Still remember Barney—my deceased Lutino Lovebird? So what happened since then was... I went to get myself a new bird! I bought a parakeet this time because they are smart and can be trained to speak (coping sound). So I went to a bird store nearby and was fallen in love with the angel-look of Baby Blue, that's how I named him. This time I knew it's a him, cause he has a blue cere (the area above its beak). Parakeets are a bit different from Lovebirds, we can distinguish their sex through the color of their cere. If it's whitish, brown or pink it's usually a female parakeet and if it's deep blue or blue/purple tinted then it's a male.
When I saw him among other parakeets in the cage, I was at once attracted to its soft color of baby blue and turquoise, but above all it's his friendly and loving characters that had attracted me the most. I could see how he played and treated his fellow cage-mates. And how he diligently offered himself to preen his friend's feathers and shared food by regurgitating to his mate's mouth. He is a nice guy after all and it's obvious that I couldn't take my eyes off him!
Baby Blue definitely brings a lot of joy, he's also very docile. Only within several hours after I brought him home and he having acclimated with his new cage and home, I had managed to coax him to stand on my finger! He even stayed on my finger when I swung him while following September by Earth, Wind and Fire. :-) He also started to show off his trick to entertain me. By holding on the iron bar of the cage he turned his body. He's totally cute!! :-D
Then, after a couple weeks or so, I started to realize that I need to spend a lot of time entertaining the bird or else it will be bored, just standing on his perch oozing out... but of course I don't have that much of time, so I went back to the bird store and scored another parakeet for Baby Blue's companion. And I bought Snowy, the combination of white and blue keet. Snowy is different from Baby Blue, he's not tame at all, but he looks smart and sharp. Anyway, they finally bonded though they sometimes fought for territory since I put them in the same cage. I learned that each had to have its own food and water container and perch. Still Snowy was more dominant. Baby Blue was more pacific but at times fought back to defend its territory.
Efforts to tame Snowy seemed to hit the walls. He kept distanced away and refused to stand on my fingers. And he's also very fierce and offensive, he bit me several times. Maybe I was wrong to put them in the same cage, it made it difficult to train him then. Since he became more clingy to Baby Blue as they had bonded to each other. It got worse when Baby Blue started to distance away from me and refused to step up on my finger anymore. Then, I knew I had to do something about it...
I gave up Snowy for adoption! I gave him to a friend who also owns a female parakeet. It's a bit difficult to separate them though, it broke my heart too. I had to take Baby Blue away to another room before I put Snowy into a temporary cage to be taken to his new home. I had to turn my eyes away as he frantically scratched his temporary cage, trying to get out of it...
I could see that it was also hard on Baby Blue as he is a friendly bird and enjoy companions very much. Many times I saw him calling for Snowy and at other times stood silently and spaced out. It is understandable as it's not easy for parakeet to find a mate and bond. Though Snowy is a male keet, they can still bond. But after sometime, Baby Blue was back to itself and become bonded with me back.
