Creature_Concepts – Meet our fantastic team

So who is the inspiration behind Creature_Concepts and who are the pets that we call family?

While we have had a range of pets over the years, our currently clan consists of mostly birds and fish. There are definitely plans to expand the brood in the not too distant future. Hopefully with a furry friend. Our children are now getting to the age where they are keen to have a special pet to play with outside and they are also ready for the responsibility that comes with owning a pet.

We have a great pond system in which our gold fish thrive. They are much cleverer than people may think, as they hide deep in the pond, under foliage if they feel predators are around and they know the time that we feed them each day. When it’s feeding time they swim around as a little school at the surface of the pond awaiting their treats of the day.

We also have an outdoor aviary of budgies. We have three breeding pairs that have given us many beautiful babies. It’s always such a delight to see what colour combination we get and to handle these little guys as they grow. It so amazing to see the different personalities. Some love to be handled and interact with out while others just like to be left to do their own thing.

Then there are four extremely spoilt birdies that get to live inside. They form our executive team. There is however, some debate though as to who is the true manager of the team. They are a mixture of breeds but all get on so well together and enjoy each other’s company.

Let’s meet the Creature_Concepts team

Jasper

Breed: Sun Conure

Age: 11

Gender: male

Hi, I’m Jasper. I’m the boss of the company as I’m the biggest and most colourful bird in the cage and I can squawk the loudest! When any of the little guys try to tell me what to do I just ignore them and do my own thing.

I love to walk around the house and have cuddles with my favourite human but I’m a bit wary of the little humans as they move too quickly and are even noisier than me.

I love to chew things, so new toys never stay looking new very long.

I am the stylist of the cage and it’s because of me that the cockatiels have such great looking crests. They really enjoy the grooming service that I provide, except if they decide that I’m doing it wrong….

Scooter (aka Scoot)

Breed: Cockatiel

Age: 13

Gender: male

Being the most senior bird, I am the true manager and I like to keep everyone in line. They all know it’s best to keep out of my way.

In my spare time, I love to come out of the cage and fly laps around the room. When in the cage I enjoy chewing cuttlefish bones, gumtree branches, coconut shells and newspaper. Ok, I just love to chew anything really.

Jasper is my best buddy as we have been friend for the longest. We love to walk around on the floor of the cage together shredding newspaper.

Lacey

Breed: Cockatiel

Age: 2 1/2

Gender: female

Hi, I’m Lacey; the lady of the house. I’m not currently in a relationship. Scoot, the only option here is way too old for me and also shows no interest in me.

I was born a Mallee girl and moved to Melbourne when I was one. It’s been quite a treat getting to live indoors as its warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Having grown up in an aviary, I don’t like to be handled but I am very relaxed with my humans moving around close to me. Just as long as they don’t try to touch me.

I enjoy the company of the boys and like to join in on the paper chewing games. I also really like what Jasper has been doing with my hair.

Bluey

Breed: Budgie

Age: 18 months

Gender: male

I’m the newest edition to the cage and have settled in nicely. I moved into the cage as an exchange student from the aviary. When I arrived I was a bit slow at learning how to fly, so “Mumma Lace” as I call her, took me under her wind and looked after me. Now that I’m a big boy and have the whole flying thing figured out I get on just fine.

I may be the littlest and youngest in the cage but it’s time for me to take over the management role. I do a pretty good job of telling the big birds what to do. Yes, I am partial to picking a fight but I’ve got what it take to stand up for myself.

Even though I don’t really like my human handling me, I’m a well behaved boy and never bite.

The story of our birdy bunch

We got Jasper as a 12 week old baby. He had been hatched in an incubator and hand raised by the breeder, as his parents had decided to leave the nest. Having been hand raised he was lovely and cuddly right from the start. For a few years Jasper lived as a solo bird and formed a very close bond to us, but soon the mini humans came along and Jasper started to want to do more of his own thing.

Not long afterwards Scoot joined our family. He belonged to my Mum, but was always screeching out because he felt lonely, so he became to be cage neighbours with Jasper. The two boys love each other’s company despite being different species and almost instantly, the screeching stopped. Scoot has become a happy and confident boy who loves to play and no longer gets scared when he sees a feather that he has lost. It was almost like Jasper taught him how to play and enjoy exploring the world around him.

About two years ago, Scoot started showing some nesting type instincts, so we decide to get him a girlfriend! My Uncle had been breeding cockatiels, so had a beautiful one year old female that I was able to have. This beautiful girl, who we named Lacey, travelled all the way from the Mallee to Melbourne to meet her new man. While Scoot was excited to meet her at first, he soon lost interest in her. So no, romance there and Scoot hasn’t shown any signs of wanting to nest since.

A few months later, we hatched a budgie in our aviary that wasn’t able to fly very well, so we decided to keep him inside with the cockatiels. Little Bluey, the budgie, instantly took to Lacey and would stay close to her like she was his Mum. Bluey has grown into a large male budgie and can now fly perfectly well and despite his size has become the real boss of the cage.

After years of cleaning separate cages I decided that things might be easier if all of the birds lived together, instead of just being neighbours. I was a little nervous about how Jasper would go living with the others as he has such a big beak and is such a strong bird. Considering they all knew each other so well, had spent time out of the cage together and had also visited each other’s cages plenty of times, I just had to give it a go. After doing the official move slowly over a couple of days we soon learnt Jasper wasn’t the one to worry about. Scoot and Bluey are in fact the bosses of the cage. They often pick little fights with each other and luckily for them, Jasper just ignores this fight picking behaviour. Jasper and Scoot, in particular play really nicely together.

Together the birds act like guard dogs looking out of our front windows. They let out specific alert calls if they see something out of the ordinary, such as a cat in the garden, birds near the fish or a delivery man coming to the door.

As I said at the beginning we are looking to add a furry friend to our growing family and would love to hear your suggestions. What dog breeds have you found good with young children?