Let me contribute to this wonderful thread.Nerine was my first bird. A
and most likely male, despite the female name. Every morning, before I went to my classes, I'd let Nerine sit on my shoulder while I ate my breakfast, but I had to stop this after a while, because she started clumsily flying to the table (she was clipped, but she could still get some distance) and trying to sample whatever I had that day, which often included things birds can't eat, like sugary cereal and milk. I was once heating up some leftover barbecue pork in the microwave. When I took it out to check on it, Nerine was on my shoulder as usual. She jumped off and landed square in the middle of a pile of barbecue sauce and meat. I could only utter a single word, "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRDDDDD!"She didn't like any toy I ever gave her except her swing, which she played on all the time. She was happiest when she was in a new place. When she was on a new shef, the kitchen table, or on my bed, she'd bob her head like crazy. When I did my homework, she'd sit on top on my laptop screen, grind her beak, and occasionally try to eat files on my desktop. She wouldn't stop singing when she watched Glee. Don't know why.
For several weeks, I'd been trying to wean her off of seeds, and get her to eat pellets. I would only give her seeds twice a day, and I'd let her have pellets all day, but it was no use, she'd wait and starve herself for those seeds. She started screeching if it was time for her to get them and I didn't deliver fast enough. Because I didn't want to reinforce the behavior, and because I'd honestly had it, I checked to make sure she had her pellets, and her water, and left the room, vowing to return only when she was calm and quiet.
Eventually, she was...
It was a cold winter night in February. When I entered the room, she was soaked and shivering in the corner. I panicked and tried everything I could to warm her up, but it was too late. While she was scrambling madly as the cage wall and screaming for my attention, she'd fallen into her water bowl, and then her little body was overwhelmed by the cold.
I was devastated for several months. Class became an exercise of will to keep tears contained. Even now, it's difficult to pass by the area or the apartment grounds where I dug up a plot without permission from management and played, "Wind Beneath my Wings" on my phone as I mentally said my goodbyes. All of this sounds ridiculous considering how briefly I had her, I'm sure. But, she taught me a valuable lesson. I'm a bird lover through and through. And for that, I'll forever be in the debt of a tiny, frail, beautiful, little budgie.
R.I.P. Nerine
Conrad- Senegal