Phoebes

I had ordered seeds online with the intent of growing a budgie garden of things they eat in Australia like spinefex grass. Unfortunately everything froze in the mail and nothing grew. I do get lemongrass easily during the summer but they have destroyed all of it along with the eucalyptus tree. I can't stand the idea of giving them lettuce and things with pesticides so I'm limited in what greens I can give them. They have been playing with the alfalfa blocks but it's obviously too compacted and dry. I searched high and low for the steam cut stuff which is impossible to buy here. When I find biological broccoli it's always so old looking. Before I lived outside of town and had a garden (I'm in a condo) I grew my own. Broccoli often gets these larva on it when it's not treated with pesticides and usually it is soaked in salty water so they will let go and float to the surface of the water. The salt probably removes much of the broccoli's water making it last a very short time on store shelves. I may try another website for the seed. I need a company that knocks when the seed arrives instead of leaving it in the mailbox when it's minus 40 out. I can easily get biological carrots and corn is said to retain less pesticides than many other veggies.

Do you have bedding in the nest? If so what kind of bedding do you use?

They are lovely birds. I notice they have flowers I suppose they like the nectar? I guess their feeding habits must be different than budgies. I've never seen one of those where I live they are rather exotic looking, where are they from?

True I read that sugar also is not good when they have mega bacteria. I can get Allie to land on my hand in the cage but if I have seed in it she just kind of pushes it onto the floor with her feet. Still she is for now my most social bird so I am thinking training the others has to pass by her. I would like them to be tame. She doesn't eat nutriberries she just breaks them apart and lets the pieces drop to the floor. I made blueberry muffins with whole wheat flour and frozen natural berries (no sugar). Here they grow like weeds (not in the city). I noticed Noah tasting a cooked blueberry. I think he likes that. I don't like the idea of there being glycerin in food because many countries pass off other disgusting stuff for glycerin that is not edible. I used to be a runner and sometimes runners would ingest glycerin to be super hydrated. http://runnersconnec...nning-glycerol/ Notice half way down the page they give a link to buy glycerin. How can a person know the real quality of that product.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/health/17poison.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 They maybe put it in the nutri berries to keep it soft. However I have heard of poisonings from the glycerin being some cheap inedible knock off.

Lovely birds and I love the setup for them to socialize. I really want to do something like that.

Such a cut picture. I really wonder how so many people can have their budgies near windows. Mine can't be trusted around my windows. I was thinking of getting some of those stickers that make windows show up more. I'd like them to be able to look outside.

They are so beautiful!!!!! We mostly have apple faces here. I had a choice when I got my bluepoint but the other one which was very tall and had a lovely long face also had very runny eyes.

I used to breed Siamese when my children were younger. This is my bluepoint, she is now 13, Tommy (also in picture) is 14 and our Granddaddy is 15. As you can see Tommy liked to play nursemaid.

Love it! Your birds are going to be living the life now.

Both children seem to be very careful with the birds. It's nice to see someone cultivating the proper handling of animals with children. Don't you just hate it when you see a child picking up a cat by the scruff of the neck and his parents not far just watching or worse filming a child pulling a cat into a bath tub like it's a toy. Later when the animal is uncontrollable well it's also disposable. The photos are very beautiful thanks for posting them!

That baby is so adorable! he looks like a multi colored pop sickle. I wish we had more variety of budgies here. You really got a good picture of him. I don't know if you saw my thread about my dream budgie but he looks much like the dad. http://forums.budgie...ie You have to admit you kind of have my dream budgie. T'as vraiment de la chance! Notice in my thread my dream bird was a Sky blue yellowface mutant 2 spangle. I can hardly wait to see what your birds mutations are.

Sorry I forgot the bottom part of your question. I can't order the seeds separately because Dr Foster and Smith can't send seed to Canada. I tried to order some and was told this. I am still buying a mix. I would be interested in knowing what the breeders think is a good mix myself.

I really know nothing about mutations, but wow dad is a stunner!!!!!!!! I would keep him at Fort Knox.

Can't see pics either.

I really know nothing about mutations but I too got a girl that turned out to be a boy. His cere was pink when I got him, I was told he was a girl. Now it has vibrant spots of color that make it look like a watercolor. Very interesting thread, from your description I would be asking myself the same question. The boys seem to be telling you something is up. When my budgie Noah and his girl Allie had six babies I realized one was a girl even though her cere looked like the boys because she kept going into a large food dish and pretending to nest. There were three all white girls with white ceres and three white and blue babies with pink ceres. To me the boys ceres looked like the birds cere you posted a photo of. The one that kept laying inside a bowl at 45 days turned out to be a girl, her cere later turned brown and males are very attracted to her. Noah father of babies in picture There does seem to be some white around the nostrils though. I wonder if this means she still could be a girl?

I would not give quinoa raw because it can be toxic. Usually I buy quinoa that has been washed and cook it according to the package instructions. The washing is to remove an outer coating that is toxic to budgies. Cooking fully destroys the toxicity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa "Quinoa in its natural state has a coating of bitter-tasting saponins, making it unpalatable."

In the photo it looks like he has something on his little feet. Is that just an accumulation of something? He is really cute though and he seems very sociable to boot. I wonder if you could play with him on the ground level and get him to run around after a small toy. I have seen some people do this. If he gets exercise his weight may improve.

Welcome to the website, nice to see someone who plans things out. I am sure your budgie will be very happy.

