Had to downsize big time, but doing OK
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:10 pm
Hello forum, I'm still hanging in there. The beginning of this year, my great grandmother died peacefully at home after a very full life of 99 years. I lived with her in the upstairs apartment of her large house, helping to care for her along with my great aunt for nearly three years, and in that time I was able to really get into the bird hobby. I kept a lot of cool birds and learned a lot and had a lot of fun - even got to have an aviary last summer, which Grandma absolutely loved - but I knew that it would not be forever. When Grandma's health began to decline noticeably after Thanksgiving, and everyone kind of knew she probably would not have much longer, I decided it would be best if I started finding homes for some of my collection. At that time, I had six society finches, three zebras, a whydah, 3 canaries, 2 javas, 10 budgies (nine of them aviary birds who weren't friendly but were very beautiful in every color), a breeding pair of tame cockatiels and a friendly ringneck dove bonded to a female cockatiel. Up until a little past Christmas I posted ads, contacted stores, and found people interested in taking most of them. The hardest to give up were my cockatiels, because they were very sweet, but I knew that when Grandma was gone, her house is already willed to be cleaned out and put on the market, and I would be moving in with my parents again for some time, were cockatiels would just be much too disruptive as my father works at night and sleeps by day.
So the bird room, the backyard aviary, and most of the kids won't be part of my life anymore. I have kept five birds which can comfortably be kept in my bedroom for now - a trio of societies including a male from the very first clutch of babies I ever raised three years ago, who is quite tame and very special to me, along with two parakeets, my buddy Sam and a new albino baby boy, Ollie, who I have had for three weeks. Until this week, it was just Ollie - I had rehomed Sam, even though I really didn't want to, because he was very bonded with my cockatiels. But I regretted that immediately, and decided I really wanted a tame budgie again, and when I happened on an injured little baby in the pet store, I couldn't not take it home.
But, well, after two weeks working with this new baby, the woman who adopted Sam ended up bringing him back to me when I admitted that I missed him a lot, and said the male cockatiel was getting pretty jealous of the attention Sam lavished on the female cockatiel and she was worried they might fight. I doubt they would have, as those three were raised together and were always good friends, but I didn't argue. I really missed my Sam and am so happy to have him back in the group. He is very tame.
So now I have Sam again, plus Ollie. Ollie was easy to tame by himself, but now he's following Sam's lead, and I expect him to grow up to be at least almost as tame.
The flock is a lot smaller now, and it won't be a hobby which completely takes over my time (as I liked it to be, really
), but I'm not totally leaving it behind. I hope at some point in the future to be able to have a collection like I had again, as it truly was an amazing experience, but for now just a few pets are the most I can manage. So I have to spoil them all the more to make up for it.
Hope everyone is well! Here's some pics of the current guys.
I've had to put my finches in a very small cage, the sort any good finchkeeper would look at and say "oh no", which I would not do if I had any more room! It's 18 x 16 x 16. Super tiny compared to what I like to keep them in, but to make up for it, I let them out for a few hours once or twice a day to burn off energy and fly about the room. I have some big houseplants and vine plants hanging off wall shelving squeezed in here with us so they have a bit of a habitat to explore.
The budgies have a 30 x 18 flight, which I'd consider acceptable under any conditions. I unfortunately don't have the space for two, and of the two species, the finches seem less uncomfortable cramped in the smaller accommodation.
Oh! The finches might have some eggs in that nest...
Don't worry - a home is already lined up, if things work out.
Even with their cage being much bigger, the budgies find the lettuce greener on their neighbor's property.
Can you find the real birds?
They see the chickadees in the pine tree in my painting and then go and re-enact the scene themselves (the plant here is a Norfolk Pine - I've had this one as a potted indoor plant for about six years now. It's one of only a portion of my plant collection I've been able to find room for here - I love gardening.)
Bonding over a meal.
So the bird room, the backyard aviary, and most of the kids won't be part of my life anymore. I have kept five birds which can comfortably be kept in my bedroom for now - a trio of societies including a male from the very first clutch of babies I ever raised three years ago, who is quite tame and very special to me, along with two parakeets, my buddy Sam and a new albino baby boy, Ollie, who I have had for three weeks. Until this week, it was just Ollie - I had rehomed Sam, even though I really didn't want to, because he was very bonded with my cockatiels. But I regretted that immediately, and decided I really wanted a tame budgie again, and when I happened on an injured little baby in the pet store, I couldn't not take it home.
But, well, after two weeks working with this new baby, the woman who adopted Sam ended up bringing him back to me when I admitted that I missed him a lot, and said the male cockatiel was getting pretty jealous of the attention Sam lavished on the female cockatiel and she was worried they might fight. I doubt they would have, as those three were raised together and were always good friends, but I didn't argue. I really missed my Sam and am so happy to have him back in the group. He is very tame.
So now I have Sam again, plus Ollie. Ollie was easy to tame by himself, but now he's following Sam's lead, and I expect him to grow up to be at least almost as tame.
The flock is a lot smaller now, and it won't be a hobby which completely takes over my time (as I liked it to be, really
), but I'm not totally leaving it behind. I hope at some point in the future to be able to have a collection like I had again, as it truly was an amazing experience, but for now just a few pets are the most I can manage. So I have to spoil them all the more to make up for it.Hope everyone is well! Here's some pics of the current guys.
I've had to put my finches in a very small cage, the sort any good finchkeeper would look at and say "oh no", which I would not do if I had any more room! It's 18 x 16 x 16. Super tiny compared to what I like to keep them in, but to make up for it, I let them out for a few hours once or twice a day to burn off energy and fly about the room. I have some big houseplants and vine plants hanging off wall shelving squeezed in here with us so they have a bit of a habitat to explore.
The budgies have a 30 x 18 flight, which I'd consider acceptable under any conditions. I unfortunately don't have the space for two, and of the two species, the finches seem less uncomfortable cramped in the smaller accommodation.
Oh! The finches might have some eggs in that nest...
Don't worry - a home is already lined up, if things work out.Even with their cage being much bigger, the budgies find the lettuce greener on their neighbor's property.
Can you find the real birds?
They see the chickadees in the pine tree in my painting and then go and re-enact the scene themselves (the plant here is a Norfolk Pine - I've had this one as a potted indoor plant for about six years now. It's one of only a portion of my plant collection I've been able to find room for here - I love gardening.)
Bonding over a meal.
