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Peeko's Story
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My name is Peeko, which apparently means 'Little Tweeting Bird' in Japanese. I was hatched one roasting hot day in June, and I am still quite small. It was lovely and snug inside my shell, and I would have stayed there forever were it not for the fact that conditions were becoming a little cramped. So I decided it was time to start nibbling my way out. I could hear some other birds outside my shell (I am told I was in one of the wooden shelters) so I wasn't too scared about making my debut into the aviary. After a fair bit of beak work I managed to cut my shell in half and wiggle my way out of the bottom half of it. I then started the process of getting my head out of the remainder, but that was when the accident happened.
Don't ask me how, but my hatching very nearly turned into my dispatching. Suddenly I was free-falling through the air with the top of my shell still on my head like a crash helmet, then SPLAT - I hit the ground. Luckily there is plastic sheeting on the floor (for Agnes the bell-shaped bird who can't fly), otherwise I would have been an instant omelette. The crash helmet saved my head but something had happened to my leg. I began to cry loudly and I was shivering. My leg hurt so much and it was very cold outside my shell. I could hear a lot of birds above me making a fuss but they seemed unable to help me. I was very scared. I believed death by hypothermia was staring me in the face though I couldn't see it thank goodness because my eyes were sealed shut. (Being blind at birth has its advantages.)
Just when I had given up hope a big warm hand appeared out of nowhere and scooped me up. Another hand came down gently over my back and a human began to breathe warm breath onto me. The warmth did me good, then very soon after that someone else was carefully prising open my beak and spooning in something like warm watery porridge. I soon got the hang of eating from a spoon, and lapped it up. I began to feel much better. These humans were Kaz and Chan. I don't know who my avian parents are, anyway these two seem to have adopted me as their own, so they will do just fine. They made me a little bed, a box of tissues under a cosy infrared heat lamp, which warmed my cold bones right through. The porridgy food bunged me up so Kaz fed me with soya milk baby food instead. Later she bought me some special handrearing food for cockatiel chicks, which was delicious, warm and sweet. It always sent me off to sleep. The first week Kaz and Chan fed me every hour, day and night. Chan did the late shift till 3am then Kaz would get up and carry on. Kaz slept on the sofa next to me and every time I cried she got up and fed me. Sometimes she rang the vet for advice. 'I feel as if I've just had a baby!' she said to him once.
Kaz was worried about my injured leg. My leg was saved, but my foot withered and dropped off. It hurt a lot then, but it doesn't now. Kaz says it's a miracle that my leg healed. I am a bit wobbly on my one foot and my stump, but Kaz says I'll be able to fly all right so that will make up for the missing foot. My wings that were once just tiny pink blobs are now quite long, and I practise flapping a lot. I'm just getting ready for lift-off!
When I was a week old I accidentally fell asleep away from the heat lamp and I woke up freezing. I caught a bad cold which isn't funny when you are only three centimetres long. Kaz and Chan bought me an incubator to live in because Kaz said I might die of pneumonia if I got frozen again. After that I was always as warm as toast, and my cold got better. From then on there was no stopping me!
Bit by bit my yellow baby fluff was replaced by a warm coat of dappled gold and grey feathers. Kaz says I have pale orange cheek patches and dark eyes with delicate blue eyelids. She says I'm a beauty - I'll take her word for it. She always gives me a cuddle after meals and tickles the top of my head. She spends ages picking off bits of food from around my beak, saying I shouldn't go to sleep with a dirty face. Sometimes when she puts me back to bed I deliberately cry for a bit of extra attention, and she plays me a CD of nightingale songs. I must say I am very impressed by these songs. I myself can only do a one-note whistle at this stage though I am hoping to expand my repertoire in the future.
Sometimes now Kaz gives me ground sunflower kernels or cooked de-husked millet for me to pick at by myself (she is still careful about husks since the time I got bunged up with porridge). Or she gives me a piece of apple. But quite honestly I still prefer being spoonfed. I suppose it's just that I like being babied and fussed over. After all there's plenty of time to spend being grown up, isn't there? Kaz says that when I'm grown up I can live outside in the aviary with the other birds, but Chan says we'd better wait till next spring since I am still so small for my age. I don't mind. I like being indoors with Kaz and Chan.
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Peeko's Update:
Kaz lets me live in a huge cage now during the day, though I still sleep in my baby-bed at night. I eat all the things that big birds eat, except Kaz grinds up my grit. I love sweetcorn best of all. Last thing at night she gives me some watery baby-food in case I dehydrate. She put a wooden platform in my cage because I can't get the hang of perching, but then I am still quite small.
A new bird has come to live in this room. He is called Mr Hoppity because he has only one foot like me. He is very cheerful and sings a lot but he won't eat his vegetables. Kaz says she doesn't know if one-legged birds can cope in the aviary. If we can't she will built us a home indoors.
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Peeko's Second Update:
Mr Hoppity has gone outside now to live in the aviary. He is very happy and Kaz says you wouldn't know he has only one leg. I hope I grow up to be like him. I miss his cheerful songs but I am not bored or lonely. I listen to music, and Kaz, Chan and Annie the dog often pop in to see me. Dixie sometimes comes here for a holiday. There is always a lot going on!