I haven't tried that bottle. I can't seem to find the model I had for sale anymore. I like the look of that one though. I line the bottom of the cage with newspaper and sometimes the first model I had would just empty out so that is why I had the bath in there too. I have been looking at that model too thinking of trying it. The one I had often became leaky. You can see the old bottle on the left of the cage, but I think I like that new model you posted better although I haven't tried it. I put newspaper on the bottom of the cage and there are grills so the budgies can't touch it. That way if the bottle leaks it absorbs it. It takes a while for the little ones to figure out what the bottle is. They learn fast if they are with an adult that knows. So you have to change the bath at least once a day and any time you see poo in it. The birds are curious so usually you will see a baby eventually trying to taste different parts of the metal tube of the bottle and he will eventually get to tasting where the ball is. When he accidentally gets water he will do this again at a later time and learn.

I have some that are not very good. She goes and empties out the part they have access to. I have to tap it and hope Noah gets to it before her. Luckily he has the food coral. I am going to buy a new model I saw online and try it. I had another model that had a default on the design and emptied out on the floor. I think I may have built it wrong or something or had a cheap knockoff of the design. Some people put up pics of that model and said it was good but it always emptied on my floor. Thanks for the advice I have a model in mind. I'll let you know if it works should take two weeks to deliver. http://s1055.photobucket.com/user/bbbirdie/media/Allieemptiesbowl005_zpscd8e93a0.mp4.html Just for fun here is Allie five minutes after I filled this. I heard her violently throwing seed all over the room so by the time I got there it was almost empty but did catch her on film. Don't worry I filled it with cheaper seed the second time, I knew she would do this.

I would still put it in the cage even if the cage is small. I am afraid outside the cage the bird might be too shy to go. If you let him go outside the cage be careful when it is dark to have a night light or he will hurt himself if he panics. There are some feeders for outside the cage but so far I have had problems with them. I have to tap them to get the seed to go down or one model leaked all the seed onto my floor. It's funny because when I was a child, my budgies learned to tap the feeders with the beak to get the seed to go down but my birds now will not learn this, I guess I have spoiled them. With the seed coral I take the whole thing out to change the seed. I take out the metal things, they are too easy to lose, and put them in my pocket. I go outside and shake it around and blow on the seed to get rid of the hulls. Then I add fresh seed on top. I throw out whatever is left after a week to the birds outside and start over with new seed. You can use a measuring spoon to add an amount each day you think is reasonable. I always add too much, and waste. I'm bad for that because I am afraid they will be hungry. Some more experience members might know the right amount to give them per day. I think if the cage is small you might want to try some feeders like this. http://www.drsfoster...08&pcatid=21008 You could use anything similar to this and also put a perch not far away from it. I am going to order a few of these and try them out. I am still looking for a good model that works well. Or you could try little ones like this http://www.drsfoster...89&pcatid=11589 Not the big one I tried it the birds don't like it. I think the small clean cup with perch will be better, a similar model will work as well.

I am not sure about the sneezing, maybe a more experienced member will know. I let my birds choose when to take a bath. Sometimes it seems they go a week without going in. When it's hot they go every day but they are copy cats and go in when they see someone really enjoying it. The bottoms of my cages are plastic so I use water bottles and if it empties out I just refill it. My birds used the little lixit bottles and learned to use the bigger ones. This way I am sure that they always have a clean source of water. It allows me to have a bath in the cage at all times. I watched my birds and they prefer to drink in the bottles unless they have seen me change the bath. This is probably because they know by experience the water will be cool if it was just changed. I would start by a small drinking bottle. The birds really appreciate their bottles.

I have seed corals and I put a perch right in front of them. I'll post a picture of the setup. I don't think it's good to have it outside the cage even if it's big. Here is the setup in my four cages. Notice I put little feeders up top so the seed falls on the coral and the birds can use that surface too.

I'm not an old pro like some people on here so I can just tell you what works for me. I like to have the temperature at around 71 F. I know some people keep their budgies outside and it is probably much colder than in your house. I always leave a night light because my birds have panicked and hurt themselves at night. Possibly they hear the cats (who can't go in the room). If you are worried about him getting cold you could get a heated perch or something. I am looking at different possibilities myself for adding a source of warmth in my cages. http://www.drsfoster...fm?pcatid=26388 This little model interests me. However I know someone who got one that had a defect. Before they put it in the cage, they tested it by putting a hand on, it was heating hot enough to burn so the company sent them a new one which worked. That kind of worried me. Do you have any other animals like a cat? Windows sometimes have an uncomfortable breeze blowing in. The easiest way to check is to pull up a chair to the window and sit there at different times during the day. I know some of the walls of my place are cooler at night for instance. You can cover the cage at night even just on three sides at first. I don't cover mine because I leave a night light and I got a new really precise thermometer that controls the heat much better than before. It's pretty exact now. One thing to watch out for with windows is the heat that enters during the day. The bird could get very sick from sitting in the sun without being able to move away. Some of my windows could bake my birds. I never place a cage in front of a window. I've done different tests with this, placing 50% of the cage in the shade and the rest in the sun for a while to see if they wanted to sit in the sun. They always avoided the sunny side even with an open window. Even if the cage was 90% in the shade they avoided the part in the sun. This is a little lamp I like for birds although the light bulb is expensive. http://www.drsfoster...fm?pcatid=24615 I also have some plant lights in the room but on the wall and ceiling far from the cage. I have had that lamp for a year and it is pretty good for the price I paid. I am going to buy more of them. It's only for the daytime though. Well hopefully someone with more experience will come along. Good luck

I have been putting booster on the seed and the birds never seem to notice it. I haven't tried the product you mention.