Hello all!
I had such an urge to write somewhere about by journey with birds and how it is still ongoing...
Zeleni the IRN
I was born pretty much with a bird in the house - the very first one being Zeleni the Indian ringneck. He is bit older than me, currently he is 28. He was my favourite clown (very loud one at that.) You could say he was loved, but not cared well for. He was always in such a tiny cage, his main diet being only sunflower seeds. When my parents got him, the breeder actually told them that IRN's main diet are sunflower seeds... I'm surprised he survived for so long. He was like that for more than 20 years. Today it would be seen as animal cruelty, but my parents completely disagree. Later on I met my partner who is an absolute bird lover and he taught me how to take care of Zeleni properly. By age of 22 or 23 I moved out to live with my partner. Naturally I brought Zeleni with me. However, Zeleni was an extremely hormonal bird and strongly bonded to me. He hated my partner. He would lunge at him for no reason and would shout nearly all day, even if I was just across the room. Some months passed by and he got much worse. we did moved him to a pelleted diet, were very careful about his light exposures, touches and everything, but they way he was always so sexually distressed was nerve and ear wrecking. No matter how much my partner tried to work with him, Zeleni simply never liked him. It got so bad that both of us were on the edge with our nerves, were arguing quite often, and my partner would end up with bites on his face.
After that we agreed to forward him to a more loving home which has a flock of IRNs. It must've been one of the hardest decisions of my life as I absolutely adored my bird, but his excessive shouting for 6 months and constant hornyness was just too much for everyone. My parents never agreed on me passing on Zeleni to someone else, they still think he would've been better off back at their home in that tiny round cage and sunflower seed diet, because "if he survived this long is such an enviroment and diet, it wasn't that bad then, was it". It always infuriates me and I always try to avoid the bird topic, because I still feel the awful bitterness with my parents. Zeleni is quite fine and still pretty much alive and happy with his new flock. He's currently 28 and still kicking.
Csillam the found budgie
Another story I would like to tell is about our rescue budgie, Csillam. Csilli (as we like to call her) was found by my partner exactly 7 years ago, on Easter sunday. He found her in a near death state, on a parking lot. It was quite difficult for him because he was missing a lot of things for the budgie like a cage and the food, nevertheless he did find and was healing her back to life. He did explain to me that she was fighting for 3-4 days completely, he had no idea if she was going to survive. And she did.
Csilli was an extremely wild and shy violet budgie, absolutely beautiful but afraid even from her own shadow. When I moved in with my partner, he had her already for 3 years and she was still extremely shy and wild. we couldn't even approach the cage without her jumping and hiding in the back. He did think of passing her on to someone else, but for some reason he decided to keep her. He never could find the owner.
Csilli started to open up slowly at her 4th year, she would whistle back and forth with us. now, at 7 years, she is openly flying to my partner's shoulders, LOVES to get kisses from us, still adores to whistle and chirp, and loves to bobble her head when we wiggle with a finger. She is such a little gem, and I am SO happy that she finally opened up. Seeing that she is a little PTSP bird, it is such a wonder how full of life she is. I wouldn't trade her for the world.
Sunny the rescue English budgie (RIP)
Perhaps a year after I had to turn over Zeleni to a new home, we've seen a post where a person was threatning to release their budgie that they had inherited. He was a 7 year old green budgie that was absolutely wild. according to the previous owner, they had perhaps 2-3 females with him, but they always died. Poor thing was in an extremely small cage, I would imagine that the previous pairs got killed or died of stress..or the illness. Nevertheless me and my partner jumped on the first train to get Sunny. I have seen that his droppings were quite weird so we did take him to the vet soon when we could for some tests. Poor thing was quite underweight, and the tests from his droppings did tell us that he had a very certain bacteria/yeast which needed special treatment. That must've been the worst thing for him as he was SO afraid of hands, but we had to catch him twice a day to administer the medicine. My heart broke every single time we had to catch him. We also had to administer the medicine to Csilli as well as a preventive, luckily she never had any issues. Perhaps 5 weeks later we had him tested again and his droppings came negative to the pathogen, which was a huge relief. we had him for about 6 months, but made 0 progress. He was too fearful of Csilli, barely let her preen him, He would sit next to his tiny mirror all day (and without mirror would just shout endlessly) he didn't want to eat ANYTHING but millet. Not even other types of grass seeds that Csilli was eating, he would see that she is eating it, would come and just throw everything out. I switched 4 parrots onto pellets, but this dummy wouldn't even eat other seeds... It was too painful for me to see him like that so we found a new home, a wonderful woman who has a whole flock of Budgies, which we thought was nice. She adopted him, and he was so cute and nice first few days, even made a close friend. The woman was sending us pictures everyday. Unfortunately, Sunny died only 7 days after the woman adopted him, which was so heartbreaking. But at least we gave him the best 6 months of his life, he could fly, eat some veggies, be free, make some friends, heal him.
