Post by tinker on Nov 7, 2013 10:31:12 GMT
Hi,
I'm a 30 something school teacher who lives in New Zealand. I adore living in Wellington and I'm an event organiser for a very large adventure group with 2800 members, although I only take small groups of 10 or so on hikes around the region. I live outside a bird sanctuary, and we quite often hike around the outside (it costs lots of $ to go in, and the group is a free group). I love pointing out what the birds are that appear over the predator proof fence to the new hikers who are often new from overseas, especially the Tui (a black coloured bird which has a white puff under it's chin) and the Kaka (my favourite - a giant green parrot which is mischievous and sometimes will come down and land on someones head which either absolutely freaks them out or they love it and want photos).
I've loved and been obsessed with budgies since my family purchased a pet budgie when I was eight years old called Tinker. He was a wonderful talker and I think he thought I was his mum! When I was 16 I was able to get a budgie again when my grandma died and I took her budgie 'Bimbo' on. He wasn't such a good talker although he did say a few words and he did a door squeak which teared me up every time I heard it as it was a strong memory of my grandmas house when I would sleep over. Unfortunately he only lived two more years, and under my parents rule I couldn't take him to the vets.
When I was about 27 I purchased my own house in another city when I got a job as a scientist and decided right off that it was time for my dream of owning another budgie. I scoured the Trademe website popular here in NZ for classifieds of baby budgies being sold, with the dream of training up a baby budgie to talk and love me like my first. Soon though I came across a picture of a budgie living in deplorable conditions and looking so sad. I went to pick him up for $5 and was horrified to see he was being kept on the open porch among rusty tools (I lived in a cold southern city at that time) and he was in a small cage with a perch not wide enough to balance on and so was sitting on the floor of his tinsy cage with seed husks literally up to his eyes. I immediately put him in the huge cage I had purchased and the lady selling him made some comment about how the 'mansion cage' was too over the top and I should be ashamed. LOL I will never forget that. He looked pretty happy (but in a shocked way) the whole trip home! He was an unknown number of years old and had never been named so I named him Lucki because he was lucky and the i on the end was sort of because of his trashy background!!! LOL He was always a very small budgie and learnt to come to the front of the cage when I talked to him, and learnt to say the word boy but nothing more. He was always terrified when I put my hand in the cage, and no end of patience from me ever got him over that so I accepted that I could love him just the way he was. He loved his cage and became attached to many of his toys which he played with.
I started to work more and more and noticed he was probably not getting enough attention. One day I visited the pet shop meaning to just buy seed, and instead came home with an extremely large show type budgie that was twice as large as Lucki. He was not yet off the floor but so friendly and trusting. I put him in a separate room and spent about a month training him to be hand tame and encouraging him to fly and return. I also started on the training for talking.
Eventually the day came that they would meet and when they did Lucki acted as though he could not be less interested, while Smokey went absolutely psycho and demanded to see Lucki closer. I had their cages side by side for a couple of days and the behaviour continued with Smokey pining over the beautiful Lucki (who incidentally is a boy budgie as well). Anyway, eventually I opened Smokeys cage door one day and he raced out and didn't waste any time flying onto Luckis cage. Lucki continued to pay no attention to silly young Smokey who was stalking him from outside the cage. I opened the door and showed him the way in and he rushed in and took no time working out his way up the complicated perch system to Lucki (Poor Smokey had been living in a cage with only two wooden perches till then, while Lucki had it all). Poor Lucki jumped away from Smokey and Smokey thought that was a great game and took chase. Around and around the cage they went and I could not catch either of them! Eventually I caught Smokey and put him back in his cage and he spent the night dreaming of playing more games with Lucki. Lucki was not impressed. As the months went on I gave Smokey more and more time in Luckis cage and he chased less often, but he was always top bird and had the food first or pushed Lucki out of the way (which I was not pleased about). Eventually they seemed to get on enough and would sometimes preen each other, so Smokey stayed overnight and lived there when I was at work as well.
The summer I moved cities I took the budgies in my car in a 13 hour drive up to the north island of NZ from the very south of the south island. We went across in the car on the cook straight ferry at 10pm at night and straight into our new home at 3am. Smokey tweeted happily the whole way and gorged himself on cherrys that I had purchased on a stop on the way up. Lucki hung tight onto his perch and looked frightened all the way. As the days went by in our new home it was clear Lucki was losing weight and he was puking lots. I took him to the vet multiple times and he was put on antibiotics but died.
As the year went by I was living in my tiny room while studying for my diploma in teaching and Smokey finally said his first words "What are you doing?" which was not something I had intended to teach him at all. He quickly learned to say "Pretty boy", "Are you a pretty bird or a baby bird?" (which I saw a budgie on Youtube saying), and then "Merry Xmas". Shortly after that I started working as a relief teacher and he hasn't really been taught too much since. His favourite hobby was flying up to the window sill and tweeting at the birds flying by as we live outside a wonderful bird sanctuary called Zealandia.
This year he became very ill and spent most of the year on antibiotics which I had to catch him twice a day to administer. Fortunately that is no problem with Smokey as he doesn't mind being held and indeed sometimes he relaxes so much he flops back and the first time he did that I thought he was dead he was so floppy, but the vet reassures me it happens with the most tame budgies. A month ago they found out it was really diabetes he was suffering from and he was taken off antibiotics and put on a diabetes drug. He no longer has the feathers or muscle mass to be able to fly, and appears to be going blind. He still has a wonderful temperament and is very brave. It has been very upsetting for me to see him like this, but he seems to be taking it well.
