Introducing Ghreylin!

Introducing the newest addition to the family: Ghreylin.

I love birds... I had my first bird, a cockatiel named Dermon, in the 5th grade. She was handtrained, and very friendly. Unfortunately, her time with us was short. After Dermon, I got 3 parakeets... they were nice but they never became very friendly and wouldn't let me hold them. The last of the 3, passed away and I've been expereincing bird fever.

It was exaserbated by my best friend Ariane, getting a new cockateil, Ester, who I got to share a very 24 hour car ride with from Florida back to Mass, so we definitely bonded.

Next semester I am taking two online classes, which I am not excited about, but I figured it would be a good time to get a bird, since I'll have time to be home and bond with it.

I was looking at breeders to get a baby bird, since then they are the easiest to train and get them to be friendly and what not. While looking at breeders, however, I kept seeing postings for adopting birds. This past Tuesday, I went to the Animal Rescue League of Boston to check out the little guys there... which is where I met "Whistle". He is about a one year old cockatiel who was left in an abandoned apartment. When they found him, he was just kind of flapping around the apartment, with an injured wing (presumably from the random flapping around) and mlnourished. He was doing significantly better in the shelter but was looking for what they call a "forever home" and so, I took him home!

Since as I mentioned he had been abandoned, "Whistle" was the name the shelter gave him for his stay, so I decided to rename him, Ghreylin, based off of Ghrelin, the hormone in the stomach that makes you hungry, basically because I always thought it would be a pretty name and I am a nutrition dork.

He wasn't hand trained, but he's warming up. He bites, HARD, if you get your hand too close, yet he'll come and chill inches away from me on the bed, and will eat millet out of my hand, so I am hoping this is the start to a beautiful relationship.

The only dilemma, of course, is that Sookie wants to eat him. I keep trying to teach her, Ghreylin is family, not food.