The reason I keep birds & especially budgerigars, is that I enjoy living things & nature. Before I was given my first birds, I used to collect ants & other things & watch them build their homes in the dirt in my jar, Mum says that for some strange reason they never used to bite me. It’s almost seems like it’s why I was put here, as I really don’t know why I started. It seems to be in my families’ blood anyway, as my Grandfather used to keep canaries & enjoy growing gardens, maybe that’s where I got it from.

Since I started back with Budgerigars especially, two years ago, after keeping other birds for years, I have discovered how much I love them, they just seem such happy birds, I just enjoy watching them late in the afternoon, which is a normal time for them to be active, as where they live in nature, it’s very hot during the middle of the day & they spend the midday dozing & preening themselves. I gather some of their favourite grass seeds & green plants, so that I can sit & watch them eating on the ground of the aviary. Even though an aviary isn’t the natural habitat of budgerigars, my birds seem to be extremely happy & fly crazily around their aviary, ducking & diving in great pleasure, I have one family especially that have just been in the aviary a few weeks, they are very special, they seem to have even more vigour than others & after they got over the initial shock of being moved from the breeding cabinet to the large aviary, are even more energetic & crazy than most.

I love breeding, as each new individual gives the excitement of something new. It’s like your own children, not one is exactly alike & each can be loved in their own special way. I breed Guinea pigs also, as they have such colour variation that each new one can be something special.

I have shown budgerigars before, but mainly I breed them now just to breed even more healthy & stronger birds, without problems. I want to breed better looking birds & interesting colours, but primary it’s healthy vigorous trouble free birds I aim for.

If you think about it, everyone, breeds for fun. No one is obligated to breed budgies. No one has to own budgies and breed them. It is people's choice to own budgies and breed them, and they do it because it is fun, entertaining, they enjoy it, not because it is a necessecity of life. I mean, we don't need to breed them to eat them and breeding animals is very rarely profitable.

I don't know why I keep animals, I don't know why I keep budgies and I don't know why I breed birds. All I can say is that I can't describe what it is about animals, but they give me hope.