Spring Back

The blue and white budgie, Ugly Bets, seems to be coming out of her depression; her feathers are growing back.

Ugly Bets, the budgie previously known as JLo, became depressed about two years ago, when I separated her from the male budgie, Afleck. Why did I do this? Afleck was bullying UglyBets, sending her to scamper around the cage, into the bottom floor, and at one time, causing a very bad fall which broke the female's wing. Soon, UglyBets became ill from the fall and would create a cry that pierced the heart of any human. I had to put her in a cage all by herself, and moved her into a dark and warm area of the house to nurse her back to health. And she did! From then on, I called Ugly Bets a survivor; she even outlived some of the healthier canaries.

To lessen the pain of the separation from Afleck, I placed the two budgies' cages side by side so that they still saw each other. But then, later on, the male budgie died, and that's when Ugly Bets started to get depressed. She started to lose her hair/feathers, and became reclusive. She would spend her days sitting mostly at the bottom of the cage, underneath the paper lining and on top of the soft bedding/discards from the seeds, hatching her imaginary eggs. Oftentimes, in order to bring her back to the top, I would tap the outside bottom of the cage, and then, she would come out of hiding.

When Afleck died, Ugly Bets turned her attention to the other male budgie, Tommy Boy. Now, Tommy had been originally hand-fed, so he's naturally, very human-friendly. His day starts when I lift the cage cover and he would bite my fingers lightly as I put his daily dose of water, seed, millet, and Romain lettuce, and lately bok choy. He would run around the cage following my movement, and would wait for the music to be turned on. These birds love the classics of Mozart and Bach.

As Ugly Bets eyed Tommy from afar - Tommy's cage was hanging, and Ugly Bets' was near the canaries', Tommy never responded. He was a total snob. So, poor Ugly Bets went back to the bottom of the cage, to her days of dreaming alone. She became thinner and lost hair/feather to 2/3 of her body.

As spring was arriving, I decided to bring together Ugly Bets and Tommy into one cage. Would it work, I asked myself. Tommy the natural dancer, and Ugly Bets, the recluse?

It's been more than two weeks since the two have been joined together. At first, Tommy ignored Ugly Bets; I said, maybe because of Ugly Bets' feather-loss, Tommy didn't think it was a budgie. And then one hour passed. Slowly, Ugly Bets moved into Tommy's perch. Tommy backed away, Ugly Bets followed. And then it happened. The two budgies touched beaks!

Yesterday when I examined Ugly Bets, I saw very fine "hair" growing back to her body top. Soon, she will be lovely again.