In the beginning of January 2003, a young budgie was delivered in the animal shelter of my town. Like in so many cases, the previous owner was annoyed by the bird he wanted to keep after just a short while. Those budgies who lose their home that early in general have good chances on finding a new home very quickly because people prefer young birds. But for Himalia things unfortunately were completely different...

The staff of the animal shelter stated that the bird suffered from heavy disturbances of equilibrium and due to that could hardly hold itself on the perches that were fixed in the cage. Also her head rotated in a terrifying way as if she was unable to keep it still. The diagnosis of the vet was horrible: Most probably the poor bird either was concussed or it was hit by an apoplectic stroke or suffering from another illness which caused a substantial damage of the nerves.

For many weeks, a friendly woman intensely cared for Himalia and she knew that the chances for finding a new home for the bird were pretty low since it would be more or less disabled for the rest of its life as it seemed. When I heard of this poor young bird's sad fate, I assured to adopt it as soon as it would be strong enough for moving into a new home. It was me who chose Himalia's name, because when she arrived at the animal shelter, she was nameless.

On the 10th of February 2003, Himalia arrived at my place, but she didn't immediately move into my bird room. Her health status was still not stable enough, so she was accommodated in a small cage - this was at her security - that was placed in my living room. From her cage she could look out of the window and watch the sun when the sky was not cloudy.

I brought my little patient to another vet who is specialized in treating birds. He confirmed the diagnosis of heavy nerve damage. We excluded an apoplectic stroke, since the budgies complaints rather spoke for a small piece of coagulated blood in her head which had formed during a cerebral haemorrhage after Himalia crashed into something while she was flying.

For many weeks I treated her with high doses of vitamin B and other medicine that was recommended to me by a naturopath for animals. In the beginning, the prognosis seemed to be rather bad, but as it turned out later, all our efforts were worth a try! On 03/23/2003, Himalia's condition had improved so much that she could move into the bird room. After she arrived there, she still moved as if she would lose her equilibrium within the next seconds, but she learned to get along with this little problem very well and soon she was able to fly around like the other budgies. The eczema she used to have right above her cere since she arrived in my home turned smaller after Himalia joined my flock. The company of the other birds worked very well! In her picture gallery you can see how Himalia changed from a seriously ill baby bird into a charming budgie lady.

A few days after she moved into my bird room, Himalia had settled in well and seemed to love her new life within the flock. It was indescribably beautiful for me to watch the bird being so happy. During her short youth, Himalia had experienced many terrible things, so it made me happy to see her becoming a lively budgie. Her favourite hobbies were acrobatic climbing and extensive gnawing at cork oak bark and chewing wood. Also she loved to destroy carrots and juicy apples; sometimes also salad leafs became her victims. And by the way, Himalia was totally crazy for fresh basil which she nibbled and then took small pieces of the leafs into her beak and put them into her plumage until the feathers turned from white to greenish. I think basil was her favourite perfume. ;-)

Opposite the other budgies, she was extremely self-confident. Medea in the beginning took each offering opportunity to annoy her newly arrived conspecific. But the delicate Himalia knew how to deal with that - and then she always beat Medea up. After a while, Medea learned that Himalia was stronger and therefore stopped cheating her. Ares on the other hand usually tried to charm the beautiful young hen because he fell in love with Himalia. In summer 2003 they became a couple. In the beginning of 2005, they "divorced" when Himalia was fed up with him. In fall 2005, she was hit by the arrows of love and became the wife of Liriel. They stayed together until he died in September 2006. Later on, Himalia mated with Speedy who was the biggest love of her life. They stayed together happily until the day she died.

And by the way: Moving too close to the battlesome budgie lady was no good idea for Merlin, the male Barred Parakeet who lived in my bird room. It seemed to be great fun for Himalia to strongly pull on his tail feathers. In such situations, Merlin screamed as if the tiny budgie tried to kill him - and Himalia seemed to be very amused... Well, she had a very special kind of "humour".

In October 2007, Himalia started to behave as if something was completely wrong with her. The avian vet found out that an infection had damaged her liver. I started to treat her with special food supplements to support her liver. My vet claimed that she would die within about three months. Well, in fact she lived much longer. By the end of September 2008 she suddenly felt very bad and was sick. Once again I brought her to the vet who found out that she was suffering from avian gastric yeast. Even though we tried to cure her, Himalia didn't get well. On the 8th of October 2008 I decided that the time has come to say goodbye to my beloved little budgie lady. When she was put to sleep it was hard for me, but I think for her, death came as a release since she suffered from pain. I will surely miss this wonderful and cheerful bird who had incredibly much personality.

Himalia's colour mutation is called Recessive Pied in sky blue and white.

Meaning of the name
I named Himalia after a moon of the planet Jupiter. In the Greek mythology she was a beloved of the Zeus.