Tips, Tricks or Other Ideas for Convincing Parents to Let Me Get Fish?

[lovetopaint]

Aww, thank you so much! That really means a lot. Do you have any fish? (I also sense that you may have a budgie from your username!)

Last night one of my pullets (Hatched March 10 last year) was shivering in the corner. Evidently she was there the night before, too. My parents wanted to do chores. My dad goes with me in the evenings sometimes when it's really cold out in case I fall unconscious or something and freeze to death, but my mom usually doesn't. Anyways, they had meant to tell me and forgot. So then we had a little debate about how "she's getting frostbite on the tips of her comb already, can't we just put her in our dog carrier and let her sleep in the basement overnight?" and "No, your mom doesn't want chickens in the house." So we traipsed back to my mom to ask her, finally got the okay, and brought her inside overnight. I ran all the way back with her in my arms.
When we got her indoors, she started eating ravenously. This morning she is still alive--I think she was maybe just cold (and just slightly frostbitten on the tips of her comb)? But I'll keep her indoors another twelve hours for 'observation' and then release her at dark.

 

[lovemybudgie517]

I don't have any fish, currently, but have had many over the past years. We have 2 male budgies....they are awesome. "Wally" (short for Wallowitz on the Big Bang Theory...he's sooo funny) and "Blue Boy", he just flew into the yard one day last summer. We couldn't find his owner so he became a friend of Wally's. They are spoiled & happy guys. We hope to get them girlfriends & breed some fids sometime soon. That would be a blast! We have 4 female Zebra Finch & 2 male. They are all such a happy group. The girls have their own big dormatory & the boys have their 2 separate bachelor pads. Happy little birds & so fun to watch.....(I think they love watching us as much as we do them)! Then, we have 1 rescued female Fischer Lovebird named Mango. The lady we got her from was moving & couldn't take the bird. So....Mango....she's a character! She fell head over hills in LOVE with Blue Boy, instantly. She has her own posh pad & Blue will sit outside her cage & woo her. He feeds her all the time.....makes out with her (by that, I mean he preens her, rubs her head) & she is sooooo smitten she almost falls off her perch with the love petting he does to her head. Crazy in love they are, but that's as far as they get. Since they are two different breeds, as such, we don't put them in a cage together. Mango absoluely hates Wally....poor guy! He tries so hard to get her to like him, but, no way!!! If she could she would bite him bad....she did get his middle toenail. Sniped it right off!! We have to keep Wally away from her. Mango is really lucky we are such good parents! She was never tamed....although the lady said she was & that she will come around.....(bunch of bird poop, if you ask me!!) We've owned lots of birds & this one has never been tamed. She bit me to the bone on my left index finger....I felt white hot fire flash through my body, think I saw angels & just about fainted off my step ladder when she did that!!! Jeezzzzzz.......and I'm soooo nice!!! I don't know about puttin my finger up to her ever again....I could almost faint thinkin about it!

A couple years ago, I wanted chickens. So, I started with a small troop that I bought from a man selling out due to his health. We got RRR's, Barred Rocks.....guess, about 15 chickens & a coop, we got from him. The following year....I really went crazy.....started hatching my own chicks & hand tamed them all.....got me some Orpingtons (LOVED THEM!!), got some of those little bundles of fur ones....uhhh.....Silkies!!! (sooo cool...really LOVED them, too) & then, got us some of the coolest looking dudes....ummm.....Polish Crested....something like that Oh, my......the male looked like "Elvis" with the wild head of black feathers, so we named him that & we got a female....she had a head of black feathers with streaks of brown, we named her "Elvira"....she & Elvis were sooo in love (wish I would've hatched some of those!) They were absolutely the coolest, most cool chickens we ever had....got sooooo much fun just watching them. It was sooooo fun raising those chickens.....in fact, hubby got online looking at coops (why I don't know, cause we have a mansion of one sittin out back!) but....anyway.....he has it in his head he wants to build some new fangled jobber (which is fine, who am I to stop him....I BE GETTING SOME CHICKENS!!! YAY!!!) And, because of your post & all the reviews I've been reading about the Austrolorp's, I'm gonna see if I can find some or even some fertilized eggs to incubate. I am anxious. So....anyway......look at me talkin your leg off.....you did it, I blame you totally! You got me into the chicken mode then onto mentioning my budgie....& I wigged out!! I do love my animals!! Glad to hear you are sooo into animals, too! There is nothing better than the peace & fun an animal can give you! Heck, I think I like most animals more than I like alotta people.....hahahaheee

Well, you take care....I'm gonna browse the ads on here and give you a break! I know you can't tell, but, I am a real animal nut!
We'll chat again!
Later, friend!

