Oh wait. I think i was there, at the place where the guy wanted to sale the doves at five dollars. My uncle actually bought a pair, if im right, and that's where i got Coco/Vesta, right?

Yes, Erik. That's where you bought Coco, and where I bought Lucy. He was next to Carolyn, selling doves and pigeons. The doves were $5, but I don't remember how much the pigeons were.

I will have to make sure Lucy is completely bonded to me, first. We are moving forward, but we're still having difficulties. She still won't step up for me while in the cage, and she doesn't let me pet her unless if she is standing on my right hand, and I'm petting her with my left (yes, the hands actually matter). She's starting to accept scritches while on my shoulder, and just last night, she tolerated a few seconds worth of scritches while on my laptop. She's also gotten into a habit where she'll let me pet give her scritches, bite me (as in an actual bite, that almost hurts), then lower her head, as if she's saying: "Stop that! ... Now scritch me here."

Though funny thing, he said to me that doves are peaceful birds, meanwhile his pigeons were trying to peck each other's eyes out. I mean, he wasn't lying, but I still found it funny and ironic. You want to know the ironic thing about it?

Another name for the common pigeon is "rock dove".

Carolyn, do you know if Flint tames his ARNs? I was considering an African or Indian ringneck as well at the summer bird mart, but the only ones that were being sold were way above my budget. Considering the color mutations, I'm sure they were reasonable to some extent. I might be on the lookout for his African Ringnecks, if I go to the October bird mart. (of course, I would have to get a cage for one. Their beaks are bigger than a cockatiel's, so if there was a disagreement, I think we know who would be the loser)

Flint doesn't handfeed his birds unless it's necessary to keep them alive, but he did have to handfeed some ringneck babies this year after their parents threw them out of the nest. Last I heard he still had them but I don't know what their current status is. If you're serious enough to want to call him I could PM his phone number to you. It's in the bird club newsletter so it's basically public information. Another alternative would be to come to a club meeting and talk to him there if you don't want to wait another six weeks for the bird mart. The next club meeting is on September 13.

He usually brings some ringnecks to the October bird mart but I don't remember what he charges for them. He enjoys raising birds and isn't out to make money, so in general his prices are about as low as you could ever hope to find. Ringnecks are a more challenging species to keep as pets than cockatiels, so it would be good to talk to him about their general temperament and what it takes to keep them tame. I've heard that there's a time frame where you have to handle them every day to keep them tame but I don't remember how long it is. There eventually comes a point where daily handling isn't absolutely required.

I'm not really serious about getting one at the moment, but I'll consider it, if I do go to the October bird expo.

There's honestly a lot of options running through my head. Dove, African/Indian Ringneck, Parrotlet, chicken (yes, I have thought of it, before)... Only time will tell, I guess. Heck, I might end up with an ostrich, somehow! How about that for a "little" feathered buddy?

In all seriousness, we'll just see what I may or may not end up with. In the meantime, I still have a lot to work on, with Lucy.

The world is so small!!!!

Indeed it is small. To make it seem even smaller, it turns out that Coco and Lucy hatched the same day. If they were from the same parents, they would be twins.




(Lucy is "Hester", by the way)

Though I guess, since they grew up together, they could be called hatch-twins.

By the way Erik, if you're curious about baby pictures, Carolyn has them all here. http://home.comcast.net/~ch_zonie/2015babies.html You can see how Coco grew up. If you're having trouble telling him apart from his siblings in the earlier pictures, keep in mind that he's the oldest of his clutch, so he's going to be the biggest and most developed. Then in the later ones, I think you could tell which one is him by the markings.

Oh!! Soo Cute!!! Is Lucy the third one from left to right at the top layer?



And i guess that Coco is the left one of the top layer. You can't even see his face!

I want to breed Coco. Im starting to think Coco is actually a female. You guessed it right from the beginning Carolyn! It's just sad that Pip will never be a father though. But do you think that if I look for somebody that has a male tiel, Coco and the tiel might mate?

Lucy is actually the one on the far right showing us her back end lol. And yes, Coco is the one on the left.

Cockatiels aren't like dogs, where you can put them together for a few minutes and expect them to mate. The cockatiel breeding pattern is more like a marriage, where they form an ongoing pair bond and raise the babies together. If you buy another male (or borrow one for several months) and Coco likes him better than Pip, you'll probably get some babies out of it. If Coco turns out to be a boy after all you'll need a hen of course. But Coco is much too young to breed right now in any case, and you'll need to convince your parents to let you do it.

Lucy's actually the one showing her tail feathers to the camera. She's a much lighter color than those greys, being a cinnamon color and all.



It's going to take a while for Coco to be ready to breed, let alone want to. Just like Carolyn said, the process for it is a bit more complicated. It could be possible that Coco is a very quiet male, as well.

And if it does turn out that they are opposite genders, then time will tell, when Coco is ready. I would imagine that pip is a bit older than coco, as well, which could be a reason why they're not very bonded.

By the way, Erik, I'm curious. Where did you get pip? Was it at the same bird mart, from different people? Because I remember there being a single cockatiel sold by some other people, who were selling finches, and they said the cockatiel wasn't exactly "tame", or "friendly", since it got in fights with the birds in the aviary (to be fair, he was the only cockatiel, among a whole bunch of finches. I remember he was a pied, just like both Coco and Pip. Judging by what you said about getting them though, I somewhat doubt it's the same bird.

I actually remember that bird you're talking about, they were selling him at 30 bucks. It was a female and the guy said he didn't like coming to sell his birds, but keep them in his aviary, pretty cool.

And if you couldn't tell from that, no, Pip was not bought from that same bird mart. In fact, I bought Pip here, in Mexico. My friend told me he wanted to sell his because nobody wanted to take him from his shop downtown, so I bought him at $750 pesos (not sure how much that is in dollars, but, considering the dollar over here is being sold as 17.something, I guess somebody could do the math, I actually got him at a cheap prize). So when I took Pip home, I realized his feet were useless (sorry Pip).