I have alot of issues to discuss with whomever has the inclination... i could really use some advice from my friends here!
My husband and I caretake for an elderly/disabled family friend, since his wife passed away, leaving him, and her budgie, Puffy, behind. Puffy was miserable, and we adopted Petunia, a rescue who came from a hoarding situation. We have no idea how old she is, but Puffy is about 6 years old I think? Maybe even 7. Thank goodness it was love at first sight and they have been a great pair.
Now Im going to be honest,… my birds at home have a pampered life, and I didn’t love the fact that Puffy and Petunia had to be in a cage all the time. But my husband didn’t want to rehome Puffy so soon after the wife had passed, and once we got Petunia, he felt like the birds were good company for our friend.
But its been alot of work trying to care for them, yet feeling like we are not giving them the best quality of life, as their primary owner that lives with them is unable to care for them or even interact with them (he has traumatic brain injury and is sort of limited to things he likes to engage in), and taking them out of the cage only seemed to traumatize them and make them fly into walls.
We bought them a big flight cage and I felt better about that. However, even though I try to feed them a high quality diet thats not just seeds, I dont know that they have much interest in anything but seeds. Certainly Petunia doesnt seem to be very adventurous.
Recently, Petunia became ill, while I was busy for the holidays and my husband was taking care of them. One day he told me she seemed to be sleeping alot. Anyway, we brought her in, tried antibiotics, they didnt work- the vet says she has liver disease or even cancer, and obviously its progessed as she is visibly ill…nothing we can do at the moment, So we are taking it a day at a time, and trying all the natural remedies we can for her, in the hopes it at least eases her just a bit. But according to the vet, she is dying...
In the meantime, I have been pondering Puffy’s future, certainly he will be devastated to lose his companion. He has already lost his brother, and his human mom. Poor little guy. I honestly dont know how I feel about trying to get him another bird, only because, I am just not convinced that his elderly owner should have any pets, especially birds- I dont feel like it’s fair to a pet to have their owner not be the one that cares for them and interacts with them.
Im going through something similar with my aging dad and his cat The owner is not bonded with the birds at all, and over time, ive come to realize that I dont really think he cares whether they are there or not?
Maybe im totally wrong, but I had the thought to maybe just find Puffy a loving home and flock. He’s such a sweet boy, and not really tame yet, but has a lot of potential, and does like scritches.
I also had the fleeting thought of taking him in…with my girls. As you may remember, I have a budgie, Lotus, and a Linnie named Neeloo. Lotus is about two, and Neeloo is around 1 year old.
Now, I would probably DNA test Lotus before I do that… I have been getting comments from other bird owners that they think she is a male (we are keeping her preferred pronouns LOL), and its possible, as her cere hasn’t turned brown, and she does display male traits. So her gender might not be an issue.
The pros of bringing Puffy in are that
a)Puffy would be way less maintenance than a baby, of course! So thats a plus
b)Puffy is not bonded to us but he knows us and it would be less of a shock to him
c)Who knows? He could be the perfect fit for all of us, and make Lotus happy
d)we know that Puffy would have a great quality of life with us because we are ridiculous with our birds
e)the poor thing has been through alot, and this would be a gentle transition in many ways
What would be an issue for me is
a) I just got Neeloo (my Linnie) last January, and Lotsi the year before that…it feels like we are just starting to settle in, Neeloo just started to fly. and getting a new bird, is an exhausting process…im assuming puffy would still require quarantine. Its a huge responsibility. I also dont know if im ready for a new bird as ive recently started taking care of my aging dad.
b) I am the one who physically takes care of these guys and is with them all day, so it has to work for me, and
c)my primary concern is my bird children ,they have to be ok with it. If lotus gets more stressed out, or if puffy bullies her, that would be a dealbreaker. He is also very different. He grew up, parent raised, untamed, with another male sibling, they fought all the time, and he can be loud and a bit aggressive, nothing crazy, but I would just hate to see him get weird with Lotus. Or throw off the balance of the flock…
d)I had sort of hoped my next bird would be a cockatiel, or a baby budgie that I can train and integrate seamlessly into the flock- we are very close knit and spend all day together, so personalities are important. Lotus and Neeloo have perfect dispositions. Puffy can be kind of annoying, and he might irritate them. And me But then again, they could mellow him out!
e) If we even do a trial period, and puffy doesnt work out (aka Lotus is miserable), then rehoming him will also be another transition for him to have to go through...
