BS: 'Catters and birds?

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 05:44 PM

LOL- Caught me by surprise, Spaw!

I currently have two budgies, Verde and Sky- give you an idea of what colors they are? They were finger trained at one time but as they've gotten older, they tolerate me but are no longer interested in physical contact with me. They like me to talk to them, though.

I love the parrot family- I suppose it began when I was 4 years old and my family was on an all-day jaunt at the Oregon coast. We stopped at a tourist museum and as we wended our way through the narrow paths, a cockatoo on a post(big, white bird), leaned w a y down from its perch and into my face chortled, Hallo, little girl. For this shy little young'un in a big family who couldn't remember any individual attention- ever- this was an experience not to be forgotten!

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 05:18 PM

Seems like when I was a kid, an awful lot of folks in the country had peafowl. Very neat birds and they offset the damn chickens really well!

Sins, sounds like your bird experiences weren't too good. The bird you describe may be one of those things with the funny names that I can't recall like Borwallas Parrot, but are generally known as Crunchy Birds as they are (or can be) pretty destructive. There was one in a local pet store and my friend Jim inquired about it and the owner said it was a Crunchy Bird. When the owner said, "Crunchy Bird - Table," the damn bird flew over and began to completely destroy the table, much like a woodpecker. When he said, "Crunchy Bird - Chair," the same thing happened and the bird liked to destroy the chair. The upshot was that Jim went ahead and bought the damn thing! The store owner tried to convince him not to, but Jim said he was going to take it home and when his wife Janine saw it she'd say, "What the hell kind of bird is that?" Jim said that he'd tell her it was a Crunchy Bird and she'd respond, "Crunchy Bird my ass."

Old joke.........sorry............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 11:27 AM

Have had one or two assorted zebra finches and cockatiels, with cats in the house, for the past twenty years. We are now down to one cockatiel and while everything Spaw says is true about them, I do not plan on getting any others after C-more dies.

He doesn't get to get out of his cage at all, which is okay because he was abused early on, like Sins said hers was, and is to terrified of leaving his "nest", but if I ever had another which was actulaly hand-trained, I would want a house big enough to have a separate room where the bird could be out without becoming a new *pressie* for mommy.

My cats do not go outside, at all, except in their enclosed run, so they never get after the wildbirds, either.

Sins, we had peacocks when I was a kid. The male would strut around constantly preening himself while gazing at his reflection in the shiny chrome bumper of mom and dad's '57 or '59 Lincoln. So, we got a big mirror and propped it up against the porch for him. He thought it was another male peacock and bloodied himself trying to fight it, before we could get the mirror away!

They were very interesting birds to have around. I perfected their call, in that fact that is how we came to have them. Some lady had lost hers, came looking at our place because she'd *heard* ours (it was just me calling to hers.) Anyway, she wound up selling us a young pair for $15. In the springtime they would fly up to the tip top gable of the old Victorian house we lived in and sing their racuous ur-uhrssss. In the winter, they would droop in the cold on the bare branches of the big old cottonwood tree. They were a sight to see when the male, esp. took to the wing. We had a small valley around behind our house. It was incredible to see him just take off, long tail with its many eyes ruffling out behind him as he circled the neighbour's lake, then finally came home.

They also make great burglar and other alarms. When I was 13 and ran a nail on a rusty hinge clear through my foot, it was the peacock screaming at the top of his lungs that alerted my mom that something was amiss. Silly, great, ol' bird.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 10:16 AM

Birds dislike me. Sad but true. The only one we ever had was supposed to be a magician's dove (a stray abandoned in our building) but it grew and grew. I swore it was a seagull. Poor thing had been mistreated and I, hating to see it so sad, put a mirror in its cage.It went nuts - turned out the other birds has mistreated it too and it was terrified of its own reflection. It never let me near it again. Finally found a home for him with a lady who takes in abandoned birds. The Pet Store owner had him for a few days and laughed at my stories of the vicious bird. He too said it was not a dove but not a seagull and maybe not a pigeon... Anyway, I returned to claim the bird and found him stored on a shelf 15' overfead. Turned out he frightened the other birds and customers. I am the one with the bird droppings on her shoulder - a whole other story -birds hate me.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: Kim C
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 10:08 AM

We had a budgie named Cactus who lived with us for about 8 years. He has since gone on to budgie heaven. We have talked about getting more birds but just haven't done it yet.

My fiddle teacher has a parrot that says "Go Redwings."

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: Grab
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 09:37 AM

Got various bird-feeders in our (small) garden. Trouble is, all the neighbours are cat ppl. I don't mind cats, but I don't see why they should be allowed to come in my garden and crap on the lawn. So we've got a supply of various things to hand for throwing, to dissuade them if they do come in. So far, I think we're winning. :-)

Grab.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: nutty
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 09:06 AM

I am very anti-feline at this time of year when the local moggies try to kill the blackbirds that nest in my garden

It gives me great pleasureto see my two terriers on patrol. They tolerate the birds while keeping the cats at bay.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 08:31 AM

I think there are several of us and if we didn't have cats, we'd have more birds. We have two Cockatiels, both hand trained, and both with attitudes. There are other birds that we'd like to have, but we both really love 'Tiels. They're very clean, lots of personality, and a nice size bird. Maddie is a grey normal and Bineybird is an albino. Some pictures are here...CLICK

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: 'Catters and birds?
From: Peg
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 08:28 AM

I don't really like having birds indoors myself...but I do feed the birds outside with feeders kind of religiously... have four feeders hanging in the quince and pussy willow trees...I get an assortment of sparrows, starlings, grackles, blue jays, cardinals, crows, mourning doves, finches and pigeons...oh, and squirrels.

Subject: 'Catters and birds?
From: mkebenn
Date: 30 Mar 01 - 07:01 AM

Notice alot of you seem to be feline people, any bird folk out there? We're finger training a young 'keet now, and if I ever get my mic( irratation showing), you'll prob'ly hear his rousing chorus in "Coal Tattoo" LOL Mike