Today's post is all about Holly from Berrysprite and her excellent love birds. I have never had a bird before so this post has been great for me to know more about living with birds. Reading Holly's Furry Fridays made me realise how amazing love birds are. 100% excellent. Holly has a blog an Etsy shop where you can find the cutest amigurumi (amu means to knit, and nuigurumi means plush toy in Japanese. Hence knitted plush toy is called amigurumi). I personally have a black kitty cat made from Holly and I love it very much :D
I can see Holly's love birds are a huge inspiration for her creativity.He is the dinkiest and loves tree climbing!
Hiya! My name is Holly, I’m 24, and I live in Hawaiʻi. I’ve lived here all my life and I never want to leave. I live in an apartment building, which means traditional pets like a cat or dog were out of the question. Lovebirds are the apartment perfect pet; they are very small and clean there’s no need to walk them, or change a litter box (cleaning up after them is as simple as changing a newspaper, especially if you train them to poo in only one spot). All they need is lots of out-of-cage time and even more love. In fact, in my highly biased opinion, lovebirds are the perfect pet!
Let me introduce you to...
Haku, Maka and Peachie Age: 14 From the left: Haku (yellow), Maka (orange and yellow) and Peachie (pink and yellow).
How did you find Haku, Maka and Peachie?
We used to have three lovebirds; Haku, Maka, and Peachie. I got Haku when I was 9 turning 10 years old, my sister got Maka the year after and my little sister got Peachie the year after. We’ve always said that our family wasn’t complete until we got all of our birds. Although my baby Haku and the little rascal Peachie have since passed on, Maka is still our little bird.
Although his full name is Makaliʻi (which means small eyes in Hawaiian), we usually just call him Maka. We have always had so many nicknames for our babies! We usually refer to them as chickens (spend one hour with a lovebird and you’ll see the resemblance!). Some other nicknames were “Beebee,” “Hen,” “Pea” and “Peahen.” As for Maka, we typically call him Kön (pronounced Cone), or Makön (pronounced May-cone). We don’t know exactly where we got this nickname or the spelling (it doesn’t follow grammatical rules), but Kön responds well to it. Typical usage: “What do you think Kön is doing?” or “The Kön needs more food.”
Haku was sleeping in a fish tank with his brothers and sisters in a mall pet store, Maka was in a cage being picked on by big meanies in a mall pet store, and Peachie was running around a fish tank trying not to be caught in a Kalihi pet store.
How would you describe Haku, Maka and Peachies' personality?
Lovebirds are so personable, I never would have guessed! They are very emotional; they can be stubborn and willful (Haku was known to hold grudges when you didn’t play with him), playful and inquisitive (Peachie was constantly getting into trouble and irritating Haku and Maka with his rambunctiousness) and grumpy (Maka used to be grouchy all the time). They can be happy, sad, friendly, caring, and everything in between! They loved to compete with each other and would often get jealous; if I was petting Haku, Peachie would crawl under my hand, chase Haku out and lie down to get scratched… this would really make Haku mad (he would raise the feathers on his back… just like a cat!) Most of all, all of our birds were so loving!
This photo really makes me smile.I can so see Peachie wanting to share the piece of the food Maka is eating (and completely enjoying!). :D
Me
What is Haku, Maka and Peachies' favourite food?
They love fruits, especially strawberries, but they also like junk food! They will go crazy if they even smell peppermint; therefore gum, Peppermint Pattie and candy canes would probably be number one on their personal favorite food lists, if they could write them!
Maka-Millet, Apple, Orange, and Milk, sweet bread.
Peachie- Oat groats, Apple, Bell Pepper, Noodle, Rice, raw hamburger (it’s really bad for lovebirds… but Peachie would try to snag some if he could)
Haku- Oat groats, anything I was eating (including green salad and carrots… so weird!) but he loved soda and raw sugar (also really bad for lovebirds… Haku also tried to snag some if he could)
Their favourite food: Strawberries. But I could not possibly eat such a cute strawberry like this.I actually really like Flickr; it allows you to see people’s most treasured photos of their pets and pet antics!
What do you like most about living with Haku, Maka and Peachie?
I love having someone to say “Hi” to when you come home, who is ALWAYS just as excited about seeing you as you are exited about seeing them. I love feeling their presence, it makes me feel like I’m home; even if I come home late at night and the birds are already put to sleep, they peep and want to come out of their cages to see me. Also, when I sneeze in the middle of the night, all of my birds peep as if to say “Bless you!” even while they’re asleep! So I guess the companionship and the unconditional love are my two favorite things about owning pets.
So cheeky, so playful and so happy.When they get grouchy, vindictive or annoyed, they bite you. Haku only bit a little hard, Peachie bit you a little hard and screamed at you while he was doing it (funny, actually) but Maka draws blood on purpose! He hardly bites anyone anymore, but when he does, he really makes us mad!
The cutest guilty look. All pets do this and you just have to love them to bits!I couldn’t possibly pick only one!
Which part of Haku, Maka and Peachies' life style do you care most about?
I really care that my birds get out of their cages and are free to walk around the house; I even leave their wings unclipped for longer so they have more of their natural mobility. I think the cruelest thing you can do to a bird is to leave him in his cage for his entire life, without ever letting him come out or holding him.
Maka "the life is so good here. I just had a bath!"Owning a pet has taught me how important it is to pay attention to the signals and emotions of others (humans and animals alike). Anyone who says that animals don’t have feelings or that animal life isn’t worth as much as human life hasn’t really had a pet; animals do have feelings, do form attachments, and can feel pain… In my opinion one of the saddest things in this world is animal cruelty and animal abandonment. Most of all, owning a pet has taught me to be a better and more conscious being in the ecosystem of earth.
Thank you Holly, Haku, Maka and Peachie!
Next week's Feline Friday (17/07/09) will be:
Judy from Maccabags :D
Have a wonderful weekend!
If you want to participate in Feline Friday (any pets welcome!) please don't hesitate to contact me. I would be delighted to feature you! :D
