budgies

Harley took his time picking a girlfriend. I had him for over a month before he settled on the beautiful and reticent Chloe. She was a big, dark-blue bird. Oddly enough, when Clifford’s girlfriend, Nadia, a pretty little yellow and green bird, had gone into super nesting mode, she’d been diligently chewing through every wooden bird chew toy I put in the cage, he was occasionally chasing after Chloe, much to Harley and Chloe’s dismay.

Whitey originally was taken with Nadia but after Clifford chased off the sweet and timid Whitey, he settled on another yellow bird named Sunny. Sunny was kind of a moody bird, but was a beautiful golden yellow color. She was originally the girlfriend of a favorite bird of mine named Bodie. Bodie was a sweet, light blue colored budgie. He was loving to everyone and Whitey sort of filled the gap. Bodie died earlier this year from a bacterial infection to his lungs. Both his girlfriend and his best buddy Cody caught the infection but they managed to respond to medication. He was the first to get it so he was too far gone by the time the vet and I figured out what was wrong and got them the medication. In fact Sunny and Cody spent a few days at the vet getting special treatment.

Lacey arriv. 8/17/2013 Died 10/8/2019

Bodie had always been interested in Sunny but it wasn’t until Clifford abandoned her for Chloe that he made a move on her. He chased after her with a passion but she was uninterested at first. It took him two weeks of intense wooing to win her over. He was nuts about her. Once she showed her interest in him he fiercely took on Clifford. He was such a timid and whiny little guy that I didn’t know he had it in him, but such was his determination to fight for his lady! At least he enjoyed her company for nine months. She was very happy with him and really perked up under his attentions.

Nadia died 6-2016 at five years old

(In the picture at the left, Bodie is getting new feathers on his head. The new feathers are called pin feathers. They are wrapped in a keratin sheath. When the feather is mature enough, the sheath is either rubbed off on some object or preened off by the bird's mate, since the bird can't reach the feathers on its head.)

Codie was an amazing little guy. He was mostly light green colored with bits of yellow. A few years ago when he was around five and a half years old, approximately middle aged for caged budgies, though most of my birds have died between five and seven years of age, he had to have the end of his wing amputated due to a tumor on the carpus or what would relate to the wrist of a human. He still had most of his wing, but just missing that one part meant he couldn’t get enough lift to fly. He still did amazing hops, but if bumped by the other birds, he often fell to the cushioned bottom like a lead brick. Still he was surprising upbeat and didn’t shy away from jumping onto swings and other daring moves for an amputee. He was a very gentle bird and never approached the other birds, yet they all came lovingly to him. All the males payed court to him, especially Whitey and all the females seemed attracted to him, though he seemed to shy away from intense romantic interaction. Some of the court-ship ritual involves chasing each other around and now that he couldn’t fly, that would impede some of this behavior, which is why he probably shied away from this. When he was in a small cage with Sunny and didn’t have to chase her around, he did briefly become romantically involved. To some degree I think this was a way of mollifying her because she became a little distressed and frantic at being stuck in a tiny cage once she became well enough to move around more. She calmed down considerably when Cody romanced her. However, once back in the big cage, the romance was over.

Minta arriv. 5/16/2013, Died 6-13-2017

Scottie was friendly and eternally cheerful. He was also fearless and an amazing flier. He could be very mischievous and pull on the other birds wing feathers.

Scottie arriv. 8/24/2012, Died 3/5/2018

Minta was the latest addition to my birdie family in 2013. With the death of Sunny, there was an imbalance with the male to female ratio which was starting to cause problems, so I thought I'd balance things out. She was very calm and friendly. When I took her picture with flash, she barely reacted. She was a great flier but very clumsy. She triped over everything, but this may just have been do to being a baby still. I assume she was a little near-sighted. She liked to get close to the other birds and see what they were doing. Needless to say, they were not all thrilled with her "ogling". She ended up being Scottie's mate and died after a second occurance of egg binding. She servived the first run-in but saddly didn't survive the second occurance. Saddly Scottie died 9 months later. He seemed to adjust to her missing, but never took on another mate. He seemed to be suffing from a fatty tumor near his right leg and finally succombed to the secondary effects of that.

