8/26/10

CLEANING BUDGIE POOP Off a Child's Head


I thought I'd give this post a title that will prove useful to someone down the line. You know, like when someone does a search about how to clean chocolate sauce off a table cloth? Now Budgie Poop is covered.

This one is from the Three Buck Big Box of Photos. Just as pointless as the last few. I have no information about this photo. It is what it is which is a parakeet on a kids head. That about sums it up.

Click on image to see it larger. (And yes, it does work. Once on the Picasa page simply click on the magnifying glass. You'll see the image larger. It works. I just tested it. So not sure why others have not been able to see images larger.)

I have had several budgies since childhood. I adore the little birds. Always cheeky, rambunctious, funny, and often quite smart. I had one that had a vocabulary of over 80 words. He used to like to hang upside down on a plastic chain in front of the medicine cabinet for hours. You could turn off the light and leave and come back hours later and he'd still be there hanging upside down talking to himself in the mirror.

I tried to teach him to say "Birds eat bugs." He already knew how to say "Birds can't talk." If you're not familiar with how a parakeet learns language it will seem pretty strange. They'll work on specific words over and over again. They'll sit with their eyes closed, puffed up, repeating the word as best they can. Fine tuning it. Then for days, once they've mastered it, they'll repeat it all day over and over again. So I'd already been through "BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS" and knew that part of the phrase would be easy. "Bugs" proved to be a barrier. He sat on his perch for days trying to spit out the word "Bugs" to no avail. Sounded more like "bleh bleh bleh." Day after day this was driving him nuts, he was very frustrated and was spitting out "Bleh bleh bleh" with a hint of anger. Then one day after trying to enunciate bugs he yelled out "BIRDS CAN'T TALK!" and went about his daily business. Within a few days he'd mastered "bugs" and indeed proceeded to yell "BUGS BUGS BUGS" for a few weeks. Eventually he'd hang upside down talking to the bird in the mirror saying "Birds can't talk. Birds eat bugs."

Oh and the helpful tip on how to clean budgie poop off a child's head: Let it dry and it will usually fall off. If it's stuck in the hair, use your nails. Seriously, it's not a big clean-up problem. Now as to how healthy it is...I'm not going there. I've had budgie poop in my hair and I'm still here.

3 comments:

  1. Cute Photo..well worth the three bucks! We had budgies too..but I could never get them to talk..I did have one that was an embarassment to my teenage daughters..lets just say he pleasured himself so much that the girls would squeal and tell me "Mother your bird is doing it again." Which of course excited him all over again..Rock and Roll Music was his fav! :)

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  2. I had a series of parakeets until moving on to bigger birds, my first was Elvis who did the Jailhouse Rock dance on his perch and talked constantly. Loved to say his name, much like my Senegal Pacino does now.

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  3. My maternal grandmother got me started with parakeets when I was 5. I have wonderful stories about that little budgie including how he held up everyone disembarking from the Matson liner in Honolulu in 1959. One little budgie vs. an entire ocean liner. I had many after him until I got my first cat. No, no tragedy. The cat learned to not go near the cage, but I never bought another budgie. I just chatter with them when I go to a pet store. I miss the little characters.

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