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| "Bubbzee" came home with me from the local
"Jack's Aquarium and Pets" on July 14, 2002. He was just a baby then -
and more cute than anybody has the right to be.
Bubba is the closest I ever came to an "impulse buy" bird.
There he was, in a cage with a very young Quaker parrot.
I stood there in amazement and watched while Bubba laid on his back (on the
cage floor) and let that Quaker preen him vigorously. Actually, it was
the preening that first caught my attention. I became alarmed, fearing
the little guy would be chomped to death - and alerted the clerk there.
But the clerk assured me that Bubba seemed to love the attention from the
Quaker - and as I stood there, I saw the clerk was right.
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I saw him, held him (ok... it was over then,
I knew I'd buy him) then came home and researched Black Capped Conures
(before the purchase) to see what I was getting into.
I was delighted to read that this species is known as the
"stealth conure" because they are generally so quiet (at least compared to
other parrots). Armed with this information - I went back to the pet
store the very next day and bought him. |
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| I'd adopted Aussie the day before I saw Bubba
(2 days before I adopted him). As you can see... the 2 of them get on
just fine. They were fast friends from the beginning. Both of
them being young fledglings, they accepted each other without question. |
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Am I going to hear from the ASPCA about this
photo? Honestly, Bubba loves to be flipped upside down. He is
the biggest clown! When he first came home, he was a
little "Tasmanian Devil" bird. He'd climb all over me so FAST - just
running and scrambling all over my body. It was hilarious...but a bit
disconcerting.
One early morning, I got him out and had him on my
shoulder as I was typing an email to my then-fiance-now-husband Stephen.
I was in a very loose floor-length nighty. Bubba scrambled down to the
hem of the nighty, flipped up the back, and before I could react, he climbed
back up the gown - from the INSIDE! I was so shocked I let out a
little yell; that startled him and he bounced out the neck of the gown and
then stood on my shoulder - more or less frozen - until I lost control and
started laughing (then he started back down the outside of the gown.. but I
intercepted him...) |
| I can't say Bubba doesn't get jealous of the
other birds, but he seems interested in being friendly for the most part.
Here he's eye-balling "Anak" - a very young canary chick.
The only time he's been aggressively jealous was over the
telephone - yes, the telephone. He was sitting on my shoulder when I
was talking to my father and, I guess, took offence to the attention to the
phone. He grabbed onto my chin with his beak and I had to literally
pull him off. Fortunately he didn't break the skin (he could have, but
didn't) - or I'd have gotten a very nasty facial scar.
Now I set him down before answering the phone... |
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| Bubba is not really as enthusiastic about
bathing as any of the other birds are. He more-or-less tolerates the
occasional shower (I don't give him a lot of choice, really). When it
comes to standing water, he seems curious but just never really gets in and
thrashes. Here he's watching Aussie have a great time... but never
really trusts the process enough to get in himself. |
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Playtime - if I
want to show Bubba a good time, all I have to do is get out some newspaper
or a magazine and set it where he can get to it.
He loves playing "hide and seek". If he sees a stack
of newspaper, he'll dive right for it and wriggle his way into the middle.
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| But if you don't come looking for him right
away, he can't resist peeking out to see if he's fooled you.
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