I like having birds as pets because they are easy to take care of. When I was young, I used to have pet finches. I used to also have three quails but after they had passed away, it was difficult to get another bird because I had grown really fond of those quails. I miss those quails because they were quiet and friendly. I enjoyed feeding them lettuce from my hand and watching them play around in our backyard. It was amazing watching them lay eggs, although none of them ever hatched.

After my attachment with those quails, I never wanted to get another bird. However, when my dad asked me to consider getting pet birds again, I told him no. Then, a few days after having that conversation with my dad, a parakeet had flown inside our garage. My dad was able to catch it, keep it in our small sunroom until my parents had purchased a bird cage for it. So now I have a new pet bird, a parakeet.

My whole family and I have come to really care for that parakeet that we ended up buying another parakeet to keep it company. We also purchased a bigger cage and toys for them to play with. I have noticed that each of my family members always spends a part of their day with the birds. They have somewhat become a part of our family because there is always someone there to feed them, play with them or talk with them. There is not a single day where any of us has neglected them.

Lately, my brother and I have been spending a lot of time with the birds because we have been trying to train them. It would be nice to have birds that can talk, sit on my finger and eat from my hand. My brother and I learned that it takes time to train parakeets. In order to start training birds, a person has to gain a bird’s trust. It is difficult to gain a bird’s trust because every time I stick my hand in their cage, the birds fly around in their cage and avoid me. But luckily, for the past week my brother and I had made very good progress with the birds.

It did not take that long for my brother and me to have the birds eat seeds from our fingertips from outside the cage. We did that for awhile. After that, we were finally able to stick our hands in the cage to feed them. The hardest thing we have been trying to do is have the birds sit on top of our palms to eat. The birds are not scared when I put my finger inside their cage, but when I open my hand is when they become frightened.

Yesterday, when I came home from work, my brother told me how he was able to get the birds to sit on his hand and eat seeds from his palm. I was excited that I wanted to give it a try. I put some seeds on my palm and put my hand inside the cage. Before I knew it, one of the birds was not afraid to sit on my hand and eat. I am glad my brother was able to train them to do that because our next step was to have them sit on our finger and bring them outside the cage. I cannot wait for that to happen.

However, after all the progress my brother and I have put into gaining our parakeets’ trust, my mom decided to put her hand inside the cage and grab one of the birds. What my mother did had terrified the birds that after all that training my brother and I had invested in has been a waste of time. Once again, our birds are scared to eat from our hands and even from our finger tips. I was so angry that I had to start all over again. I do not know if I should give up trying to train our birds because my mom will always scare them. Maybe I should not care about them anymore because training birds just takes too much time.