Post by sarahjo on Jan 1, 2014 23:21:04 GMT
Tweety came to me from a neighbor lady.. this lady had dozens of birds (quite possibly over a hundred), but most were larger parrots. It was kinda confusing, but I think her husband was really the one who started the bird thing for her, and together they had bread and hand raised birds for decades. He had passed away the previous year, at which time she said that they had roughly 300 birds. (She told me that she was downsizing because she couldn't keep up with it all.) Mel kinda embodied the 'crazy bird lady' to me - a bit older, short and skinny, long curly grey hair, and never without a cigaret in hand.
She had bought Tweety with another bird as a breeding pair. Let them lose in her aviary for 3 months, then found that they were both male; so she took them out of the aviary and put them in the cage that I saw them in that day. (Tweety's name was Susie, the other was Charlie.) At that point my sister had a single male budgie (Jolly), and my family and just gotten a cat. The cat was a hunter, so Jolly was in my room and the door was closed 24/7. (My family is full of Cat people!!!) So Jolly had been in seclusion for 3-5 weeks, and was starting to show some signs of depression and I thought she needed a friend. I didn't like Yellow/Green birds - and then I saw Tweety.
It was a warm, breezy spring day (southern Wisconsin), and I was on my way home from the Equestrian Center where I trained horses. I was turning left to go home, and on my right there were four bird cages with a 'For Sale' sign. In three of the cages, there were birds, and the fourth was empty. I don't remember the other birds - Cockatiels in one and a african grey maybe? But the Parakeets... they caught my eye right away. First, because they were outside in the wind - second, because there were two of them in a tiny finch cage - third, because they were ADORABLE!
Like I said, I really didn't like the yellow base budgies at all back then, but Tweety - was awesome! It took me a while, they were outside three or four more times, and my little sister and I went to meet them twice before I finally got permission to bring Tweety home. When I got there they weren't outside, but Mel was home and she invited us in. The house was a mess - piles of dirty dishes (human and bird) covered the counter. There were just under a dozen birds in the Kitchen alone. The TV and the radio were on, and a police scanner was running. Mel turned off the TV and the radio down while a friend of hers went and got the parakeets. The air was thick with cigaret smoke (Mel wasn't the only person living there, and she was not the only smoker either), and there were half empty beer bottles on the counter. The cage they were in was bare - one perch to share, water and seed - there was not even a cuttlebone.
When the friend brought the parakeets in, she said I could have both for $30. She insisted on clipping their wings and toenails before letting me take them home - it was either she clipped them or I didn't get them, so clipped they were (to my great dismay). She knew what she was doing and how to do it, but because of age (and I suspect life style) she was very shaky. Neither of them came out with even wings, and they were both bleeding before she was done, as well as having another traumatizing experience of being chased by hands, captured, squeezed, and hurt. Charlie had three bleeding wing feathers, and two toenails. Susie (Tweety), one wing feather and three toenails. Tweety's bleeding had stopped before we left, and Mel thought Charlies had too - but I don't think so... Charlie didn't survive a week, I'm not sure if he lost too much blood, or hurt his neck when he escaped from Mel before I brought him home, or if it was some other health issue.
Tweety was plain terrified every time a person came near his cage. I noticed that his feathers seemed kinda hazy at first, and as time went on they got cleaner and prettier - I think it was from the second hand smoke. Mel had also given me some ZuPreem for them, she said they really liked it and to make sure to keep feeding it to them. Well, a few days later I opened the bag and a bunch of little black bugs went flying out, I looked at the pellets and they were just crawling! (EEEWWW!!) It took weeks to kill all the bugs, and I was So blessed that they didn't find a way into my seed (which I triple sealed and stored in a different room till I was sure they were all gone.) I still don't know what they were - but I know they were nasty.