Archibald von Houdini the found cockatiel
This cockatiel has a special place in my heart. No hate please, but I never liked cockatiels that much, until we found this fella. It was end of November, getting really cold. My partner was outside cleaning out the garage with his father when he heard cockatiel shouts. At first he thought it was something on the radio until he has spotted the fella down on the grass. Archie was trying to get close to my partner, and my partner did what his instincts told him to do - grab the bird. And so he did. I will never forget when he came back rushing into the flat shouting "QUICKLY", I honestly thought that his father might've gotten hurt, then I saw him weirdly holding and hunching which I thought that he hurt his hand, then I saw the grey wing... First I thought it was a pigeon until I have seen the yellow head. I understood it then. Fast forward, Archie was our favourite grumpy. We did find the previous owners who explained to us that they found him a year prior outside as well, and that they wished to rehome him already with some other cockatiels they had. We agreed to keep Archie. He was semi tame, he would step up sometimes, but loved hanging out on our shoulders. No petting was allowed, only rubbing the nose on his head was allowed. Even that was amazing. He was a terrible singer, but adorable nevertheless. He had a weird behaviour where he would chase his shadows and reflections. He would frantically fly around the room just to get a glimpse of his reflection on the windows in the evening or in the pictures. In evening, he would often just go up to his shadow and whistle to it or frantically shout for the shadow's attention. Now that was quite heart breaking. Through time, he got bit worse with that. We had him for 6 months or so. I couldn't adopt another cockatiel, as it would be too much for us, so we found a wonderful lady who was searching for a friend for her cockatiel. The two of them turned out to be best buddies. I still miss Archie so much, as I loved his company and how he would nibble his pellets next to me or just chill and sleep on my shoulder. I am hoping to visit him again after the whole corona mess.
Pascal the Emma's (Venezuelan) Conure
Pascal is the newest feather butt we have, my full choice. Years ago I have fallen in love with conures, and this fella was up for sale 2-3 weeks ago. I have just fallen in love with his gorgeous coloration, I had no idea that he is such a rare species in the pet trade, and how smaller he is from a GCC. And much lower volume too, which is a jackpot really. I will write soon about our journey, as he is a parent raised, non tame chick. He is just 9 months old, which I am fine with. He came from an open aviary, which perhaps wasn't the wisest choice if I wanted to have a close companion, perhaps I was better off with an already tame baby, but hey, you never know. As mentioned, Pascal is with us for but more than 2 weeks, and he went from a completely terrified bird to an apple demanding bastard. He will step up now onto my hand if he does see that I am holding an apple. and he is already target trained which is amazing, he picked it up very quickly. As mentioned, I will write much more about him in my new thread, so those who are interested can follow our journey!
I had such an urge to write somewhere about by journey with birds and how it is still ongoing...
Zeleni the IRN
I was born pretty much with a bird in the house - the very first one being Zeleni the Indian ringneck. He is bit older than me, currently he is 28. He was my favourite clown (very loud one at that.) You could say he was loved, but not cared well for. He was always in such a tiny cage, his main diet being only sunflower seeds. When my parents got him, the breeder actually told them that IRN's main diet are sunflower seeds... I'm surprised he survived for so long. He was like that for more than 20 years. Today it would be seen as animal cruelty, but my parents completely disagree. Later on I met my partner who is an absolute bird lover and he taught me how to take care of Zeleni properly. By age of 22 or 23 I moved out to live with my partner. Naturally I brought Zeleni with me. However, Zeleni was an extremely hormonal bird and strongly bonded to me. He hated my partner. He would lunge at him for no reason and would shout nearly all day, even if I was just across the room. Some months passed by and he got much worse. we did moved him to a pelleted diet, were very careful about his light exposures, touches and everything, but they way he was always so sexually distressed was nerve and ear wrecking. No matter how much my partner tried to work with him, Zeleni simply never liked him. It got so bad that both of us were on the edge with our nerves, were arguing quite often, and my partner would end up with bites on his face.
After that we agreed to forward him to a more loving home which has a flock of IRNs. It must've been one of the hardest decisions of my life as I absolutely adored my bird, but his excessive shouting for 6 months and constant hornyness was just too much for everyone. My parents never agreed on me passing on Zeleni to someone else, they still think he would've been better off back at their home in that tiny round cage and sunflower seed diet, because "if he survived this long is such an enviroment and diet, it wasn't that bad then, was it". It always infuriates me and I always try to avoid the bird topic, because I still feel the awful bitterness with my parents. Zeleni is quite fine and still pretty much alive and happy with his new flock. He's currently 28 and still kicking.
Csillam the found budgie
Another story I would like to tell is about our rescue budgie, Csillam. Csilli (as we like to call her) was found by my partner exactly 7 years ago, on Easter sunday. He found her in a near death state, on a parking lot. It was quite difficult for him because he was missing a lot of things for the budgie like a cage and the food, nevertheless he did find and was healing her back to life. He did explain to me that she was fighting for 3-4 days completely, he had no idea if she was going to survive. And she did.
Csilli was an extremely wild and shy violet budgie, absolutely beautiful but afraid even from her own shadow. When I moved in with my partner, he had her already for 3 years and she was still extremely shy and wild. we couldn't even approach the cage without her jumping and hiding in the back. He did think of passing her on to someone else, but for some reason he decided to keep her. He never could find the owner.
