Motherly Instinct Begins to Kick In?

Working in the industry that I'm in, one blatant thing you have to sacrifice is your weekends. You have to forget about spending time with the rest of the family and... in my case, my pet cockatiel. I must admit that sometimes I do think about Sun-Ray, even while I'm interacting with a client. I wonder what she's doing, whether she misses me as much as I do her. I'm thinking, in the future when I have my own house - and thus, a big room for my future parrots - I'm definitely going to install one of those webcams in it, so I could survey my birds and feel 'near' to them. They call it "electronic nannies" - the webcams.

Almost a week ago, I bought and put a nestbox inside Sun-Ray's cage. I thought it would serve as an entertainment for her, despite I was very well aware that an adult hen plus a nestbox with some bedding inside equals to the increase of 'I-am-a-Mummy' hormone level. Sun-Ray, naturally, regards the nestbox - besides something she can nibble and somewhere can retreat herself to for privacy - as, like the name suggests, a nest. Even before the nestbox was introduced to her, Sun-Ray had shamelessly shown signs of desperately wanting a mate. She had those sweet mating calls... but the sounds turned out disgusting if she became aroused whenever I petted her. I've never petted her in any way sexually stimulating. Petting Sun-Ray has always been the same from the beginning. She only permits me to rub and scratch her head area. Now she's taking it the wrong way. Everytime that happened, I either ignored her or put her down. Sometimes I had to tell her off, "Sun-Ray, I'm a girl - like you! I'm not your mate! And besides, I'm human!!"

Today was another dragging Sunday. I went back to my desk after provided what the client needed, only to find a text-message from Billa that Sun-Ray had laid an egg! I replied her message in an instant, but stopped myself halfway, just to dial her number. In a voice full of excitement, she related how she was worried Sun-Ray hadn't come out from the nestbox all morning. When she investigated, Sun-Ray was sitting on an egg!

Photo: Doesn't she look angelic?

My imagination was confirmed on how cute she would look when I rushed to my room after work to see with my own two eyes. She was angelic, although aggressively defending what she thought her 'baby' that will hatch soon if she's patient enough to incubate it. That's okay... I'm going to let her tend to it two weeks or so until the day she finds out that her efforts are futile. Only then will I throw the egg away.

And find her a mate - a cockatiel cock.

Photo: "Stay away!"