Childhood sweethearts Simon and Kirsty Wehrle have paired up 20 years on for a passion project to breed pet parrots in their hometown of Kirkcaldy.
Hearts fluttered when the couple reconnected second time around.
Now the newlyweds and proud parents to daughter, Hope, are chasing their dream to open a pet store for parrots and “small furries”.
They say their hand reared cockatiels, kakariki and conures make the perfect companion pets. And they want to make the Kirkcaldy store a hub for local bird lovers.
It’s a passion that has been passed down through the generations.
Simon learned how to hand rear birds from his father and grandfather before him.
He said: “I always remember going into my grandfather’s aviary and getting to handle the baby cockatiels.
“He probably kept other species but that’s one of my favourite memories.
“My dad took it up as well, so as far back as I can remember my dad kept birds out in an aviary in the back garden, still does in fact.”
When Simon showed Kirsty how to care for baby birds she “fell in love” with it too.
Soon they hatched a plan to turn their hobby into a business and last week opened their K&S Birds and Pet Supplies store in Mitchelston Industrial Estate.
Bird-fluencers
Now Kirsty is the business owner with Simon classified as the hobbyist.
She said: “Officially we have been feeding babies since 2022 as a business.
“Before that it was on a rescue basis, then we became licensed to sell them as pets.”
Kirsty ran a successful cleaning business when they got back together.
“But then I fed the little baby birdy and fell pregnant with Hope,” she smiles. “I was like, I’m just going to do the birds full-time as a business.
“There is something very special about about holding and feeding a baby birdie, I always say you can’t be sad while holding and feeding a baby bird, its the best feeling.”
Simon is part of the Glenrothes Bird Club and travels across England and Europe to source the best birds.
Posting regularly to Facebook and TikTok, the bird-fluencer loves sharing the hand rearing process with his followers.
And such is the popularity of their birds, customers often have to sign up to waiting lists as they work to keep up with demand.
“Simon does the aviary with the breeding side, that’s kind of always been a hobby,” said Kirsty.
Kirsty now tours local schools and nursing homes with Bluey, a licensed kakariki, bringing smiles to the faces of young and old alike.
“We had to rescue a few birds out of the aviary because their parents had neglected them.
“Simon said ‘Right, I’m going to show you how to feed these little babies’, basically I fell in love with it.”
K&S Birds couple look to future
The childhood sweethearts grew up just a few streets away from each other and attended the same primary and secondary schools before dating as 16-year-olds.
Life may have taken them in different separate directions then. But they are excited to circle back and make a go of it.
“We’ve now been together six and a half years and things have just worked out great,” said Simon. “We’ve got our own little daughter, and we ended up calling her Hope because of our own sort of circumstances in the past.”
The couple see their work as a legacy project. They plan to grow it and pass it on to their own children one day.
“Our kids are very much involved in what we do and we love it, it’s our passion,” said Simon.
“There’s a great excitement in seeing how many will hatch and what colour of birds you are going to produce; there’s that many different-coloured mutations now.
“Birds have a lot of character; they’re not just sitting in an aviary watching. They’ve all got their own little personalities.”
Conversation