1st Pet

[Nyboy]

One person in NY gives another New Yorker the bird, and that's newsworthy????

THANX RICH

It is about giving a 1st pet. And they loving it

 

[sumi]

What a sweet, heartwarming story

 

[digitS']

That was very good of you, NyBoy.

Dad and Mom had a German Shorthair Pointer that lived to be 15 or 16 and a cat that was close to 20.

I have only had 3 dogs, unless we count the 2 of my daughter's dogs ... well, actually 3 but care only amounted to about 12 dog-months in total before they went on to her other residences. Anyway, the longest lived of my dogs was a Blue Heeler/Australian Shepherd at 13+ years. I had a parakeet not all that long ago that lived to be 9.

I was showing some videos of small parrots to DW just yesterday. We got a kick out of their whistling and singing songs . But, imagine making a commitment of 30 years for a pet. I think a person who doesn't buy green bananas had better not do that in retirement!

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

I buy a lot from ebay, I also buy a lot of supplies for work online. The UPS guy is here 2 to 3 times a week. He is a very nice guy mid to late 20s. Every time he drops off a package he goes over and talks to my parrots. I asked him if he liked birds when he said yes I told him they have babies and he could have one. Smart man said he had to talk to his wife 1st. Next time he came in he was very excited he could get a baby. This was right before xmas, I gave him a card with xmas tip and said buy a large cage. The end of Jan he took home a baby Green Cheek Concur. He must been on vaction this week a new driver was here. He asked if I was the one who gave him the bird. When i said yes he said it was the guys 1st pet and now thats all he talks about all day long.

30 years

That was my question...did you tell him how long they live? That's a huge commitment. Sweet of you to give him one but I hope he understands what a life long commitment that first pet can become. HUGE.

Hey...got my seeds today! Thank you! Will send you pics of your babies if I don't kill them before they can get to bearing size. Lately I'm not doing so good on my seedlings.

 

[flowerbug]

I buy a lot from ebay, I also buy a lot of supplies for work online. The UPS guy is here 2 to 3 times a week. He is a very nice guy mid to late 20s. Every time he drops off a package he goes over and talks to my parrots. I asked him if he liked birds when he said yes I told him they have babies and he could have one. Smart man said he had to talk to his wife 1st. Next time he came in he was very excited he could get a baby. This was right before xmas, I gave him a card with xmas tip and said buy a large cage. The end of Jan he took home a baby Green Cheek Concur. He must been on vaction this week a new driver was here. He asked if I was the one who gave him the bird. When i said yes he said it was the guys 1st pet and now thats all he talks about all day long.

sweet story!

i did think this was a general "What was your first pet?" kind of thread though? should we hijack this one? lol or create a new one? don't want to be too rude here... hahaha... (doubt @Nyboy would be upset, but i will ask )...

 

[Nyboy]

I love a hijack ( I cause a lot of them ) you never know where a thread will go. My first pets where 2 white cats my parents had them before me.

 

[flowerbug]

ramble zone ahead...

i've seen a bird bite so hard to go right through thumbnail out of jealousy, so i sure hope they know how to raise and care for it to not cause problems. the person i was with at the time we went to a greenhouse that she visited often which had a lot of animals around for customers to interact with and she really liked this one bird in the cage and wanted to show it to me.

i do think it was jealous of me being there because it bit her so hard. she didn't say anything to the greenhouse people about being bitten (there was a notice on the cage to not pet the bird through the cage). still, ouch, in her credit she was never a wimp and she didn't do much other than say ow and then wrapped it in handkerchief.

personally, i want birds to be outside or in a huge aviary and not cages, they just are not clean enough pets for most people and can cause a lot of damage. i don't dislike any creatures, but i do think they belong in places other than homes. my favorite exotic birdie visit place was the aviary at the Detroit Zoo many years ago. pretty much looked like a bit of jungle you could walk through and see what birds you could spot. i'd only been there once in my life, but if i'd lived closer i could see myself going back once in a while in the middle of winter for a change of scenery.

i lived with people who kept birds (9 of them) and also a very large cat that liked to hunt but it was a smart cat who knew not to bother the birdies. one time i saw it slightly tense to pounce once on the birds hopping around the floor but it stopped itself. me and the cat often shared nice sunny spots on their big floor by the windows in the winter, napping, reading... (22yrs goes by fast... was that long ago)...

my friend's marriage did not last, out of spite she put the cat down. i rambly here, but to say more about the cat and hunting, it used to get rabbits. liked to eat the top parts. one time i needed a lift to the bus station and went to put my travel bag in the back seat and there on the floor behind the seat was a headless rabbit. the cat dragged it in through a partially opened window. so think about how strong that cat must have been to be able to jump up almost 4ft with a rabbit to get it in there...

ok, i think i'm done rambly here for the moment...

 

[flowerbug]

I love a hijack ( I cause a lot of them ) you never know where a thread will go. My first pets where 2 white cats my parents had them before me.

haha!

my first pets were venus fly traps in a terrarium where i also would keep praying mantisses. they all looked so alien together in there. was always fun to watch (catch flies and feed them).

we had a golden lab when i was pretty young. was one of my uncle's hunting dogs which was also an escape artist and kept running away. eventually it ran away and did not get found again (i hope it had a good home). we had two other dogs after that but they were family pets and not just mine.

i had a pair of hamsters (Chip and Dale of course). the story of Mom getting them from the store was funny as they sent them off with a very thin cardboard box which they promptly chewed through and escaped in the car in the parking lot so Mom was trying to chase them around to capture them again and got one back, but the other made it (probably became seagull food) so she went back inside and got another one... these very same hamsters spent some time with us at the beach camping a few summers (we spent most of the time in the summer in a big tent camping). i'd make sandcastles with tunnels for them to run through. they liked it. i did stay nearby to keep an eye on them (seagulls). and one time one of the escaped in the kitchen but i caught it a few nights later when i got up in the middle of the night and it was running across the floor. eventually they were buried near one of our trees and another pair came along but i think i gave them to someone else shortly after that as i wanted to spend more time doing plants.

somewhere in there i got a small fishtank and had many adventures with that. the two fantail goldfish were the longest surviving animals. eventually they got large enough that they were eating the gravel on the bottom of the tank and one got a piece stuck in it's throat and i didn't know what was going on until it actually died. the other one had the same thing happen, but i was able to get the gravel out with a toothpick. had that tank until almost the end of high school. shortest lived create was the tiny tropical frog which found a gap to crawl through and escape. we found it several years later (a dusty version of the splatted frogger in the video game).

eventually i got into reef aquarium keeping and would have loved to keep with it but moving is just not easy to move 100 gallon tanks plus all the other smaller tanks i had along with shelves to support all that weight and the other tanks i used to mix and store filtered water (from RO unit to get rid of copper which is toxic to most reef creatures). was always facinated to sit and watch reef tank (instead of tv)...

now my pets are between 50-100 thousand worms and they are the easiest to care for. getting ready for their spring migration out into the gardens in a few months...

 

[Nyboy]

Parrots do bite hard I have a sign on their cage warning of it. It amazes me when someone sees the sign and still puts their finger in the cage. I learned to keep a full box of ban-aids to stop the bleeding. Birds can be very messy they throw their seed all over. I do believe it is possible to have a very clean house with pets. You just need to do lots of cleaning. I work 7 days a week, have 4 dogs and want a clean house. I have a cleaning lady that comes twice a week, If I win lottery I have 3 everyday.

 

[Nyboy]

My latest birds are East Indie ducks so glad they are a outside pet talk about messy. Their lucky they are so pretty