Well, three running fish tanks... plus one soon-to-be-running tank... plus two younger brothers....and I thought I was maxed out on pets (and in the case of the brothers.. pests)....
That was....Until Amanda called... She'd had this cockatiel for years.. he was born in September, 2001, so he's about eight and a half years old or so. She's always had an allergy to feathers, but her allergy got much worse in the past couple years, and she was no longer able to keep him. She called me asking if I'd take him... and I couldn't say no.
Silas is hand-tamed, with his wings currently clipped to make things easier on me (my house has high ceilings... last thing I need is Silas getting ticked off, flying up and sitting on a shelf out of reach somewhere (I'm sure he's spiteful like that). He's very camera-shy... the second he sees the camera, he hides, so these pictures took ages to get.
He hates me right now; which is to be expected... I'm a new face and he's in a new environment, but regardless, taking Amandas advice I attempted to get him out of his cage tonight to let him explore the new environment (after I'd bird-proofed it and vaccuumed the carpets). The result was a bird who took 2 hours to leave his cage, another half an hour to work his way down the quick improv ladder from his cage to the floor (an old wire VHS movie stand), and then me being bit and hissed at multiple times 45 minutes later when I tried to coax him back into his cage because I had to leave and wouldn't leave him unsupervised on my bedroom floor (cleaning birdy poo out of my carpet is NOT an easy job.)
I get the feeling Silas and I are going to have a lot of issues to work out over the coming weeks. A lot of tested patiences. A lot of birdy-bite-marks on my hands and arms. And eventually, something that MIGHT resemble trust and a friendship, although I'm expecting to curse his name many times before that happens.
Piccy's:
That was....Until Amanda called... She'd had this cockatiel for years.. he was born in September, 2001, so he's about eight and a half years old or so. She's always had an allergy to feathers, but her allergy got much worse in the past couple years, and she was no longer able to keep him. She called me asking if I'd take him... and I couldn't say no.
Silas is hand-tamed, with his wings currently clipped to make things easier on me (my house has high ceilings... last thing I need is Silas getting ticked off, flying up and sitting on a shelf out of reach somewhere (I'm sure he's spiteful like that). He's very camera-shy... the second he sees the camera, he hides, so these pictures took ages to get.
He hates me right now; which is to be expected... I'm a new face and he's in a new environment, but regardless, taking Amandas advice I attempted to get him out of his cage tonight to let him explore the new environment (after I'd bird-proofed it and vaccuumed the carpets). The result was a bird who took 2 hours to leave his cage, another half an hour to work his way down the quick improv ladder from his cage to the floor (an old wire VHS movie stand), and then me being bit and hissed at multiple times 45 minutes later when I tried to coax him back into his cage because I had to leave and wouldn't leave him unsupervised on my bedroom floor (cleaning birdy poo out of my carpet is NOT an easy job.)
I get the feeling Silas and I are going to have a lot of issues to work out over the coming weeks. A lot of tested patiences. A lot of birdy-bite-marks on my hands and arms. And eventually, something that MIGHT resemble trust and a friendship, although I'm expecting to curse his name many times before that happens.
Piccy's:


