WRITTEN BY: Lauren Cavagnolo
It was an overcast, chilly day in late September when a tiny yellow bird landed next to
a teacher on the playground at Riverfield Country Day School, which is also home to peacocks and various barnyard animals. The teacher leaned over, and the bright yellow bird let her pick it up and carry it inside.
After speaking with fifth grade teacher Elle Fowler, the bird was put into a butterfly enclosure for safekeeping.
“We put her in a butterfly house, a temporary little thing so she could get warm because it was cold and rainy outside. She was bright yellow, so we were like, this is definitely a pet bird,” Elle said.
On the way home from school, she and her daughter Evelyn, a fifth grader at Riverfield, stopped at a store for supplies.
“We ended up stopping by PetSmart and buying the only birdcage they still had … it was the display cage,” Elle recalled. “As we were standing in the checkout line, Evelyn told the lady the story of how we found it at the playground, and we were basically fostering it or adopting it if we couldn’t find its owner. So the lady gave us a discount. We brought her home and got her all set up.”
Initially, mother and daughter believed the bird to be a canary because of its bright yellow coloring. After consulting online resources and Facebook groups, they discovered the bird was a special kind of budgie or parakeet called a lutino.
Elle also searched missing pet groups to see if anyone was missing an all-yellow parakeet, but no one was looking for a bird like the one they found.
“We had lots of questions, and we took her to the vet just to make sure she was OK and learn more about her,” Elle said.
The family took their new bird to Dr. Paul Welch, DVM and owner at Forest Trails Animal Hospital, who said the bird could have been out in the wild for a couple of reasons.
“I’ve known of people who just say, ‘I’m kind of tired of this parakeet and go be free,’ and
they let them out the door. Now that’s not a great idea any more than letting a dog loose in the country because these poor guys don’t really know how to go out and make a living. They are used to being provided for,” Welch cautioned. “Sometimes they will just escape. A lot of times they are being taken care of by kids. The window gets left opened, or the door gets opened, and out they go.”
When this happens, Welch said the birds will seek out humans because they associate them with food.
“Usually, the bird is just thrilled to be back in the land of luxury, being fed and watered every day,” Welch said of escaped birds. “They adapt well to a new family.”
As far as everyday care and veterinary responsibility, Welch said they are a lower maintenance pet.
“They are a very simple pet; they are very nice birds, not big and flamboyant but very,
very pleasant,” Welch described. “They are not big, and they don’t take much room. They aren’t loud. They really are nice for the whole family.”
Parakeets need a cage and do well on the seed parakeet diet sold in pet stores, Welch said. The birds can live for 10 to 12 years, but the average lifespan is closer to seven or eight years.
They also do not need annual veterinary visits or vaccines, but he recommends a vet visit if the pet owner feels something is not going well or is concerning. Welch also advises clipping the wings, which is something that can be done by a veterinarian or the owner, depending on their comfort level.
“A lot of times I will recommend clipping the wings, and that is just a little haircut, trimming the feathers. They grow back in about six to eight months, so it’s just truly a haircut,” Welch added. “But that will sometimes make them a little more dependent on you so they can’t just fly around the house and land on a curtain rod where you can’t catch them.”
When no owner stepped forward to claim the bird found at school, Evelyn and her family adopted her and named her Sprinkles.
The Fowler family includes two dogs but is new to bird ownership. They have enjoyed getting to know Sprinkles and learning all about parakeets.
“It’s fun to play music for her and figure out what she likes,” Elle said. “Right now, her favorite thing to listen to is ‘Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!’ the NPR news quiz show. And we think it is because it has laugh tracks and clapping and bells and talking.”
Evelyn added, “She has this weird thing where when she gets excited, she starts singing, and she starts bobbing her head and walking left and right—she dances!”
Sprinkles stays in Evelyn’s room and enjoys being let out of her cage to fly around. She also has a playground, enjoys watching movies with the family and really likes taking baths. The family is planning to get a second bird to keep Sprinkles company once she is more settled in and bonded with the humans of the household.
“If you get them a buddy right at the beginning, they’ll bond with that buddy and want nothing to do with you,” Elle explained. “So, our thought is when she seems really comfortable with Evie and is doing well at being trained to go in and out of her cage on command and things like that a little bit better, then we think we will introduce another bird so that she has got a bird playmate to talk to during the day when we are not home. Also, she can help the other bird kind of figure out what to do, and they will both still be bonded together with Evelyn.”
Evelyn has been working at training Sprinkles to step up on her finger, high five and handshake.
“So far, Sprinkles does not have a treat she will be motivated by, so what I did to teach her stuff like step up is, I put my finger behind her and directly lifted one of her feet. She naturally put her other foot on, and then I said the command,” Evelyn shared. “She is doing it on her own, and she’ll hop up even when I don’t say the command as long as my hand is in the cage.”
Evelyn’s advice to other kids wanting to get a parakeet as a family pet is to have patience.
“The main thing is that it is really important that you are patient with your bird,” she said.
“They are not going to know immediately how to talk or how to do tricks.”
Evelyn also said she was surprised at how easy it is to care for Sprinkles. A lot of websites make parakeet care sound complicated, but it has turned out to be easier than it sounds. “They need a few toys, food and water and a way to bathe,” she added.
Elle agreed that the bird has been easy to care for, adding, “They are really joyful to watch.”
