Bookwyrm
Sprinting down the street
- Joined
- 6/15/20
- Messages
- 303
Several years ago, I decided I wanted a pet bird. My mom had had parakeets and lovebirds and finches growing up, so she and my dad decided to let me get a pair of birds. (I will mention that my mom knew nothing of proper bird care). So, for my birthday, they took me up to a pet store and said I could get a pair of finches. I didn't want finches. You couldn't play with them. So we got a pair of budgies. Two females. A cage that was 15x15x18. I was young. I just wanted a fun pet that was different and that could be my friend. Both birds were tame when I got them (the lady who clipped their wings said that one had sat on her finger). But I was scared of them. Twitter, a white lutio, and Tweet, a little blue bird. I didn't interact with them for three months. And when I finally did... It was just too much work for me. It wasn't worth taking care of them, so, I didn't. They had awful toys, awful perches, an awful cage, and ate only seeds. I did some research after two years, and tried to implement it. Too much work there, too.
Finally, for the last six months of their lives, I would let them out of the cage almost every day. They couldn't fly. They just sat on the top of the cage. Little Tweet would step up onto my finger if I gave her millet, but that was it.
About six months before she died, Tweet started spending almost all of her time on the bottom of her cage, all puffed up, huddled in a corner. I knew she was sick, but she was just a parakeet. You don't take parakeets to the vet.
Four-ish months ago, I came home to Twitter huddled up next to Tweet down there. Several days later, I had to leave. I left the cage covered to try and keep it warm for Tweet (it was all I could really do) and went to work. I came home around noon, and uncovered the cage. Tweet ran out from her corner, and Twitter was laying there. She could have been dead since I covered her up the night before.
Tweet was alone for three days, but we finally went back up to the same pet store I had gotten her from, and got a pretty little blue and gray budgie to be her friend.
I didn't quarentine him.
I just plunked him right into the tiny little cage with a sick bird.
Tweet was soooo sweet to him (after a few little nips) and would sit up on a perch next to him even though she was obviously uncomfortable.
The next day, she was not doing well. She was sort of just stumbling around on the bottom of the cage. She tried to climb up to get to her food bowl, but couldn't. I opened the cage to try and get her out, and she just flew right out. She landed two feet away onto my bed. I tried picking her up, but she flew off again, but smacked into the table the cage was on. That was when I was finally able to pick her up. That was the first time I had ever really held a bird.
My mom didn't really want me to watch her die, so I placed her back on the floor of the cage and she pulled herself around for a few minutes before I finally went downstairs and ate some food. She was gone when I went back up, my poor little baby bird I had just gotten sitting confused on a high perch.
That was when I started researching. I was paranoid about my birds. (I got another bird, but from a different chain pet store). I read and watched every video I could on sick birds. (The newest bird had something, and after a few weeks started having diarrhea. I took her back).
It was rough. I was grieving for my birds I had hardly known and was learning about everything I had done wrong. It was terrible.
(During that time I had learned that Tweet likely died of a respiratory infection, and that Twitter had been very hormonal for quite a while. It could have been her first and only egg that had gotten her).
And now... I know a lot. Kaladin, my awesome blue and gray budgie, got an infection about a month back, and we actually took him to an avian vet, got him on an antibiotic, and he squawked into my ear for the first time today. I've been doing a whole heck of a lot of research and am doing my best to take care of my baby. (He's currently in the tiny cage, but I keep the door open practically all day. And he has a big flight cage coming in a week, so I'm super excited for that)! He gets chop every day, and I'm currently in the process of switching him onto pellets. High quality pellets. Not seeds. Vegetables and pellets. He also has good toys, plays with those toys, and he's bonded with me. He's truly the parrot I wanted four years ago.
It just took the lives of two others to get to this point.
But I've realized that A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE are in the same position. They have no idea what they're getting into. They don't care, either.
I am a high school student, but i have decided (once things in the world have settled a little) that a great thing to do would be to go to Craigslist and Facebook and, every once in a while, take in a budgie who's owner decided they weren't worth the time. I would do my best to get them on a good diet, try and tame them (or at least get them on that path) and find a good home for them elsewhere. I'd educate the new owner, make sure they could pay for quality food and would be willing to provide the proper care. I'd check in regularly. I would make sure they did everything right the first time.
