[HPFGU-OTChatter] Beauty over personality? RE: choosing pets

[Dina Lerret]

On 11/26/06, Maria Vaerewyck <maria8162001 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> and not trust anyone to touch them again. But for what it's worth any
> friendly animals that are eager to have a new owner or eager to be
> with you the moment they see, means are more likely to listen to you

I dunno about listening to me. {g}

I ended up buying both today and paying for them on a credit card.
Thankfully, it's a new credit card with one of those no interest
introductory periods and I'm... bad thing to do but... relying on my
Christmas bonus to then pay off the card.  I really should've picked
up only one since both ended up costing over $250 (extra dishes, food,
toys, etc had added to the costs) but I couldn't decide on one bird.
A pet store employee was helpful in getting both birds out for me to
inspect.

Wooboy, the not-as-pretty male (I'm guessing he may grow out of the
'dirty face' stage since he's young - his face has gray feathers
mottled between yellow versus a more smooth yellow face), which he's
now named Lucky, was an exercise for both me and the employee to catch
when he escaped and then when I got home... oh man, I'm tired because
I let him play on the floor and then I couldn't catch him as he zoomed
under and around furniture. {g}  Such a high energy little fellow, and
when he sat on my shoulder, he still didn't stop trying to find
mischief by then pulling hair out of my hair claw.

The pretty female, which is now named Sammy, was definitely not as
active and easier to catch.  She sat peacefully on my shoulder.
Unfortunately, since Lucky is very forward, he kinda scares Sammy and
I watched him trying to grab her crown feathers, so I had to split
them into two separate cages, which are now next to each other, and
only let them together when I'm watching.  Means I'll have to make
*another* trip to the pet store to equip *two* cages versus both birds
sharing the one large.  Fortunately, I had one more spare cage in
storage or it would've been another $50-70 for a cage.

My first cockatiel, Pretty (no, I didn't name her {g} - my mom named
her because I went with her, my brother, and my sister-in-law to the
birdshow and I couldn't think of a name and was like 'okay'), also
tried to pull Sammy's crown feathers and Pretty *definitely* doesn't
like Lucky because Pretty is territorial and Lucky doesn't care... as
evident by Lucky stepping on Pretty's tail feathers. {chuckle}

So, three cockatiels, three cages, unplanned extra costs, and
worrying... but I am still glad I bought both because they bring in a
different mixture.  As to how Sammy didn't end up with an adjective
for a name, I wanted at least one cockatiel named after a Winchester
brother from WB/CW's Supernatural.

Dina