The Best Decision of My Life: A Siberian 3D Sculptor and Her Parakeet Flock

When we hear stories about people who keep a menagerie at home, it«s usually cats. Or maybe someone has more than one or two dogs. Or ants in ant farms, which were trendy some time ago. Correspondents from NGS.RU visited a Khrushchevka apartment where, along with the owner and a pair of dogs, a whole flock of parakeets lives.

«I Thought I Had to Wait»

Angelina is a 3D sculptor who models figures for 3D printers. Creating figurines and programs for printing them suddenly became her main source of income — models can cost from three hundred to a thousand dollars. However, these orders are mostly one-off.

«I don»t have any higher education at all; I taught myself modeling. I did hand sculpting for a long time first, but when I realized I couldn«t physically achieve super-fine detail, I bought a computer, a tablet, and sat down to learn modeling from YouTube tutorials. Then I bought a 3D printer,» Angelina said.

The girl lives in a one-room Khrushchevka with two adult dogs, Dedulya and Dusya, and a whole flock of 11 budgerigars. According to her, there were always animals in her parents« private house, most often stray and abandoned ones that just wandered into the yard.

«When I started living alone, the burden of responsibility at first didn»t allow me to get pets. I thought I had to wait for the circumstances to be right. I had to find a place where I would live perfectly. But then I thought: what if I never find such a place where everything is perfect? In the end, I got birds. And that was one of the best decisions in my life,« Angelina smiled.

The elderly Dedulya and Dusya also came almost from the street: Dedulya, for example, was treated at a shelter for severe dermatitis, after which Angelina took him in. Later, Dusya joined Dedulya«s company.

«She»s a Crazy Momma«

The first budgerigars appeared about three years ago. She wanted to get a couple, but that was only the beginning.

The first two parakeets — Devochka (Girl) and Stanislav — had to be taken as a pair. Devochka, by the way, is the most respected in the flock and holds a high place in the parakeet hierarchy. Possibly as the oldest.

After some time, Angelina got a friend for Stanislav, but it unexpectedly turned out to be female. So Emochka appeared: from «yema,» which means «yolk» in Spanish.

«So I had two girls and one boy. I decided it was unfair to the girls not to have another boy. That»s how Tosha appeared,« Angelina said. »He«s the most active bird, but he has some mental issues because he lived alone for 2.5 years. He doesn»t sense the other parakeets« personal boundaries, can be pushy with them, and they can get aggressive with him, like, »Don«t be so pushy.» But after about six months, Tosha adapted.«

The fifth and sixth parakeets — blue Snezha and yellow-green Vitalya — appeared «for the soul» and were supposed to be the last. Snezha, Angelina clarified, is a very active intellectual: she«s always thinking of places to climb and constantly gets into the closet through all sorts of cracks.

Her goal, in the girl«s opinion, is to have offspring. Parakeets look for narrow, secluded spaces for this — in nature, they breed in tree hollows. Apparently, the gaps between the closet doors, in the opinion of the actively breeding-minded Snezha, are perfect for that.

«She is literally constantly thinking and calculating where to climb. Vitalya creates an illusion of activity and simply supports his woman. And I have to barricade the closet because Snezha has found all the cracks that can be found and that I didn»t even know about. She really wants to have babies in this closet; she«s a momma. And a crazy one at that,» the girl joked.

But so far, despite the formed pairs and regular mating, chicks have not appeared in the flock. That«s just parakeet nature, the girl explained: for eggs to be laid, the future momma first needs to create a makeshift nest for herself.

After Snezha and Vitalya, three more birds appeared. Angelina went to a pet store for food and saw parakeets living there in terrible conditions. That«s how Konstantin, Lola, and Arkadiy came to her.

«He was hanging on the side of the cage,» the girl recalled. «Arkadiy was the smallest, the cleanest of them all, and looked like an angel in a dump.»

The tenth — to balance the number of males and females — was Persea. However, she was very sick and couldn«t be saved. But afterwards, another pair appeared: Vitalik»s former owner was leaving the city and offered Angelina to take his parents (the parakeet Vitalik«s parents, of course, not the owner»s). So the last two parakeets joined the flock: Rada, who had to be treated for an abdominal tumor, and Sergey.

«I was always bad with names. That»s clear from my first parakeet, whose name is Devochka (Girl). I decided to name the males with ordinary male names. I think it sounds funny: Stanislav Angelinovich, Konstantin Angelinovich,« the girl smiled. »I can even tell them apart in the dark by their silhouette; I know their body physics, how they all move, what posture they sit in, how long each one«s tail is.»

«I See My Future Only with Birds»

Angelina«s typical day starts with walking the dogs and feeding them. Then she prepares breakfast for the flock: besides standard store-bought food, it includes greens, all sorts of tree branches, various sprouted grains, vegetables, and fruits. For example, the birds» favorite dish turned out to be beets — they can eat them anytime and in large quantities.

It so happened that many birds in Angelina«s flock are weakened; they usually came to her sick. So, in addition to average monthly expenses of 7,000 rubles (about $78 at current rates) on food, she spends quite a lot on treatment. According to her calculations, over almost three years of having the flock, she spent from 300,000 to 500,000 rubles (approximately $3,300 to $5,600) on treatment.

Plus daily special alaminol (disinfecting) cleaning and a constantly running bactericidal recirculator — a device for disinfecting air from bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms.

The girl talks about all her winged pets in a blog and Telegram channel «Pusiny peki»: «peki» is short for «parakeets,» and «Pus» is Angelina«s longtime nickname from an online game. Her videos are educational and sometimes very funny. The only caveat is that they are recommended for users 18 and older.

One of the important parts of the blog is advice on keeping birds and spreading the idea that birds are individuals.

«I want the flock to be constant. For that, I need to introduce new birds, but I don»t want to bring them in from outside. There«s a big risk that you buy a parakeet and it turns out to have megabacteriosis — that could destroy the whole flock,» Angelina also explained. «Most likely, with our vet and under her supervision, we»ll select the females with the strongest health, and I«ll keep three chicks. I see my future only with birds.»