Louie

Ever since watching "Rio", Daphne has wanted a pet bird.  We did a little research and decided on a parakeet.  I told her she would have to buy it herself.  She saved her money and finally had enough for a bird, but not for the cage.  Santa gave her a bird cage for Christmas along with some parakeet care/training books.  

She spent the last week reading the books.  And then we went on a search for a parakeet.  We knew that we wanted a baby one, and from the books we knew how to tell if a bird was still very young and should hand tame easily.  (the black bands on their heads start at the cere).  We knew that there was a new Petco store that had recently opened close by, so we went there first thinking that they might have young birds and they did!  

They had about 20 young parakeets.  

Daphne picked out the one she wanted and named him Louie.  

(We don't know yet if Louie is a boy or a girl, as he gets older we will be able to tell by the color of his cere.  

Boys have blue ceres, right now his is purpley, another sign that he is young.)

It was so hard not to start training him right away.  But Daphne let him settle in and started his training first thing the next morning.  

(Good thing we changed to the 1-4 pm church schedule.)

She started out by using 2 perches and 

teaching him to step up to the next one when it was offered.

Then she moved on to having him perch on her fingers.

And other people's fingers.

Now he perches on her shoulder and is very at home there. 

He also loves to explore the Christmas tree and my potted plants.

Here I am when I had pet parakeets, Chipper and Osmosis.