Valo's Moirana
My name is Birgit, but I go by Bee as Birgit seems to be a tough one to pronounce here in the States. I spent the first 25yrs of my life in Austria (nope, no kangaroos), and came to the US during an exchange program. Needless to say, I stayed
Now, after finishing my PhD in Chemical Engineering, I'm a Postdoc in my research group while looking for something to do with the rest of my life
My entire career, my research has focused on either environmental consequences of human presence on this planet, or on materials based on renewable resources, but at heart I'm a passionate polymer scientist. Let's see where that leads me....
I've grown up around birds, and they've been a part for most of my life. I still remember the day when I was 5, and my mother asked me: "Not that it's a topic right now, but if we would get a budgie, which color would you like?". The same evening, my dad came home with Piepsi, who was our first bird (oh, and he was blue
). I loved that little bird... looking back, I think Piepsi was attached to my mom as Valo is to me. We lost the little bird to a neck injury at only 3 yrs of age after he flew into a window, despite immediately taking him to a vet. A hard lesson learned.
We had more budgies, but back then the nutritional guidelines were basically "give them seed", which sadly cut their life spans too short.
In 1994, my uncle turned to my dad and handed him a cockatiel that he just grabbed out of an excited pile of chickens on the farm. We tried hard to find the owner of this beautiful bird (who was kind enough to tell us his name), but after being unsuccessful for a year, we decided that he's here to stay. Again, we did a lot of things wrong due to our lack of knowledge. Stupsi had a mate for 3yrs, Maedi. We lost her to a cold; during the summers we took the birds outside and showered them, and we must have taken them in too soon before they could fully dry off. I've never seen my dad in more pain he tried everything possible to save that little girl (he followed the vet's instructions rigorously and warmed her for 10min every hour with a heating lamb, which required taking off work
. she died in his arms). Stupsi still lives with my dad, and we believe he's at least 18-20yrs old. He's not very interested in hands-on interaction with humans, but talks and whistles when people are around, and meanwhile eats out of our hands again.
Almost 2yrs ago I walked into a PetCo, and there was this spunky little bird. He didn't let us out of his sight for a second while we were there. 3 days and 5 books later, Valo, a 12wk old greencheek conure, came home with me. He's my boy he loves me, and defends me, which translates to biting strangers.
The accessibility of knowledge regarding bird keeping here in the States gave me the chance to learn a lot (and I bring this knowledge back to Austria with me every time I go home Stupsi now has toys too and eats a lot healthier).
In December of 2006, I got a call from Gayla (gbird). She told me about this cute, cute sun conure they had at the PetCo she was working at. We successfully introduced the little guy, who turned out to be a girl, to my BF who is now inseparable from his princess (mind you, that's the same person who told me 4yrs ago "if you ever get a bird, you have to decide between me and the bird"
). She still is a wonderful, friendly, funny, loving little bird who will go to almost anyone. She'll be 2yrs old in June, and lives with my BF in NM about 6hrs south of here.
After visiting the Gabriel Foundation in the spring of 2007, I started to consider giving an older bird a home. I found Nino, a peach fronted conure. I can't put my finger on the reasons why I decided to take him maybe because he used to be so shy, not interested in humans (on the contrary, he'd hide on the back of his cage every time I'd come to talk to him), and because of the feeling that not a lot of people would take a bird like him. After patiently waiting for over 2mths, he finally joined Valo in his new home. We don't know how old he is, but the journey has been wonderful so far. Every day, this little man surprises me with something. By now, he eats out of our hands and will race towards the closest branch on his play perch if you have food.
Shortly after getting Valo, I joined Birdboard. I learned so much on this site. The amount of information, experience and passion people have to offer here makes this a wonderful place to ask questions and share stories. I'm glad to be a part of this.
