IraDracona
Sitting on the front steps
- Joined
- 1/27/21
- Messages
- 17
- Real Name
- Zoë
Hi, newbie here!
My name's Zoë and I've recently started working, doing long shifts, day or night, but usually only 3 per week. I might be moving soon to an area where I'll be working 4 days but slightly shorter hours. My other half is currently working fairly standard Monday-Friday hours doing temporary work but is looking for something permanent.
We share a rented property with another couple who have been my friends for years, as long as I've had my eldest budgie in fact. She owns a cat so the birds live in our bedroom.
I am currently the caretaker of 3 budgies, possibly 4 next year if the other budgie I previously owned comes to live with us. I'm considering a tiel as a possibility if we manage to get our own home and have enough space.
My eldest budgie, Munchy, is 9 currently, and was an only bird for 8 years until I moved out of my family home, where someone had been home all day. When I moved out I bought a second budgie, Peri, a young one because I hoped to tame him, and they eventually got along, although my elder budgie was very put out by this youngster to start with.
I was in the 3rd year of uni at the time, recently moved out for the first time, and became very stressed and felt like I wasn't giving the birds a good home. So they went to live with someone I know locally who has lots of different species of birds.
Roll on the summer once I had finished my course. Munchy and Peri had both settled in to their new home. The first lockdown here was just easing but my other half, who'd come back from uni himself, couldn't yet move in with me because of the rules. I was feeling lonely and wanted a companion and a creature to care for again. So, not knowing that there's a shop 30 minutes walk from me that sells budgies bred by the family who runs it, I went as far as the rules would allow to buy a bird from the store I'd bought Peri from.
I'd had both cockatiels and conures recommended to me as more suitable companion birds than budgies at the time, but a bit of research suggested that they were even more likely to have a problem with me being away than a single budgie would. So we set up a space in the living room that the cat couldn't reach and taught her to stay away from it, and I went out to get a new budgie.
The last time I'd been to the shop the aviary had been full, but this time, because of lockdown, they only had 7 budgies, all over a year old. Generally not ideal when you want a tame companion. But I'd travelled so far that I didn't want to go home without a bird, so I brought Indie home and settled him into his nice new cage.
It took less than a month for me to see that Indie was not going to be happy alone. I saw an advert by a local breeder selling some chicks, and thus discovered the local shop, and bought one. Yuki was quarantined in our bedroom because Indie was going to move upstairs with him afterwards (as he had a tendency to be completely silent and then suddenly go nuts whenever my housemate had a work phonecall).
They moved in together and were happy.
I started missing the bond I'd had with Munchy and when I checked up on him I found out that he was no longer with the hen he'd been fond of and seemed stressed by the regularly changing population in the aviary, whilst Peri was just a complete social butterfly. So Munchy returned to us and after a quarantine was introduced to the others.
It's very hard to tell what Munchy thinks of the other two. Munchy has always been independent, so he'll chat to them if he feels like it but most of the time just seems to want to be alone. He's moved into his own cage because he didn't like sharing with the others. However, he must appreciate their company at least because he no longer calls for me if I leave the room, even though he's still tame and will let me ruffle his cheek feathers.
So that's us as we stand. Peri may come home next year because I do miss his water-loving antics. He'll be completely untame though, so that will be a challenge.
On the other hand, I miss just having one budgie that wants to spend time with me. Some of the companionship is gone and at times it feels like being lonely in a crowded room. Yet I wouldn't want one bird to be alone whilst I'm at work, even if my other half can play with them when he gets back at 5pm. It's a dilemma. I'm already changing to a job role that I hope will be better for me but will actually work out worse for the budgies, as my main role being home is to allow them to come out and exercise. With my current shifts they usually get 4-6 days a week of being out of their cages all day, depending on whether I'm doing any nights or weekend shifts. So in some ways just one budgie in the large cage would be better as it would be able to exercise more.
And hence the consideration of maybe a tiel in the future, with either one or a couple of budgies (separate cages of course), so they'd have company but if I'm lucky they'd still want to spend time with me. Apparently rabbits are good for that too, but birds steal my heart far too much.
Sorry, that got really long, but that's us and a bit of the mess that is my brain at times. I'll probably be around asking for advice or trying to learn more about different species to figure out what might be the best fit for us given the circumstances.
