Nije baš neki, a nisam ni ja - ako ćemo pošteno. I nekad se pitam dal' sam joj gazda ili rob. Ili njena igračka? Bilo kako bilo, na ovoj strani ćemo malo o kućnim ljubimcima, papagajima:

AboutMyPapagay

Dakle, radi se tridesetak santimetara dugačkom stvorenjcu sačinjenom od 150 grama perja i jos ponečeg. Ono služi da ga imaš, da mu služis i da čistiš za njim.

Ovaj moj primerak je nimfa i zovem je Mikica. Latinski se zove Nymphicus hollandicus, ali ne verujem da je ona toga svesna. Inace, moja mama je zove 'нимфикус холандигуз'. A ako na Mreži tražite informacije o njima, na engleskom govornom području ovu vrstu kokoši zovu cockatiel.

Ja lično ne znam neki pouzdan način kojim bi se mogao odrediti pol kod nimfe, a naslušao sam se raznih teorija o tome šta je ova moja, jooooj... I jedni mi kazu jedno, a drugi drugo - i sreća moja da trećeg nema. I tako je moja Mikica petnaest dana bila muško, a petnaest žensko, sve dok nisam rešio da je opredelim. I razmišljam ja tako, i razmišljam, i na kraju rekoh - Žensko je i tačka! Tako ume stručno da me iznervira da nema šanse da je muško.

Najvažnija stvar koju morate da znate ako imate papagaja, je da ne smete da mu dajete svašta da jede i da morate da ga čuvate od promaje.

Ishrana. - Najbolje je da ne eksperimentišete sa jelovnikom Vaše ptičice jer to lako može da bude fatalno po nju. Ona će da jede hleb ako joj omogućite, ali će joj se on, kažu, zgrudvati u stomaku i neće moći da ga iskaki i vrlo lako može da ugine. Ne hranite je hlebom! Hranite je hranom za nimfe i onim stvarima za koje ste sigurni da sme da jede. Ja ovoj mojoj ponekad dajem voće, šargarepicu, kuvano jaje...

Promaja. - Čuvajte je od promaje! I to može da bude fatalno!

Ima još! Mnogi ljudi vide papagaja i dopadne im se kako je sladak, pa umiljat, pa ovo, pa ono, pa kupe papagaja sebi ili nekome na poklon, ne razmišljajuci da li je to uopšte racionalan cin - da tako kažemo. Jer papagaj nije samo ona slatka 'tičica koju vidimo u kavezu kod nekog zaljubljenika - imajmo na umu da kad odemo taj neko ostaje da bije bitku sa svojim ljubimcem. Mora da mu menja vodu i hranu svaki dan, perje leti po celom stanu, iz kaveza stalno ispadaju semenke, ptica ne sme da se ostavlja više dana sama... Zamisli, rano jutro, pola deset, a 'tičica utripovala proleće - pazi, govorimo o nekih 110 deciBela. Šta pisac hoce da kaže: razmisli šta će da bude kad kupiš sebi papagaja, pa se pokaješ ili ga kupiš nekome kome ne bi trebalo.

Pomenimo i to da su žene poznate kao Papagaj Eliminatori. Tata je ispao frajer - kupio je deci kavez i pticu, deca su dobila igračku, a mama će da usisava perje i semenke, da menja hranu i vodu, pere kavez, trpi kreštanje... Sve dok se u njoj ne probudi ono animalno žensko. A znamo kakve su žene prema onima koje žele da eliminisu... Neke ga jednostavno otruju - daju mu da jede ono što ne bi smeo. Neke otvore kavez da papagaj izleti - to su malo manje izgubljeni slučajevi, mada se svodi na isto, jer ga šalju u smrt. Šanse da preživi su mizerne. Ne raspolažem statistikama po tom pitanju, ali svi mi smo mnogo više puta čuli da je nekom pobegla ptica, nego da je neko uhvatio pticu.

Mislim da nije potrebno da vas upozoravam kakve zvrčke klinci mogu da naprave jadnoj maloj bespomoćnoj ptičici. Ali mislim i da izvestan broj ljudi greši po tom pitanju - čini mi se da bi deca trebalo da kućnog ljubimca dožive i kao obavezu. Dakle, ne samo kao nešto što su dobili na poklon, ne samo kao nešto sto ih zabavlja, vec i kao nešto o čemu moraju da se brinu.

