Trouble: Powder's Sibling and Companion
Trouble was born on 22 November 2019 from a clutch of 7 eggs; only three hatched. The first born was Blue, then Butters, and last born was Trouble. We dubbed Trouble and Butters as "The Twins" since they looked so much alike. They were both a soft yellow and gray. You could hardly tell one from the other. All three babies were perfect little budgies!
Trouble: First Month of Life
At around 25 days we noticed that when the babies would come to the opening of the nest box, dad would feed Blue and Butters, but he would not feed Trouble. Trouble would peep and beg loudly but dad would still ignore him. She would get so deperate and end up leaning out too far and would fall right out of the opening. Then she would sit on the bottom of the cage, still begging, but dad would continue to ignore her. When Trouble would finally give up, she would try to climb back up into the nest box. But Dad would scream and peck at her. One of us would then reach in and place her back into the nest box so mom could feed her. This was about the same as the (mis)treatment Powder had received as a baby. Now we were beginning to think Trouble might have have the same condition as Powder and be a Feather Duster too, although her feathers were not curled like Powders, and she looked like a "regular" English Parakeet.
As soon as the three babies started were weaned and completely out of the nest box, dad wanted them out of the cage too! Worried for their safety, we moved all three into Powder's cage instead. We noticed right away how much bigger Trouble was than his siblings, even though she was the youngest. She climbed around the cage with them but was not as agile and would often just fall back down to the bottom of the cage. There she would keep company with Powder, and they bonded right away. We would often find Trouble sleeping underneath Powder, completely hidden from the world.
Trouble's siblings were strong fliers and very independent. They started to get a little too big for their britches when they decided to antagonize the two birds at the bottom of the cage, poor Trouble and Powder. So, off to the big flight cage they went! In with all the adult budgies, we watched them closely, but from day one they stood their ground and soon were no longer the newcomers to the cage.
Trouble: Today
Today, Trouble still shares a cage with Powder. The two are great friends, although Trouble definitely has more energy than Powder. To help her use up some of that extra energy, we let her visit with her other siblings who are in the big flight cage, but do not put her inside. She runs around the top of the cage and looks down from the top to "talk" and interact with them. She get so excited up there! She looks like a little wind-up toy running around. We also decided to clip one of her wings to keep her within safe reach. It didn't slow her down much though, she can still fly! In addition to her daily visits to the flight cage community, she also likes to play on a bird gym we have in our office, and will occasionally join Powder in the sun (indoors!).
Trouble is fully feathered, (not OVER feathered), and to our surprise is able to fly around the house really well. Appearance wise one of her eyes seems to have more feathers around the skin and she is still very clumsy in her climbing. She also has this strange practice of taking power-naps! She just plops down flat on the bottom of the cage and takes a 5-10 minute nap, and then "Poof!", she's right back up again. We're not sure what to think of this. The first time we saw it, we were sure she was dead! She's also a people-bird and loves to be out wherever we are. We definitely don't hold that against her! Overall, we would say she turned out to be a (mostly!) normal budgie that feels very confortable in interacting with humans and is very inquisitive.