Remembering Felix

I like to celebrate our “rainbow” budgies on what would have been their hatchdays. Today would have been Felix’s. This year I decided to make videos to look back on our happy memories.


We adopted Felix from Craigslist (his former owners wanted to concentrate on their cockatiels).

Felix was a very handsome little devil. He had a biting problem when we first brought him home, but he mellowed out as he began to trust us. He received many kisses despite the occasional nip. He really was a sweet fellow at heart.

Felix was a great friend to the other budgies. He flirted with our girls, but he loved Lera (his tweetheart). He enjoyed baths and millet and would fly to my finger when I called for him. He loved to chew up balsa, and talk to himself in the mirror. He was a very handsome boy and we treasured the nine years we had with him.

Introducing…

Marvin!

On June 24th, someone on our neighborhood Facebook page posted that they found a budgie in their backyard, hoping to find its owner. I commented that we could take him in until the owner was found, as we have extra cages, bird toys and plenty of food.
The next day the woman who found him dropped him off. He was just a baby! He was starving, and his keel bone was very pronounced. He wolfed down some seed and promptly fell asleep.

We put the little guy in a quiet room (quarantine) and monitored him in case he needed a trip to the vet. He rallied pretty quickly. At first I thought he was tame because he was so easy to handle. But I think it was the heat, and the lack of food that made him so docile. The next day it was clear that he wasn’t tame at all. And he was a bit of a biter. So we started working on building trust and stepping up.

No one ever searched for him on our neighborhood pet pages or at the shelters. We think someone either let him out (maybe because of the biting?), or didn’t bother to look for him when he escaped. So now Tippi has a little friend.

Marvin has since finished his quarantine period and is in the bird room with Tippi and Sido. He is stepping up in the cage, but we still need to work on stepping up out of the cage. The biting is no longer an issue (knock wood).
This little budgie is a cutie, quite a singer and very playful. Welcome home Marvin!