The story of the birds coming into our life is a very interesting one. One day I went to Petco to get cat food, and as usual I went to look at the birds. My father had wanted a bird my whole life, so we always looked at the birds. Well, while looking at the Cockatials, I whistled, and one of the birds whistled back at me. I was shocked! So after a few minutes of whistling, I figured out which bird it was. The bird came right up to the glass and was talking to me like crazy, right then and there I decided that we had to have this bird.
So I purchased a "cockatial starter kit" and the bird. My father had been home with a migrane that day, so we went to my parents house, woke him up and told him he had to come put a cage together. My father came out of the bedroom , and saw this cage in a box, and this little tiny box with a picture of a bunny on it. He looked at me and said "tell me you didnt buy me a rabbit". I told him he would just have to look inside and see. My dad opened the box, and there was a bird... he sat there talking to the bird for atleast a half hour before he even put his finger into the box. It was an instant bond. We debated for a while but finally agreed to name the bird Zeek (short for Ezekiel).
Zeek and my father became instant best friends. They did everything together. Zeek even followed my father into the shower. After doing a lot of reading and research, my father decided that we needed to get Zeek a friend.
We had a neighbor who was getting rid of her cocaktiel, so we took it in and named it Zach... it wasnt as friendly as Zeek, and was quite skittish. Very different kind of bird than we were used too. One day my father put the cage on a hook out front, so the birds could be outside for a while and the cage fell and the birds flew away. We were all devestated. That Monday when my son went to school, he told the class that our birds had flown away, and another student in his class said they had found a cockatiel that weekend. Low and behold, it was Zeek that they found. Zach was long gone, but we never really got attached to him like we did Zeek, so we were thrilled to have Zeek back home.
Later, we decided to try to get Zeek a friend again. So we contacted a breeder and purchased a baby bird. We named this bird Zach as well. As it turned out, Zach was female, we didnt find this out untill Zeek and Zach started mating. So we have a momma bird and a daddy bird.
Zeek and Zach have had multiple clutches of babies. We have kept some of them, and others we have given away. The runt of the first clutch we named Wilbur, and we had him for quite some time, untill he flew away. We also had Ziggy, and still have Zoe. Which are Zeek and Zach's children. Zulu was a cockatiel that a neighbor found and brought to us. We kept him for a while, then when Zeek and Zach started mating again we found him a new home as to not stress Zach or the babies out.
I never thought birds could have so much personality untill we had several of them and each one is different in its own way. Zoe has touched my heart the most out of all the birds, she is such a sweet, pretty bird.
Here are some pictures of our birds, I hope you enjoy them!
Zeek and Zach
another one of Zeek and Zach.
Zeek is the Pied and Zach is the Cinnamon.
