Frugal Friends - pets :0)

[amandajane]

I rent my apartment and unfortunately can't have a dog. I've thought about getting a cat but my first love is my birdies, I have three budgies who give me endless entertainment (there's one on my shoulder as I type, lol).

They are so inexpensive to keep (less than $1.50 a week) and my 9 yr old loves them. They are easy to tame, with a bit of patience, too. They are a pet for life, so small but so beautiful.

Joanne, you mentioned in the container gardening thread that you have an Iguana - I sooo want an Iguana, we're not allowed to have them here in NZ though. Do they eat much (other than your veggies? lol). I'm envious, what an awesome pet!

[belle2p]

"there's one on my shoulder as I type"

That's so neat. I would love to do that and pretend I'm a pirate.

How do you train them to stay on your shoulder and not escape?

[Joanne]

Originally Posted by amandajane

Joanne, you mentioned in the container gardening thread that you have an Iguana - I sooo want an Iguana, we're not allowed to have them here in NZ though. Do they eat much (other than your veggies? lol). I'm envious, what an awesome pet!

They are awesome and our iguana, her name is Buddie, is totally cool! She's 10 years old and we got her when she was about a year, from a neighbor who didn't want the responsibility any longer.

They need to sun to digest their food so she eats more in the summer than in the winter but on the average she eats about 1/4- 1/2 pound of greens a day. Most days she'll eat some fruit with it, like a banana, a kiwi or a handful of grapes. The bulk of her greens are collards but we also give her escarole, green leaf and red leaf.

Other than that, she's very low maintance. We take her to the vet every six to twelve months for a check up. She's never had any major health problems and our vet always tells us to keep doing what we're doing because she's very healthy. She's free roaming and has been since we got her, meaning she's not caged. She actually lives in our screen room (about 12,000 square feet) where our pool is. We live in Florida now (we're from New York City) but the nights do get cold this time of year so we bring her in when the sun is setting and sleeps in our bedroom, but normally she stays outside in the screen room.

Female iguanas lay eggs every year, regardless of if they're fertilized or not. Although she's getting to old now, when she was younger she would lay up to 50 eggs in a matter of a few days!

Here she is in the screen room, laying on top of our hot tub. She's about 44 inches long and weighs roughly six and a half pounds.





Your birds sound like great pets!! Can you post a picture of them?

[amandajane]

Hi again :0)

belle2p - they were all young when I got them and one kind of took the lead and the others followed. They are funny little characters, all have their quirks. The one that was on my shoulder today is surprisingly still, seems he likes my shoulder as a resting place, he sits there happily for hours.

Joanne - what awesome photos, thanks for posting them. She has a healthy diet for sure - I'm envious, I don't eat as well as that, lol

Free roaming sounds like fun, does she ever hide from you? :0) and omg - 50 eggs, that's a lot of work to do in a few days, poor thing!

I'll post some photos later of my birdies, I'm charging the camera battery at the moment.

What's a screen room?

[Joanne]

A screen room is a room made of screen (lol)...actually it houses our pool. They're quite common in Florida. I had never seen one until I moved here. It's attached to the back of our house.

Yes, she does hide sometimes and she's even escaped. When we lived in Brooklyn, she ripeed a hole in the window screen and scaled down the outside of our two story home. More recently, she got out of our screen room and was missing for a week. We hung flyers everywhere and someone finally called and said they spotted her...a mile away. I was sick to my stomach that whole week.

Looking forward to seeing your birds!!

[Savio]

Wow. Cool Iguana! I'm totally in love with it. XD

I had a German Shepherd called Missy. But she got old and passed away.
I really miss her. But I can't get a dog again due to some reason.

But maybe I should get birds. They are cute and as you say, cost less to maintain. Thanks guys.

[amandajane]

Here they are all sitting comfortably on my shoulder



I think these two are in love :0)



That was a mission, lol, they were patient though.

That must have been very worrying when you lost your Iguana, a whole week is a long time!

Savio - sorry to hear about your dog :0(

Birds are inexpensive though and although not quite so interactive once tame they are awesome company.

[Joanne]

They're adorable!

[amandajane]

Thank you :0) I have to say I am very attached to them.

[Rebecca]

I have a dog and a cat. Even though both were rescues, they've been an amazing $$ drain. But I love 'em.