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An Update on Romeo and Juliet

© Mary Wilson

Romeo & Juliet's cage sits in my living room. Off to one side, they can enjoy my company as I watch television or putter around the kitchen without worrying about someone being in their direct line of sight. They're a flighty pair, though in the evenings I hear their chirping and talking to one another, and I know despite their naked state, they're happy.

This is the best feather growth I've seen them in, and I doubt they will ever be fully feathered. I've heard that when a bird plucks its feathers, or has its feathers plucked for them, that sometimes the follicles are destroyed and the feathers never properly regrow. I suspect this is what has happened to Romeo & Juliet. They don't seem to be as bothered by it as I am.

It's been several months since I've taken them in. They have a diet consisting of free choice pellets, seeds, bird bread, fruits and vegetables. I add my cook and serve mix, either something premade such as Krazy Korn or Beak Appetit, or my own homemade mix which includes rice, pasta and beans. They also receive hardboiled eggs with crushed pellets mixed in.

I've tried keeping them separate, but to watch them try and preen each other through the divided cage and call to one another nearly breaks my heart. I don't see any new signs of picking and feel that the stress of keeping them apart would probably cause them to pick further. Even after seeing all the parrotlets brought to the Great American Bird show, these two little green gems have captured my heart.

The best thing to do for a picked bird such as Romeo or Juliet is to provide the most nutritious diet available. Some may feel that 100% pellets would accomplish this; however, I am a firm believer that the lab cannot recreate what Mother Nature does in the wild. We truly don't know everything that any species of bird eats in the wild, so how can we expect to recreate this with artificial pellets? I don't know.

I do know that Romeo & Juliet enjoy being talked to in the evenings, and they seem to like it when I'm watching television in the living room. Any show with music, such as an ice skating competition really gets them involved. I try to provide plenty of preening and wooden toys, and I know that I've made them as happy as they can be.

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