the little cockatiel passed away today.

i had decided it was butter who was sick because she was the lighter of the two. i am not going to bullshit anyone and pretend i developed a deep relationship with her in the past three days..all of those birds are upset and afraid whenever we enter their aviaries. and while i have been popping in a few more times a day to check on her then i did...it didn't make any difference to any of them, it just freaked them out whenever i did.
i like birds..i respect their intrinsic value and really do attempt to meet their needs but i don't have a clue about how they think or what they feel...except..i think they do not like living in small, stupid cages where they can't fly around or play and i think they do not like living alone because i am sure they do get lonely without a friend of the same species to talk to, and i am pretty sure that puck is missing her friend butter, and i feel badly for that.

i thought this morning when i checked on them that butter looked a bit better...she was no longer all fluffed up, her feathers were sleek and flat again and they were both chattering away while following each other up and down the sideways ladder to get as far away from me as they could. this just goes to show me how truly ignorant i am of birds because she obviously wasn't better or she wouldn't have passed away today.

the bottom line is..for every species of animal here...i have researched and tried to educate myself but i have not bothered to do that for the companion birds and i am a bit stunned by this obvious lack on my part...why haven't i?

it is not that i thought they didn't matter because they do...i think it was because i thought good food, really nice spacious home, clean water, interesting toys and a good friend meant i gave them what they needed so except for checking that they did have all of that every day, i didn't need to worry about them again.

and now butter is dead despite the antibiotics and puck is alone and i do need to start worrying now....too little, too late....i better start educating myself about birds since i decided i was going to rescue them.

i don't even know how long is their normal life span..that is how ignorant i am.

I went in a took these 2 pictures of them and they were so upset with me being in their home that I have never returned to them since. I don't have a full picture of their averyt but it very large--10 feet high and probably 5'X5'. I am sorry that puck is alone now too. But at least he has the other 2 birds (tex and rose) beside him so he is not totally alone--that would be worse