Pripitomljavanje papagaja. - Koliko sam ja primetio papagaji su obično projektovani tako da budu tvrdoglaviji od svog gazde. Evo moj slučaj, naprimer. Dugo sam pokušavao da se približim ovoj mojoj i tek kad sam shvatio da ja to ne znam i skoro odustao - sletela mi je na rame.

Ako imate dve ptice - najverovatnije nećete moći da pripitomite nijednu. Ptici je druga ptica ptičuljastija od čoveka, te se tako, ipak, i ugleda na drugu pticu, a ne na onog ko je hrani, poji, čisti, trpi, voli, psuje majku... Pripitomljenost ptice je delimično i rezultat njene potrebe da živi u zajednici i oponaša nekog, te ćete tako primetiti da kad postavite tanjire da ručate - i ptičica sidje do hranilice i počinje da kljucka...

Kažu da se ptica najbolje pripitomi ako Vam jede iz ruke. To znači da mozete koristiti onaj trenutak kada treba da je nahranite, kada je njena posuda sa hranom prazna. Sipajte malo hrane sebi u ruku i polako je prinosite prema ptici uz maksimalno strpljenje. Ptica koja je u kavezu najčešće vrlo burno reaguje na takav Vaš gest i može da se povredi.

Dakle, ako ruku sa hranom gurnete u kavez, najverovatnije će ptica početi da mahnita. Zato bi bilo bolje da ovakav zahvat izvodite ako puštate pticu da se šetka po kući i, podrazumeva se, ako umete da je vratite u kavez. Dakle, sipamo malo hrane u ruku i ruku približimo SVOME TELU (tako nešto oko 25 cm ispred pupka, naprimer).

Onda se, u tom položaju, polaaako primičemo ptičurini, držeci ruku sa hranom na istoj udaljenosti od pupka svoga, sve do onog trenutka kad ptica počne da uzmiče. E, tad, pre nego ona zbriše, zastajemo i prelazimo na fazu B: polaaako i istovremeno odmičemo telo svoje belo, a primičemo ruku sa hranom ka ptici, znači - odmičemo ruku od našeg pupka, sve dok joj hrana ne bude u domašaju kljuna. Eh, pokušaću jednom da skiciram ovo, mnogo je komplikovano...

Treba biti uporan i čekati da ona počne da jede. Dok to čekate, hrabrite je i tepajte joj nežnim glasom, a ako imate bariton - onda slobodno možete da ćutite (ili joj dajte to napismeno). Sledeći put ce možda da stavi jednu svoju nogicu na vas prst, a vi je hrabrite i nežno joj pričajte. Kad sa obe noge stane na ruku i jede - ukebali ste je! Pala je na Vaš šarm! Ha - još jedna recka!...

Imati ptičicu je lepo ako Vam se svidja da imate ptičicu. Ima lepih trenutaka. Neki put je naporno. Nekad je i strašno.

Sećam se kad smo sneli prvo jaje. Tri veterinara, Mikica i ja. Oko pet dana je pokušavala da snese to jaje. Nije mogla ni da kaki normalno zbog njega. Kad ga je izbacila iz sebe, oporavljala se dva dana. Jaje je dugacko 24.8 mm, a siroko 19.9 mm i mislim da ćemo ga se sećati i kad se načisto osuši i kada ga bacimo...

I setićemo se valjda i gospodina Branka, veterinara 011/785-975, koji nije štedeo vreme i reči da nam pojasni u kakvoj se situaciji nalazimo i sta nam je činiti - a šta ne.

It's not much, but neither am I. Sometimes I wonder, am I its master or its slave? Or perhaps its toy? Whichever, this page is dedicated to pets.

AboutMyParrot

Well, it's a creature thirty centimeters long, made of 150 grams of feather and a few other things. The point of having it is to have it, serve it, and clean behind it.

This specimen of mine is a cockatiel and I call it Mikica. Its Latin name is Nymphicus hollandicus..

I don't know of any scientific method of determining a cockatiel's sex, but I've heard plenty of theories about what my birdie could be... Some people claimed this, others that - and oh, lucky me, there was no third possibility. So my Mikica was in turn a male and a female, and then I decided I'd had enough of that.

