Marnie is a blue mutation of an indian ringneck parakeet, which is a bright green in the wild.

Marnie hatched into the world on March 6th, 2006...whee!

Marnie came from a breeder in the Jacksonville, Florida area. The previous year we had given her a citron cockatoo I had rescued. For three years I tried to fit the citron in with the rest of my flock, but it just wasn't meant to be. The citron was really compromising the quality of life of the rest of my family.
When Marnie arrived he was only 6 weeks old. We had no idea whether it was a male or female. I'd had previous experience hand feeding an umbrella cockatoo who joined the flock in May of 1997. Marnie was going to need hand feeding too.
At 6 weeks he needed 4 feedings a day, so he came to work with me where I could keep him on the proper schedule. In my line of work 6 to 10 clients come in every day so it was a nice way for him to get socialized. Having Marnie at work with me also helped educate people on the care and nurturing of parrots.
As a baby he stayed in a large tupperware type box, with soft towels, paper towels and various stuffed toys. The first "bunny" came along because Easter was just a couple weeks after I got him, and a friend had given it to me at an Easter brunch we had together. When one would squeeze it, it would say, "some bunny loves you" so this is the beginning of what we would start teaching Marnie. My husband and I always talk to him in a higher, kinder type of voice, and would let him watch our mouths as we would say something to him. But basically he just had the desire to want to talk. I got my first parrot, a sun conure Rio, back in April of 1992, and through the years of acquied more parrots, but I never had a talker or personality like Marnie. He truly is a unique little guy!!