I love birds. I love them so much I have zillions of them. Well, okay, not zillions, but lots.

In fact, they take up so much of my life I thought it was only fair to devote a page to them. I'd devote a mailing list to them, but that would be--waitaminute. They already have their own mailing list . . . If you'd like to be put on it--get updated when I have babies, and hear silly things they do--write to me and I'll put you on there!

General birdy background:
I got Kris when she was three weeks old--that first picture of her below was taken the day I got her! Before that, I'd had bad luck with birds. In other words, I didn't know how to train them and they were mean! But I had to hand feed Kris (named Kristina Kringle, because Santa brought her!) every three hours from six AM to ten PM, and so she was tame by default! Later--when I started breeding them--I learned a lot about cockatiels, and then birds in general. I'm actually working on one of those "owning a pet cockatiel" manuals, so if you have any questions about bird training or whatnot, feel free to write me and I'll help as much as I can!

Kris, as birds will do, grew up. I started going away to school--I homeschooled, so being gone during the day was 'going away' for me!--and Kris, whom I'd held all day long (she even slept with me--on my shoulder--when I napped occasionally!) didn't like being left alone so much. Since 'tiels commit suicide, I decided to get her a friend! Enter [drumroll please!] Confetti! So named because he was born on December 30th, which is awfully near New Years here . . . and what do you throw on New Years? Confetti! It was either that or champagne . . . and I didn't think being named after alcohol would be very good!

Well, my plan to get Fris and Fetti to like each other didn't work well at first. Kris hated Fetti. Then Fetti got sick, and--at four weeks old, poor baby!--he had to be hospitalized for several days. After several relapses and things, we finally got him better. To this day his growth is slightly stunted--but where Kris was small, Fetti would have been huge! Even stunted, he's on the large side of average for a 'tiel!

Kris started laying unfertilized eggs. The breeder said that just having a male around--even though he was waaaaaay too young to breed--was enough to jump-start Kris's birdy-instincts! So while she was happily laying (and then promptly abandoning!) eggs, Fetti started to sing. At six and seven weeks old. This is highly unusual. Not just sing, mind you--but sing recognizable songs. Like "Dixie." And "The Star Spangled Banner." And "Charge." My friend Jelpy, upon hearing this, promptly dubbed him the Jazzman, and that's stuck! (Along with Amadeus, from my mom.) As Fetti got older he and Kris decided they liked each other a lot, and fertile eggs were laid! Poor Fetti was only a year old--they aren't supposed to breed until two and a half!

Anyway, after laying lots of infertile eggs, and lots of sexual frustration on Kris's part (hey, Fetti was young! And really, really clueless!) they finally had Trix and Chex! We started named the clutches with similar names--one clutch would be cereal, the next were all names from literary works, the next bird noises. All the boys sing--early--all the girls use their intelligence to drive me mad.

Along with Trix and Chex came Loiosh--a strange looking cockatiel if ever there was one, because, you see, he was a sparrow we saved. He lives in the girls' cage, partitioned off so he can talk with them but not attack them! Sparrows, believe it or not, are predators!

About every six months I let Kris and Fetti back together, and more babies result. I sell the babies, because I don't feel like I have enough time to keep everyone happy, but I charge an arm and a leg for them, and leash break them (so far, I've heard of three 'tiels who have killed themselves rather than be leash-broken, but because I deal with them so young I can do it) and send leashes with them, along with their singing tapes and things. So far, I've sold three. Of those, one died, though it wasn't his mom's fault. More on that when I get to him, though!

Now. I did have little tidbits about each bird below (roughly in the order that I got them in) but, well, the page was huge to download. So I've broken it into smaller parts!

Kris, Confetti, Loiosh, Trix and Chex, Em, Peeps and Reeps, Katie, Sapphire, Alizarin.

Below is the cockatiel family, before Peeps and Reeps were born, and before I sold Trix. That's Em, on the far left. With his back to the camera is Confetti, and next to Fetti with his back to us is Trix. Behind Trix is Kris, and on the tile floor is Chex!

Bird Stories
Stories (and poems) written by people because I liked birds, or because something I said about my birds inspired them, stuff like that.
Loiosh--Birth
My Birds (with apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson)
My Birds 2
A Theory of Flight