Hey.  Welcome back to Animal Wonders.  Today is all about one of our very small but very special animals.  We call him Agent Peri.  

(Intro)

On September 1, 2015, we got a call from a local veterinary hospital asking if we had room to take in a small parakeet.  I asked for more details and they said he was a budgerigar and they'd already been treating him for two weeks.  He was still pretty fragile, but he was getting strong enough that he was able to move out of the hospital as long as he continued treatment and was watched carefully.  We happened to have open space in our bird room that was a good fit for a budgie, so I told him we'd be happy to offer him a permanent home.

I went to meet the little guy and was surprised to find that he was very young.  He was fully feathered but still just a baby, maybe 4-5 months old.  He had been brought into the hospital by a lady who was clasping him in her hands.  When she opened up her hands, the vet knew immediately that he needed help.  He was soaking wet, his breathing was labored, and he was missing all his tail feathers.  The lady who brought him in was very stressed and couldn't give a good account of how he'd gotten that way, but it had something to do with a friend who wasn't treating him well.  The vet assured her that they would take care of him and the lady left crying.  

Agent Peri was cold, wet, and in shock.  Upon further examination, they found he had a broken toe, a broken wing, a significant respiratory infection, and traumatized skin around his tail.  They warmed him up, dried him off, and started him on antibiotics.  He didn't eat or drink for the first few days, so they started him on subcutaneous fluids so he wouldn't become dehydrated.  After about a week, he started showing signs of improvement.  He started nibbling his food and he started moving around a little bit.

When I met him, he was strong enough to sit on a perch, though he had trouble balancing 'cause he still had no tail feathers.  He was eating well on his own, but he still had labored breathing from his respiratory infection.  The vet said that he was in such poor health when he came in that she hadn't thought he would pull through and she was so happy to see him doing as well as he was.

The vet said he still had to be kept extra warm and he needed to continue his antibiotics for another 10 days, and we were comfortable providing that care.  I brought Agent Peri back to Animal Wonders and set him up in a small recovery cage where he could be kept at a consistently warm temperature.  Our reptile room is kept at 85 degrees during the day and 75 degrees during the night, so it was the perfect place for him to stay during his recovery.  It also worked out because he had to be quarantined for at least 30 days before he joined the rest of the flock in the bird room.  

Within a week, Agent Peri was doing much better.  He no longer had visibly labored breathing and he was able to balance a bit better because his tail feathers had started to regrow.  I'm guessing his tail feathers had been pulled out forcefully all at once because the skin was pretty traumatized, red, and inflamed when I first met him, but now the skin was looking healthy and it was so good to see those little feathers growing again.

After a month, Agent Peri was healthy and symptom-free.  We had gotten to know his personality and he was full of confidence, gentle fortitude, and spunk, and he'd make the perfect secret agent fighting for all that's good in the world, and I was watching a lot of Agent Carter at the time.  Since he was so young at the time, we didn't know if he was male or female, so the name was great for either.  Agent Peri is the undercover name for Agent Parakeet.  

Agent Peri was telling me he was done being in front of the camera, so I went ahead and put him back.  Since Agent Peri was healthy and done with his quarantine period, he was now ready to move into the bird room and meet the rest of the flock.  He settled in quickly to his new space, got to know his neighbors, and was soon singing and yelling in happiness with the rest of them.  

About eight months later, we rescued a cockatiel named Steve.  Since neither had a friend, we introduced them to see if they'd be good companions for each other and they did really well.  Agent Peri, like a typical Budgie, is more territorial than Steve the cockatiel, so he's in charge of which food bowl he gets to eat out of first.  The two make good roommates, and while they aren't super best friends, the companionship they provide each other is incredibly beneficial.  

Agent Peri doesn't do many public presentations since most people would rather see the larger birds, but he does enjoy getting out and spending time with us and exploring.  Right now, we have newly grown aspen branches growing in our forest and both Agent Peri and Steve love chewing on leaves and small twigs, so it's been pretty fun giving them new branches each week.  This is where Agent Peri sleeps and this is where he's happiest.  He loves chewing on twigs, but he also loves playing with paper toys that he can rip and pull apart.

If you'd like to give him a small toy as a gift, you can go to our Amazon wishlist and pick out one of his favorites.  Link is below.  Agent Peri might be small, but his recovery story is impressive.  His bright personality is a joy to be around and I'm so happy we're able to give him a great home.  

I hope you enjoyed meeting Agent Peri.  If you'd like to meet more of our animals, check out our Meet & Greet playlist in the endscreen, and if you'd like to go on an adventure with us every week, subscribe to our YouTube channel AnimalWondersMontana.  Thanks, and we'll see you next week.  

(Endscreen/Credits)