Charlie was my first bird/parakeet. We first thought she was a guy, hence the name Charlie, but coming to this board, people told me he was a she and now Charlie was short for Charlene! She was the one that got that itch going and what brought me to this site. Charlie was a store bought budgie with a lot of issues. She didn't care too much for humans but she loved to be doted on by Arseus. No matter how mean she was to Arseus (our other parakeet), Arseus would continue to feed her all the time. She has bitten me several times when I've had to hold her for clippings or giving meds but I still loved her. She was like the wild child that I hoped to one day gain her affection over time.
She passed away on June 16, 2009 due to a major cut on her foot. She was in a weird mood outside her cage, kinda stalking above the lovies cage. She would get her head really close to grate like she was looking for something. She does have the habit of taking things off the top of their cages and tossing them over the edge but I don't know what she was doing. Several times I shooed her away--trying to divert her attention to something else but somehow she always ended back over there. Well the last time she went over there, Lovie was inside her own cage and got upset/possessive and bit Charlie. I instantly went to separate them and to check Charlie's wounds. Charlie being the non-tamed bird, least-handled because she doesn't like to be handled, flew away. It took me several minutes to corner her with a towel (she bites hard too)and she was bleeding a lot. I took her into the bathroom and applied some of the "qwik stop" on it to stop the bleeding and that didn't work. I put some more on and applied pressure and still it was bleeding. Not as much as initially but still bleeding. Finally, we decided to call our vet and take her in...unfortunately on the way to the vet, she passed away. The vet said it was from the amount of blood loss from the cut. I never really believed that a keet only has about 3 tablespoons of blood in their body but after this, I am a believer.
My son said the next day that he wished that yesterday was dream and I told him I wished it was one too. We buried Charlie in our backyard. She was our first pet (outside of fish) and we only had her for 13 months. She was a handful, always throwing the food she didn't like over the side of her food dish. The only thing I hoped was that she had a better life with us and, despite being mean, she was happy. We will miss her dearly.
I am hoping you can find a little comfort in your other pets. She looked like she liked to play, and her cage looks lovely!