 

[lovetopaint]

We must be related, because every week I ask my parents for a new animal. I'm serious. I have plans down to the last screw or piece of hay for at least 10 different species of animals. A peafowl coop, a bantam coop, a hatched-from-Trader-Joe's coop, a beehive, a second beehive, a fish tank, a betta 'apartment', a pasture setup for a couple mini horses, a bunny hutch, a dove aviary, a pigeon coop, a bearded dragon 'house', an anole setup, a duck coop...oops, sorry. I kind of started rambling. Sooo....
Your birds sound so fun!! I can only convince my parents to let me get one budgie--he'll be pushing 4 years old soon. He's so sweet and fun to watch, flirting with his toys. He loves bells--I don't know what he thinks they are.
My aunt has a conure (and he has a favorite album of music, evidently.) I always wanted one, but my mom is probably scarred for life after hearing him screeching when we're ignoring him.
Australorps are awesome!! Of course I just have hatchery, but still! They are so beautiful out in the sunlight! And they aren't super loud or anything--in case you have sensitive neighbors.
Going back to my first few sentences: the only problem is the building of these things. I'm a pretty handy girl. My dad is lucky enough to have a great job--don't get me wrong, I am very happy for that. But with all my siblings, he has barely enough time to breathe. So when I need someone to cut something, he's the one to do it. Because my mom doesn't like touching his table saw or circular saw (and certainly not his reciprocating saw!) I did design and build my parakeet's cage by myself, but still....
Then again, pets are expensive. I think that they like bees the most so far because they give honey. They also liked chickens, because they give eggs. (We don't butcher our hens.) And the guinea fowl is for comic relief. He's so funny to watch. People ask me if he's a peacock. I'm like, "No." Then they'll be like, "What is he?" And I'll saw "A guinea fowl rooster." And they'll say, "Oh, so does your guinea hen protect them?" "NO, IT'S A GUINEA FOWL ROOSTER!!" "You mean a hen?" "NO A ROOSTER!!!!" "Doesn't he breed with them?" "No, of course not!" "Are you sure?" "YES!!" "But what if you're wrong?" "3% of store eggs are fertile when people mistake a hen for a rooster and stick them in battery cages." "Oh."

So there ya have it...
Nice talking to you!!! We must do this again sometime.

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

We must be related, because every week I ask my parents for a new animal. I'm serious. I have plans down to the last screw or piece of hay for at least 10 different species of animals. A peafowl coop, a bantam coop, a hatched-from-Trader-Joe's coop, a beehive, a second beehive, a fish tank, a betta 'apartment', a pasture setup for a couple mini horses, a bunny hutch, a dove aviary, a pigeon coop, a bearded dragon 'house', an anole setup, a duck coop...oops, sorry. I kind of started rambling. Sooo....
Your birds sound so fun!! I can only convince my parents to let me get one budgie--he'll be pushing 4 years old soon. He's so sweet and fun to watch, flirting with his toys. He loves bells--I don't know what he thinks they are.
My aunt has a conure (and he has a favorite album of music, evidently.) I always wanted one, but my mom is probably scarred for life after hearing him screeching when we're ignoring him.
Australorps are awesome!! Of course I just have hatchery, but still! They are so beautiful out in the sunlight! And they aren't super loud or anything--in case you have sensitive neighbors.
Going back to my first few sentences: the only problem is the building of these things. I'm a pretty handy girl. My dad is lucky enough to have a great job--don't get me wrong, I am very happy for that. But with all my siblings, he has barely enough time to breathe. So when I need someone to cut something, he's the one to do it. Because my mom doesn't like touching his table saw or circular saw (and certainly not his reciprocating saw!) I did design and build my parakeet's cage by myself, but still....
Then again, pets are expensive. I think that they like bees the most so far because they give honey. They also liked chickens, because they give eggs. (We don't butcher our hens.) And the guinea fowl is for comic relief. He's so funny to watch. People ask me if he's a peacock. I'm like, "No." Then they'll be like, "What is he?" And I'll saw "A guinea fowl rooster." And they'll say, "Oh, so does your guinea hen protect them?" "NO, IT'S A GUINEA FOWL ROOSTER!!" "You mean a hen?" "NO A ROOSTER!!!!" "Doesn't he breed with them?" "No, of course not!" "Are you sure?" "YES!!" "But what if you're wrong?" "3% of store eggs are fertile when people mistake a hen for a rooster and stick them in battery cages." "Oh."