Looking forward to getting to know you all!
My name's Zoë and I've recently started working, doing long shifts, day or night, but usually only 3 per week. I might be moving soon to an area where I'll be working 4 days but slightly shorter hours. My other half is currently working fairly standard Monday-Friday hours doing temporary work but is looking for something permanent.
We share a rented property with another couple who have been my friends for years, as long as I've had my eldest budgie in fact. She owns a cat so the birds live in our bedroom.
I am currently the caretaker of 3 budgies, possibly 4 next year if the other budgie I previously owned comes to live with us. I'm considering a tiel as a possibility if we manage to get our own home and have enough space.
My eldest budgie, Munchy, is 9 currently, and was an only bird for 8 years until I moved out of my family home, where someone had been home all day. When I moved out I bought a second budgie, Peri, a young one because I hoped to tame him, and they eventually got along, although my elder budgie was very put out by this youngster to start with.
I was in the 3rd year of uni at the time, recently moved out for the first time, and became very stressed and felt like I wasn't giving the birds a good home. So they went to live with someone I know locally who has lots of different species of birds.
Roll on the summer once I had finished my course. Munchy and Peri had both settled in to their new home. The first lockdown here was just easing but my other half, who'd come back from uni himself, couldn't yet move in with me because of the rules. I was feeling lonely and wanted a companion and a creature to care for again. So, not knowing that there's a shop 30 minutes walk from me that sells budgies bred by the family who runs it, I went as far as the rules would allow to buy a bird from the store I'd bought Peri from.
I'd had both cockatiels and conures recommended to me as more suitable companion birds than budgies at the time, but a bit of research suggested that they were even more likely to have a problem with me being away than a single budgie would. So we set up a space in the living room that the cat couldn't reach and taught her to stay away from it, and I went out to get a new budgie.
The last time I'd been to the shop the aviary had been full, but this time, because of lockdown, they only had 7 budgies, all over a year old. Generally not ideal when you want a tame companion. But I'd travelled so far that I didn't want to go home without a bird, so I brought Indie home and settled him into his nice new cage.
It took less than a month for me to see that Indie was not going to be happy alone. I saw an advert by a local breeder selling some chicks, and thus discovered the local shop, and bought one. Yuki was quarantined in our bedroom because Indie was going to move upstairs with him afterwards (as he had a tendency to be completely silent and then suddenly go nuts whenever my housemate had a work phonecall).
They moved in together and were happy.
I started missing the bond I'd had with Munchy and when I checked up on him I found out that he was no longer with the hen he'd been fond of and seemed stressed by the regularly changing population in the aviary, whilst Peri was just a complete social butterfly. So Munchy returned to us and after a quarantine was introduced to the others.
It's very hard to tell what Munchy thinks of the other two. Munchy has always been independent, so he'll chat to them if he feels like it but most of the time just seems to want to be alone. He's moved into his own cage because he didn't like sharing with the others. However, he must appreciate their company at least because he no longer calls for me if I leave the room, even though he's still tame and will let me ruffle his cheek feathers.
So that's us as we stand. Peri may come home next year because I do miss his water-loving antics. He'll be completely untame though, so that will be a challenge.
On the other hand, I miss just having one budgie that wants to spend time with me. Some of the companionship is gone and at times it feels like being lonely in a crowded room. Yet I wouldn't want one bird to be alone whilst I'm at work, even if my other half can play with them when he gets back at 5pm. It's a dilemma. I'm already changing to a job role that I hope will be better for me but will actually work out worse for the budgies, as my main role being home is to allow them to come out and exercise. With my current shifts they usually get 4-6 days a week of being out of their cages all day, depending on whether I'm doing any nights or weekend shifts. So in some ways just one budgie in the large cage would be better as it would be able to exercise more.
And hence the consideration of maybe a tiel in the future, with either one or a couple of budgies (separate cages of course), so they'd have company but if I'm lucky they'd still want to spend time with me. Apparently rabbits are good for that too, but birds steal my heart far too much.
Sorry, that got really long, but that's us and a bit of the mess that is my brain at times. I'll probably be around asking for advice or trying to learn more about different species to figure out what might be the best fit for us given the circumstances.
Looking forward to getting to know you all!
