How my pet cockatiel helped my depression

I’ve struggled with depression since I was a little girl in menopause. Unfortunately, I was born with this and need to treat it medically with antidepressants on a daily basis. But there is more to depression than just pills. Pills can only do so much. They can put me in balance. But I needed more. I lived alone and needed some kind of companionship.

I didn’t want to get involved with someone else. I’ve had enough bad relationships. I’ve always loved animals and someone suggested I get a pet bird. I used to go to the pet store a lot to see the pet birds. There were parrots, cockatiels, cockatoos, finches and more. I didn’t have a lot of money, so I started a green and yellow parrot, Buddy, and then got a friend for my parrot who is a normal gray cockatiel, Baby. I didn’t know anything about pet birds either. I had a lot to learn. So I bought a parrot handbook and a cockatiel handbook.

I fell in love with Buddy and Baby. It was like Christmas every morning (and still is like Christmas every morning), when I took the blanket off the bird cages to greet the friend and the baby.. They radiated something very special and made everything so bright. Whenever I felt bad, all I needed to do was look at my birds, pet them and talk to them. They made me feel less depressed.

I didn’t realize how smart parrots and parrots are. They are very emotional animals. I was bad at teaching birds to talk. Although my birds couldn’t talk, I could tell what they wanted by watching their body language and listening to their birdsong. I cleaned their cages on a daily basis and taught my birds more about nutrition. It took me years of reading Bird Talk magazine to figure out what birds need to be fed. Each species can require different foods.

8 years later, my parrot, my friend, died, and my two children and I were devastated. Until the child cried. He didn’t cry tears, but you could definitely tell by the tone of his cries that he was missing friends. Friends were like a father to a child. Buddy used to feed him on a daily basis by giving some food back to the baby. Returning food to another person or bird is a sign of love and affection. Bibi and I mourn the loss of friends.

After a month or so, I went to buy another cockatiel, Penny, to keep us company. Benny was only 4 months old. He was still a baby, but old enough to take her home. It is a beautiful legged cockatiel. It has white and gray spots all over. Its coloring looks like a pinto horse. Benny has more white and yellow on his head than the baby. Baby pushed Benny a lot, but slowly but surely he got used to it. They started sharing the same cage after a while. But they both enjoy having a cage and their own space, too.

I enjoy petting birds more than anything else. They each have their own way of foreplay. Baby likes to stroke his head and cheeks when he sits in his crate or on my lap. And Penny only likes to be petted when he’s on my right shoulder. I raise my hand to his head and Benny moves his head around the places he wants to be scratched and petted the most. My birds are soft and warm to the touch. I really like doing this very much.

Being able to share your days and feelings with another person is very special. This really helps overcome my depression. Especially with my birds who give me so much unconditional love. Every morning is bright when I take off the blanket that covers their cage at night, and watch my lovely birds chirping me. I look forward to cleaning their cage and spending time with them on a daily basis.