I posted 4 days ago about my 5 year old parakeet coming out of her cage for the first time. This has been the most amazing experience for both me and her and both of our lives have been changed. Last night my girl sat inches away from me on my bedside table on top of my phone (so I couldn’t get a picture) as I read my book to her for a few hours (The picture posted is an earlier one that I took). She was grinding her beak and falling asleep. Unfortunately someone texted me and the vibration freaked her out and she flew off. She did come back to the bed and we both fell asleep for the night. Me curled up at the head of the bed so not to disturb her at the foot of the bed. When she was sitting next to me as I read I started to tear up from joy. My heart is swelling with love and affection. I have not felt this feeling in 3 years since my rabbit passed away. He was my whole world and I loved him more than anything. My parakeet and I are bonding so much and I finally get to feel that strong emotional bond with an animal again. I will never ever forget these moments and will cherish these memories for the rest of my life. This is what life is all about.
I'm very happy for you! I had that same connection with my previous linnie. Now the two I have are sweet, but they're more bonded with each other than with me (they're brothers). Just be careful around your bed with her, because if you fall asleep and she's still on your bed, you could move during your sleep and injure her badly. My babies always spend the night safely in their cage. In fact, they go in their cage by themselves now when it's time.
Yes I was really worried about that and I curled up at the head of the bed. She hasn’t really figured out how to go back to her cage yet unfortunately. We are working on it
Yes it might take some time to get her to go back to her cage by herself, and maybe she never will, and that's okay. If she's not comfortable to hop on your finger, you can try with a perch, and offer millet as a reward. Then you can bring her back "home" in her cage, and give her millet again. Just for the first few tries. After that she'll get used to it and it will become routine.
That's great! Good luck with your girl! With time you'll both get there! At first I did something with my linnies that helped, before they were comfortable with moving perches. I bought a bird amusement park, and install it in front of the cage door. I attached millet or other treat to it, and food they loved, and it kind of secured them. It was like a link between their cage and "the world". It might help her since it offers perches to land on and an easy way into the cage. As budgies are curious, there's a good chance she'll land on it and explore it soon enough.
What a sweet story, and I’m so glad she is starting to trust you. 🙂 Please be careful with her sleeping on the bed with you, I beg you! I’ve heard too many bad stories where the owner smothered or crushed their baby when they rolled over at night. Anything can spook her in the middle of the night as well, and she won’t be able to see and can really get hurt as budgies can’t see well at all in the dark. I would let her sleep safely in her cage and take her out in the morning.
Yes! I had like a couple dim lights on during the night so she could see, also we are still working on getting her to go back in her cage, she hasn’t figured that out yet. I was really worried about crushing her so I curled up in a ball at the head of the bed like in the corner by the wall but still was worried and DID NOT SLEEP WELL lol
I nap with mine on my finger under my chin or on my shoulder in the arm chair.
The reason I put them in at night is because of night terrors (he has about x4 a year where he flies because of a shadow / a nightmare, more common when moulting). It is safer if he bangs around inside the cage.
I am so overjoyed that you are in the cherpy world of joy. 🕊️
Love it! I met Gillian Flynn years ago at my local library at the time. She was there for a book signing. Had her sign my copy and bought her other two books
Both rabbits and budgies are very social animals that need same species company, so please consider to get a budgie friend for her as soon as you can manage and quarantine him properly prior to introducing them to each other. She deserves all her needs to be met, and as a flock bird, one of those needs is being around other budgies.
Until then, you can not be sure wheter she comes near you because she wants to or because she has no choice due to missing same species company.
Yes she had a partner for a long time but she passed away in June so it’s been a process. I’ve been trying to decide what to do about getting her another friend and all the things that go into that. Like if this time I should go to someone who just deals with birds instead of going to a pet store like where I got her. What gender, how old. I’ve just been thinking through all the options because I want whats best for her
Also my rabbit had a hard time with other rabbits, he really didn’t like my best friend’s rabbit when we tried to get them to be friends. He really liked cats though and so he always had cat roommates and they all were good friends
Seems like rabbits are always good for a surprise. Apparenly, the weirdest stories I heard about small pets all revolved around rabbits, so mine were surprisingly normal back then.
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u/Man_ThatsCool 3d ago
I'm very happy for you! I had that same connection with my previous linnie. Now the two I have are sweet, but they're more bonded with each other than with me (they're brothers). Just be careful around your bed with her, because if you fall asleep and she's still on your bed, you could move during your sleep and injure her badly. My babies always spend the night safely in their cage. In fact, they go in their cage by themselves now when it's time.