So there ya have it...
Nice talking to you!!! We must do this again sometime.

lol, you sound like me with my parents! I am always asking for animals, and have all kinda of plans. My parents are pretty thrilled with the whole beehive plan too...as long as the animal provides food, they are much more happy to let me get it

 

[lovemybudgie517]

Hi, Lovetopaint! How ya been? Thought I'd pop in here & find out if you got your fish, you wanted? (or, for that matter, any other newly acquired interest?) I read what all you have and I am amazed! You and I would get along great!! My hubby & I have 6 acres. I wish we had bought a place with some barns or outbuildings. I would have a whole barnyard of animals....hubby just shakes his head and laughs.....He told me once, "honey", he said, "I don't care what it is you want to bring home as long as we don't have to feed it", HA!!! I just laugh, cause if I want something, I will bring it home, if I want it, and he knows it! hahahaha He's just not into all the work it takes to have animals. Me, I love it! He grew up without many animals, I grew up in a small country town in Ohio and we had chickens, I had a horse, dogs, parakeets & a lot of cats lived in my fathers junk car lot so I always found where cats were having there baby kittens. Our neighbor man, had a barnyard where I spent alot of my childhood. He had pigs, guinea's, chickens, goats& cows. Guess that made me want my own barnyard. I told my hubby, if anything, ever, (God Forbid) happens to him......I'm gonna have me the biggest barnyard & probably never leave home. Just be happy with my menagerie of animals....that would be happiness for me! I went to Springfield, MO, yesterday, to go to the Bird Sale/Show. It opened at 9 am & we arrived at 11 am. Alot of birds were still there, alot has sold early, but, we didn't find anything that really grabbed our interest. Since you and I last spoke, hubby & I added a couple breeding boxes to our parakeets cages. We seperated the 4 of them into 2 couples & seperated them into their own cages. It is interesting to watch how these new couples act. So far, the females have all but turned the boxes inside out (I think they are looking for anything that might not be safe, who knows.) The males just sit back, with interest, watching.....it's funny, it looks like the females are saying "just stay back and let me check this out" and the males look soooo nervous, like "Yes, Dear!!!" We had the two males (Blueboy & Wally), so we had to come up with names for the girls. Blueboy's girl, we named "Imy" and Wally's girl, we named "Polly"......we liked the sound of Wally n' Polly hahahhhee.....and, Imy was my Mom's nickname....always like that name. So, anyway, when I get a chance I'm gonna post pics of the birds.....I've misplace my favorite little camera (darn it), so gotta find another around here. I see you are in MO. We live in AR. Wish I had found a male that would have worked as a mate for my Fischer Love Bird.....her name is Mango & she's not tame (we rescued her & are working on taming her.) I envy you and all your animals....particularly, the bees....I love honey, but don't see us ever raising them....hubby is very allergic to their sting! So, no way. If I do get anything, next, it would be a few chickens, again. (A couple years ago, I wasn't working and got into hatching them.) I loved hatching & I did hatch some from the grocery eggs!!! How wild was that! I hatched out so many chicks that I started selling them....people loved that I had them so tame! I hatched, tamed & raised 40 some chickens (still have the set up for them). It was a blast....I couldn't go out to the back yard without having them follow me everywhere I went.....we loved them and the fresh eggs & we never killed our birds, either. Might do that again on a smaller setup. Loved the fresh eggs & I had a great variety: Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Orpingtons (one of my fav's), Bantam's, Silkies (loved the fast, furry feet & body) & as for the most entertaining; we got two Polish chickens, a male & female...hahahahaa, they were a blast! We named them, Elvis & Elvira....they were soooooo fun to watch!! We got them more for entertainment than for eggs. The first three that I named we absolutely some of the best & biggest egg layers & the Orpingtons were big birds, gorgeous & best of all very friendly.......I just might have to find me some young layers for this spring. Anyway, hubby is hesitant about getting tooo many animals....he keeps thinking "oh, what if we want to take a trip, we're gonna have to find someone to care for the animals!!" Me, I'm like, "so what!", we can do that! He worries too much about the small stuff....but, when it comes to feeding the animals.....(our daughter lives bout 20 min away....heck, I know she'd come out and stay here, while we are gone.....or not, she works at the hospital & she would do it anyway) (hubby & daughter are alike, they don't like to ask anyone for help....tooo timid! My son (in Florida), he and I are ok with asking for a little help but we wouldn't ever over-step. It doesn't hurt to ask for help....all that can happen is the person might say they can't.....no prob.....I'd stay home for my animals.....I like animals alot more that most people I know. Well....look at me ramble.....I get to talkin about animals & I can just keep going....

hahahahaee. Ok, thanks for letting me ramble!! I will chat at you again......take great care of all your animals & yourself. Next time!!

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

lovemybudgie517,

how can you tell when they are going to have those bird shows? I found the one in Springfield too late to go. do you have to just live in the area or do they post it somewhere? thanks

 

[lovemybudgie517]

On my Facebook, there are groups I join. Bird groups, mostly. I was on "Missouri Birds for Sale", I think. And, someone was talking about the upcoming Bird Show in Springfield. As I was scanning down the page, there was a picture of a poster with it posted. On the left of my Facebook page, there is a small icon that says "manage your groups"......when I click on that, it will show all the groups active through Facebook. You can join any of them, or start your own groups. If you join a group, you have to be accepted so you cannot post comments until you get notified that you are accepted. That is how I found out about this one.
Are you on Facebook? The reason I ask is to say that once you have joined a group.....you will get activity of people's posts & comments show up on your Facebook page. I have many times seen people talking about bird shows, like, in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas City and such.
And, if I'm not thinking wrong.....isn't there a spot here in BYC that lists upcoming Events.....I've seen that somewhere.....hmmm.....I am a member of www.parrotforums.com.......this is a place to talk about any kind of birds. Maybe there is a place in there that I saw. When I find it...I will come back here to BYC and let you know what I find. Ok! Oh, one more thing....somewhere, my hubby saw an announcement about there is going to be another of these Bird Shows in July & one in Ocotober. He said they were three times a year. I will talk to him where he found that info. I will say that this bird show in Springfield, yesterday, was cool but disappointing to my hubby and me. We have gone to trade shows all over the areas of the U.S. where we have lived. We thought going to one of these would be a BIG event. I had been reading of people coming from all over (like, Nevada, Utah, NY & Tx; as an example). So, we were really excited, thinking we were going to see all kinds of exotics and such. We got there and found it to be quite small. It was held in the IBEW Hall, smaller than like a pet shop. There were an assortment of birds, like, maybe 2 1/2 aisles, we saw lots of very small birds such as finches n' parakeets, maybe, 12 cages assorted. We saw one man with 3 medium white cockatoos, 3 smaller McCaws, another man with 3 cages of lovebirds, 1 cage of 3 cockatiels. Another couple had 4 assorted birds price 450.00 & up, and then 1 cage with a medium sized blue parrot in it. There were bird toys, breeder boxes, big floor cages (good price, new) but that was about it. It opened at 9 am, we got there at 11 am & it closed at 3:30 pm. There were raffles being drawn every 30 minutes. (I won one: pretty cool: a bag of "crazy corn" (a type of food mix for birds) & a 8"x8" rope type ladder (which was cool). The raffle tickets were .50 ea & I bought 6.00 worth (which I won back with winning the one raffle. We did enjoy checkin out the birds and partaking in the raffles, but, all in all, we expected a bigger event, at least 10 times that size. With all the people supposedly coming from all over the states.....I would have really been DEPRESSED if I had driving 5-10 hrs. for just that small an event. (Granted if we had been there at 9 am, I'm sure there were a few more birds that were sold in the first 2 hours.) But, like I say, it was very small compared to anything we have gone to in the past. I will go to more of them but I do hope to not be soo disappointed. It took us about 2 hrs to get there. Anyway, I don't expect they will all be that small, the cold weather may have put people off, too. I'm gonna go scan my groups and find out where the shows are posted. I'll be back! I'm glad you asked that question cause it makes me wonder if I'm missing anything else coming up, so, Thanks for bringing that up!

 

[lovemybudgie517]

Hey, I'm back! And, good news, I found a site that if people are posting to the calendar, as they should, we should be able to find events going on at just this one site!! "www.birdfairs.org"

(I love these little jumpin smilees!)