Tweety and Jolly got on quite well, and were making some progress in training when the door to my room was left open and cat knocked their cage off the dresser. I wasn't home - but my brother was and he 'rescued' them for me. He isn't at all a bird person so I'm sure he scared them to death when he was putting them back in but if he hadn't been home I'm sure the cat would had killed them. The cage had broke open and the cat was getting ready to pounce when he got up there. He took the cat out of the room, put the cage back together, then cornered the birds. He picked them up from over top, they bit him as he was putting them in their cage... he wasn't happy. After that they were just SO scared, and their little bit of trust was completely gone. They made some progress, but nothing close to hand training. I was completely discouraged and decided it was ok for them to just be friends, so I didn't push them much for like a year. I started again and Jolly got to a point that she would step up, but Tweety wouldn't willingly. Then Jolly passed away (we don't know how old he was), and Tweety started getting more and more depressed.
He wouldn't come out of his cage unless forced, never chirped or sang, wouldn't play with anything, lost interest in preening, he even stopped caring about food - wouldn't take treats and started losing weight 'cause he wasn't eating well. He grew even less interested in interacting with me, and started biting when I did have him with me. After I got married we brought him to our new house, and my hubby thought that he needed some friends. Over the last 5 months, we have gotten 5 more budgies. Tweety is in love with the first one we brought home - Greeny. They have their own cage at the moment, and Tweety seems like a completely different bird! He plays with his toys, explores new places and toys (before he would shake in terror anytime I tried to give him a new toy, hiding from it for days in his cage), and he is now our loudest bird. He perches at the front of his cage and chirps/sings at the top of his lungs... then scuttles over to Greeny for approval. :~) Also, since giving him friends, he is far more willing to interact with us - which seems very backwards, but hey, that's just how it went! It amazes me how social parakeets are!
It has literally taken years for him overcome fear on any level, and only in the last few months has he been comfortable even just eating from my hand. I think the combination of new house and new friends have really helped him. He still isn't fully hand trained, we're working on it, but he doesn't step up unless he's on the floor and your his ticket to getting back to his cage. He is really good now about hand feeding, sometimes biting my hand in protest if I move more than he likes. If I have seed in my hand and put it in his cage before switching to fresh seed, he hops right on and gobbles it up.
I feel like we've both come a long way, I've had him for about 4 years now I think, he was between 1 and 3 when I got him (Mel wasn't too clear about that.) I knew hardly anything about parakeets when I brought him home, and still have a ton to learn, but it makes me happy to see him healthy and happy - especially when I remember how icky his first home had been!
Wow, that turned out a lot longer than I anticipated! He's quite the fellow, and I am excited to see how much progress we can make together this coming year!
:~)
She had bought Tweety with another bird as a breeding pair. Let them lose in her aviary for 3 months, then found that they were both male; so she took them out of the aviary and put them in the cage that I saw them in that day. (Tweety's name was Susie, the other was Charlie.) At that point my sister had a single male budgie (Jolly), and my family and just gotten a cat. The cat was a hunter, so Jolly was in my room and the door was closed 24/7. (My family is full of Cat people!!!) So Jolly had been in seclusion for 3-5 weeks, and was starting to show some signs of depression and I thought she needed a friend. I didn't like Yellow/Green birds - and then I saw Tweety.
It was a warm, breezy spring day (southern Wisconsin), and I was on my way home from the Equestrian Center where I trained horses. I was turning left to go home, and on my right there were four bird cages with a 'For Sale' sign. In three of the cages, there were birds, and the fourth was empty. I don't remember the other birds - Cockatiels in one and a african grey maybe? But the Parakeets... they caught my eye right away. First, because they were outside in the wind - second, because there were two of them in a tiny finch cage - third, because they were ADORABLE!
Like I said, I really didn't like the yellow base budgies at all back then, but Tweety - was awesome! It took me a while, they were outside three or four more times, and my little sister and I went to meet them twice before I finally got permission to bring Tweety home. When I got there they weren't outside, but Mel was home and she invited us in. The house was a mess - piles of dirty dishes (human and bird) covered the counter. There were just under a dozen birds in the Kitchen alone. The TV and the radio were on, and a police scanner was running. Mel turned off the TV and the radio down while a friend of hers went and got the parakeets. The air was thick with cigaret smoke (Mel wasn't the only person living there, and she was not the only smoker either), and there were half empty beer bottles on the counter. The cage they were in was bare - one perch to share, water and seed - there was not even a cuttlebone.
