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Free-one Budgie With Cage, That's All The Ad Said


Guest Phoebe

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Guest Phoebe

:fear I work for a large organization that provides classified ads on it's website, every so often I check it out and under "free", there it was this ad. Expecting the worst, I phoned the lady tonight and she said this supposedly female budgie needs a partner, she bought two birds under 6 months ago, went on vacation, leaving the dogs and budgies with a reliable pet sitter and returned to a dead budgie which she blames on the heat. She has decided the budgie needs company and doesn't want to get another bird and the pet store won't take her back. I told her that I would come get her and quarantine her in my bedroom for a month, to which she replied, she's healthy, no need to and I said it is very unlikely that your young male would have died in the recent heat, there must have been something else going on. She replied, "well whatever you think is right". Actually she was a very nice lady, I was expecting to go pick up a poor, malnourished budgie with no toys in a shoe box size cage but am thinking I will be pleasantly surprised when I go tomorrow. Will quarantine her for a month in my bedroom, decide what to do and then probably put her in avian rescue where any future owner will have to fill out an application form and pay money to adopt her, pictures coming ..... Oh, and there were free cats, free kittens, free gerbils and free hamsters on the website as well. :fear Don't humans drive you crazy! :P

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Phoebe your the best, good for you :P Would love to see picture of her and yes they do drive me crazy.

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Guest Phoebe

:ausb: The camera batteries are charging and her name is Mindy. I do have a suitable cage PLUS toys if she doesn't come with them, will give her another few in any event. :(

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Guest Phoebe

:P Went to pick up the poor little thing today and she is in my bedroom, not a sound out of her yet. The people I went to get her from were nice, lived in a tidy, clean home in a great area. BUT it has reinforced the idea to me that most people view budgies as gold fish, you give them food and water and all is well. It is a given that dogs need all of the above, a ball or two and a daily walk. Even the most uninformed cat owner realizes that toys, scratching posts and things are needed to keep kitties entertained .

Mindy was in a very small cage with no toys other than a mirror with a bell that was hard to reach;I really don't want to know if 2 budgies were residing in this cage or they just put her in a little grungy cage that they had stashed away and brought out now. Also, when I asked if she returned to her cage easily when she was let out for exercise, they replied that she doesn't come out! (does that mean that they don't let her out or she doesn't want to come out, I don't want to know). Asked if she liked greens, vegetables and fruit, the reply was, "oh, are they allowed that?". At least they had the basics: cuttle bone, gravel, and a nice fresh sprig of millet but they had a parrot size container of the cheapest of cheap budgie food which took up most of the cage (guess you don't have to add seed everyday then?) The extra stuff she gave me has gone to the outside birds. I gave Mindy a couple of toys today, will move her into a bigger, clean, cage in a day or so and have my landlord destroy her present cage with a sledgehammer, don't want anybody to fish it out of the garbage. Really don't want to bother her so only a couple of pictures but still not a sound out of her, pretty little thing.

 

000_0220.jpg

and here is the cage slated for destruction:

000_0219.jpg

 

 

Oh yes, the spots on the window are soap, not my lens, my landlord started with that spray from the hose window cleaner when it was so hot last week, had to go somewhere and never got back to it! :blink:

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What a pretty little thing she is. :blink: I'm so glad you've rescued her from her old home.

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Guest Phoebe
:P Well my Avian Rescue Lady will get her into a good home as I won't be able to keep her, would like to get out of that yucky cage right now but she hasn't moved all day or made a sound but I can see she's eaten a bit so that's good. Still cannot believe her male companion died from the heat, there must have been something else going on. :blink:
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Yeah, it does seem odd to blame it on the heat. Does Mindy seem healthy? She looks pretty good in the photos. :blink:

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She's beautiful :blink: I'm glad you rescued her :P

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Guest Phoebe

:P Especially in budgies under 6 months, my birds and everybody else made out okay and we don't reach the high temps that some of you do in Australia. She looks good to me despite not being fed well (will slowly introduce better foods) or getting exercise, the first thing to do is get rid of that gosh awful cage but it still worries me she hasn't vocalized at all. I just visited and chatted with her, she looks at me and I know she has been looking out the window as I saw her when I drove up, tomorrow will hopefully be a better day! :)

 

:) Thanks Celeste, when one gives out "budgie, free with cage" it is an almost forgone conclusion they are going from bad to worse minus exceptional circumstances (death, etc.) :blink:

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oh she is a gorgeous little girl glad you have her for now Phoebe :bluebudgie:.

You are one special lady.

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Guest Phoebe

:bluebudgie: I finally heard "one" little vocalization from that direction, will go chat with her again. That cage is giving me the heebie jeebies but it would be too much of shock for Mindy to relocate her right now, must take it slow as she is obviously upset and traumatized. :ausb:

Edited by Phoebe
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Guest Phoebe

:bluebudgie: Mindy has been in her almost new, spacious cage for a few days and scarcely yet a peep. I can hear her bashing a mirrored toy around a bit but otherwise, she stays in the same position. My landlord went to visit her 4 times yesterday while I was at work and he asked me "what did those people do to that poor bird"? He knows she is scared out of her wits still, looks at the floor, freaks out when he comes in the room but doesn't freak out on me until I go in her cage or cover her at night. Wish I could talk budgie, at least she appears to be eating a bit. :bluebudgie:

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Poor baby :bluebudgie: I wonder what happened to her.