My husband has been harassing me (lol) to get a budgie for Lotus, for years. Its annoying because it makes me feel like he thinks she’s not happy. He is convinced that even though I spend all day with her, and she is obsessed with me, that her life and happiness won’t be complete unless she has a budgie friend to do budgie things with, someone on her wavelength.
Maybe he is right! But my main thing is I want her to be happy, and from all the research I’ve done and bird people/breeders ive talked to…getting another budgie is not foolproof plan. She could become more agitated or jealous of attention to the new bird, I mean, so many things could happen. I just think its a risk, and I think now that we have Neeloo, she has someone to hang out with if I have to leave the house for a couple hours, and they do get along really well. Not the way that a budgie bonded pair would, but they do have fun, and Lotus never has to be alone.
Im not worried about losing my bond with Lotus, because she’s so intensely bonded with me. But I do worry that a new budgie wouldn’t necessarily make her happy and just might stress her out, as well as adding to my extra work (which is less important that her being happy, but if it doesn’t make her happy and is also more work for me, it doesnt make sense) But if I knew 100%, that having a little budgie buddy completed her and made her happy, I would do it in a second.
Neeloo is such a chill baby (everyone calls her Buddha bird), that i think she'd be ok with almost anything. Lotus can be demanding, finicky, and kind of a diva.
So now that there is the potential of rehoming Puffy, my husband is insisting that we take him in. I told him that ultimately the decision has to be mine because I’m the one who actually does all the the dirty work
Do you think its a good idea? I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it. Would I have to quarantine him? Separate cages obviously, but forever? What about the age difference, would he bully her? Lotus was bullied as a baby by the other non-albino budgies, they would chew on her feathers and she even had poop on her wing when I got her ive heard of albino budgies getting bullied or picked on in general. I see Puffy being sweet to Petunia and feeding her, but sometimes he pecks her really hard between her wings! My husband says he’s just “beaking” her and not pecking. 
The other thing my husband wants to do is to bring Puffy and Petunia over to our home. Since poor Miss Tuni is most likely on her way to cross over the rainbow bridge, there are some things about this that make alot of sense. I wouldn’t have to drive over to there once or twice a day, and spend alot of time taking care of them. My husband and I are literally the only people who even glance at them or interact with them, so they would be with us and they might like it. I could set up a separate room for them as a Bird room, with play stands etc, so that they could be together and have out of cage time for long periods of time, or even all day if they wanted. I would be able to offer them more fresh food, etc, etc. and check in on them more, even if its just to say hi. At their current home, people are around but ignoring them.
I dont know which is better…but the idea would be to give them a better quality of life with more attention, fresh food, and lots of out of cage time. But would the move actually stress out Petunia even more? She seems so very fragile and like she’s just hanging in there…. But she’s a trooper and getting used to me catching her to give her antibiotics, and now supplements (aloe, milk thistle, and red palm oil) Puffy has lived in that house since he was weaned…would it be awful for him? Is it better to just leave them be?
My main concern about this would be stressing out my birds. If they hear me in there talking to other birds…and they will definitely hear each other! Lotus would probably go nuts and scream. Or she might really want to go into the room. I dont know how they’d react. I also dont know whether or not we'd have to observe quarantine rules and wash and change clothes after we leave the room…
My husband wants to have them here, to give them a better quality of life at least until Petunia passes, and then merge Puffy with the flock. Or at least do a trial period and see if he is a good fit.
I’m open to it..i'm more open to bringing them here and keeping them in a separate room, because I dont know that it would impact my birds as much. But all of it is a big project and responsibility, and I want to make sure we give it alot of thought before doing anything, if we do at all.
I am praying for guidance and asking all of my bird ‘mentors’… I’d so so appreciate your thoughts and opinions.