I did go to "www.parrotforums.com" and found down the left hand side of the page all the topis.....down the list there was one listed for bird and animal fairs. On there, they made a referral to the above site! Hey, I went to the birdfairs.org site and notice one of the postings on the calendar was for a fair for Birds & Small Animals!!! I would really enjoy that one. I notice the ones posted on this past weekend and alot of the dates were for out of state. I can't imagine I'd go to any of them, much more than 3 hrs. away.....unless I were traveling, like heading to visit family in Ohio or on the way to Florida. It would have to be pretty special otherwise. Hope this helps you some.....it will me! And, if you should ever hear of a small animal fair or such, and you don't see it on that calendar site, would you be so kind as to shoot me a message? I will do the same for you! Thank you and I'll be talking to you!!

 

[lovemybudgie517]

Hey, another site I just happened on: "www.BirdShows.net" I haven't checked it out yet....gonna go do that!
Hope it's a good one!

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

On my Facebook, there are groups I join. Bird groups, mostly. I was on "Missouri Birds for Sale", I think. And, someone was talking about the upcoming Bird Show in Springfield. As I was scanning down the page, there was a picture of a poster with it posted. On the left of my Facebook page, there is a small icon that says "manage your groups"......when I click on that, it will show all the groups active through Facebook. You can join any of them, or start your own groups. If you join a group, you have to be accepted so you cannot post comments until you get notified that you are accepted. That is how I found out about this one.
Are you on Facebook? The reason I ask is to say that once you have joined a group.....you will get activity of people's posts & comments show up on your Facebook page. I have many times seen people talking about bird shows, like, in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas City and such.
And, if I'm not thinking wrong.....isn't there a spot here in BYC that lists upcoming Events.....I've seen that somewhere.....hmmm.....I am a member of www.parrotforums.com.......this is a place to talk about any kind of birds. Maybe there is a place in there that I saw. When I find it...I will come back here to BYC and let you know what I find. Ok! Oh, one more thing....somewhere, my hubby saw an announcement about there is going to be another of these Bird Shows in July & one in Ocotober. He said they were three times a year. I will talk to him where he found that info. I will say that this bird show in Springfield, yesterday, was cool but disappointing to my hubby and me. We have gone to trade shows all over the areas of the U.S. where we have lived. We thought going to one of these would be a BIG event. I had been reading of people coming from all over (like, Nevada, Utah, NY & Tx; as an example). So, we were really excited, thinking we were going to see all kinds of exotics and such. We got there and found it to be quite small. It was held in the IBEW Hall, smaller than like a pet shop. There were an assortment of birds, like, maybe 2 1/2 aisles, we saw lots of very small birds such as finches n' parakeets, maybe, 12 cages assorted. We saw one man with 3 medium white cockatoos, 3 smaller McCaws, another man with 3 cages of lovebirds, 1 cage of 3 cockatiels. Another couple had 4 assorted birds price 450.00 & up, and then 1 cage with a medium sized blue parrot in it. There were bird toys, breeder boxes, big floor cages (good price, new) but that was about it. It opened at 9 am, we got there at 11 am & it closed at 3:30 pm. There were raffles being drawn every 30 minutes. (I won one: pretty cool: a bag of "crazy corn" (a type of food mix for birds) & a 8"x8" rope type ladder (which was cool). The raffle tickets were .50 ea & I bought 6.00 worth (which I won back with winning the one raffle. We did enjoy checkin out the birds and partaking in the raffles, but, all in all, we expected a bigger event, at least 10 times that size. With all the people supposedly coming from all over the states.....I would have really been DEPRESSED if I had driving 5-10 hrs. for just that small an event. (Granted if we had been there at 9 am, I'm sure there were a few more birds that were sold in the first 2 hours.) But, like I say, it was very small compared to anything we have gone to in the past. I will go to more of them but I do hope to not be soo disappointed. It took us about 2 hrs to get there. Anyway, I don't expect they will all be that small, the cold weather may have put people off, too. I'm gonna go scan my groups and find out where the shows are posted. I'll be back! I'm glad you asked that question cause it makes me wonder if I'm missing anything else coming up, so, Thanks for bringing that up!

thanks!! i would love to go to one...even the small thing sound pretty cool! Even if i wasn't buying (which, i would most likely pick up some birds anyways, lol...i have trouble saying no ) it would be fun to go look around.