Did it happen by chance? Or owing to favourable circumstances? Or maybe a guardian angel for budgies did a good job? I will never know it, but it doesn't matter to me anyway. The only thing that really matters is: I found Rohanna when she was in great need. Actually I go to pet stores not very often, but on 05/18/2006 I had to visit one because I needed to buy something where two Lineolated Parakeets who would be adopted by me a few days later could sleep in (like a nesting box). That's the reason why I entered this pet shop, so maybe this lovely budgie should say thank you to Costa and Rica, the two Linnies. When I was in the shop I quickly found what I was looking for and therefore I wanted to go to the checkout. I was going past some cages and in this moment I caught a glimpse of something I would call a feathered picture of misery.

I went to the cage in which I have seen a very young budgie who was totally exhausted and just skin and bone. This picture reminded me of my beloved deceased budgie Serenio who had been separated from his parents too early and therefore nearly starved in a pet shop because he wasn't able to eat. Even though he had been rescued this period of starvation damaged his inner organs and he died a few weeks later. But this is not his story, here you will learn more about the poor female budgie in the pet shop. Apart from being close to the death from starvation the feathers around her vent were soiled. It seemed as if the bird was suffering from diarrhoea. As it turned out later she wasn't ill but had been drinking too much water against her hunger and therefore the urine was sticking to her feathers.

Immediately I talked to the salespeople and during our talk I begged them to help this baby budgie and bring it to an avian vet. And I told them that this bird needed a special food and should be hand-fed because the poor thing was not able to open the seeds and grains that were offered in the food dishes. Fortunately I seem to have given a competent impression and therefore they gave me the bird and asked me to care for it and try to save its life. One of the saleswomen asked me to give her a call a few days later and tell her how the bird is doing. She was really worried about the baby bird.

Rohanna, that's how I named this budgie who was born in the first half of April 2006, has been checked by the vet immediately after I took her away from the pet shop. Apart from her bad nutritional condition the baby bird was full of health - no bacteria or other germs could be found. Since she wasn't able to eat I had to hand-feed her with a special soft food for chicks. But she was so exhausted that she couldn't even swallow. Therefore I used a special tool to bring the food right into her crop what she didn't like but it was the only way to save her life. Thanks to the special food which is rich in content Rohanna gained weight. When she came here she weighed only 26 grams but after a week she weighed 35 grams and she became very agile. Because she was healthy and she didn't suffer from any contagious disease I let her move into the bird room after a few days.

From the first day on she felt very comfortable in the flock. It didn't take long until she felt so much at home that she always is active and agile. And she found out about what love is: In July 2006 she fell in love with Pollux and became his wife. They remained a happy couple until the day he died in late summer 2011. And as it seems to me, she missed him very much after he had passed away. Regrettably Rohanna isn't tame at all. Because she didn't like the way I fed her with the soft food when she was still very young she avoids me but this doesn't matter anyway because I think she enjoys her life in my little flock. Her colour mutation is a bit puzzling. I suppose she is a greywing in light grey but I'm not quite sure about that.