My husband and I caretake for an elderly/disabled family friend, since his wife passed away, leaving him, and her budgie, Puffy, behind. Puffy was miserable, and we adopted Petunia, a rescue who came from a hoarding situation. We have no idea how old she is, but Puffy is about 6 years old I think? Maybe even 7. Thank goodness it was love at first sight and they have been a great pair.
Now Im going to be honest,… my birds at home have a pampered life, and I didn’t love the fact that Puffy and Petunia had to be in a cage all the time. But my husband didn’t want to rehome Puffy so soon after the wife had passed, and once we got Petunia, he felt like the birds were good company for our friend.
But its been alot of work trying to care for them, yet feeling like we are not giving them the best quality of life, as their primary owner that lives with them is unable to care for them or even interact with them (he has traumatic brain injury and is sort of limited to things he likes to engage in), and taking them out of the cage only seemed to traumatize them and make them fly into walls.
We bought them a big flight cage and I felt better about that. However, even though I try to feed them a high quality diet thats not just seeds, I dont know that they have much interest in anything but seeds. Certainly Petunia doesnt seem to be very adventurous.
Recently, Petunia became ill, while I was busy for the holidays and my husband was taking care of them. One day he told me she seemed to be sleeping alot. Anyway, we brought her in, tried antibiotics, they didnt work- the vet says she has liver disease or even cancer, and obviously its progessed as she is visibly ill…nothing we can do at the moment, So we are taking it a day at a time, and trying all the natural remedies we can for her, in the hopes it at least eases her just a bit. But according to the vet, she is dying...
In the meantime, I have been pondering Puffy’s future, certainly he will be devastated to lose his companion. He has already lost his brother, and his human mom. Poor little guy. I honestly dont know how I feel about trying to get him another bird, only because, I am just not convinced that his elderly owner should have any pets, especially birds- I dont feel like it’s fair to a pet to have their owner not be the one that cares for them and interacts with them.
Im going through something similar with my aging dad and his cat
The owner is not bonded with the birds at all, and over time, ive come to realize that I dont really think he cares whether they are there or not?Maybe im totally wrong, but I had the thought to maybe just find Puffy a loving home and flock. He’s such a sweet boy, and not really tame yet, but has a lot of potential, and does like scritches.
I also had the fleeting thought of taking him in…with my girls. As you may remember, I have a budgie, Lotus, and a Linnie named Neeloo. Lotus is about two, and Neeloo is around 1 year old.
Now, I would probably DNA test Lotus before I do that… I have been getting comments from other bird owners that they think she is a male (we are keeping her preferred pronouns LOL), and its possible, as her cere hasn’t turned brown, and she does display male traits. So her gender might not be an issue.
The pros of bringing Puffy in are that
a)Puffy would be way less maintenance than a baby, of course! So thats a plus
b)Puffy is not bonded to us but he knows us and it would be less of a shock to him
c)Who knows? He could be the perfect fit for all of us, and make Lotus happy
d)we know that Puffy would have a great quality of life with us because we are ridiculous with our birds
e)the poor thing has been through alot, and this would be a gentle transition in many ways
What would be an issue for me is
a) I just got Neeloo (my Linnie) last January, and Lotsi the year before that…it feels like we are just starting to settle in, Neeloo just started to fly. and getting a new bird, is an exhausting process…im assuming puffy would still require quarantine. Its a huge responsibility. I also dont know if im ready for a new bird as ive recently started taking care of my aging dad.
b) I am the one who physically takes care of these guys and is with them all day, so it has to work for me, and
c)my primary concern is my bird children ,they have to be ok with it. If lotus gets more stressed out, or if puffy bullies her, that would be a dealbreaker. He is also very different. He grew up, parent raised, untamed, with another male sibling, they fought all the time, and he can be loud and a bit aggressive, nothing crazy, but I would just hate to see him get weird with Lotus. Or throw off the balance of the flock…
d)I had sort of hoped my next bird would be a cockatiel, or a baby budgie that I can train and integrate seamlessly into the flock- we are very close knit and spend all day together, so personalities are important. Lotus and Neeloo have perfect dispositions. Puffy can be kind of annoying, and he might irritate them. And me But then again, they could mellow him out!
e) If we even do a trial period, and puffy doesnt work out (aka Lotus is miserable), then rehoming him will also be another transition for him to have to go through...
