Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman
Spoiler alert: Your mother’s day gift is at the bottom.
Having 11 birds, 10 budgies and an African ringneck, we get it.
Living upstairs of our new facility, Keto (the ringneck) sleeps on the second floor with us but spends the day supervising mom in his “office cage (below).
If he is within 2 inches of skin he will lash out and bite.
We’ve learned not to give him the 2 inches and all is well.
So as not to tempt him, he makes the daily commute between two stories of the 98-year old building designated “Historic” built-in 1928.
We enlist the use of a transport cage to help avoid bites.
Once the birds have been issued instructions for the day, they all chirp and chatter away exchanging routine updates.
Editors note: The three-car garage with a motorcycle ramp to the basement was added just a few years back to accommodate 3 silver hearses.
Our daily bird routine usually starts with chopped (fresh frozen) vegetables for the budgies and whole corn kernels (that’s the only vegetable he likes) in each cage.
The three Tweeky clean feeders in the budgie aviary get completely refreshed every 24 to 48 hours.
Water dishes (bottled) are refreshed throughout the day and evening.
2 Lixit water bottles are installed on the front of the cage so fresh water is always available.
We provided Keto with a tall ceramic dish at the bottom of this cage which has done wonders to contain the mess, he loves fresh nuts.
Seed hulls are not too big of a problem with the budgie aviary but we knew they were highly stressed when we came down the first morning after we slept here to see a mountain of feathers surrounding their cage.
It’s getting better but there is a lot of vacuuming involved.
I like to remind people that “if you don’t like to vacuum don’t get a bird”.
At the end of the day, we internalize and ask “do our birds appreciate everything we do for them”?
Maybe, maybe not.
We do know for sure all our lives are enriched by their presence in our home.
Some may have noticed deficiencies in our inventory.
We apologize for that.
It made economic sense not to pay additional money to transport thousands of pounds of bird food from one location to another.
We are receiving deliveries daily while we are assembling our physical and digital infrastructure so the whole project is like a Chinese puzzle.
You can’t move one thing without moving something else.
It’s getting easier every day and morning rush hour is 12 cars at a stop light in the middle of town.
At the two post offices we use in Chicago, everybody looked depressed and angry.
Few looked up to greet you while dropping off mail in the back room.
Here in Lowell, everybody at the post office is friendly and cheerful – that’s going to take getting used to.
Dave, our UPS driver is a real gem.
Very considerate, efficient and will return back for pickup if Catherine isn’t quite ready with all her shipments for the day.
Higgins, Goldenfeast and Volkman are filling the shelves out nicely once again. Lafeber will be in on Monday.
A large Hagen bird food order will ship as soon as we get our Indiana Department of Revenue certificate.
Ironically when I was at the DOR office to apply, I was unable to find certain information but I told the woman I did have our Employee Identification Number.
She said, “that’s Federal we don’t need it”.
Five days later I got a letter from DOR requesting said EIN which was necessary to complete the DOR application and certificate.
Moving our home and business across state lines reaffirmed that patience is essential.
We are making a focused effort to expand the bird toys we offer from Prevue Pet which you can find here.
The bird toy category will be growing substantially over the coming weeks with all kinds of things.
If you have an interest in particular toys or products, PLEASE drop us an email at [email protected] and if we can get it, we will add it to our orders.
We will also be introducing collectibles sold only from the Lowell location but are more excited about working on the new displays.
Catherine has been collecting avian figurines for over 40 years.
They will make a wonderful display.
Our parrot supply and collectibles store will also be offering a coffee and toast bar.
Why toast?
Having gone on the Keto diet we stopped eating bread thus we moved all our toasters to the garage in Chicago.
We ended up unpacking three toasters and 4 coffee makers upon arrival to Lowell.
The new store is slated to open around the first week in June after we recover from Memorial Day weekend festivities:-)
Lots to look forward to for both of us.
Enjoy your day with family and remember “your kids are the ones who choose THE nursing home”.
Hey Mom – got an hour for some me time?Â
Watch this movie having a 100% feathered cast.
BILL AND COO (1948) – Full Movie!
Bill Singer is just an ordinary (albeit feathery) taxi driver in the town of Chirpendale – who wants nothing more than to woo his beloved girlfriend, Coo.
When a parakeet-devouring crow named “The Black Menace” arrives in town, nothing will be the same!
This astonishing film won a special Oscar “In which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of the medium of motion pictures”!
Directed by Dean Rieser, birds trained by George Burton. Starring Ken Murray and an all-bird cast.
Happy Moms day from Mitch, Catherine, and our flock now residing at the new digs, appropriately named “The Nest”.
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