Meet Rocky

This is the bird Rebecca earned during the summer by reading and having a (semi) positive attitude about going to her reading tutor. We've had him about 5 months.
She loves animals and has been very happy with Rocky.
Rocky is a Conure, which is basically a small breed of parrot, about the size of a cockatiel.
(We call Rocky a "him," but really don't know for sure as these birds have to be DNA tested.)
Before I got Rocky I was under the impression they lived to a max of 15 years.
Apparently they can live as long as 25.

Rocky and his alter-ego. They fight a lot.

We have been fairly happy bird owners. They are not terribly difficult to take care of and are generally well liked by all. Nathaniel has a yellow cockatiel that only likes him. I have an immortal blue parakeet that doesn't like anyone. I call it the immortal parakeet because I blew dried it back to life after Rebecca saturated it with Spray and Wash. Twice. That was around 6 years ago. The only complaint I have about birds is that they are messy. I haven't really found a good solution to this yet. I vacuum quite a bit.

The only thing Rebecca, or any of us for that matter, has been able to teach Rocky to say is his name, which he will only say for Rebecca, so if we want to hear it we have to hide within hearing range while she coaxes him. He is a friendly bird and bows his head or lifts his wings for you to scratch him. He likes people and the biggest thing is making sure he gets enough attention. Sometimes during the day I'll put Charlie out and carry Rocky around while I clean. He likes to be on your shoulder and if you don't pick him up while you're in Rebecca's room he'll follow you around on the floor until he can get a hold of your pant leg and climb on up. Did I mention his little sharp claws? Ouch.

Bird Killer

One thing we didn't know when we bought Charlie is that Standard Poodles were bred for hunting birds. It wasn't too long after Charlie arrived that he killed our chicken.
Rocky is actually the second Conure Rebecca has had. The first lasted less than 48 hours. She had let it out of the cage and John walked in and left the door open when he walked out. Major miscommunication here. I guess I didn't make it clear to her she couldn't do that. We hadn't mounted the cage yet. It was really, really awful and I missed the attack by less than 5 seconds. It was so sad and we could hardly believe it had happened. I had a hard time sleeping because I just kept running through it in my mind. Rebecca didn't take to Rocky right away because she was so devastated about her little lost bird. It is not a happy memory. Her door is now able to be locked from both the inside and the outside and the cage is mounted up high.