Yay!!! Beaker is so lucky to have met you!

Hurray! What a great name.

So happy you have another birdie, Splunge.

What kind of bird?

needlegirl, Beaker is an adorable 4 month old Sulfur Crested cockatoo and there are some pictures as well as more back story from Splunge in this thread.

Well, A picture. Hoping for more here!

Pics:

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Actually he's a mix of a Lesser Sulphur Crested and a Bare Eye Cockatoo. He's the cuddliest and sweetest bird that I have ever had the pleasure to meet. And we didn't pick him. He picked us. We were going to wait to get an Indian Ringneck. But every time I came into the store to ask about the availability of Ringnecks, this baby would walk over to me saying, Hello. Hello.

So I finally asked the owner about a payment plan. Well this is all in the other post. Let's just say that Beaker picked me for his daddy. And he's cuddling with the wife right now. He is seriously the cuddliest bird I have ever met. I know. I'm gushing too much, sorry.

I think it's time to warm up some oatmeal for the little fellow.

Thanks to everyone who put up with my bird issues for this long.

Pretty bird!

Welcome new birdie!

Hello, Beaker! Glad you have a new family!

Hello Beaker!

Today is a Good Pet Day! Last week I found a dog (I think she was dumped in the holler where I live.) I can't keep her because we're already two adults and two dogs in a 700 square foot house, so I took her to our local awesome shelter. They vetted her and put her up for adoption; she was made available within the last day or two. This evening, she's off their website! She found her forever home in less than a week!

Happy pet days from Megan (they gave her my name as a shelter name) the probably-German-Shorthaired-Pointer or maybe-Bluetick-Coonhound dog.

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Oh, what a pretty dog! I'm glad she found a home, too!

Yay for happy pets! Splunge, you sound so happy :) I love seeing the photos of Beaker.

Oh, pretty Megan! And gorgeous photogenic Beaker!

Oh! Beaker looks adorable. We looked at a bare eye cockatoo a while back (why, yes, I do stop at the bird store to say hi to the birds and pet them), and he was so adorable.

However, Gryphlet (our parrotlet) has made it quite clear that she prefers being the only bird in the household.

I can't wait to see more pictures and hear more about him. :)

Beaker is adorable! So happy for you!

Beaker is GORGEOUS! Yay, Splunge, I am so happy for you!

We had a shelter kitty adopt us this spring, right after we lost our beautiful ten month old kitten to FIP. I didn't want another cat right away, but little did I know that all of us needed Pixel in our lives.

Pixel is just the best cat ever. He and Marlowe play like kittens and sleep in a pile together on our bed every night. You'd think they'd been raised in the same litter.

Here's a short clip of Pixel demonstrating how quickly he's taken to walking on harness with me around the neighborhood. Well, he really taught himself with very little input from me. He's easily one of the smartest and most teachable cats I've ever known. He especially enjoys going for walks to the local park, so he can scratch and climb on every tree available. Oh and he did actually catch the bug he was after right at the end of that video :)

workerant, we had a coonhound very similar to that "adopt" us when I was a teenager growing up on the farm. She turned up out of nowhere, skinny, collarless and full of fleas. One of the best tempered dogs I've ever known. We put ads in the newspaper and flyered all the local stores looking for her owner, to no avail. We already had 2 obnoxious Aussie Shepherds and couldn't keep her, but our local veterinarian found a home for her within a few days (his daughter wanted a dog).

It's wonderful to read how happy you are.
Reminds me of when I was in a relationship with a mefite and then a zygote adopted us!

What a wonderful story!

Further annoying update from Daddy. Beaker is getting very frisky. No more is the shivering birdie who was afraid of everything. Now we have a birdie who has discovered an amazing thing. The FLOOR! Most of the house is carpeted. It's a townhouse so the downstairs is pretty much one long space. He tried walking on the tiled kitchen flor at first, but decided that he didn't like it. At first he would only walk around a bit. Then he would come to my foot and stand on it. That meant, Pick me up. Now he is Explorer Bird. If the wife is in the livingroom with him on her chest for scritches (lots of scritches), and I'm in my office, all is well. But if he hears my door open he starts calling to me. He actually has two different calls for the wife and I. She says mine sounds like a dog's squeak toy in reverse. Her's is a lovely trill.

So then he climbs down from her lap and starts to go to the kitchen. My office is down a small hallway from there. He waddles and hops, wings outspread making the daddy noise. When he sees me he yells, Hello!

