Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 12, 2022 9:09:57 GMT -5
Tweedy Bird and his mate
by
Radrook
Many of us have memories of our pets when we were children. So it was with the two parakeets I had. We forced to leave our beloved pet dog Danny Boy behind when we relocated since no dogs were allowed as pets. However, caged-birds were allowed, so we were able to take our pet parakeet along with us.
We chose to name this of beautiful emerald-plumaged male parakeet Tweedy, after that famous cartoon Walt Disney canary by the same name. We always took him along on camping trips to the Catskill mountains and our benign ignorance always imagined him to be reasonably happy. But eventually, we noticed a certain sadness and it finally, and suddenly dawned on us, that Tweedy might perhaps be lonely and that providing him with a female companion would be the humanitarian thing to do.
So we went to the neighborhood pet-shop downtown. While there, we were confronted with maybe 20 parakeets in a large cage. As we watched their antics, this feisty, white-feathered female caught our attention. She was lovely! Because she looked unique, we imagined Tweedy Bird would think so as well. So once we brought her home, we all sat on the living room sofa watching in anticipation of how they would react to one another. Of course, we expected a harmonious relationship, and for Tweedy Bird, to finally find the happiness after so many years of being alone.
Unfortunately, as soon as we released her from the small cardboard box she had been placed in at the pet shop, and into the cage, all hell suddenly seemed to break loose. No, it wasn’t him, it was her. You see, as soon as she arrived, she wanted everything for herself and vehemently resented any sign that Tweedy belonged there.
We watched astonished as he desperately hopping from perch to perch and fled to the farthest corners of the small cage in order to escape her constant pecking. But even though he peaceful ceded her all the territory she was demanding, he had no respite. If he tried to eat or drink, she would be instantly upon him as if he were an unwanted intruder into her sacred, private cage.
After a week of this unrelenting harassment, we began to seriously consider removing her in order to let him lead his life in peace. We thought about maybe giving her away, or else taking her back to the pet shop. After all, solitude is better than constant persecution and that’s one reason why we humans often choose to separate from a companion or else to get a divorce. But fortunately, gradually things began to settle down and to our amazement, they were soon living up to their nicknames of love-birds.
We began to watch fascinated as the former incompatibility was replaced with constant kissing beak to beak in what appeared to us as expressions of amorous devotion. Or was that merely our anthropometric imagination? We chose to believe that it wasn’t and that there was a true affection that had developed between the twain. We also noticed that on occasions, what appeared to be avian copulation would take place as he mounted her in the customary avian mating fashion. Since that is nature’s way of reproducing the species, we started wondering whether a chick would soon be on its way.
So in order to be ready, I read on how to care for female pet parakeets and learned that if the female begins plucking feathers from the male, it is because she is about lay an egg and needs material to make a nest. Also, that she needed a private secluded area in which to make her nest. So when we noticed that the plucking started, we provided her with a little wood bird-house accessible to her from the cage, as well as the material that she would need to build a nest.
Then we waited. I would check the little birdhouse each day to see if se was building a nest. But as far as I could tell, she never attempted to. So to help her out, I made a nest for her according to the instructions I had read and placed it in that little birdhouse and waited. But mysteriously, the egg never appeared and we began to wonder whether something seriously wrong was going on. Yet, she seemed healthy enough. Absolutely no signs of any illness were present. Then suddenly, that suspicion was confirmed when one late evening, she started chirping frantically as if she had been in extreme pain.
Simultaneously, Tweedy became extremely agitated. He began chirping furiously as if in protest and hurling himself frantically from one side of the cage to the other as if he was under extreme emotional distress due to her suffering, or else feared that we were harming her in some way and wanted to protect her.
We honestly didn’t know what was wrong with her. Then my father examined her and saw that an egg had broken inside of her and was refusing to come out. Only its jagged edges were protruding from her body and were causing her severe pain. As he attempted to help her by taking the pieces out one at a time, she suddenly went silent and we knew that she had died in his hands. I wept bitterly in my bedroom during the whole thing, feeling helpless and wanting her suffering to stop.
Strangely, after her death, Tweedy Bird just remained quietly perched in the cage without eating or even moving. It was as if all his life energy had been suddenly drained from his avian body. As if his grief from having lost her was so intense, that he preferred to die as well, rather than to go on living without her. Then, approx. a week after she had died, we found him dead at the bottom of the cage. He had been our pet for about five years and she for two, and it was a very sad way for both of them to leave us.
ADDENDUM
Please note that today, I would not keep a caged bird as a pet because I consider it a cruelty. After all, birds have been provided with wings for a reason, and it is to fly. So why deprive them of that glorious experience which seems to be their right by default? After all, all they can do in a small cage is perch and leap from perch to perch monotonously. But at that time, such a thing didn’t cross my mind and I imagined caged birds as being contented.
If released, I reasoned, where would they go? I imagined that they would die from starvation since they were obviously exotic birds from a tropical climate and needed a certain type of specific bird seed to survive. they would also find it impossible to tolerate the severe cold. Birds in the northern latitudes usually migrated to warmer weather during northern winters, and lacking the migratory instinct and stamina it would be left behind. So I felt that I was doing them a favor by providing them with a safe haven.
COMMENTS (1)
Kazi utsob anwar neil05/05/2021your opinion is so right. Because bird needs freedom. They have life. They are like us. So they need freedom.
