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How my pet cockatiels helped with my depression
I have suffered from depression since I was a child during menopause. Unfortunately, I was born with it and have to treat it medically daily with antidepressants. But treating depression is more than just pills. The pills can only do so much. You can balance me. But I needed more. I lived alone and needed some sort of company. I didn't want to get involved with another person. I've had enough bad relationships. I have always loved animals and someone suggested I get a pet bird. I often went to the pet store to look at the pet birds. There was…
How my pet cockatiels helped with my depression
I have suffered from depression since I was a child during menopause. Unfortunately, I was born with it and have to treat it medically daily with antidepressants. But treating depression is more than just pills. The pills can only do so much. You can balance me. But I needed more. I lived alone and needed some sort of company.
I didn't want to get involved with another person. I've had enough bad relationships. I have always loved animals and someone suggested I get a pet bird. I often went to the pet store to look at the pet birds. There were parakeets, cockatiels, cockatoos, finches and more. I didn't have much money so I started with a green and yellow parakeet, buddy, and then got a friend for my parakeet who was a natural gray cockatiel, baby. I didn't know anything about pet birds either. I had to learn a lot. So I bought a parakeet manual and a cockatiel manual.
I fell in love with Buddy and Baby. It was like Christmas every morning (and is like Christmas every morning) as I took the blanket off my birdcages to greet Buddy and Baby. They radiated something so special and made everything so bright. When I felt bad, all I had to do was see my birds, pet them and talk to them. They made me less depressed.
I didn't know how intelligent parakeets and cockatiels were. They are very emotional animals. I was bad at teaching birds to talk. Even though my birds couldn't talk, I was able to figure out what they wanted by observing their body language and listening to their bird calls. I cleaned their cages daily and studied more about my birds' diet. It took me years of reading Bird Talk Magazine to know what food birds need. Each species may require different food.
After 8 years my parakeet Buddy died and Baby and I were devastated. Baby even cried. He didn't cry any tears, but you could definitely tell by the tone of his cries that he missed Buddy. Buddy was like a father to baby. Buddy used to feed him daily by giving the baby some food. Vomiting food to a person or another bird is a sign of love and affection. Baby and I shared the sadness of missing Buddy.
About a month later I bought another cockatiel, Beenie, to keep us company. Beenie was only 4 months old. He was just a baby, but old enough to take home. He is a beautiful piebald cockatiel. It has patches of white and gray color all over it. His coloring looks like a Pinto horse. Beenie has more white and yellow on her head than Baby. Baby pushed Beenie around a lot, but slowly but surely got used to him. After a while they shared the same cage. But both also enjoy having their own cage and space.
I prefer to pet my birds. Everyone has their own way of being petted. Baby likes to sit on his cage or my lap and be stroked on his head and cheeks. And Beenie only likes to be petted when he's lying on my right shoulder. I hold my hand to his head and Beenie moves his head to the places he wants to scratch and pet most. My birds feel so soft and warm. I really enjoy doing this.
Being able to share your days and feelings with someone else is very special. This really helps with my depression. Especially with my 2 birds who give me so much unconditional love. Every morning is bright as I take off the blanket that covers her cage at night and look at my beautiful birds as they chirp to me. I look forward to cleaning their cage and spending time with them daily.
Inspired by Barbara Delgiudice