Budgie Engineering

Valentine is making “improvements” to things in the cage.

I often catch Valentine crawling around the outside of the cages. Sometimes, she’ll be on the sides or in the back between the cage and the wall. Often, when she does this, I will hear a “ting ting ting!” of metal and just see her plucking at the bars or a toy with her beak. Seems innocent enough, but then later I will discover this:

This hook has been sabotaged!

A few years ago, she figured out how to unscrew these hooks. I’m not even sure how she does it. I’ll just see her near one and then later in the day, it’s open. Maybe I should set up a security cam? Quite a few toys and swings in the cages have these. They’re pretty safe for birds as long as they stay fastened. When open like that, they could potentially cause injury. I’ve been thinking of phasing these out for that reason, but I haven’t found a good alternative yet. In the meantime, I just carefully inspect all the toys and swings every day to make sure they haven’t fallen victim to the budgie saboteur.

I also suspect Valentine has taken on an apprentice to assist her with dismantling all the fixtures in the cages, but I’m not sure who it is. Sparrow seems likely. She looks up to Valentine and likes to do what she’s doing. Quinoa is another possibility. She likes to take things apart. Until I catch them in the act, though, I will never know.