Winston
Sex: Male
Age: was told that he was about 1 year old at the time, brought home on 03/11/07
Type: English/Show Budgie
Mutation: Grey factor standard

Winston's story

On my way to Yoga class one evening I had a few minutes to spare. While at a stoplight I noticed a pet store in a small plaza just down the street from my Yoga studio. I had been driving to Yoga for ages, but being the unobservant person that I am, never noticed this pet store before! I went in to check out bird toys, and I noticed a tiny enclosed room with small birds – budgies, tiels, finches, and canaries. Then I laid my eyes upon the cage in the corner – there sat a gorgeous English budgie in a cage all alone. I’ve been fascinated with English budgies for awhile and considered them one of my “dream birds.” I was about to pay for my toys and asked the cashier if I could go in and see the little one. I went in and he was even more stunning up close. I only had a few minutes before I had to get to Yoga, so I left quickly, but I wasn’t even in my car before I called my husband to tell him about this beautiful boy. Later that evening I was gushing about him again and Dave said, “Well if you want to get him, I’m ok with it.” I spent the next week hemming and hawing and wondering whether or not to get another budgie. Selfishly, I was worried that having another budgie would impact the bond that Jerry and I shared.

About one week later, we brought Winston home. The woman at the pet store told us all that she knew about him – that his previous owner had dropped him off because they didn’t know what he was, what to do with him, or what to feed him. They were apparently feeding him something that wasn’t budgie food. He was at the pet store for 2-3 months and were told that he was approximately 1 year old. He was fully flighted and untame.

We put Winston’s cage into our bedroom for quarantining purposes and also to allow him to get used to us. We tried to work with him stepping up from within the cage, but that proved to not go anywhere after a few weeks of trying. We then began taking him out of his cage – and we quickly learned that having flight feathers does not mean that they have the ability to fly well! Winston’s muscles where atrophied (from most likely being cagebound his whole life) and just a short trip across the room left him huffing and puffing. He learned how to land and turn wide angles within 3 or 4 days, but it took months for his stamina and muscles to build.

After about 5 weeks of quarantine, we brought Jerry into the bedroom to meet his new brother. There was some apprehension on both ends, but they were both curious and excited to see another budgie up close. We then moved Winston’s cage into the bird room where his cage sat across the room from Jerry’s cage and he could see and talk with Jerry and Lulu.

Seeing Winston learn how to fly has been the most eye-opening experience for me as a bird owner. I had read and heard things like, “flying down is difficult to learn,” but I never realized how difficult flight skills can be when the bird has never had the chance to work on their skills. It literally took months for Winston to learn how to turn corners and fly down, and be able to keep up with Jerry. Now, after being home for just over a year, Winston is a fast and agile flier. He does not do anything fancy in the air, but he can hover, turn corners, fly down, and make changes mid-air. Watching him fly has been a great experience and a very fulfilling experience. I am beginning to recall train with him – he will do just about anything for a treat, so it hasn’t been too much work on my part!

When we first began working on stepping up, we noticed that Winston’s feet were very weak (most likely due to being on wooden dowels) – he didn’t grip well and he was very unsteady being on an arm or finger. This reassured us that allowing him to be flighted was the best thing for him since he needed his wings for balance. After many months of being unsuccessful with him stepping up, I learned some very important things – I learned that he is more comfortable hopping and would initially rather hop onto my arm and not my finger/hand, and that stepping one foot at a time caused him to hesitate greatly. And now, even though he does not step up, he will readily fly to me and is able to land on my finger/hand/arm. We accept that he’d rather fly to us than step up.

To my big surprise, Winston is learning English from Jerry! His voice is very different than Jerry’s voice, it is much more chirpy. But without a doubt he is speaking and his phrases now consist of, “I love you, Good Boy, Good Boy Budgie,” and a few things that he’s working on, such as “Jerry and Kitty.”

The biggest joy to me has been watching Jerry and Winston learn from each other and blossom due to having another budgie around. Both were only budgies for a long time and having another budgie has made a world of a difference for both of them. And I still have a very strong bond with Jerry, and the bond that I’ve developed with Winston is very unique and strong.

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Sarah

Here is Winston in the pet store before we brought him home. He was very attached to his mirror toy, which we eventually weaned him off of when he was settled into our home:




This was Winston's first day in the living room, which where the birds mainly hang out when they are out of their cages:


Jerry and Winston slowly became friends:


Winston learning to fly has been a spectacular ride for both of us!


Here we are a year later and life is GOOD!

Short note - check out Winston's Bio on All about Budgies so you can reply to Sarah's story about Winston.