I'm guessing that the Hello is something he learned very quickly at the pet store. Because, no doubt, that was what everyone said to him since he was old enough to be in the general population.

He's only 4 months old! Now understand, I'm not the kind of person that buys a bird based on whether or not it talks. That is just a plus. But this birdie is the most friendly bird that I have ever met.

As well, I was thinking today that he will never take the place of Scooby. And I will always have a place in my heart for her. But he already has his own place in my heart and in my life. My heart seems to be big enough for a lot of love. That makes me happy.

On that note, much love to workerant and Megan as well as lonefrontranger and Pixel. Great name!

Heck, love to you all. I have plenty to go around right now.

That update made me happy.

No animal or person can ever replace anyone we love, but they can expand our hearts so that we love them, too. It's pretty awesome.

My heart seems to be big enough for a lot of love. That makes me happy.

It's a good feeling, I am really glad you have a bird in your house that makes you happy.

Welcome, Beaker!

Splunge I want to hear ALL THE BEAKER STORIES!!

When I was young, I spent a lot of time at a local bike shop where the owner was also a bird guy. He kept a green parrot there (dunno the right exact species) that everyone called Knucklehead. He was super great and really well behaved, and I used to have a picture somewhere of me with Knucklehead on my shoulder, gently grooming my hair. He was a pretty loveable bird, and enjoyed being scritched too.

gee that was like, twenty years ago now I guess. Pete and Paula (the bike shop owners) still have a bird store to my knowledge. It's in Bellbrook, Ohio.

Well if you insist. Further Adventures of Beaker: Not a Love Story...

So the wife and my mother went on a gambling cruise today. Yours truly got to spend time with a Shih Tzu mix and a birdie. Background... Max and my first bird, Scooby did not get along. Not after that little Quaker monster thought his tail was a chew toy.

Fast forward to today.

Max came in with my wife and my mother. Beaker was on my shoulder preening away. He noticed my mother but not the dog. They went off on their cruise and I sat back with Beaker on my chest preening. Max went into my computer room to lie down. It's always warmer in here due to the monster that I use for work (gaming). Eventually Beaker wanted to go exploring on the floor. Now I'm not stupid. I knew that Max could appear any time. And I was totally committed to not allowing any accidental contact. I had Beaker at my feet when Max came in wagging his tail. Right away I was ready to scoop the bird up. But I didn't have to. When Beaker saw Max he went into full on raptor mode. Wings spread, low to the ground, crest up. And he hissed as loud as i have ever heard a bird hiss.

Max ran back into my room like a shot. Beaker bobbed his head and did a trill. Like, "Yeah, TAKE THAT!"

I put Beaker in his cage for a bit and went back to my room. Max had thrown up on my carpet.

Max is a rescue doggie and he can be very nervous. I feel so damn bad for him. The last time he was here there was no evil birdie around. He probably thought it was safe. Then he sees a monster bird, almost as big as him. On the floor. Hissing like a snake! That poor doggie.

I eventually got Max to come out of my room so that I could take him walkies. A few times. Each time I had to put his leash on to get him out of my room. Each time I made sure that Beaker was in his cage.

When mom and the wife finally came home Max ran to my mother and jumped up into her lap, she was sitting on the couch. He licked her face all over but he still had an eye out for the evil dinosaur on the cage.

Clarification. I spent time with Max as well. In my room. He had toys and snacks. After I wiped up his gift to me. When Beaker was in his cage he called to me. When I was with Beaker, Max grumbled and whined. I felt like I was being pulled from both sides. I love them both. I hope that one day they can be friends. Beaker is very young. He could live to 20-40 years old in the wild. In captivity, he could live 50-70 years. I understand the gravity of having a friend like that for so long. It's not even "owning a pet", it's having a life long companion.

For people that aren't "bird people" this might be strange. Why would someone want the equivalent of starting over with a baby and raising it to be an adult? because that is what Beaker is now. He's a baby. And he's just as much "trouble" as a human baby. All of it. Including the poop. All I can think is that having a parrot is a gift. It is a special bond. When Beaker is older I will have a friend that is so incredibly special... i can't explain the love involved here. The bond gets so strong. It's like being one person. It used to be ScoobyRichCaryn. This will be BeakerRichCaryn. I don't know how to explain it better. You will have to trust me.

Peace all.

This is so wonderful. I admit to my prior life as a canary and parakeet owner. I am really drawn to birds, but incompatible pets including our cats have prevented adoption. I keep checking back to MeCha to hear more of Beaker's conquest of Splunge and wife's big hearts.