At 5 Months Old               At 10 Months Old

Wow, first we are shipped to a store in
Greensburg PA (not our choice), then we go home with the Harvey's (good thing for us... because Cookie got very sick
at the store), and now we are on the internet with our own
web page!

Our names are Cookie and Cracker.  We are Grey Cockatiels.  Our Avian Vet thinks we are females, but she will know for sure after our first molt.  We were hatched around January 1st of 2004.  Only our breeders know the exact date, but since they put us up for adoption, our new parents are having difficulty finding out our exact hatch dates.  The exact hatch date(s) really aren't important, we were adopted and "re-born" on April 8th of 2004.

We actually met the Harvey's several times before they adopted us.  They kept coming to the store and looking at the large variety of birds.  We did our best to get their attention each and every time they came near our cage.  We wanted be certain that they would be good parents.  They seemed liked nice people, so we entertained them as much as possible. There were six of us in that little cage.   When we were certain that they would be good parents, we made it somewhat impossible for them to evaluate our 4 cockatiel cage mates.  Our plan worked!  After about 4 visits to , they took the two of us home!  Our four cage mates just didn't put out any effort.

What a surprise!  When we arrived at our new home, Mom (Cindy), Dad (John), and Lilsis (Melissa) had our brand new Kings® cage set-up waiting for us.  We had ropes to climb, wooden perches, swings, toys, and plenty of food and water.  It took us a little bit of time to get adjusted to our new home, but we knew everything would be OK because we saw Dad reading a couple books about Cockatiels.

Because we were hand-raised and hand-fed as chicks, we really weren't afraid of humans.  We had to teach the Harvey's to be gentle with us, so we played "shy" for a couple days.  We also wanted to show Mom, Dad, and Lilsis that we were quick learners.  So, when they started with those silly "step up" and "step down" commands, we impressed them right away.

What a surprise when we learned that we also had a Bigsis (April).  She was away at college when we came home.  We'll certainly break her in when the semester is over.

On April 19th, Mom and Dad bought us a Avian Adventures® Recreation Center.  There are so many things for us to do.  Because the toys are so expensive in the stores, Dad has even begun to make toys for us to play with and to destroy.  Mom and Dad put both units together so we can go back-and-forth from our cage to the recreation center at will.  Of course, we get locked in the cage when there aren't any other family members in the room.  No one wants to see us get hurt.

Well, we gotta go now.  Our feet are getting sore from jumping around on this keyboard.  Gosh, we love this internet thing!

It's been too long since our last update.  We have been very busy training our human servants.  We have trained them to make various meals for us to enjoy on a regular basis.  One of our favorites is something they like to call "toast".  We also enjoy cream of wheat, oatmeal, broccoli, carrots, popcorn, chicken, and a variety of other foods prepared especially for us.

We are still in the same room, but the location of our cage has changed several times.  Dad rearranges our perches and toys on a regular basis too.

It's hard to believe that we are 19 months old already.  Our weight has stabilized at about 88 grams for both of us.  We get weighed at least once a month.

We get a bath in the powder room sink once or twice a week.  We really enjoy getting soaked with the spritzer bottle.

Dad clips our wing feathers on a regular basis.  I guess we got a bit carried away that time he let our feather grow out so that we could learn to fly.  We enjoy training every member of the household.  Some birdies bond to just one member of the home, but that isn't any fun.  Heck, we enjoy being spoiled by everyone!