I said: I don't care what it really is, from now on - it's a Female and that's it! Only a female can make me that mad.

The most important thing when you have a Parrot is: don't give it everything to eat, and keep it away from the drought.

Eating habits. - It could be fatal if you experiment with the menu of your birdie, so you'd better not. It will eat bread, but bread will coagulate in its stomach and it won't be able to pass it out. It may die. Do not feed it with bread! Give it food for birds and the food you know is safe. I sometimes feed my bird with some fruit, bits of carrot, a boiled egg...

Drought. - Keep it away from the drought! It could be fatal!

There's more! People sometimes take a fancy to a parrot, because it's so nice & so sweet & so lovely... etc. and they decide to buy it on the spot, without thinking whether it's a rational thing to do - to put it that way. ‘Cause you know, the parrot's not just the cutesey little birdie you see at someone else's place. When you leave, someone stays behind to wrestle with the loving pet. It needs fresh food and water every day, feathers fly all over the place, seeds drop from the cage, the bird must not be left alone... Imagine, it's early in morning, half past nine, and the birdie fancies it's the spring ... hey, we're talking about some 110 dB. What's the point: think about what will happen if you buy a parrot and regret it, or buy it for someone you shouldn't.

While we're on the subject, let me say that women are known as Parrot Eliminators. Daddy was a Jack - he bought the cage and the bird, kids got their toy and mammy is to take care of the feathers, clean the cage, change food and water, put up with screeching... Until the animal in her begins to rear its ugly head. And we know what a woman can do when she wants someone eliminated. She will poison it - give it the food it must not eat. Or she will open the cage door and let it fly away - this one is not as hopeless as the former, but it makes no difference. The bird doesn't stand much chance of survival. I don't know of any statistics on the issue, but there are certainly far more cases of a bird flying away, than of someone catching a bird.

I don't think there's any need to tell you about what kids can do to the sweet little helpless bird. But, I think that some people have wrong ideas about the whole thing - in my opinion, kids should learn to feel responsible for their pets. They should learn to see it not only as a present, something they like, but also as something they must take care of.

Taming the parrot. - Parrots seem to be made of sterner stuff than their masters. Take my case. I had long been trying to make advances to my darlin', and only when I realized I didn't know how and was about to give it up - she alighted on my shoulder.

If you have two birds - the odds are you will tame neither. To a bird, another bird is more of a bird than a man, therefore it gives more attention to the bird than to the one who feeds it, gives it water, cleans it, bears with it, loves it, curse it... The tameness of a parrot is partly a result of its need to live in a community and imitate someone. You will notice that when you lay the table - the birdie comes to peck...

The best way to tame a bird is apparently to have it eat from your hand. It means that you should make the best use of the feeding time, when the seed box is empty. Put some seeds into your hand and move it slowly toward the bird. You must be very patient. If the bird is in the cage, it may fly off the handle. So, if you put your hand inside the cage, the bird may react wildly and hurt itself.

It is much better, therefore, to let the bird out, providing, of course, you know how to put it back into the cage. So, take some seeds into your hand and keep it close to YOUR BODY (about 25 cm before your belly button). Then, start moving verrrry slowly toward the bird, holding the hand with food at the same distance from the belly button, until the bird begins to retreat.

Then, before it takes flight, freeze, and move to the stage B: verrry slowly back away and at the same time draw the hand closer to the bird. That is - move your hand away from the belly button until the food is within its reach.

Have patience and wait for the bird to begin to eat. While you are waiting, encourage it in soft voice. If you're a bass - you might as well be silent (or send it a letter). Next time it might put its tiny leg on your finger, while you encourage it and murmur softly. When it lands with both legs on your hand - then you've got it! It fell for you charm!

Having a birdie is nice, if you fancy one. There are good times and the bad times. And terrible times.

I remember when we laid our first egg. Three vets, Mikica, and me. She was trying to lay the egg for five days. She couldn't even pass the food out properly. When she finally got rid of it, it took her two days to recover. The egg was 24.8 mm long and 19.9 mm wide, and I think we will remember it even then when it gets dried and is thrown away.

And I think we will remember Mr. Branko, a veterinarian 011/785-975, who spared neither time nor words to explain the situation and what is to be done.

Cinnamon Cockatiel
Cockatiel.Com
Belehar.com: 'Svet Ptic'