I'm a 30 something school teacher who lives in New Zealand. I adore living in Wellington and I'm an event organiser for a very large adventure group with 2800 members, although I only take small groups of 10 or so on hikes around the region. I live outside a bird sanctuary, and we quite often hike around the outside (it costs lots of $ to go in, and the group is a free group). I love pointing out what the birds are that appear over the predator proof fence to the new hikers who are often new from overseas, especially the Tui (a black coloured bird which has a white puff under it's chin) and the Kaka (my favourite - a giant green parrot which is mischievous and sometimes will come down and land on someones head which either absolutely freaks them out or they love it and want photos).
I've loved and been obsessed with budgies since my family purchased a pet budgie when I was eight years old called Tinker. He was a wonderful talker and I think he thought I was his mum! When I was 16 I was able to get a budgie again when my grandma died and I took her budgie 'Bimbo' on. He wasn't such a good talker although he did say a few words and he did a door squeak which teared me up every time I heard it as it was a strong memory of my grandmas house when I would sleep over. Unfortunately he only lived two more years, and under my parents rule I couldn't take him to the vets.
When I was about 27 I purchased my own house in another city when I got a job as a scientist and decided right off that it was time for my dream of owning another budgie. I scoured the Trademe website popular here in NZ for classifieds of baby budgies being sold, with the dream of training up a baby budgie to talk and love me like my first. Soon though I came across a picture of a budgie living in deplorable conditions and looking so sad. I went to pick him up for $5 and was horrified to see he was being kept on the open porch among rusty tools (I lived in a cold southern city at that time) and he was in a small cage with a perch not wide enough to balance on and so was sitting on the floor of his tinsy cage with seed husks literally up to his eyes. I immediately put him in the huge cage I had purchased and the lady selling him made some comment about how the 'mansion cage' was too over the top and I should be ashamed. LOL I will never forget that. He looked pretty happy (but in a shocked way) the whole trip home! He was an unknown number of years old and had never been named so I named him Lucki because he was lucky and the i on the end was sort of because of his trashy background!!! LOL He was always a very small budgie and learnt to come to the front of the cage when I talked to him, and learnt to say the word boy but nothing more. He was always terrified when I put my hand in the cage, and no end of patience from me ever got him over that so I accepted that I could love him just the way he was. He loved his cage and became attached to many of his toys which he played with.
I started to work more and more and noticed he was probably not getting enough attention. One day I visited the pet shop meaning to just buy seed, and instead came home with an extremely large show type budgie that was twice as large as Lucki. He was not yet off the floor but so friendly and trusting. I put him in a separate room and spent about a month training him to be hand tame and encouraging him to fly and return. I also started on the training for talking.
Eventually the day came that they would meet and when they did Lucki acted as though he could not be less interested, while Smokey went absolutely psycho and demanded to see Lucki closer. I had their cages side by side for a couple of days and the behaviour continued with Smokey pining over the beautiful Lucki (who incidentally is a boy budgie as well). Anyway, eventually I opened Smokeys cage door one day and he raced out and didn't waste any time flying onto Luckis cage. Lucki continued to pay no attention to silly young Smokey who was stalking him from outside the cage. I opened the door and showed him the way in and he rushed in and took no time working out his way up the complicated perch system to Lucki (Poor Smokey had been living in a cage with only two wooden perches till then, while Lucki had it all). Poor Lucki jumped away from Smokey and Smokey thought that was a great game and took chase. Around and around the cage they went and I could not catch either of them! Eventually I caught Smokey and put him back in his cage and he spent the night dreaming of playing more games with Lucki. Lucki was not impressed. As the months went on I gave Smokey more and more time in Luckis cage and he chased less often, but he was always top bird and had the food first or pushed Lucki out of the way (which I was not pleased about). Eventually they seemed to get on enough and would sometimes preen each other, so Smokey stayed overnight and lived there when I was at work as well.
The summer I moved cities I took the budgies in my car in a 13 hour drive up to the north island of NZ from the very south of the south island. We went across in the car on the cook straight ferry at 10pm at night and straight into our new home at 3am. Smokey tweeted happily the whole way and gorged himself on cherrys that I had purchased on a stop on the way up. Lucki hung tight onto his perch and looked frightened all the way. As the days went by in our new home it was clear Lucki was losing weight and he was puking lots. I took him to the vet multiple times and he was put on antibiotics but died.
As the year went by I was living in my tiny room while studying for my diploma in teaching and Smokey finally said his first words "What are you doing?" which was not something I had intended to teach him at all. He quickly learned to say "Pretty boy", "Are you a pretty bird or a baby bird?" (which I saw a budgie on Youtube saying), and then "Merry Xmas". Shortly after that I started working as a relief teacher and he hasn't really been taught too much since. His favourite hobby was flying up to the window sill and tweeting at the birds flying by as we live outside a wonderful bird sanctuary called Zealandia.
This year he became very ill and spent most of the year on antibiotics which I had to catch him twice a day to administer. Fortunately that is no problem with Smokey as he doesn't mind being held and indeed sometimes he relaxes so much he flops back and the first time he did that I thought he was dead he was so floppy, but the vet reassures me it happens with the most tame budgies. A month ago they found out it was really diabetes he was suffering from and he was taken off antibiotics and put on a diabetes drug. He no longer has the feathers or muscle mass to be able to fly, and appears to be going blind. He still has a wonderful temperament and is very brave. It has been very upsetting for me to see him like this, but he seems to be taking it well.
