My Shame

A place for us to talk about the loss of a pet, even if not a ringneck. A place to grief and receive information and support from our family. Memorialize your pet by posting a picture and sharing information about your baby.

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stv217
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:46 am

My Shame

Post by stv217 »

A terrible string of events happened this weekend, and it's my fault.

I purchased a budgie to give to a friend for his birthday (I made sure he wanted and was ready for one first). Well, he lived out of town and wouldn't be able to pick it up for a week. I took the week to tame the budgie, who I had named Sky Captain.

Sky Captain was special. He was fully flighted and was the most active, inquisitve, and feerless budgie I saw, so I chose him for my friend. By day one he was eating out of my hand, by day three he had no issues about being put back in the cage, and by day six he was flying to me and learning to sit on my shoulder.

The first mistake I made was doing this in view of my irn, Ace. Quickly Ace got jealous of Sky Captain. Then, one day I came up to my room from the kitchen to find out in horror that Ace had jumped off his cage, crossed all the way into my office, scaled what I thought was an unclimable shelf, opened Sky Captain's cage and bit his foot.

Captain's claw didn't look good, and I stopped the bleeding. Though he didn't want to put pressure on that foot, he would still use it to climb or grab things. I called the animal ERs, and the closest one was an hour away through a storm. I decided to wait till the morning to go to the usual bird vet, and then found out he was on vacation for the weekend.

Well my friend came to get him. I actually had a group of friends over (3 of us contributed to the gift for the 4th friend) and we were checking on Captain. We left for food and when we came home, I found out again in horror that not only can Ace open his own door, one of us had left my office door open. Sky Captain was in such bad shape that I had to get someone else to put him down, as I could not do it myself.

Once is an accident, twice is just unexscusable. My friend was not angry with me, as none of us can remember who went out of the office last and left the door open. I still feel like crap though. I ordered a new cage for Ace, along with climbing hooks to latch his door shut. The worst is that during all of this Ace said his first words - thank you.

I miss Sky Captain. I was so proud of him trusting me so quickly, and then I betrayed that turst. Ace leaves my roommate's budgie alone (not that we ever give them a chance to meet). He seemed to hate Captain because he took attention away from him and could fly. I don't know what to do, because I know at some point in Ace's lifespan I will want to have another bird. How do breeders deal with this, when either their actions or a bird they own causes the death of another?
ellieelectrons
Posts: 2708
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:17 am
Location: Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Re: My Shame

Post by ellieelectrons »

I'm really sorry for your loss. It wasn't your fault. It was just one of those things. Your IRN was driven by his instincts & you weren't to know he could break in & out of cages like that.

Elie.
julie
Moderator
Posts: 2248
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:07 am
Location: nsw australia

Re: My Shame

Post by julie »

sorry for your loss. My lot are all cage breakers but thankfully they all get along and actually went into the other ones cages (opened the doors and went in to visit). I did however have a hen who killed the other two hens that were in the same aviary,sometimes we get birds like that and have to keep them seperate from others.
pinkdevil
Posts: 2601
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:35 pm
Location: Central West NSW Australia
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Re: My Shame

Post by pinkdevil »

What a sad story, sometimes somethings are not meant to be. :(
Ringies are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for and do not take long to work out how to escape, undo or open things. I believe animals DO feel jealousy as well as other emotions.
Try not to beat yourself up over it (easier said than done, I know), it was an accident.
Lauren
Site Admin
Posts: 2836
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia.

Re: My Shame

Post by Lauren »

I am so sorry. Fly free Captain. Please know this is no ones fault. No matter how much we try to stop these things from happening. Accidents will always happen. Please dont blame yourself or Ace. Cherish those good memories you had with Captain. He was loved so much.
Reminds me of a similar incident we had with my male who at the time was only 1 year old, we had a cockatiel at the time and were looking after the neighbours budgie. My male ringneck was an escape artist as a baby, would kick our poor cockatiel out of his cage just to swing on its swing! We'd wake up in the morning to find they had either swapped cages or sometimes we'd find our cockatiel hiding behind teapots in the kitchen. The old cages we had had the lift up doors and he knew how to open these with ease! But the neighbours poor budgie copped it. Jibby (my irn) bit it through the cage bars. When the neighbours took it home. It died not long after. My dad ended up putting padlocks on his cage. :cry:
Some just prefer to be the 'only' bird. Its only natural and you did not do anything wrong. *hugs*
"Jibby aka Gilbert" Indian Ringneck 13 years "Charlie" Rex Rabbit 1 year
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