Gabby Garnet (GeeGee) is our family's pet parrot. We named him Garnet because of his deep red colour and you can guess why we named him Gabby!
Garnet actually adopted us. He was our friend's pet. When they moved from Australia to England Garnet bunked in with us. The kids quickly got very attached to him and since we have a very large treed property it seems to be the ideal home.
Our friends felt this was majic when they saw how happy Garnet appeared to be with us... like he adopted us. Since they were moving into a smaller place in a colder climate they felt it wouldn't be fair to Garnet to have to stay in a small cage. So, they suggested that we keep him.
We have built a very large enclosure (half an acre) to allow GeeGee lots of freedom and room to actually fly around without worry about cats and such like.
Our two boys, Rich and Sam wo are 13 and 11, take turns making food for Gabby Garnet. They cook up quinoa or brown rice along with an assortment of veggies. GeeGee loves to gobble snow peas, broccoli and carrots. Sometimes we give him a little whole wheat bread too.
For treats every once in a while, they get to feed him grapes which he really loves and a teaspoon of peanut butter or a few nuts or seeds. It has been a great education for us having Garnet in our lives... we've learned that such things as sugar, chocolate or cocao are bad for parrots, and that avocados are poisonous to them, so we are very careful about his diet as it is supposed to help him to enjoy a much longer life. Just like us, he needs a lot of exercise, so it is good that he has lots of room to fly, so that he doesn't get fat.
Garnet has a large vocabulary and his favourite sayings are "All hands on deck!" and "Pudder der partna." We're not really sure why he says this, as our friends do not know either, even though they've had him since he was very young. Actually we think they probably know but just aren't telling.
Since we've had him for the past six months he has learned to say "Gabby Garnet loves to gobble." and "Gee Gee Whiz?" He's makes us laugh a lot with his funny ways. He is a gem of a bird... as I write this I realize that this is another reason for his name!
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