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Guest eterri

Poor bird, she's lucky you found her! And she's so gorgeous.

 

It's very likely that she stays in one position when she hears someone coming and when they are in the room. Often, they'll pick a "safe" spot and jump right back to that when they think danger is approaching. It sounds like she's just nervous and that she's acting completely normal for a budgie who has never been handled. I doubt anyone purposely harmed her or made her terrified but sometimes it can be just as bad to neglect an animal and it's obvious that this is just the case.

 

I wouldn't doubt if the other budgie starved to death while they were on vacation. If it was a boy, the female would be far more likely to take advantage of the food and keep him away from it. If they just left a huge dish of food for the entire time, it's likely that the budgies didn't dig deep enough to get to the stuff that was under the hulls. Some budgies like to kick food around but others seem to pick only the food off the top.

 

She looks pretty good considering the circumstances. I hope she finds a great home.

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Guest Phoebe

:hap: I think her and her male cage mate were squeezed into this tiny little cage, just given crappy food and water, never let out, and possibly in direct sun light when we hit record temps and that is why he died. They weren't shut away in a room somewhere (I don't think) as she was in the kitchen area when I picked her up and there were two dogs, I think she misses her pal, he was her whole world and now he is gone. The avian rescue lady asked me to write a biography on her and take some pictures so she can post her on her website closer to the end of quarantine time. Don't know what I shall write on her bio, doesn't sing, doesn't move, is scared and unhappy? Hopefully she will come around, she definitely needs to be housed with another bird. :bluebudgie:

 

:D Thanks e-terri, there was a HUGE parrot size dish of cheap food taking up the cage space so I don't think starvation was it, it was either the heat or another problem. The people said they had a very trusted pet sitter so we can only hope she was cleaning out the cage and refreshing food and water on a daily basis. Will give Mindy a week to explore the cage and hopefully get interested in toys as she didn't have any previously, I know she loves looking out my bedroom window as one can see tons of birds, cars, bunnies, and trees. Next week will see if she wants to come out. :bluebudgie:

Edited by Phoebe
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poor dear, Pheobe again bless you for taking on yet another task you are a good woman.

 

Try and offer her some millet too when you are around her she may not take it from you hand but if you leave it on the side she can start to realize this hand will not harm me.

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Guest Phoebe

:ausb: And I phoned the previous owner today which I said I would and said Mindy was enjoying her LARGER CAGE, I had added some TOYS for her, and was TRYING her with new foods. Dead silence and then a thanks for letting them know, they really don't know what they did wrong. :)

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Wow, doesn't sound like they do at all.

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Guest Phoebe

:ausb: Well I did tell them I would let them know how she was doing (whether they cared or not) and I just wanted to let them know she was in better quarters than she had been with toys and a variety of foods. Won't call them anymore, I fulfilled my promise and if they want to know how she is doing (right), they have my number. :)

 

Still so sad I wasn't on top of things and didn't procure the 2 free budgies with cage about 3 weeks ago, hope they are okay, there are good people out there.

Edited by Phoebe
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Guest pixie25

aww what a gorgeous little girl. glad you have her now, and i wish people would google or get a book before they buy any animal.

 

people can be so ignorant.

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That's sad that they didn't seem to think that they had done anything wrong! It's good that you rescued her.

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:budgiedance: And an update on little Mindy, I took her out to the avian rescue facility a week ago and she is doing well, there has already been one person asking about her. The rescue lady says that she wants to keep her for a bit in the aviary with the other birds as she really needs to learn "bird" stuff as she still wouldn't come out of her cage when I had her. But she has come a long way and no longer seems "autistic", a couple of weeks in Comet's (Mr Welcome Wagon, Casanova, Pushy Bird Neighbour and Stunt Flyer)cage really helped her out a lot. He really liked her when I introduced them but then decided she wasn't exciting enough for him, they got along and everything but he hasn't missed her one bit, is back to his routine and no doubt waiting for another "guest" to stay in his cage a bit. I saw another ad at work today where a young budgie was for free or nominal charge but it soundedway more upbeat. Family member developed allergy, bird is lovely little fellow but not hand tame, comes with cage and TOYS (Mindy had none) and serious bird lovers only so at least these people are considering the bird, cared for it properly and not just getting rid of it as it no longer appeals to them. :)

Edited by Phoebe
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keep us updated on Mindy

Great job Comet on being a wonderful host (as always what a great budgie he is)

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:wub: Lovey, Comet is an overexuberant, friendly, noisy, active and busy budgie but let us not forget that he is,ahem, a Casanova of the most severe degree! Hopefully this behaviour will stop as he gets older (but then who knows how old he is?) :wub: (he is wooing Coco through her cage bars as we speak, feeding and grooming her). Edited by Phoebe
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Oh Mr. Comet :wub:

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