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Ian and Susan Wakefield

Nearly 31 years ago when I married Ian, I could have walked down the aisle with a bird cage in each hand, but dad decided he'd give me away instead and make sure I went. At that time I had a female cockatiel named Jodie and a brown male canary called Tweetie-Pie. We have had birds ever since.
In 1976 along came our 1st son called Pebbles. He was a beautiful silver minature poodle. In 1980 along came our 2nd son and we called him Dale. He is now 24 years old and still lives at home. When Dale was 2 and a half, Pebbles died at nearly 6 years old and for 2 days we didnt have a dog. Along came the girls, Amy and Gabby, both black minature poodles.
It was at this time when we were living in Elizabeth Downs that we got our 1st second hand aviary. It was small and we put our two cockatiels in and a few peach faces. Not long after this, Ian decided to build some aviaries and we then had 6 lovely long ones along the back fence. Beats me how they ever survived and bred but they did, as I was not in the habit of giving them the attention that the birds now enjoy. So now we have 7 aviaries.

Seven aviaries lasted untill we moved to Cockatoo Valley, in 1992. During the time waiting to move in, we built 6 aviaries, 24ft long, ready to house the birds we were bringing along with us.
A month after moving here, Amy had to be put to sleep at age 11 as she had degenerative reticulosis. It was a 10 months later that we got Jamie because we though Gabby was lonely. Gabby was an incredible "mouser". She used to come in the aviaries with me and catch the mice as they came out the hole to avoid being drowned. Chomp, chomp, chomp, she would go, until she started to eat them and I had to put a stop to that. In 1998 Gabby had to be put to sleep at the tender age of 16 years as she was very tired, nearly blind and nearly deaf.
When she died we went out and got Bam Bam, a white minature male poodle. A backyard dog compared to a pedigree is so very different.

Somewhere along the years, Ian built 6 more aviaries and now we had 12. This latest 6 were only 19ft long and not quite as tall but lovely cages. All of our cages got full and of course we needed more. Holding cages they were going to be. Put the babies in and wait till they mature and we can sell them. So Ian priced up 6 more cages. WOW! By this time it is getting expensive!
As it was, we happened to be going to Murray Bridge to see Trevor Davis about an Eastern Rosella and I mentioned that we needed more cages to hold birds in. Maybe or maybe not it was a good idea to open my big mouth because he just happened to have 27 aviaries standing there, all disassembled waiting to be sold. Grief! We don't want 27 aviaries. Crikey! And so we bought them. For the price of 6 aviaries to build from scratch, we bought 27 aviaries. These are only 13ft long.
Eventually Ian got 5 aviaries up and we filled them, not just for holding birds but for breeding. Oooops! We need more. Ii-aaa-nn, we need more! so poor Ian wasted more holiday time when he would rather be fiddling with cars and put up 6 more aviaries. Now we have a bank of 12 and a bank of 11. And do you know what! We still dont have a holding cage for babies to grow up in. Still, we have 15 disassembled cages to put up. But poor Ian is getting tired.

I have raised a few birds, not a great deal and the majority have been King Parrots. THey are our most favourite birds and next comes the Crimson Winged Parrot and the Quakers. We keep mostly Australian parrots with just a few foreign birds. King Parrots are easy to tube feed until it gets time for them to start to wean and then I find they are a real hassle. They twist and squirm on the end of the tube and make it so difficult for me to feed alone, so either Ian or Dale hold them while I feed them. It is so good when they learn to feed themselves.

I do not hand feed for the sake of taming a bird but only as a last resort to prevent them from dying. The latest 2 King Parrots that I fed was because Mummy King had a prolapsed uterus and had to go to the hospital for a few days and so our friends the Chambers incubated them for us and fed them for the 1st 10 days. Then I took over. Mummy King had a successful recovery but will not be bred this season.

There were 5 birds in our kitchen earlier this year
By Susan Wakefield.

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