“Knock, knock!” I say playfully, waiting for Sarah Weindelmayer to open the door. She greets me with a huge smile, happy to see me even though it’s still fairly early in the morning. “Thank you for having me today!”
“No problem,” answers Sarah, ushering me into the house. I follow her into the next room, staring at the large cage that awaits us, still covered in brown cloth. “This is supposed to make them think it’s still nighttime until we come to take care of them, but somehow they always know it’s morning.” The fluttering and chirping noises coming from under the cloth confirm this.
I laugh. “Can’t fool them! Well, let’s get started then.”
Nodding, Sarah pulls off the cloth, revealing three parakeets. Two of them are bright greenish-yellow while the last is an interesting mix of pinkish-white and blue. “The green ones are Felix, my personal bird, and Peter, who belongs to my sister Abigail. We actually think Felix is a girl. And then here,” she says, pointing to the blue and white bird “is Percy, who belongs to my sister Ellie, and is definitely a girl.”
The birds hop around excitedly, glad to see Sarah. She places her hand on the latch of the door. “Get ready! They like to exercise by flying around the living room.” She flips the latch open, and Peter immediately soars out with Percy close behind. Felix stays on her perch, and Sarah explains, “Sometimes she just likes to stay in there, eating seeds and watching the others fly around.”
As the other two circle above our heads, I take a closer look at the cage. “What does caring for the birds involve?”
“Well, today’s Tuesday so it’s not my turn to clean the cage. I do it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But I change their water, refill their seed bowl, sweep away the old seeds from the ground, and change the paper on their tray. Felix especially is very messy; she likes to spill seeds and splash water everywhere.
“She sounds very troublesome,” I say. “What do your birds like to do during the day?”
Sarah’s eyes light up. “My sister Ellie plays the guitar and sings for them, and they love it. They’ll lift their legs up to their chest feathers, which is a sign of happiness, and they’ll do their best to sing along.”
“How adorable!”
“Yes,” Sarah giggles. “They’re very playful too, pecking at their nesting box, which is that woven straw basket thing in the cage.” She points. “And when they’re outside of their cage, like now, they’ll get into the curtains, hopping in and out of the folds. They sometimes perch on top of the rod, but it’s hard for them to keep their footing on the slick metal. They land on the couches when they can, but my mom scares them off since you can’t potty-train a bird and we don’t want the furniture ruined.”
“Makes sense,” I agree. “Do they eat anything besides seeds?”
“Apples! Peter would protect his apple with his life, and Felix likes it too because she’s very covetous. Percy likes pretty much everything, but she’s very shy and won’t take things from our hands very often. Her favorites are millet and cuttlebone. Oh, and yogurt. We started feeding Peter yogurt when he had stomach problems, and now Percy adores it.”
Laughing, I ask the next question. “What’s the dynamic like in the cage? Is there any conflict between the three of them?”
“They are very bad at sharing,” Sarah tells me. “If one of them is playing with a toy and the other decides that he needs to have it, they will get very jealous. A few months ago, Felix spent a lot of time around Percy, which made us think that Felix was a boy. But that’s stopped now, and we call her because we’re not sure. Peter’s very friendly to both of them, but especially Felix. They’ve been spending time together lately, grooming each other’s feathers and throwing up into each other’s mouths—I know it sounds gross, but that’s how they show affection.” She shrugs.
“Aww,” I reply. “Can you tell me a bit more about Percy? You mentioned that she is very shy.”
“Ah yes. She’s got some very strange behavior patterns, and we think she might be mentally different from the others. We’ve had them all for eight months, and she still won’t trust us enough to climb on our fingers. She’ll flutter randomly, and we think she might have narcolepsy as well (spontaneously falling asleep). She doesn’t get along well with Peter, despite his pleasant demeanor. She pecks at him when he approaches her. She tolerates Felix sometimes, but he tends to ignore her.”
“Very interesting,” I say slowly, watching as Percy and Peter land back in the cage. “Are there any notable difficulties with them?”
Sarah thinks for a minute. “They didn’t come from the highest quality pet shop, and they get sick really easily. Peter’s had stomach issues for a long time now. The doctor here isn’t very helpful; he’s given us the wrong medicine several times since he’s not familiar with parakeets. We had to shove antibiotics down his throat because the doctor told us it was a virus, but after several months of that not working, we realized we needed to try something else. He’s had deworming medicine recently and that’s been the most effective; he’s started to gain back the weight he lost.”
“That sounds so hard,” I say sadly. “Poor Peter, health issues are no fun. What would you say your favorite part of having the parakeets is?”
“I’ve wanted to have a pet ever since I was very little, but my parents had a strict no-pets rule until last year, and we were finally able to get budgies! So, I’m thankful that we’re just able to have pets. Their unique personalities are very endearing to me, and I adore their fluffy cuteness.”
“They are quite adorable,” I agree. “It was so nice to meet them! Thank you again for meeting with me, and taking the time to introduce me to parakeet life.”
“Of course! You’re very welcome,” Sarah responds happily.
Photo Credits: Sarah Weindelmayer