Hello! we are 3 Italian girls :)

[jacksmom]

Welcome!!! Nice to meet you all - do you speak both Italian and English? How about your birds...are they also bilingual?

Your office set up sure looks beautiful, and fun for your girls! And what a lovely cage your father made for the lovebirds! I suspect he likes them more than he lets on...much like my father would be, he is also Italian, though one generation removed from Italy. (His father was born there, we are in the states)

Welcome to the forum, thank you for sharing and posting these beautiful pics!

[Kiwitan]

Jacksmom: Lol no, my grey speaks just Italian, and she sings in Italian too! my amazon speaks just in her own language, but she says "Ciao" (=hello) just to my husband sometimes. I speak Italian, that's my language, but I speak English as well (not as good as Italian unfortunately), so forgive me if my writing is not good enough. From which part in Italy is you grandfather from? have you ever been here?
I love USA; I have seen many places and it was my dream as a teenager to live there. Now I am happy where I am

My father actually likes my girls a lot, he used to have a blue fronted amazon that lived with us for 25 years. He has breakfast every morning with Cindy and the dogs! And he tolerates very nicely that my office became an aviary for my girls. He just complains when the floor is too dirty and he has visitors But he already made for me (all in stainless steel!) the girls aviary, the lovebird aviary and a small twin travel cage for my girls. He is a great father. Actually Cocca was supposed to be a "Christmas gift" for him, an idiot gave her to him as a present, but he didn't have anymore time to take care of a parrot so she ended up in my care. I never wanted to get a parrot.

I don't know from where most people here on the forum are from, but in Italy the parrot world is very small and we are really far from the USA, I am talking about what people know about parrots (behavior, diet, health, cages etc.). If you want to read and learn something you will have to read in English. Oh but we are great at making pasta and pizza, so don't think bad about my country

[Debra]

What awesome set-ups you have for your birds! I love the office. I'd like to do something like that for my living room but the hubby says no. Besides, the three we have in the living room don't climb much. The quakers prefer to be on their cages and the ekkie prefers to roam about and look for a dark corner to hide in and chew up the baseboards. But I can dream can't I? lol

Your lovies are beautiful!

[Honesty]

You have a fantastic set up for your birds. It sounds like you adore them all

Look forward to hearing all about them.

I am from the UK, but I love Italian food

[jacksmom]

Lol, Kiwitan, I understand you being happy staying there! It has been my dream to visit...especially Venice...all that water, wow! I cannot for the life of me remember right now what part of Italy my Grandfather is from...I believe my Great Grandfather on the other side of the family is from Naples...I will find out about my Grandfather, not sure why I can't remember...I wrote a paper on his travels in college!

Love it that your birds speak Italian!!! Do you have any way to post vids, that would be sooo cool!

I had no idea English wasn't your first language! I guess that means your writing is just fine, lol! Actually, your posts are more grammatically correct and punctuated than many forum posters I have seen - I am kind of in awe of anyone who can speak two languages!

[josiesmom]

Hello and welcome! Your girls are beautiful.

[Pinkbirdy]

Hi welcome to the forum !! Nice pictures of your birds . I always admire love birds [their so pretty] I wonder if their hard to tame . Is your Bluefrnt a Chaco Bluefrnt ?She looks different than mine .

[Turquoise]

Misa your setup at your office is absolutely awesome!! I'd love to be a parrot and have that playground to lollygag in all day long! Your Dad makes super aviaries! Does he do that for other folks as well who need aviaries? If not, he should as those are perfect!

Your English is marvelous! Many of us in the US fall way short in being able to write or speak our own language, me included. I live in Texas. I have never been to Italy or any other country across the waters. Seen pictures and it looks like a wonderful place to visit. I too would love to see a video of your girls talking in Italian.

[plax]

Hi Misa... your birds and your setup are beautiful! Thanks so much for joining our community

[Kiwitan]

Thank you everyone! The office setup as it is actually started slowly, and the biggest reason was to make my amazon able to move around the space even if she was not flying. Now with this setting she can walks everywhere and she comes and goes as she please. She is still quite a problematic bird, she is still aggressive with others and she doesn't step up and i am not forcing her. After 6 years with her I don't even mind, it's quite natural to move her around at home with a portable table perch, or my husband makes her walk after him on the floor and she likes it. She can fly, but she has no instincts to do it, i suppose she has always been clipped and never learnt. This is a problem because the grey flies very well and when she bullies her the amazon flies away and generally crash against something. Fortunately it happens rarely and she is now learning where and how to land safely. I had a difficult moment last year before Christmas because the amazon crashed against a window and hurt herself, she must have hit her head and she was terrified. I got very depressed, I thought i was a failure as a bird keeper. Fortunately a very good woman from a local rescue helped me giving me some very good advice. It took a couple of month for her to overcome her fear and now after almost a year she is back to normal, she is using again the outside spaces without being scared anymore.

I would like for the future to get for both my girls a re-homed companion of the same kind, but as you can tell the situation with them right now is still a bit complicated, and in Italy is not as easy as in the USA to adopt a bird. Parrots are not very popular and people just re-sell them here. There is a small rescue and I am helping the lady who runs it to raise funds, I gave her some handmade stuff like pins and pendants made with my drawings and we are planning to start an online shop, but I don't like how she re-homes the birds, because she keeps the legal property of them. Is this the same for the rescues in the USA? I have been offered a grey and a macaw, but i refused. It's not the right time to add new birds and I can't accept to keep animals that are not mine, because if They are not mine she can always take them back one day and i plan to grow old with my parrots.

Sorry if i wrote too much, but the more i read around your forum (and it will take a lot!) the more i see so many differences compared to how things are in Italy and i am getting curious!

Here is Cindy dancing and singing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwitan...57624338710944 she is basically asking for food I have to see if i have videos of her talking, she hardly speaks when she sees the camera, so I don't have many videos of her.