About Me- Oklahoma Green Cheeks
My birdkeeping hobby started long before I knew that I wanted to investigate the avian mind. Before I ever knew about what a nictitating membrane was, or that parrots have a zygotactyl toe arrangement, I was obsessively spending time with the parakeet in my second grade classroom. Tweety didn't like me one bit, and made it very apparent with the numerous bite marks he administered to my hands. My teachers admired my brave interactions with Tweety, so they sent him home with me for the summer, and I was forever changed.
After months of begging my father for a bird of my own, he finally gave in and brought home a scraggly quaker parrot whom I named "Oscar." Oscar was mean as snot and, despite my attempts to teach him to step up, hated me as badly as Tweety had. I was merely seven years old and had decided to tame a wild, vicious beast that I was determined to love. It took months of patience, treats, and persistence, but Oscar finally gave in and decided to love me back... And from there became my sidekick.
Parrotkeeping back then was still relatively unpopular, so my biggest source of information was BirdTalk magazine, with whom I had a faithfully recurring subscription. Through this magazine I learned about Oscar's practical diet requirements, cage dimensions, and toy ideas, and soon began taking Oscar to school for "seminars." A year later my younger sister had acquired a couple cockatiels, so we incorporated them into these seminars so that the other kids could hold and interact along with us. Even in grade school we understood the importance of education and exposure, which was majorly inspired by the frequent appearances of Chris Biro and his parrots at our local fairgrounds.
After months of begging my father for a bird of my own, he finally gave in and brought home a scraggly quaker parrot whom I named "Oscar." Oscar was mean as snot and, despite my attempts to teach him to step up, hated me as badly as Tweety had. I was merely seven years old and had decided to tame a wild, vicious beast that I was determined to love. It took months of patience, treats, and persistence, but Oscar finally gave in and decided to love me back... And from there became my sidekick.
Parrotkeeping back then was still relatively unpopular, so my biggest source of information was BirdTalk magazine, with whom I had a faithfully recurring subscription. Through this magazine I learned about Oscar's practical diet requirements, cage dimensions, and toy ideas, and soon began taking Oscar to school for "seminars." A year later my younger sister had acquired a couple cockatiels, so we incorporated them into these seminars so that the other kids could hold and interact along with us. Even in grade school we understood the importance of education and exposure, which was majorly inspired by the frequent appearances of Chris Biro and his parrots at our local fairgrounds.
Now:
Now I share my home with a Goffin's cockatoo and various Pyrrhura species. I've found that the work I did as a kid has paid off tenfold, because now I can truly appreciate the wonders of a hand raised, well behaved companion parrot. It amuses me to no end to have friends visit and become enthralled in the true majesty of their intelligence. Though they may not like to touch, they still learn. By trial and error (bleh...) I have learned my limits, as well as expanded my horizons through discovering new techniques and acquaintances in the bird world.
And now I have baby birds zipping about all the time. While parrots are a passion of mine, I also split my time between other hobbies, such as soccer, jogging, art, photography, writing, and reading. In 2011 I achieved a Bachelor's degree of Science in Psychology and am now working on my PhD in Experimental Applied Cognitive Psychology at Texas Tech. I try to integrate my bird hobby into the classes that I teach as well as the department overall.
And now I have baby birds zipping about all the time. While parrots are a passion of mine, I also split my time between other hobbies, such as soccer, jogging, art, photography, writing, and reading. In 2011 I achieved a Bachelor's degree of Science in Psychology and am now working on my PhD in Experimental Applied Cognitive Psychology at Texas Tech. I try to integrate my bird hobby into the classes that I teach as well as the department overall.