Belushi was adopted on August 13th 2013, at an age of 8 to 12 weeks old. His name was picked almost instantly, in honor of John Belushi (would you expect anything different?)
This is his first picture taken at the pet shop. He is nibbling on the towel, a reflection of the kind of goofball he started out as, and hopefully will forever be.
After I brought him home, I thought he would hate me. He kept staring at me like I was the devil, but in a couple of days, he realized that I am not going anywhere and is suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome" or has just decided to accept me in his life.
It has been an interesting addition to the animal-family having a bird in the house, trying to teach him how to talk, not poop in his food or water bowl, and learning about his personality while not getting bit is a real fun experience.
He was the small bird of a group of many birds, almost bought two parakeets that day, but decided against that idea because I have read in the books that "they bond better with a human and have a better chance of talking if you purchase just one". Needless to say, he seems to be doing just fine adjusting. He gets sessions out of his cage to play in the bathroom (the smallest room in the house) and he seems to enjoy that very much. He loves listening to the dog snort on the other side of the door, and sits and is completely intrigued by pug sounds, they have this conversation almost every day.
Belushi is a REAL character, he BEGS for the radio, and dances to a lot of really tacky music. (Ke$ha, Taylor Swift, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake). Particularly "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake, and "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke. Which is ironic, I love every kind of music...he loves anything with a beat or has some kind of repeatitive groove-worthy sound. It sure makes the music more enjoyable watching a bird tweet and bob up and down and dance to music. Every time I get my video camera out, he stops...but I caught him in action one day.
We are also ladder training right now. The current cage I have does not have room for a ladder, but I got him one t play with in "cage out" time (in the bathroom until he gets a playground after i am done cleaning out my room). He seems to love marching across the ladder..and going up the side rung of it.
He is bonding to me. Makes a point to greet me when I come home from work and I spend a lot of time with him and hes learning not to "bite the hand that feeds him" as much. His first "out of cage experience" he bit VERY hard. Ive learned to toughen up and ignore the behavior and he has bitten me less and less and learning to relax on my shoulder and on my finger because I am not planning on going anywhere anytime soon.
He loves clowning around, a lot. He can hang upside down like a bat. That was one of the ways he got my attention when I picked him out. As Jim Belushi's described his brother John (and since I am a huge fan of his) Jim said he was "Piss ass funny!" I immediately thought of that description when watching him play around, and now that he is home he still likes to hang upside down like a bat.
He is conceited. Just this evening, he stood up in the mirror, got real close..and kissed his reflection twice.
I know not all keets talk, but I am trying to get him to talk, We have a ritual whenever I walk in the room I say "Hi Belushi! Hi im Belushi!" and I kiss at him off and on. The other day he mimicked a kissing sound, so maybe..we might have a talker on our hands.
Overall, things are going great. I look forward to learning more about taking care of him and watching him grow into a sweet, smart, inquisitive little bird full of funny little loving surprises. I love this little guy so much.
