My mom has a blue female parrotlet named Paulie (after the Sopranos character). She seems to be overgrooming as well. My mom’s a bit hesitant to get her a girlfriend/boyfriend, though, because she’s heard that they’ll totally bond to each other and ignore you.
Is that true?
And I think you should name her Butterball, with how huge these birds get and all.
My default name for all pet birds (and what I was planning to name my own Cockatoo if I ever get one): Kelaguen (pronounced kel-a-gwen). It is a chicken dish where the chicken is essentially raw but “cooked” with lemon juice. Nasty stuff, cool name for a bird.
This is in a long line of naming pets for food stuffs though, my gerbil was named Kitten-Chow, my (a long time ago) cat was named Kibble, my fish were called Fillet, etc.
Well, if the birds are raised from babies together, they’ll bond to each other. If each one is separately hand raised by humans, they’re more liable to be cool with divided loyalties.
Still if you can’t get her to stop overgrooming, better to get her a friend if it helps, even if she stops returning your mom’s texts in favor of her new bff.
She seems to want to be called Shiva; it keeps popping out of my mouth unexpectedly. This does not bode well for human civilization, but I think it’s gonna stick. I’ll report back if another name elbows its way to the fore.
Now: what should be her first phrase? I’ve been repeating “what the fuck?” in a highpitched tone around her. I think her next one should be “what are YOU lookin at?”
I think I’m gonna start saying “feed me!” over and over as I feed her, so she can let me know when she’s running low on seed.
OK I’ve had her one week, and she’s a full-fledged (literally!) bird: no pin feathers left, no dinosaur-head monster. I don’t have a fresh pic, but thisis what she looks like.
They mature so incredibly fast.
And she’s so completely tame that she doesn’t even flinch or turn around if touch her. If she’s preening and I pet her back, she completely ignores me. And I’ve been taking her to work, since she needs a feeding in the middle of the day. Tonight on the way home I carried her home in my fist instead of the travel cage. She was so comfortable being held that, first, she preened herself, and then she took a nap–while I was clutching her in my hand! Completely just fell asleep. And given a choice, there’s only one place she wants to be: nestled up under my ear. Period. Everywhere else is second best. Although she will curl up in my pocket and take a nap for a little while, but then it’s back up the shirt and under my ear.
And she bobs her head when I bob mine. Cracks me up.
Oh and by the way, I have no idea how it happened, but over the last few days she’s become Beulah, which somehow fits her better than Shiva. Weird, how some pets just name themselves.
Yup. When we got our little blond kitten, I was holding her and turned to my hubby and said “she told me her name is Lily”. Don’t know how, but she did. And it fits her.
Beulah seems adorable. How big will she get? Too big for your pocket?