Just another budgie story. I miss my girlies, but... It is what it is. I am a better person because of it, and I am now on the path to becoming a bird person. (Hopefully I'll be able to start working again and potentially get a cockatiel or something to be a sort of companion for Kaladin, but also because I truly love parrots and want them to always be a part of my life.
I hope that someday something will change, and people will be better informed before purchasing birds of any sort, and that I can help some people towards that. It won't be today, but I'm going to do the best with the little friend I currently have.
Hopefully that was all slightly coherent. It's really nice to be able to share that all with a group of people who won't think I'm crazy!
Finally, for the last six months of their lives, I would let them out of the cage almost every day. They couldn't fly. They just sat on the top of the cage. Little Tweet would step up onto my finger if I gave her millet, but that was it.
About six months before she died, Tweet started spending almost all of her time on the bottom of her cage, all puffed up, huddled in a corner. I knew she was sick, but she was just a parakeet. You don't take parakeets to the vet.
Four-ish months ago, I came home to Twitter huddled up next to Tweet down there. Several days later, I had to leave. I left the cage covered to try and keep it warm for Tweet (it was all I could really do) and went to work. I came home around noon, and uncovered the cage. Tweet ran out from her corner, and Twitter was laying there. She could have been dead since I covered her up the night before.
Tweet was alone for three days, but we finally went back up to the same pet store I had gotten her from, and got a pretty little blue and gray budgie to be her friend.
I didn't quarentine him.
I just plunked him right into the tiny little cage with a sick bird.
Tweet was soooo sweet to him (after a few little nips) and would sit up on a perch next to him even though she was obviously uncomfortable.
The next day, she was not doing well. She was sort of just stumbling around on the bottom of the cage. She tried to climb up to get to her food bowl, but couldn't. I opened the cage to try and get her out, and she just flew right out. She landed two feet away onto my bed. I tried picking her up, but she flew off again, but smacked into the table the cage was on. That was when I was finally able to pick her up. That was the first time I had ever really held a bird.
My mom didn't really want me to watch her die, so I placed her back on the floor of the cage and she pulled herself around for a few minutes before I finally went downstairs and ate some food. She was gone when I went back up, my poor little baby bird I had just gotten sitting confused on a high perch.
That was when I started researching. I was paranoid about my birds. (I got another bird, but from a different chain pet store). I read and watched every video I could on sick birds. (The newest bird had something, and after a few weeks started having diarrhea. I took her back).
It was rough. I was grieving for my birds I had hardly known and was learning about everything I had done wrong. It was terrible.
(During that time I had learned that Tweet likely died of a respiratory infection, and that Twitter had been very hormonal for quite a while. It could have been her first and only egg that had gotten her).
And now... I know a lot. Kaladin, my awesome blue and gray budgie, got an infection about a month back, and we actually took him to an avian vet, got him on an antibiotic, and he squawked into my ear for the first time today. I've been doing a whole heck of a lot of research and am doing my best to take care of my baby. (He's currently in the tiny cage, but I keep the door open practically all day. And he has a big flight cage coming in a week, so I'm super excited for that)! He gets chop every day, and I'm currently in the process of switching him onto pellets. High quality pellets. Not seeds. Vegetables and pellets. He also has good toys, plays with those toys, and he's bonded with me. He's truly the parrot I wanted four years ago.
It just took the lives of two others to get to this point.
But I've realized that A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE are in the same position. They have no idea what they're getting into. They don't care, either.
I am a high school student, but i have decided (once things in the world have settled a little) that a great thing to do would be to go to Craigslist and Facebook and, every once in a while, take in a budgie who's owner decided they weren't worth the time. I would do my best to get them on a good diet, try and tame them (or at least get them on that path) and find a good home for them elsewhere. I'd educate the new owner, make sure they could pay for quality food and would be willing to provide the proper care. I'd check in regularly. I would make sure they did everything right the first time.
Just another budgie story. I miss my girlies, but... It is what it is. I am a better person because of it, and I am now on the path to becoming a bird person. (Hopefully I'll be able to start working again and potentially get a cockatiel or something to be a sort of companion for Kaladin, but also because I truly love parrots and want them to always be a part of my life.
I hope that someday something will change, and people will be better informed before purchasing birds of any sort, and that I can help some people towards that. It won't be today, but I'm going to do the best with the little friend I currently have.
Hopefully that was all slightly coherent. It's really nice to be able to share that all with a group of people who won't think I'm crazy!
