My bird story-
My freshmen year of high school my mom checked "Alex and Me" out from the library. An avid reader and animal lover I finished the book in a matter of hours. I immediately researched African Greys, and much to my disappointment found out that they wouldn't fit into my busy lifestyle. A couple months later, my family and I happened into a pet store. They had an older Grey who completely took to me. She climbed all over me and wouldn't let anyone else pick her up. I was smitted and even talked with the owner about working there to pay her off. But as much as I wanted her, I knew I really didn't have the time she deserved.
That summer a lot of things changed. I felt that I was wasting seven hours/day in school, so I chose to take my classes online, freeing up a lot of my time. I ironically found a breeder less then ten minutes from my house on this forum, while trying to locate an avian vet. My parents were convinced after a year of me researching that I was dedicated. I visited Beaker's Aviary and picked my little Averi out at four weeks old. She is a great bird and I love her so very much. She has taught me so much in the past two years and she means the world to me. I am grateful for her every single day.
Around the time Averi was ten months old, we left her at the breeder while we went on a cruise. When I came to pick her up, she was ecstatic to see me and I took her home. But, she seemed depressed over the next couple days and often called to the other birds. It broke my heart to think she was lonely. My vet had recommened keeping at least two birds in the same home to prevent loneliness but this was the first time I had experienced it. I talked to my parents and they were excited about the idea of a second bird.
I did some research on other species, but I just kept coming back to the greys. I love their personality and they just really mesh with my lifestyle. I came across Tilda's ebay classifieds ad, as I had 100s of other Grey ads looking for new homes. I had decided almost a year early to add another. For some reason her ad really caught my eye. I emailed her owner, and promptly attempted to forget about it. I couldn't forgot about the sweet little picture of her, but I felt I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. When I got the e-mail back from her owner, I had butterflies in my stomach. I just knew she was going to be mine. Four months later, we had ironed out all the details, and drove five hours to meet her.
She was so cute with her oversized feet and sweet cooing noises. I was sitting talking to her owner, hoping she'd warm up, when she voluntarily reached her foot out to step-up. I took her home that night.
I'm lucky in that both my girls are young and friendly toward each other. They are sweet and curious about each other. They are always supervised.
I must say that I love having two. They entertain each other and me with their endless chatter. Averi seems so happy and relaxed, even if she has to sepnd an abnormal day in the cage. They make me smile every time I see them playing with the same toy on a stand or eating out of the same bowl. They are still cautious towards each other, but they are warming up. I also must that for the forseeable future, two is my limit.
If I were ever to pick out another one, it would likely be a Grey. If not a Grey, it would at least be around the same size. I wouldn't want to have to worry about out of cage time becaoming deadly with vastly different size beaks. I do love Hawk head parrots from the ones I have interacted with, and I love the zons, too. But, I'm a Grey girl at heart.