It was love at first sight for both Skylar and me. She was sharing a cage with a cockatiel when I spotted her at the pet store. When she saw me, she came running over and offered her head up against the bars so that I could pet her. Needless to say, I was shocked.
Apparently, her breeder had removed her from her parents care to hand feed her. Skylar had been so tiny that the breeder had to use a toothpick in order to feed her. It certainly paid off because she was the sweetest little budgie who loved to be scritched and who wasn't the least bit fearful of her new owner.
Those of you with budgies know how unusual it is to have a budgie who is tame and sweet right from the store. Usually it takes some time and effort to tame and win the love of a budgie. I had to pay twice as much as one normally would for a budgie, but she was worth it.
A great mimic, Skylar nailed the ring tone of the phone and the beep of the answering machine as well as the beeping of the microwave. Another little imitation that she enjoyed was the sound of my sneezing. It even became a game with her. I would pretend to get ready to sneeze, and she would finish the sneeze. She had me in stitches with her antics.
Skylar was what I called my multiple personality bird. She could imitate the calls and noises from every one of my birds in their voices. One minute she was Chipper the cockatiel. The next minute she would be Ringo the cockatiel or Snowflake the cockatiel. She even imitated the way that Chipper would do his little knocking routine. Skylar learned to do it as well, and it quickly became a game with us just like it was with Chipper. Not even a few minutes later, Skylar was the second green-cheeked conure in the house when I was pretty darned sure that I only had one. She was extremely adorable, and her loss will be difficult to overcome.
My green-cheeked conure Frodo thought so too when I brought him home to live with us. After a period of quarantine from the rest of the flock as a precaution, Skylar immediately introduced herself to him, and they quickly became buds.
Since Frodo was as bold as her, they were kindred spirits who enjoyed spending time and getting into mischief together. They also adored each other and would chatter to each other, would sit side by side and offer their heads to one another for preening. Skylar even chatted in conure speak. They were adorable together.
Frodo would follow behind Skylar where ever she went and was pretty territorial about and protective of her. Together they would climb up my floor length drapes and perch on top of the ruffle to heckle me or to take a nap. Because he was so intent with her, you might even say that he was even a trifle obsessed with her. Because of this relationship, I knew that he would not understand why her cage was no longer sitting next to his and why she didn't answer him when he called to her.
Of course, all the birds had heard me crying and grieving over Skylar, but it wasn't until I took her little lifeless body to them, tearfully laying her down on the table on which two of the cages were housed that they could understand why I was upset. I thought it only fair that they could see her, and that Frodo especially would understand that she was gone and not being hidden away somewhere by me and resenting me for it.
It was hard to watch, but Frodo came over to her and made little soft inquiring noises to her as he walked around her. He even preened her little head for her. That just made me cry even more. Finally, Frodo gave her a good nip to wake her up, and I knew when he understood that she was gone. As he processed that, he allowed me to take her away. When I came back into the room, he climbed onto my arm and spent the rest of the evening with me.
The tiels had all watched this with interest but none of them were friends with Skylar even though she had tried her best, bless her little heart.
Frodo and Skylar were not a mating couple, in case anyone was wondering, but since I didn't want them to attempt cross-breeding, I did only allow them some supervised play time together.
I spent some extra time with Frodo today, because I saw how much he was looking over to where her cage had been and looking sad. We had a good day together despite grieving over our dear friend.
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