Radrook05/05/2021
Ever read the famous poem "I know why a caged bird sings" ?It delves deeply into that situation but from a human standpoint. It was written by a famous African American female poetess and it is referring to slavery.
We chose to name this of beautiful emerald-plumaged male parakeet Tweedy, after that famous cartoon Walt Disney canary by the same name. We always took him along on camping trips to the Catskill mountains and our benign ignorance always imagined him to be reasonably happy. But eventually, we noticed a certain sadness and it finally, and suddenly dawned on us, that Tweedy might perhaps be lonely and that providing him with a female companion would be the humanitarian thing to do.
So we went to the neighborhood pet-shop downtown. While there, we were confronted with maybe 20 parakeets in a large cage. As we watched their antics, this feisty, white-feathered female caught our attention. She was lovely! Because she looked unique, we imagined Tweedy Bird would think so as well. So once we brought her home, we all sat on the living room sofa watching in anticipation of how they would react to one another. Of course, we expected a harmonious relationship, and for Tweedy Bird, to finally find the happiness after so many years of being alone.
Unfortunately, as soon as we released her from the small cardboard box she had been placed in at the pet shop, and into the cage, all hell suddenly seemed to break loose. No, it wasn’t him, it was her. You see, as soon as she arrived, she wanted everything for herself and vehemently resented any sign that Tweedy belonged there.
We watched astonished as he desperately hopping from perch to perch and fled to the farthest corners of the small cage in order to escape her constant pecking. But even though he peaceful ceded her all the territory she was demanding, he had no respite. If he tried to eat or drink, she would be instantly upon him as if he were an unwanted intruder into her sacred, private cage.
After a week of this unrelenting harassment, we began to seriously consider removing her in order to let him lead his life in peace. We thought about maybe giving her away, or else taking her back to the pet shop. After all, solitude is better than constant persecution and that’s one reason why we humans often choose to separate from a companion or else to get a divorce. But fortunately, gradually things began to settle down and to our amazement, they were soon living up to their nicknames of love-birds.
We began to watch fascinated as the former incompatibility was replaced with constant kissing beak to beak in what appeared to us as expressions of amorous devotion. Or was that merely our anthropometric imagination? We chose to believe that it wasn’t and that there was a true affection that had developed between the twain. We also noticed that on occasions, what appeared to be avian copulation would take place as he mounted her in the customary avian mating fashion. Since that is nature’s way of reproducing the species, we started wondering whether a chick would soon be on its way.
So in order to be ready, I read on how to care for female pet parakeets and learned that if the female begins plucking feathers from the male, it is because she is about lay an egg and needs material to make a nest. Also, that she needed a private secluded area in which to make her nest. So when we noticed that the plucking started, we provided her with a little wood bird-house accessible to her from the cage, as well as the material that she would need to build a nest.
Then we waited. I would check the little birdhouse each day to see if se was building a nest. But as far as I could tell, she never attempted to. So to help her out, I made a nest for her according to the instructions I had read and placed it in that little birdhouse and waited. But mysteriously, the egg never appeared and we began to wonder whether something seriously wrong was going on. Yet, she seemed healthy enough. Absolutely no signs of any illness were present. Then suddenly, that suspicion was confirmed when one late evening, she started chirping frantically as if she had been in extreme pain.
Simultaneously, Tweedy became extremely agitated. He began chirping furiously as if in protest and hurling himself frantically from one side of the cage to the other as if he was under extreme emotional distress due to her suffering, or else feared that we were harming her in some way and wanted to protect her.
We honestly didn’t know what was wrong with her. Then my father examined her and saw that an egg had broken inside of her and was refusing to come out. Only its jagged edges were protruding from her body and were causing her severe pain. As he attempted to help her by taking the pieces out one at a time, she suddenly went silent and we knew that she had died in his hands. I wept bitterly in my bedroom during the whole thing, feeling helpless and wanting her suffering to stop.
Strangely, after her death, Tweedy Bird just remained quietly perched in the cage without eating or even moving. It was as if all his life energy had been suddenly drained from his avian body. As if his grief from having lost her was so intense, that he preferred to die as well, rather than to go on living without her. Then, approx. a week after she had died, we found him dead at the bottom of the cage. He had been our pet for about five years and she for two, and it was a very sad way for both of them to leave us.
ADDENDUM
Please note that today, I would not keep a caged bird as a pet because I consider it a cruelty. After all, birds have been provided with wings for a reason, and it is to fly. So why deprive them of that glorious experience which seems to be their right by default? After all, all they can do in a small cage is perch and leap from perch to perch monotonously. But at that time, such a thing didn’t cross my mind and I imagined caged birds as being contented.
If released, I reasoned, where would they go? I imagined that they would die from starvation since they were obviously exotic birds from a tropical climate and needed a certain type of specific bird seed to survive. they would also find it impossible to tolerate the severe cold. Birds in the northern latitudes usually migrated to warmer weather during northern winters, and lacking the migratory instinct and stamina it would be left behind. So I felt that I was doing them a favor by providing them with a safe haven.
COMMENTS (1)
Kazi utsob anwar neil05/05/2021your opinion is so right. Because bird needs freedom. They have life. They are like us. So they need freedom.
Radrook05/05/2021
Ever read the famous poem "I know why a caged bird sings" ?It delves deeply into that situation but from a human standpoint. It was written by a famous African American female poetess and it is referring to slavery.