Happy Easter from Aqua! (with special guest appearances from Deadbeat Dad and Fat Uncle Blue!)
So the babies are almost 5 months old and their personalities have both changed drastically! Aqua, who was once all mature and a bit aloof has reverted back to a silly, happy baby who wants me to play with her constantly. Octa, the late-bloomer and perpetual baby has decided that SHE is a big, grown-up, adult budgie who wants a family of her own and has laid a full clutch of eggs along side her mom!! :smack: So now both mommy and Octa spend most of their time, sitting on (fake) eggs, side by side in the nest box.
Aqua’s favourite thing to do is sit on my hand and savagely attack all of my fingers, pausing to open her mouth for me to feed her little bits of treats. She’s about as spoiled as a budgie can be and completely rotten but I just think she’s the bee’s knees and cater to her every whim. I do have to protect the other budgies from her sometimes as she’s a bit of a tyrant.
Here she is, playing with her “Easter Eggs” which she chucks off and then I pick up so she can chuck them off again.
My cat has a similar game. She sits on the table (or mantle) and flicks things off. Her buddies sit below and decide if it’s worth playing with. If it is, she jumps down and they all chase the pen around the table legs for a while. I once found my glasses in an entirely different room of the house.
Well my little monkeys will be one year old tomorrow! They are as opposite as night and day.
Aqua is now mostly called Peeper as she constantly peeps at me to come play with her. I say “what do you want, Peeper” so often that she can say “Peeper”. I just adore her and think she’s the cutest thing ever. I always sing to her “you’re my favourite mistake”. She’s very bad and spoiled and rotten but when you’re 4 inches tall and super cute, you can get away with everything.
Octa has never spent a night outside of the nest box. She is a clone of her mom in every way. They live together in that darn box. I try to encourage them both to come out and play as much as I can but they both just like to be together, sitting on (fake) eggs, in the box.
I could get rid of the box but then both of them would just keep laying eggs so I just let them do what they want.
Here are some new pictures.
Climbing the curtains:
Someone laid a teeny, tiny egg. That’s a regular budgie egg and the tiny one:
I know! The year just flew by. No, I don’t clip their wings anymore. Just the one time so they didn’t smash into walls when they were learning how to fly. Now they buzz around like kamikazes.
Wonderful pictures and great news! Peeper, I love it. I always try to wait on naming pets to see what name they inspire; hence, my cat called Hoser b/c he is a hosehead.
Your birds are a delight.
Well, about 2 months ago I came home to find Mommy laying down at the bottom of the cage which usually means the end is very near. I picked her up and held her so that she wouldn’t die alone at the bottom of the cage. After an hour or so, she started perking back up so I put her in her nest box to rest. She came back to life and I figured she would pull out of whatever it was.
She did and got back to normal (which for her is sitting on fake eggs) but then I noticed a lump on her abdomen. I took her to the vet who said she had an intra-abdominal mass which was likely to be a cancerous tumor. I took her home because she didn’t seem to be in discomfort and was still eating, drinking, flying around and sitting on her eggs.
The lump grew and I’d decided that, when she looked like she was in distress, I’d take her to have her euthanized. Yesterday she seemed normal but then last night she died in her sleep, sitting on her eggs.
If I could choose a way for her to go, that would have been it. So, while I’m very sad that she’s gone, I’m glad for the way she went.
I rescued her from deplorable conditions, half starved and with a broken toe. She came a long way in her years with me and then we really bonded with raising her babies together. It will be a big adjustment for poor Octa who has never spent a night away from her mom.
I’ve removed the box as well figuring I might as well make all the changes at once. I buried her deep in the bottom of a flower pot on the sundeck.
Oh, that brings tears to my eyes, must have been a sad shock at first for you to find her passed. I’m glad for the time she had w/ you, and for you sharing this w/ us. I haven’t looked at pet birds the same since your OP.