My husband has been harassing me (lol) to get a budgie for Lotus, for years. Its annoying because it makes me feel like he thinks she’s not happy. He is convinced that even though I spend all day with her, and she is obsessed with me, that her life and happiness won’t be complete unless she has a budgie friend to do budgie things with, someone on her wavelength.
Maybe he is right! But my main thing is I want her to be happy, and from all the research I’ve done and bird people/breeders ive talked to…getting another budgie is not foolproof plan. She could become more agitated or jealous of attention to the new bird, I mean, so many things could happen. I just think its a risk, and I think now that we have Neeloo, she has someone to hang out with if I have to leave the house for a couple hours, and they do get along really well. Not the way that a budgie bonded pair would, but they do have fun, and Lotus never has to be alone.
Im not worried about losing my bond with Lotus, because she’s so intensely bonded with me. But I do worry that a new budgie wouldn’t necessarily make her happy and just might stress her out, as well as adding to my extra work (which is less important that her being happy, but if it doesn’t make her happy and is also more work for me, it doesnt make sense) But if I knew 100%, that having a little budgie buddy completed her and made her happy, I would do it in a second.
Neeloo is such a chill baby (everyone calls her Buddha bird), that i think she'd be ok with almost anything. Lotus can be demanding, finicky, and kind of a diva.
So now that there is the potential of rehoming Puffy, my husband is insisting that we take him in. I told him that ultimately the decision has to be mine because I’m the one who actually does all the the dirty work
Do you think its a good idea? I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it. Would I have to quarantine him? Separate cages obviously, but forever? What about the age difference, would he bully her? Lotus was bullied as a baby by the other non-albino budgies, they would chew on her feathers and she even had poop on her wing when I got her ive heard of albino budgies getting bullied or picked on in general. I see Puffy being sweet to Petunia and feeding her, but sometimes he pecks her really hard between her wings! My husband says he’s just “beaking” her and not pecking.
The other thing my husband wants to do is to bring Puffy and Petunia over to our home. Since poor Miss Tuni is most likely on her way to cross over the rainbow bridge, there are some things about this that make alot of sense. I wouldn’t have to drive over to there once or twice a day, and spend alot of time taking care of them. My husband and I are literally the only people who even glance at them or interact with them, so they would be with us and they might like it. I could set up a separate room for them as a Bird room, with play stands etc, so that they could be together and have out of cage time for long periods of time, or even all day if they wanted. I would be able to offer them more fresh food, etc, etc. and check in on them more, even if its just to say hi. At their current home, people are around but ignoring them.
I dont know which is better…but the idea would be to give them a better quality of life with more attention, fresh food, and lots of out of cage time. But would the move actually stress out Petunia even more? She seems so very fragile and like she’s just hanging in there…. But she’s a trooper and getting used to me catching her to give her antibiotics, and now supplements (aloe, milk thistle, and red palm oil) Puffy has lived in that house since he was weaned…would it be awful for him? Is it better to just leave them be?
My main concern about this would be stressing out my birds. If they hear me in there talking to other birds…and they will definitely hear each other! Lotus would probably go nuts and scream. Or she might really want to go into the room. I dont know how they’d react. I also dont know whether or not we'd have to observe quarantine rules and wash and change clothes after we leave the room…
My husband wants to have them here, to give them a better quality of life at least until Petunia passes, and then merge Puffy with the flock. Or at least do a trial period and see if he is a good fit.
I’m open to it..i'm more open to bringing them here and keeping them in a separate room, because I dont know that it would impact my birds as much. But all of it is a big project and responsibility, and I want to make sure we give it alot of thought before doing anything, if we do at all.
I am praying for guidance and asking all of my bird ‘mentors’… I’d so so appreciate your thoughts and opinions.
