm and nourished. She loved breeding. Copilot had one clutch of 4 keets....and one only! She was a good mommy, but I had to clean up the babies twice a day because that box was a mess. Then she just stopped breeding on her own. That was fine with me because Pilot just kept on going. Eventually, I took the box away, and with much dislike, she stopped breeding.
My Pilot died a year or two later, and to my surprise, I still have Copilot. She's such a good keet. She's now 14 years old, and the best gift my brother ever gave me. He told me with so much confidence that they will breed....and breed they did!
Although I have other birds, Parakeets have always been my favorite! They're small, colorful, playful, and filled with so much energy! People say I'm obsessed with birds and they're right! I don't know if this makes any sense, but I must've been a bird in a previous life…that's my only explanation for my enormous love of birds!
Please send me your "Parrot Tale!"
Tell me how your life with parrots got started, and I'll post it here on my next ezine! Email it to:
goldie_web@yahoo.com
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