Bluebonnet - the best little birdie ever!

This post is dedicated in honor of my pet budgerigar, Bluebonnet. This summer sometime (probably in July), he turned five, and August 25th was the 5th anniversary of the day I got him from the pet store.

My grandma and aunt were visiting from Sacramento, and they wanted to give me an early birthday present. So we were sitting out in the living room talking about it, and Mom was like "Why don't you get a pet bird?" I, of course, loved the idea, because I love animals and especially birds. I just wouldn't have guessed that Mom would be willing for me to get one! (And I would guess that sometimes she wishes she hadn't suggested it! ;-) )

So we got on the internet, did a little research, and discovered that budgerigars, also known as budgies or parakeets (they are actually a type of parakeet) make good first time pet birds. The next day we visited two pet stores, and I fell in love with a cute little (he really was littler than the other birds!) blue budgie. We brought him, a house (what I call his cage), food, toys, etc. all home, and that evening got him situated in his new home. The poor little guy was very scared, understandably!

Two days later we were already taking him out of the cage and having him sit on his playground. Much later, I learned that you should ideally go much slower than that when trying to tame a budgie. But I didn't know better, and thankfully Bluebonnet was very young and so he did great. I remember how we would give him spray millet on the playground so that he wouldn't immediately fly back to his house (I guess his wings weren't clipped very short!). We had to get a few things straightened out right off the bat. He did not eat pellets like they said he would - he wanted seeds! I also had to get him a different water bottle. But once we got those things switched around, he was happy.

We put his house out in our den where I spent most of my time doing schoolwork. Whenever Nathan or I walked in the room, we would tell him "Hi!" We talked to him a lot too. I don't remember too much more about "the early days." In November he had his first molt (molting is where a bird loses a lot of its feathers and new ones grow in). I did a little research and discovered that a bird's first molt is typically when they are 3 months old, so that's how I know about when he hatched. I think it was also in Novemeber that he said his first words: "pretty birdie!" He also soon learned how to say "Hi!", so whenever any of us came into the room he would greet us :)

[I'll add more to this later - I've got to go for now]