A Favorite Thing: Pet Parakeets

Fly on over to Mockingbird Hill Cottage for more Favorite Things!  Here's mine for this week:

Patrick this morning.

It's amazing how a creature as small as a parakeet can have a very distinctive personality.

We've had Patrick for two years now.  His cage is in our kitchen, so he's very used to our family (and dogs).  But whenever we left his cage door open, he wouldn't come out.  Until yesterday.


Now he's decided to become an actual member of the family, sitting on our heads and shoulders, eating from our hands and perching on top of cabinets and curtain rods to watch what's going on.

Patrick, March 2011

Patrick's formerly anti-social behavior caused certain people to refer to him as "dumb" and "boring."  Of course, a bird that prefers to remain in his cage would seem dumb and boring after our other parakeets:

Spot was named after Commander Data's cat from Star Trek, the Next Generation.  His claim to fame was chirping the old "Current Affair" TV show theme.

Carmela was a feisty bird that enjoyed interacting with our family, but she always bit us -- quite painfully, too!  She sadly died when she tried to lay an egg and it got stuck.

We miss you, Sonny!

Sonny was the best parakeet ever (I can say that because Patrick doesn't read my blog).

Sonny was brave, adventurous and funny.  He loved to taunt our dogs and steal their food.  He also loved to perch on a windowsill and gaze longingly out the back door, apparently dreaming of freedom and adventure.  No one's really sure how or when he escaped, but it made us especially appreciate having this video to remember him by. 

Hopefully Patrick will find his personality niche one of these days, although the ongoing debate in our house over whether he's a boy or a girl probably doesn't contribute anything positive to his search for identity.

To avoid the whole dying-while-trying-to-lay-an-egg situation again, I wanted to do everything possible to ensure that I picked a male bird when choosing Patrick.

Supposedly, if the cere above the beak is blue, the bird is a boy.  If it's pink or brown, the bird is a girl.  Patrick's had a bluish tinge to it when he was a baby.  It's not blue anymore, but I'm still hoping he's a boy.  My daughters refer to him as "her", "she" and "pretty girl."

Either way, parakeets are relatively easy to take care of, and I'd miss the cheerful chirping (and even the occasional angry chattering) if I didn't have one around.