Those of you who have been following for a while will know that I usually keep a pet bird – but just the one. That changed recently when I realised that my shy budgie Artemis was never going to be true friends with me, and needed a companion of her own species.
So three weeks ago, I went over to Mosspark and picked up a juvenile male whom I called Parzival. (Only the very geeky among you will know why “Parzival” was the natural choice as a companion to “Artemis”).* This was quite challenging, as it turned out, because the Gumtree ad had expired, so I couldn’t communicate with the seller, and I had lost my voice, so I couldn’t communicate with anyone. But despite these hurdles, the quite large and chubby Parzival came home with me.
The trouble with introducing a new budgie to an adult one is that they will not necessarily take to each other. They may be hostile, territorial or, as my niece put it, “rip each other’s throats out simultaneously”. So I followed the internet’s best advice and introduced them very gradually. I mean, for the first week I didn’t even keep them in the same room.
In the second week, contact began, but in small installments at first. Parzival’s first encounter with Artemis (who is about half the size of him) made him very nervous and I had to move him back to his own room.
Artemis didn’t seem very interested in Parzival over the next few days, although he started climbing around his cage to get a better view of her (and to be higher up than her – you can’t be too careful). On the day before they were to be formally introduced, I let Artemis out to have a look at Parzival. She clambered all over he outside of his cage, giving him a close inspection and making him very nervous indeed, so I had to take her away.
But it had been two weeks, and the following day was the appointed time for them to make physical contact. I set them both free and waited to see what would happen 🤞
Artemis made the first move, flying up to the high cupboards where Parzival was huddled. She moved closer, and closer, and eventually started grooming him – and he groomed her back! Success! They were friends.
But of course, then the barely half-tame Parzival wouldn’t go back in his cage. It took eight hours – EIGHT HOURS – before he was hungry enough to make a move for the cage, and then it wasn’t his own cage, it was Artemis’s.
I had been planning to take another few days before trying to get them to live together, but Parzival was not for going back to his own cage, and Artemis was more than happy to share her cage and her food with her new toyboy (he’s a fraction of her age – at least a year and a half younger! 😉) so I gave up that idea and let them live in wedded bliss from that moment on. Look, they’ve even got a ring!
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to see the one about my previous birds. If you didn’t, don’t worry, it will be back to writing news on the next post.
*They are the hero and heroine from Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
K C Murdarasi 
Excellent. Which niece was the quote from?
Ciara
Not the one I’d have guessed…