More colourful, tamer, younger - that's how one can put in words what most people expect from their budgies. Somebody who buys a budgie wants to make sure that the bird will be trusting. And therefore the budgies who are sold in pet shops here in Germany become younger and younger - it was the same with Serenio. For him the cage in the pet shop nearly turned out to be his grave because his breeder separated him away too early from his parents. They should have fed him for another few days.

When my friend Jasmin saw him for the first time in a pet shop, she was shocked by the miserable sight. The poor thing wasn't able to stand on its feet, it could not climb and therefore it could not reach the perches and the food dishes which were placed in the upper part of the cage.

My friend was horrified and she thought the bird was disabled because it could not stand on its feet. She decided to help. The next morning, she bought the budgie and brought it to her vet. When the vet examined Serenio she found out what was wrong with him: he was a very young chick who was not able to feed itself. It would have only taken a few more hours until the poor chick would have been famished. Apart from that Serenio seemed to be all healthy.

Jasmin fed the chick who was often begging for food. She also caressed it and let it rest near her warm neck where it slept and gained strength. This was the treatment the poor Serenio was in need of because he was missing his brothers and sisters in the warm nest. After three days he had recovered so well that we decided to bring the lovely bird to my home. On 12/12/2004 he arrived here to become a member of my flock.

Regrettably he weighed only 30 grams when he arrived here. This was too little. Two weeks later, he was all right and weighed about 38 grams. In the meantime he had learned to nibble on seeds and to fly around through the bird room. Serenio was a curious and trusting male who would for sure bring me a lot of joy because of his friendliness, that's what I thought. But our happy days didn't last for long...

In the very early morning of 2/5/2005 Serenio's kidneys stopped working without any warning. All my efforts to save his live regrettably failed. The vet later told me that Serenio died because when he was a chick and nearly starved, his body was damaged. Especially the inner organs like the kidney were affected. It happened because of the nutrient deficiency and there was no way to call this off. To be honest I really believed I had saved him and he would become a happy bird for many years. Even though he was here for only two months he became something very special in my life. It would have been a great honour to see him grow up to a handsome adult budgie. But destiny had other plans with my beloved little friend. The photo on the right was taken a few days before he passed away. Parts of his plumage already looked like the feathers of adult budgies. For sure he would have become a gorgeous bird if he hadn't died much too early.

His colour mutation is called normal in dark blue and the plumage was brightened up. Due to this, the black sections looked grey.

Meaning of the name
Shortly before the cute budgie moved in I have read the five issues of the Earth's Children which were written by the American author Jean M. Auel. In one of the books a woman named Serenio from the people called Shamudoi was mentioned. I liked the name very much and therefore I named the budgie after this story character.