From time to time, nearly each pet owner feels as if he or she is no longer able to bear responsibility for a bird when it's for example seriously ill. The former owner of the friendly budgie Maia must have felt the same when the feathered lady and her friend Vivian suffered from diarrhoea for many weeks. She went to the same vet like I do, and the doctor was sure she could heal the birds even though they were looking terrible.

The vet tried everything and told their owner how to treat the birds with their medicine each day. But this was too much for the lady, she felt unable to stand this situation and returned to the vet where she hoped to get rid of the birds by putting them to sleep. Since the vet thought that the birds were able to survive their illness, they of course weren't killed. The former owner of the birds was sent home - without the budgies! So the vet was in need of finding a fondly new home for the poor budgie ladies as soon as possible.

Shortly after one of the staff members phoned me and asked for my help, I arrived at the doctor's practice in the morning of 05/22/2003 and took the birds to my place. Their cage smelled of the smoke of lots of cigarettes, it was more than horrible! Also the food and the birds themselves were smelly; I never have faced something similar before! What shocked me most was the fact that the seeds in the food dish were mouldy because they have become wet from the diarrhoea. There was no doubt about the reason why the birds were so ill.

In their new home, Maia and Vivian moved into a cage that was appropriate for sick budgies. For putting them into it, I had to grip them with my hands. When I held them, I felt that they both were incredibly thin so I decided to put them on the scales. The results were shocking: Maia weighed only 32 grams, and so did her friend Vivian! According to the former owner, the birds have been refusing to eat for two weeks. After I have discovered all that mould in their food dish I must confess that I wouldn't have eaten these seeds either...

Within a few seconds, in their new cage they found the dish which contained Orchard grass seeds. Those seeds are easy to digest and in general cause no problems even when a bird is ill. For more than one hour they were greedily nibbling on the seeds. I have never seen any budgie eating for such a long time in my whole life! Afterwards they gorged on the budgie seed mixture I put into another dish. A few quenchers of water, and then they fell asleep for three hours perched in front of a warming infrared lamp.

Since their health status improved very soon, they could move into the bird room shortly after arriving at my place. Maia and her friend Vivian both looked very happy when they found themselves being surrounded by many other budgies. A few days later, they behaved as if they had never lived anywhere else than in my bird room and it was so wonderful to see that! In autumn 2003 Maia won Rudi's heart, they were a loving couple since the day he died. She was sad but a newly arrived male budgie consoled her. She fell in love with him and became his wife. Charly, that's his name, also flirted with all the other female budgies who live in the bird room, but this didn't bother his cool and friendly wife.

Maia's colour mutation is called blue Opaline. Her most remarkable characteristic was her cute squint, her left eye always peered a bit. It looked funny and I am glad it hasn't been a handicap to her. Also she had bowlegs and became chubby because her husband fed her a lot. Maia was calm and didn't like flying around, therefore she sat on her favourite perch for hours just enjoying her life.

In the evening of 2/26/06 something terribel happened. Maia spread her wings to fly for the very last time. She was a bit clumsy and lifted herself up. Then she crashed into something, I think it was the window-sill. Her neck broke and she fell down to the ground where I found her lying dead. Her wings were still spread as if she wanted to fly even though she wasn't alive anymore. Maia, I will miss you much! Thank you for your friendliness.

Meaning of the name
In Maia's case I kept being true to my tradition of naming budgies after astronomical objects. She carries the name of a star of the Pleiades, an open cluster in the constellation "Taurus". In the Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Pleione and Atlas.