Hi! I'm Laka, one of the avian
owners of this site. Welcome to our webperch!
George has been with us for
3 weeks now. He's settling in beautifully. He keeps us all
in stitches every day with his amazing vocabulary of English words and
sound effects. Mum hasn't caught him on video yet (like most of
us, he clams up when she
pushes the "start" button on the camera) No
worries. I'll talk to him about that. As of April
19, 2008 we've got a new article about getting weighed (mum got
the idea from a discussion topic on Smiley's Birds forum)
Blue asked Mum to
add links to some "Best... Sites" - where you can vote for us
(assuming you enjoy our site). Blue's a good bloke and we're happy
that he's on the ball with new ways to bring visitors here. And
the links are just below my signature here...
(Laka)
Each of the links below
are for different "best" webpage lists. Each is a kind
of "People's Choice Award". When you click the links
below you'll be taken to pages that has a "vote" button.
If you click that vote button, our website's standings improve by
"1" and our website will move up that list a bit. Mum's
enrolled us in 7 different "best" lists and will be monitoring
our visit stats in the next couple of months to see if this really does
bring more visitors to our website.
Spain 1999 (Mum and Dad met on this trip)
Mum needs to redo this section and eliminate most of the verbiage, leaving
the photos... and maybe rescan the photos, as they were taken with a
35mm camera and scanned on a VERY cheap scanner back in 1999. Most of
the photos start on day 3.)
Our
Personal Pages (lots of photos!)
Mum put these pages together for us. She won't let us near the
computer keyboard because we tend to remove the keys. Click our
names to see our personal pages, click our photos for "NAQ" (Never Asked Questions).
I've been with Mum and
Dad for a year now. These past months I've worked
hard on gaining control of the household. Some days it seems
like I'm almost there, but then other days... well... you know how
it is. Mum says I'm her
little Cuddlepie and Dad, well, he's a softie and is always good
for a scritch. Mum is getting a bit more active with
the video camera and is starting to collect some videos of
me. I was camera shy at first, but I'm getting used to it
now.
I'm not a parrot, but
Laka, Ned, and Kelly voted me an honorary psittacine,
so I get a web page, too.
Our
Neighbors (Various Visitors To Our Yard
- this was Blue's idea!)
(updated Jan 24, 2008)
We all notice the wild
birds outside, but Blue is the one who is the most chatty with the
neighbors. He thought we should have a page dedicated to our
favorite wild friends.
Our American Brothers and Sisters Before
moving to Australia, Mum and Dad had a family in America.
Unfortunately the Australian customs regulations at the time would
not allow Mum and Dad to bring them along, so they all had to find
new homes in the US. Fortunately, everyone did well and we
hear from them pretty regularly.
"Original Thoughts"
Original articles for your contemplation and
enjoyment.
All
rights reserved, copywriten and such. Be nice or we'll bite
you for sure.
Which kinds of birds typically
end up needing a new home? As a way of quantifying
this, Mum kept a database of newspaper pet advertisements
for a year.
In March of 2006, Mum resigned
her day job. She and Dad decided it was time to move to Australia.
They wanted to bring along the birds they'd shared their
home with in America. Here's what happened.
Everybody's got an opinion.
Everybody's right about some things and wrong about some
things. Who can you trust? Sometimes we need to
trust ourselves enough to challenge the self-proclaimed
authorities.
In early 2008, there was a
motion before the Pennsylvania Game Commission to ban Nanday
Conures in the state. Fortunately, local bird lovers
found out, organized, and presented a strong reasoning voice
to the commission.
We get questions about birds in
general, but folks do seem to focus on Pakshi, Laka, and
Jesse. Mum started this article and although she's not
quite done, she's gone ahead and posted a few thoughts.
To some degree it's common
sense but Mum's bought a lot of cages in her time and
she's made some whopping big and expensive mistakes..
Here's some things she's learned to watch for.
We birds are
designed for flight. It's not just a hobby, it's
important for our health and happiness. Mum doesn't
think clipping/trimming is a good idea, but she's done it
once or twice.
It's never wise
to allow a parrot to become bored.
"Good
Bird" (Our favorite bird
links - they are in no particular order right now...but we did
rate them on a scale of 1-to-5 peanuts.)
Smiley's
Birds
This is a good online
community forum based in Australia (but with members from
other countries). Mum discovered this forum in January
2008 and so far she's really enjoying it.
Mid American Exotic Bird Society
Mum has written a few articles for the MAEBS
newsletter. The editor tells us that she's planning to
put some of those newsletters on the site.
We all hope
you are a member of a bird club and support the excellent
work that organizations like this one do to educate humans
about birds and their special needs. We're sorry we
can't give more than one peanut for the website - but MAEBS
as an organization deserves TEN peanuts for the work they
do.
ParrotParrot.com
Lots of information - both
general and specific. A well designed site with easy
to follow links and loads of info.
Dr.
Walker's Website
Dr Colin Walker (in Knox,
Victoria) is a great avian vet. Mum and Dad can't
believe their luck living so close to a good vet. And
here's a link to his "articles" published on his
webpage. He's mostly into racing pigeons, but he knows
a lot about parrots. Check out his
"articles" - especially the ones about
diseases. Easy to read and very informative.
Listen to Australian Bird Calls
There are some excellent
fact sheets and birdsong clips here. The superb fairy
wren recording is excellent. So is the one for the
King Parrot and Kookaburra. The Rainbow Lorikeet one
isn't very good, however - the ones near our home have a
pretty call, not like the recording.
Hartman Aviary Jesse came from here
(an Ohio-based breeder). The website is excellent, lots of information
about birds. The video "The Bird Sitter" was filmed at
Hartman Aviary (we love watching it, we just wish Mum would
play it more often) and you've gotta check out their new "The Aviator" parrot harness
(Laka loves hers).
The Parrot Keyboard
You're going to blink twice when
you see this one - but we think this fellow is 100%
serious...and he may really be on to something. A
"must see" site.
Why Our Mum Hasn't Adopted
a Cockatoo
Mum
fell in love with a 'too'
about the time Bubba and Aussie were adopted. But she
did her research and opted not to adopt one. Here's why...
Murdered by Oven
A terribly sad story.
Fortunately for us, Mum suspected that the self-cleaning
oven might be bad for us...
Parrotlinks
Wanna "talk
bird"? This is good
online community/message board. It's based in the UK,
but there are members from all over (including the US and
Australia). Members are
knowledgeable, fun-loving, and polite. Mum's been a
member for a couple of years now.
SevenParrots.com is not a
"commercial" website. We aren't selling anything here. We don't
give nutrition or avian medical information here (there are other, better
sites for that). This is our personal site - a place to put photos of
ourselves and for Mum to share what she's learned about living with an avian
family.
If your birdee is sick - contact an avian vet right away - don't
wait!
By the time a bird shows signs of illness, he/she is VERY sick!
All
rights reserved, copyrighted and such. Be nice or we'll bite
you for sure.