When the friend brought the parakeets in, she said I could have both for $30. She insisted on clipping their wings and toenails before letting me take them home - it was either she clipped them or I didn't get them, so clipped they were (to my great dismay). She knew what she was doing and how to do it, but because of age (and I suspect life style) she was very shaky. Neither of them came out with even wings, and they were both bleeding before she was done, as well as having another traumatizing experience of being chased by hands, captured, squeezed, and hurt. Charlie had three bleeding wing feathers, and two toenails. Susie (Tweety), one wing feather and three toenails. Tweety's bleeding had stopped before we left, and Mel thought Charlies had too - but I don't think so... Charlie didn't survive a week, I'm not sure if he lost too much blood, or hurt his neck when he escaped from Mel before I brought him home, or if it was some other health issue.
Tweety was plain terrified every time a person came near his cage. I noticed that his feathers seemed kinda hazy at first, and as time went on they got cleaner and prettier - I think it was from the second hand smoke. Mel had also given me some ZuPreem for them, she said they really liked it and to make sure to keep feeding it to them. Well, a few days later I opened the bag and a bunch of little black bugs went flying out, I looked at the pellets and they were just crawling! (EEEWWW!!) It took weeks to kill all the bugs, and I was So blessed that they didn't find a way into my seed (which I triple sealed and stored in a different room till I was sure they were all gone.) I still don't know what they were - but I know they were nasty.
Tweety and Jolly got on quite well, and were making some progress in training when the door to my room was left open and cat knocked their cage off the dresser. I wasn't home - but my brother was and he 'rescued' them for me. He isn't at all a bird person so I'm sure he scared them to death when he was putting them back in but if he hadn't been home I'm sure the cat would had killed them. The cage had broke open and the cat was getting ready to pounce when he got up there. He took the cat out of the room, put the cage back together, then cornered the birds. He picked them up from over top, they bit him as he was putting them in their cage... he wasn't happy. After that they were just SO scared, and their little bit of trust was completely gone. They made some progress, but nothing close to hand training. I was completely discouraged and decided it was ok for them to just be friends, so I didn't push them much for like a year. I started again and Jolly got to a point that she would step up, but Tweety wouldn't willingly. Then Jolly passed away (we don't know how old he was), and Tweety started getting more and more depressed.
He wouldn't come out of his cage unless forced, never chirped or sang, wouldn't play with anything, lost interest in preening, he even stopped caring about food - wouldn't take treats and started losing weight 'cause he wasn't eating well. He grew even less interested in interacting with me, and started biting when I did have him with me. After I got married we brought him to our new house, and my hubby thought that he needed some friends. Over the last 5 months, we have gotten 5 more budgies. Tweety is in love with the first one we brought home - Greeny. They have their own cage at the moment, and Tweety seems like a completely different bird! He plays with his toys, explores new places and toys (before he would shake in terror anytime I tried to give him a new toy, hiding from it for days in his cage), and he is now our loudest bird. He perches at the front of his cage and chirps/sings at the top of his lungs... then scuttles over to Greeny for approval. :~) Also, since giving him friends, he is far more willing to interact with us - which seems very backwards, but hey, that's just how it went! It amazes me how social parakeets are!
It has literally taken years for him overcome fear on any level, and only in the last few months has he been comfortable even just eating from my hand. I think the combination of new house and new friends have really helped him. He still isn't fully hand trained, we're working on it, but he doesn't step up unless he's on the floor and your his ticket to getting back to his cage. He is really good now about hand feeding, sometimes biting my hand in protest if I move more than he likes. If I have seed in my hand and put it in his cage before switching to fresh seed, he hops right on and gobbles it up.
I feel like we've both come a long way, I've had him for about 4 years now I think, he was between 1 and 3 when I got him (Mel wasn't too clear about that.) I knew hardly anything about parakeets when I brought him home, and still have a ton to learn, but it makes me happy to see him healthy and happy - especially when I remember how icky his first home had been! Wow, that turned out a lot longer than I anticipated! He's quite the fellow, and I am excited to see how much progress we can make together this coming year!
:~)