I got Lacey to fill the gap left by Chloe's dying from egg binding complications. An egg got stuck inside her and the vet. tech. got it out but not before some internal damage was done. I was sad to lose her. Chloe was a very serene bird. I realized how calming an influence she was when the other, older females became more aggressive after her absence.

Lacey is smart and inquisitive and aggressive. I had to separate her and Scotty both for attacking other birds. Scotty was obsessed with Nadia and attacked her boyfriend, Clifford, narrowly missing his eye. Lacey attacked poor Whitey because she liked his buddy Cody and was jealous that they were so tight. Now Scotty and Lacey are in a separate cage and have become a couple. (Once back in the cage with the others the romance was quickly over.)

Clifford arriv. 9/9/2010 Died 3/29/2019

Leo arriv. 8/04/2016

Died 10/10/2019

Nadia was Clifford’s girlfriend. She was a pretty little yellow and green bird that all the males liked. She would diligently chew through every wooden bird chew toy I’ve put in the cage. She died in June from complictions from a fatty tumor on her rear end. She had it for many years and was pretty tough because she lived a lot longer than I thought she would. She made it to five years old.

I’ve read that parakeets mate for life and are very faithful. You wouldn’t know it from watching Clifford. He was a beautiful turquoise colored budgie. He chased after every new female I’ve put in the cage, ditching many sad and bewildered ex-girl-friends. He was my favorite. His last mate was Megan, but he liked Minta after his old girlfriend Nadia died. Minta was madly in love with Scotty so she's always trying to shoo Clifford away. Before Scotty and Clifford would get into big fights over Nadia, but I am noticed that he is let Minta do the fighting in that case, which is good, no blood loss that way. I was very sad when Clifford Died. He had a long illness over many months but I just couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Lacey was an inigma to me. She was friends with Nadia and fiercely protective of her. She's a quiet bird and mostly the other birds stay out of her way. She finally warmed up to Leo but when he got sick he wasn't interested any more. Then she was interested in Benny. When Leo got sick and I moved him out of the cage she got sick shortly afterwards and died suddenly.

Violet was smart and curious. She was a gentle bird and mostly did her own thing. She was madly in love with Peri. She appeared to die from a seizure.

Leo was a sweet bird that got along with everyone. He was a very friendly little guy! I tried to save him but he finally died of a liver ailment.

I’ve read that parakeets mate for life and are very faithful. You wouldn’t have known it from watching Clifford. He was a beautiful turquoise colored budgie. He’d chase after every new female I put in the cage, ditching many sad and bewildered ex-girl-friends. And like a macho, mafia don, he guarded his ex’s from finding new boyfriends, even though he had completely abandoned them. He was a tough, macho guy and the other males reluctantly took him on, but both Harley, my multicolored male and Whitey, my mostly white with touches of blue and yellow, male had done so to get their girlfriends.

Mitzi had been coupled with Peri so he lost two mates in less than a year's time. She died suddenly from a seizure. I'm starting to think it had something to do with cooking in my non-stick pan. Now when I cook in it, I have the air vent fan going.

So sad that Benny died from complications brought on by Candida. Missy had it too but got better. I got medicine for him but started giving it to him too late. He was such a sweet loving bird. Even when he was under weight and sick, I saw him feeding his mate Meghan. I wanted to shout at him, stop that, you need it not her. He graciously shared his attentions with her, with Skyler. I think all the birds liked him. He was always cheerful and friendly. When I'd put a food treat in the cage he would always crack me up by being the first there and he had a way of sauntering/sneaking up on it. He was such a little love bug. Sometimes he gave me kisses which helped me get over the loss of Clifford a little.