Neptune

2006 - 2020

Neptune Lim passed away on February 23rd at the age of 13 and a half. He had a long and happy life, and will forever be loved and missed by his family.

Neptune was named after the planet Neptune, due to the many blue feathers that he had. His owner, Christina, was also learning about planets at the time when she was in grade 2 going into grade 3, which also inspired the name.

Neptune spent his days eating Abba bird seed, Nutriberries, and Roudybush pellets. He also enjoyed eating peas, carrots, beans, blueberries, and apples. But... his eyes always went beady and cross-eyed for millet and corn!

Whenever Neptune was introduced to new foods, he would always be afraid of them and attack them by launching a bite at it with his beak. If the bite of that food tasted delicious to him, he would warm up to it and consume the rest.

Neptune may be small, but he was a small bird with a huge personality. He was always incredibly curious and playful.

He enjoyed taking turns ringing bells, tapping or scratching anything, and seeing what his owner was up to.

While many birds like to sit and fall asleep on the shoulders of their owners while they do work or other activities, that was not Neptune. He always had the need to get into anything his owner was up to, whether it be chewing up Christina’s paper or pencil when she was trying to do homework, or hopping along the piano keys when she was trying to play piano. No matter how many times Christina put Neptune back on her shoulder, he always returned to his mischievous behaviours and insisted on involving himself in whatever Christina was doing.

Neptune loved entertaining people, and loved hearing his owner’s reactions to various things he did, such as running in his hamster wheel, shaking rattles/balls or ringing bells. Often, he would refuse to leave his cage until he put on a show and got a reaction (“wahoo!”) from his owner.

Neptune also loved playing in cardboard boxes and paper bags (Mcdonalds “A Bags”). While inside the paper bag, he would push the side as hard as he could and act all “surprised” when it flipped over on its side, but would repeat this process over and over again.

Neptune loved his play pen, but the bell at the top of it is what got the most attention. He could ring that bell back and forth with his owner all day long.

Neptune also loved staring at himself in the tall mirror in the hallway and tapping his own reflection (ramming his beak into the mirror with a small, but mighty force, using his whole body).

Neptune also spent his days running around in his hamster ball. He enjoyed running around in it so much that he would walk into it by himself. He loved following his owner around in the ball, or attempting to roll on top of the mat by the stairs by running towards it as fast as he could. But his favourite part about rolling in the ball was tapping and scratching on the plastic from the inside of the ball, back and forth with his owner.

Neptune was an affectionate bird, and loved face and neck massages. Although he often had to tolerate tummy kisses from his owner, he would always chirp happily after each kiss.

Neptune enjoyed taking baths from his water dish, but he preferred to bathe in the bathroom sink. Of course, he had to have the water set at the right temperature. Neptune would wait for his owner to let him have a taste of the water droplets on her hand to test the temperature, before sipping from the tap directly, and then dove into the stream

When sleepy, Neptune loved sleeping in his tent or on his heated perch. He absolutely loved all the toys made by Activitoys. Neptune loved how interactive they were and how they made interesting sounds. Neptune also enjoyed chewing on popsicle sticks and anything crinkly.

Tricks:
- Wave
- Step up
- Step down
- Turn around
- “Target”
- “Bang”
- “Play the piano”
- “Play soccer”
- “Turn on the light”
- “Go poo”

Neptune enjoyed responding to “ch ch” with a happy chirp, whether his owner made the sound right in front of him or across the house.

Your family will miss hearing your happy chirps everyday. I love you so much Neptune, and you are a very special bird that I will never forget.