I began with Latino Lovebird that I bought from a local breeder. I am an animal lover, and with perseverance and patience, I was able to tame him. Next I bought a few cocktails and tamed them. At the time, I was pursuing my schooling and keeping Marine and Fresh Water fishes as hobby. At the end of the year I had collected and tamed quite a lot number of birds, which also started breeding. I decided to sell a few babies. I sold them at a profit, and this started the ball rolling. I found new homes for the new borns, and used the money to buy more birds. In the next couple of years, I found that I could buy wild birds and tame them as pets and often breed them to help support my pocket money and the birds that I had accumulated. Within a couple of years my collection of birds had increased to over 70, and I no longer had time for fresh water fish, marine creatures and birds. I decided to sell all of my fresh water collection. The marine became my profession and birds had become my fascination. Through taming and training the wild birds, I learned about parrots and other birds psychology. It never ceased to amaze me that parrots that had been mistreated and roughly handled during quarantine and capture, could learn to trust humans. Because of my love for them, and my lack of fear, wild African Greys would allow me to pet them within 15 minutes. I tamed, and gained the trust of, totally wild Macaws, Cockatoos, Lories and Greys that most people called "Broncos", and would not have attempted to tame. I suppose my lack of fear helped to reassure them. I never used gloves because I felt that I had to give my trust to gain theirs. Within a year, by using charge cards and selling some of the birds I had tamed, I was able to increase my flock to over 150 birds of various species. In September of 2013, I had a flu outbreak. I lost all but 30 of 219 birds. The experience was traumatic. I blamed myself for their deaths and almost decided to give up. I still owed for most of the birds that I had lost, and wasn't making enough at my business to pay for them. After I got over the initial shock of the fire, I realized that I couldn't just quit. That would have meant defeat, and I refused to be defeated. With the help and support of family I bought a few more birds, but this time most of my purchases were for breeding stock. I stopped buying birds from unreliable sources, but I had to put further stress on myself to buy unwanted and abused birds that would become my breeders. I let each of the birds pick their own mates, and set them up as they did. I went through all of the same learning experiences that any new breeder does; sorting through opinions and theories, trying different cage sizes, lighting, and vitamins. I very quickly figured out that most successful breeders were not going to reveal to me how they became successful. I had to go through the same pains they did and figure it out on my own. I did!!!! Although, most of this may have been of no interest to many, the point that I was attempting to get across is that no one should ever give up on a dream. Although you may lose a couple of battles, the war can't be lost unless you quit. I thought I might share a little poem that I wrote when I was going through the one of the tragic experiences of losing my birds. Ode to a Dream
For every happiness, there must be a sorrow. For every today, there's always tomorrow. At times you might ask, "Oh, what's it all worth? There must be a reason for being on earth!!"
But deep in your heart you know what it's for. It’s life and it's love, and, oh, so much more. "Forget it!! Give up!! Things aren't what they seem!!"
Yet every reality began with a dream.
