Please tell me about all your birds and their most problematic toxic traits ✨️🙏
ALRIGHT!!! This is the Squawk Squad—
THE BUDGIES—
Sake is my little old man. He’s the white budgie with the blue markings. As my “firstborn” he’s almost 9 years old. I adopted him as a high school student back in 2017 or 2018. He’s extremely talkative and social, much to the annoyance of my other birds lmao. There’s always a constant level of chatter in my home and it stems directly from him. The other birds vocalize too, but Sake is consistent. He’s also deeply curious- exploring both with his wings and with his beak. I can no longer keep plants or puzzles or books around him without supervision 🫠
Chug Jug, or CJ, is the blue budgie with the black markings. She was named for the signature blue color. Although it was a joke at first, it kinda stuck. She is the least social of the group, often electing to spend her time hollowing out softwood logs and chewing on wicker balls. She is extremely skittish, and just as agile. Getting her to go to her cage when she doesn’t want to? Unlikely to happen without 2 people and 20 minutes of chasing her until she’s had enough of flying laps around the living room and goes to bed nicely. She makes getting places on time a bit of a gamble if I don’t remember an hour beforehand.
Milo—
The green cheek conure. A friend bought him from a pet store in 2018 and bounced around a few different homes before he ended up with me. He had a rough first few years and was pretty fearful of being handled, but he’s come a long way and is a velcro bird these days! He loves scritches, snuggles, and shoulder rides. He’s very demanding of attention, wanting to be involved in EVERYTHING. This can prove annoying when using kitchen appliances or trying to use the restroom. But you can’t stay mad at him for long, he’s just too darn cute!
Morgan—
My lovely blue and gold macaw. She is 16 this year, and I’ve known her for the last 8. Before she came to me, she belonged to a gentleman on hospice whose family didn’t want to inherit her. My uncle, who was working his case, reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to take her (after getting the okay from the family). When I picked her up, she was pretty fearful and I thought I was in for a few years before maybe she would allow me to handle her. I was wrong and she was my shoulder bird within the month.
Morgan makes herself known. She has a vibrant body, a loud voice, a large personality, and a massive beak. I might warn you that this is a dangerous combination. Bird ownership isn’t for everyone and the possibility of bodily injury is one of those reasons. These birds demand respect and will make this known with a scream of over 100 decibels. That’s hearing damage territory. Not to mention that they can deliver a bite of ~500psi with ease with their sharp beak. And macaws can move quick!
Luckily Morgan is well socialized and mild-mannered for the most part! Plus I’m not going to call these risks “problematic” when that comes with handling any species.
Morgan is problematic because she sits on my shoulder and calls people “MOTHERFUCKER” from my porch.
