Our New Housemates

Not what you may be thinking but new pets for the family.

We've been planning to get a new pet since the kids had been yearning to have one that is more exciting than a fish in an aquarium for quite some time now. The kids wanted a dog but we feel we're not really ready to invest the time and energy to care for one, so we settled with getting some feathered friends. At first I was thinking of cockatiels and was quite settled to get probably a pair but after visiting some pet shops, the kids were more inclined to get some parakeets.

After receiving the cage on Friday which I got brand new through Ebay for a very good price, stand included, we decided to go to Petland Saturday morning, Sept. 22. Missy suggested that this date will also be the parakeets' "birthday". David and Missy went with me so they can choose the birds they like. Their parakeets don't stay in cages but big open compartments. The wings are clipped so they can't really fly away and most of them are quite young. Just the right age to tame them. We got five and we think we either got 2 boys and 3 girls or 3 boys and 2 girls. One is quite not that obvious. To know the sex of the parakeets, one has to look at the cere which is the bump above the beak. The cere is essentially the nose and if it's color is either pink or brown, it's most likely a female. If it's blue, then it's a male.

Before even getting to the pet shop, the kids were already thinking of names to give to the birds. Back home, we settled for Amoyoco and Luke Skywalker for the males, Dindi, Coco and Snow White for the females. Amoyoco is Ophine's fictitious name of a blue bird in one of her original bedtime stories for the kids. We also got one albino with red eyes, thus the name Snow White. Dindi (pronounced Gingi; Portuguese name and spelling from a favorite song of mine a long time ago) was the name of my beloved Great Dane when I was still in the Philippines. Dindi is my favorite and I like her colors, pastel blue and pastel yellow. Coco came from Ophine for a green-yellow colored parakeet and Luke S. was David's idea.

Their first day at home, one can tell that they really need to adjust first to their new environment and they were very skittish but later that evening, I was able to get one on my finger. The kids tried it and were also successful. Now we know we can really tame this one. It was Dindi. Sunday, we were able to do it with Amoyoco. David was also successful handfeeding Luke Skywalker so that's a very good sign. No luck yet with Coco and Snow White. Snow White bit me Saturday night but it was probably my fault for trying too hard on her. Their time will come. I allowed Dindi and Amoyoco crawl out of the bird cage since I really want these birds to "feel at home" with us. I believe once they've adjusted, they'll be very good pets for the family.

Photos to follow.