Awaiting Apollo

William has finally relented. Well, he relented a few weeks ago. After much protest and compromise we settled on a parrot that we can both enjoy. I wanted a larger parrot, and William wanted no parrot at all.

 

It all worked itself out in the end. We agreed on an Indian Ringneck, smaller of the parrots weighing in at 12-15 inches long with the ability to talk, learn tricks and whistle. Small enough that I'm not scared of being bitten, but large enough that I won't wish that we had gotten something bigger.

 

Settling on the breed was simple, finding a breeder that I trust was a whole other issue all together. I found a breeder who said that she'd have babies ready in May, and that she was only an hour or so from me [Thanks to googlemaps.com I learned that she was more like 5.5 hours from me] I talked to a breeder who had nothing nice to say about the Ringneck breed. At all. She said they were nasty, would attack me and my husband and that she couldn't even sell hers because they were so mean [Sorry lady, but it sounds like it's not the birds that are the problem, maybe it's YOU!] I also called a ton of breeders who didn't call me back or return any of my messages, and the few that I did speak with unanimously agreed that they wouldn't have babies available until May.

 

Being the impatient person that I am, I kept searching.

 

I happened upon a local breeder, not far from my house. Close enough that I could visit daily with my baby while it was being handfed if I wanted to. This breeder has 4 week old Indian Ringnecks available NOW.

 

So, yeah, that happened a lot faster than I thought it would. I'm a little bit nervous at the prospect of hand feeding this baby, but I know that I will enjoy the extra bonding time that I'll get to spend with our little baby, so every 4 hour feedings here I come!

 

I found a cheap, rusted out old cage and hand sanded and refinished and repainted it. I used nontoxic zero VOC paint, I also used boiled teabags to stop the rusting of the cage. Seems that the antioxidants in tea also stops rust, who'd have thought!

 

Tonight I made [William has named him Apollo] Apollo's baby blanket and started making my list of the things I need to buy tomorrow, so that they'll be here when he comes home. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I thought I still had a few months to get it all together, but I'm excited that it's all fallen into place.

 

Here is Apollo's Baby Blanket. This will stay in his baby cage with him and will be a source of warmth and comfort between feedings and cuddlings.

 

 

And here is his cage that I refinished.