Top left to right: Sparkie, Bonnie, Mumble, Twankey.
Bottom left to right: Dillon, Marvin, Hero, Muffin.
So my obsession with Parrots started whilst growing up and my next door neighbour had a Rosella aviary and an African Grey, I was fascinated with their behaviours and vocal skills.
I took Dillon, the African Grey, in around 4 years ago as a rehome, he instantly fell in love with Alan and has hated me ever since. He is a cantankerous old boy, but loves nothing more than to chat along and shred up his wood drawers, not very social.
Hero, our cockatiel, joined us around a year later, bought as a hand-reared baby, he was already very tame and will sit with anyone, until Alan is in the room and then it’s all about him, Hero and Alan have a very special bond and he loves going everywhere with Alan on his harness whenever he can.
Mumble, the first of my trio of Quakers, joined us last year, I fell in love instantly and bought him home with me. Despite the name Mumble he is a fantastic talker and has a wide variety of vocabulary. A hand-reared baby he loves everyone and it’s because of him we are here today.
Muffin, our yellow Quaker, well Muffin is the boss and he likes to let everyone know it. Very intelligent little boy, his favourite game is colour matching. He has formed a lovely bond with my daughter but even a hand-reared baby can grow to be a handful if you’re not prepared, but with the right amount of time and trust he has become a fairly steady boy.
Marvin, my little buddy, our blue Quaker, again the same breeder as Mumble and Marvin. He is adorable, loves to explore and cuddle, usually first in the bath, noisiest of all of my flock but so funny. He loves everyone and will happily go to anyone.
Twankey our little lone lovebird, she did have a partner but unfortunately we lost him shortly after arrival. An aviary bird I just let her do her own thing but she’s formed a friendship with the Quakers and plays with them during the day, because of how tame the others are, Twankey soon learnt humans were no threat and happily will come sit on anyone. She just wants to be friends with everyone now and is a very adorable little bird.
Sparkie, our 2nd cockatiel, we got Sparkie because Hero doesn’t really like any of the others and was lonely, such a sweet little baby he loves a head scritch but is actually very shy and hates every other bird, he loves humans though (the downside of hand-reared babies some get very reliant on human interaction and can become needy). Sparkie has however bonded with my son and we are working on his nervousness.
Bonnie, our beautiful Galah, she was rehome to me at the start of the year, I do not recommend cockatoos as pets but if you’re going to get one, then Bonnie is jackpot, she loves me completely and I can do so much with her, loves a cuddle and is surprisingly quiet. She does tolerate the smaller birds very well under close supervision and so far is good with most people, she has however bonded to me and so sort of hates Alan getting to close, so we are currently working on that.
Pidgey and Sparro ft Hope
Beautiful pair of Diamond Doves who arrived at the beginning of this international crisis, apparently sex unknown but never had eggs, so assumed female. However two weeks in I found peeked a pair of eggs, then the nest was abandoned a few days later and one egg was broken. The other egg was cracked slightly so I candled it and it was very much growing a baby. So after a mad rush to source an incubator we now have Hope our little egg. Diamond doves are difficult to hand-rear so I’m not the most optimistic but I am prepared, we will find out soon enough.
Living with Birbs 