Happy Gotcha Day, Chewie!

December 15th marks a very special day in our family – it’s Chewie’s gotcha day! Chewie will always be special since he is the firstborn of the flock. Chewie was love at first sight and somewhat of an impulsive invitation into the family. Like many birdie noobs, we didn’t really know what to expect going into the realm of bird companionship. Google and Youtube were much less informative back in 2012, and a lot of incidents with Chewie were solved through trial and error.

Some hilarious things I struggled with as a new bird mom:

Birds are….. aloof?
I grew up with multiple dogs and cats and my assumptions with pets were heavily skewed towards canine companionship. I thought Chewie was going to throw himself on me and get all cuddly and rush over when I called him – but none of that happened. Chewie was cool as a cucumber and was happy preening himself and quietly sitting by himself. For the first few months, I would rush home from work and just sit on a chair across from his opened cage door and watch him watch me silently for hours. He’d step up, but with a low-key annoyed vibe…. and that would be it?! He seemed to have picked up his name pretty quickly, but definitely didn’t bother to rush over or cuddle with me when I called his name. He was just perfectly fine being where he was and keeping a comfortable distance from me.
Wasting food
Another thing that was weird for me was how much Chewie threw his food all over the place. Dogs are usually the opposite where they vacuum up anything they see edible, but this whole concept of ‘foraging’ and ‘chew one bite and throw the rest away’ thing wasn’t registering fast enough for me. I do think Chewie is a pickier eater than most other birds, but his food-wasting habits were at a flabbergasting level for me.
Communicating No
I don’t think I’ve ever had a dog or cat so stubbornly tell me ‘no’ to whatever he didn’t want to do. Usually, if a human persists, animals tend to give in, but Chewie’s constant refusal to do anything my way was a new shock to me. To this day Chewie still says ‘No’ to whatever doesn’t float his boat (which is mostly everything I ask him to do), but I still remember the confusion I had to deal with when Chewie got sassy when he didn’t want to do what he didn’t want to do. In a way, he’s taught me to accept no as an answer, haha.
Complex emotions
There’s such a wide spectrum of emotions beyond ‘happy’ in birds. Chewie had no problem showing me his full range of emotions (and sometimes I really think he has more than me).
I see, I want, and I get.
Ideally, I’d understand that the concept of ownership and asking for permission is a social construct that we humans created, but it was still very foreign to see a bird just grabbing whatever he sees and likes. Chewie would see food and just casually walk over and pick out whatever he wanted. Then, he’d fly over to a safe place and enjoy the food he just picked out from my plate. No hesitation, no asking, no guilt – just a simple act of spotting something and then grabbing and enjoying it.
** Side note: this concept was only seen when Chewie was the solo bird of the house. As soon as Dante joined, a hierarchy was formed and everything became a dispute of yours or mine between the birds.

I can go on forever about little thought notes I formed during Chewie’s first months. In conclusion, I do think it was my life’s best decision to get Chewie. I had contemplated for a few days (aside from the fact that I was in between jobs, I was also 8 years younger than I am today and $600+ for a bird was a bit of a nail-biter for me back then), and I’m glad I pulled the trigger and got the little green baby conure they had named Sunkiss at the store.