Csilli started to open up slowly at her 4th year, she would whistle back and forth with us. now, at 7 years, she is openly flying to my partner's shoulders, LOVES to get kisses from us, still adores to whistle and chirp, and loves to bobble her head when we wiggle with a finger. She is such a little gem, and I am SO happy that she finally opened up. Seeing that she is a little PTSP bird, it is such a wonder how full of life she is. I wouldn't trade her for the world.
Sunny the rescue English budgie (RIP)
Perhaps a year after I had to turn over Zeleni to a new home, we've seen a post where a person was threatning to release their budgie that they had inherited. He was a 7 year old green budgie that was absolutely wild. according to the previous owner, they had perhaps 2-3 females with him, but they always died. Poor thing was in an extremely small cage, I would imagine that the previous pairs got killed or died of stress..or the illness. Nevertheless me and my partner jumped on the first train to get Sunny. I have seen that his droppings were quite weird so we did take him to the vet soon when we could for some tests. Poor thing was quite underweight, and the tests from his droppings did tell us that he had a very certain bacteria/yeast which needed special treatment. That must've been the worst thing for him as he was SO afraid of hands, but we had to catch him twice a day to administer the medicine. My heart broke every single time we had to catch him. We also had to administer the medicine to Csilli as well as a preventive, luckily she never had any issues. Perhaps 5 weeks later we had him tested again and his droppings came negative to the pathogen, which was a huge relief. we had him for about 6 months, but made 0 progress. He was too fearful of Csilli, barely let her preen him, He would sit next to his tiny mirror all day (and without mirror would just shout endlessly) he didn't want to eat ANYTHING but millet. Not even other types of grass seeds that Csilli was eating, he would see that she is eating it, would come and just throw everything out. I switched 4 parrots onto pellets, but this dummy wouldn't even eat other seeds... It was too painful for me to see him like that so we found a new home, a wonderful woman who has a whole flock of Budgies, which we thought was nice. She adopted him, and he was so cute and nice first few days, even made a close friend. The woman was sending us pictures everyday. Unfortunately, Sunny died only 7 days after the woman adopted him, which was so heartbreaking. But at least we gave him the best 6 months of his life, he could fly, eat some veggies, be free, make some friends, heal him.
Archibald von Houdini the found cockatiel
This cockatiel has a special place in my heart. No hate please, but I never liked cockatiels that much, until we found this fella. It was end of November, getting really cold. My partner was outside cleaning out the garage with his father when he heard cockatiel shouts. At first he thought it was something on the radio until he has spotted the fella down on the grass. Archie was trying to get close to my partner, and my partner did what his instincts told him to do - grab the bird. And so he did. I will never forget when he came back rushing into the flat shouting "QUICKLY", I honestly thought that his father might've gotten hurt, then I saw him weirdly holding and hunching which I thought that he hurt his hand, then I saw the grey wing... First I thought it was a pigeon until I have seen the yellow head. I understood it then. Fast forward, Archie was our favourite grumpy. We did find the previous owners who explained to us that they found him a year prior outside as well, and that they wished to rehome him already with some other cockatiels they had. We agreed to keep Archie. He was semi tame, he would step up sometimes, but loved hanging out on our shoulders. No petting was allowed, only rubbing the nose on his head was allowed. Even that was amazing. He was a terrible singer, but adorable nevertheless. He had a weird behaviour where he would chase his shadows and reflections. He would frantically fly around the room just to get a glimpse of his reflection on the windows in the evening or in the pictures. In evening, he would often just go up to his shadow and whistle to it or frantically shout for the shadow's attention. Now that was quite heart breaking. Through time, he got bit worse with that. We had him for 6 months or so. I couldn't adopt another cockatiel, as it would be too much for us, so we found a wonderful lady who was searching for a friend for her cockatiel. The two of them turned out to be best buddies. I still miss Archie so much, as I loved his company and how he would nibble his pellets next to me or just chill and sleep on my shoulder. I am hoping to visit him again after the whole corona mess.
Pascal the Emma's (Venezuelan) Conure
Pascal is the newest feather butt we have, my full choice. Years ago I have fallen in love with conures, and this fella was up for sale 2-3 weeks ago. I have just fallen in love with his gorgeous coloration, I had no idea that he is such a rare species in the pet trade, and how smaller he is from a GCC. And much lower volume too, which is a jackpot really. I will write soon about our journey, as he is a parent raised, non tame chick. He is just 9 months old, which I am fine with. He came from an open aviary, which perhaps wasn't the wisest choice if I wanted to have a close companion, perhaps I was better off with an already tame baby, but hey, you never know. As mentioned, Pascal is with us for but more than 2 weeks, and he went from a completely terrified bird to an apple demanding bastard. He will step up now onto my hand if he does see that I am holding an apple. and he is already target trained which is amazing, he picked it up very quickly. As mentioned, I will write much more about him in my new thread, so those who are interested can follow our journey!
Last edited:
