#bongo the cockatiel

[floofsqueak]

Thank you everyone for your answers and suggestions to my tiel problem! There was A LOT of ideas and questions about Bongo that I’ll try to answer here as well!

How did you get Bongo?

Well, as it turns out, I wasn’t prepared for a cockatiel. I got him as a christmas present- one month after my last pet rat had to be put down. My parents gave him to me, without actually having read up anything about cockatiels they just thought they were doing a nice thing giving me a cute bird woo. Yeah, no, I was still mourning my rat, had no initial interest in EVER wanting a bird- and got really mixed negative feelings about the sudden responsibility put on me so quickly. I had no experience with bird ownership except zebra finches. It was sort of awkward the first months of owning him because I did not think I could come to love this bird. I did, eventually, but oh boy was it a switch from owning rats to suddenly having a loud scream child. This might have made an impact on him, im not sure.

What gender is Bongo?

No clue. The store we got him from sexed him as a male. The vet said he was displaying very common female behaviour, but we did not want to take blood samples during our visits because he was really stressed up/panting those times.

Why is Bongo missing a toe?

It’s partly my fault. I was not aware that he was sneaking around under my chair one evening, and I wanted to get up to look around for him. Unfortunately when i pushed the chair out, his foot got caught under one of the legs. There was screaming and panicking from both bird and owner. His entire foot was bloody. Unfortunately the exotics vet did not have emergency clinics during the evening- and the normal vet had no bird specialists. We did pull out early in the morning however since he was still bloody. Cue many weeks of bandage changes, unwilling bird patient and manhandling in an attempt to keep the foot from turning necrotic. Unfortunately, his toe did turn necrotic, and had to be amputated.

Is Bongo always agressive?

He has never displayed actual agressiveness until I try to leave the room! He has always been pretty chill and tweety. He has a foot fetish of somekind because he loves to sing for my feet and do the heart wings. Its sort of ironic because of his own toe dilemma. He’s not very fond of hands (likely due bandage manhandling sessions) but does beg for headscratches from one.

Does Bongo have toys?

He’s not fond of rattly or flashy things at all. He will hiss at them even if theyre lying neutrally on the floor of my room, doing nothing. He LOVES to destroy toothpicks and wooden objects however, so he has wooden perches he can tear apart.

Does Bongo like water?

Drinking it yeah. Bathing not so much. He doesn’t seem to enjoy being spray-misted either, so I just don’t do it. He’s got a bird bath but it’s woefully untouched.

Is Bongo allowed outside your room?

Sadly, no. I have two cats- one indoor and one eldery outdoor who spends more time indoor nowadays. The outdoor cat is an active hunter- she has brought home many a dead birds and mice and rats- so I have no doubts she would kill Bongo if given the chance. We tried to do an introduction with the indoor cat when he was a kitty- Bongo was not afraid and very interested in him; but the kitty was displaying the wrong kind of interest. I did not want to risk the birds safety so we stopped introductions.

Is Bongo trained at all?

Not really, mostly because of my inexperience with how to train birds, lack of motivation for most things and because both Bongo and I are stubborn. I tried the normal approaches but I don’t understand how to reward him if he gets scared when I try to give him OBJECTS, edible or not. So I just kinda tried the ignore variant where you just ignore bad behaviour and make a lot of obscure kiss noises for good behaviour?? He likes kiss noises because he puffs his cheeks up. I think.

How big is his cage?

its a lorge cage for his size- also for reference, he likes to watch out the window. The blankets are only draped over during the night so my computer doesn’t bother him. the reason the bottom is taped up with paper is because he tries to stick his head between the gap there and I don’t want him to get stuck. Also i cannot for the life of me get rid of the poop on the bottom of the cage door. that’s most of the questions for now I think, I’ll update this when more appears!

[aethele]

@dreyari  asked:

the moon and the diamond!

☾ ━ how many pets do you own? if none, what kind of animals do you like?

currently have two dogs,   a pomeranian and a.........  chihuahua type creature.....  thing.   i’ve had lots of pets though,   lizards,   birds ( parakeets & a cockatiel ).   i work with a lot of different animals at the zoo but my favorite are hoofstock  ( zebra,   oryx,   gazelle,   bongos ).   favorite part of my job is drawing chalk drawings on the walls inside plains barn because the hoofstock are obsessed with them and also like to lick it.   idk,   im very touched that a zebra liked my art enough to eat it. 

◈  ━ share some headcanons that you have for a muse of your choosing

•   ferdinand is the class snitch in academy.   he’ll tattle on you for playing hooky,   asking to copy his homework,   being out past curfew  ( irony being that he,   too,   would have to be up past curfew to catch you  ----- ),   etc. 

•   coming from one of if not  THE  richest house in the empire,   he has absolutely no concept of monetary value.   he's very easily swindled because of this,   and if he ever,   say,   accidentally breaks your quill he’ll be like  “i am so sorry i hope this covers the cost of a new one :(”  and hand you 50000g

•   when he’s not wearing his greaves n spurs,   he’s still a thigh high boots kinda guy.

[floofsqueak]

googly eyed boi wishes everyone a merry christmas

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he’s a model

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kissy kissy

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beutiful tweeffrts

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a rare trash angel captured on camera

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life immitates art

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now he only has 7 toes ):

[floofsqueak]

round boy

[floofsqueak]

sleepy

[floofsqueak]

so a month or so ago bongo actually got his front toes injured by my chair- i wasn’t aware that he was loitering around under there so when i pushed out, his toe got stuck under and he tore the skin off, there was blood and we rushed off to the birdvet the next day. The toe was crushed, but his foot was not broken, he could still walk around with it. vet said there was a risk that it might not heal up but we tried by diligently changing his wrappings every second or third day, and kept him on Metacam and an antiinflamnatory. but today, during a vet visit, we got the news that his toe is starting to turn necrotic, and it needs to be amputated so now we just gotta wait till thursday and keep his toe clean and the necrosis at bay until they can take it off him next week. my poor scream child

[floofsqueak]

visual petting guide for bongo red is if u touch u dead

[floofsqueak]

the local car alarm

[floofsqueak]

he just keeps repeating the first few seconds of addams family

[floofsqueak]

aesthetic filter 'tiel