Rainbow

Kristina, why are you using a glove? Due to biting? Doesn't it scare your bird?

I can't tell you how disturbing I found this. Since your friend has decided to keep these birds, can you tell him how cruel it is to throw things at his birds? It can be termed abuse. If they are so very noisy, they are probably trying to tell him some needs of theirs are not being met. Maybe you can point him towards the forum??? Tell her quarantine is to prevent as much as possible the transfer of illness from one bird to another. It will be more expensive taking two birds to the vet than one, medications will be needed for two birds instead of one, and the dosing of the medications can be difficult. And why take the chance of making your original bird ill if it can be prevented? As far as having the brain of a pea, tell her their brains may be small, but parrots (and budgies are parrots) are at an emotional level equivalent to a two year old child, and the have the intelligence of a two to four year old child. They are by no means stupid. And if you still cannot keep them in seperate rooms, do what you can to minimize contact through you - meaning clean up after and handle the new bird after you do your original one. You can still tame them in the same room, it will just take a lot more patience. Just perservere.

Ooh, this could open a can of worms, couldn't it? Let's all agree to disagree and go from there. You will not lose any bond you are creating just because you trim the wings. Yes, (most) birds are meant to fly. We all know about birds such as ostriches, kiwi, etc that do not. But where are they meant to fly? Outdoors. Bring them indoors, and all of a sudden there are a host of hidden dangers that are not in the realm of experience for a wild animal. And birds are not domesticated. They are not equipped during evolution to live in people's houses. They don't care about electric cords or hot stoves or ceiling fans. Not found in their natural habitat. Household cleansers, lead weights, or fumes from nonstick pans? Don't care - not found in their natural habitat. They don't know to be wary. Mirrors? Windows? Not exposed to those things in the savannah or rainforest either. And walls and ceilings????? In my opinion, you do need to retain some way to control that which you tame and enforce boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not. This may sound harsh, but for most people I think it is a reality whether you like it or not. Just as dogs are trained to behave in an acceptable manner (don't pee on the carpet) and cats are as well (litterbox training, scratching posts as opposed to your best furniture) if you have birds in the house you need to be able to get them in their cage when you want, and keep them out of danger to the best of your ability (in other words - YOU define what acceptable behavior is for you and others in your household). You should also ideally be able to handle them to some extent. (This is not meant to turn into a discussion about free will or who should or shouldn't be allowed to have pets. It is just my way of trying to explain my opinion.) If you need to trim your birds wings to accomplish this, then trim them. If you are concerned for your bird's safety and are able to better moderate and control the situations your bird will ultimately find itself in, and trimming is the best way you can accomplish that, then by all means do it. Better that than to find a dead bird because s/he flew out of the room and into a ceiling fan, or down the hall and out the door just as someone is coming into your house. If you don't feel your bird needs the additional restraint of a wing trim, then don't do it. Some people trim their birds wings, tame them in the amount of time it takes them to molt back in, and let them keep flight after that. Others keep them trimmed all the time. Mine have complete flight capabilities, and retain it because I can always catch them no matter where they go, and they will always step up when I tell them to. I have what I feel is an acceptable amount of control over my birds, and feel I can ensure their safety even though they can fly. They love to fly. LOL, they hardly ever do it, but they love it. I would hate to take that gift away from them. It may sound harsh, but it is a gift - I can trim them at any time if I feel it necessary to keep them safe and retain as close to instant control as I am comfortable with. They would not love me any less if I did. And if due to some unforseeable circumstance I felt it was in their best interest to have clipped wings, they would have clipped wings. I may be in the minority, but to me the real issue is not birds are meant to fly always and everywhere vs. birds must be trimmed for these reasons.... It is what is best for the bird in the situation I have placed them in? **edit** I just noticed you have cats and rats. Whatever you decide to do, please make sure those animals are not allowed in the vicinity of your budgie. You have some other factors to consider that a lot of the rest of us here do not. I don't have any other pets besides my birds, so I don't have to factor other animals into the equation.

It looks to me like all three of the new ones have scaly face. They need to go to the vet ASAP for treatment, and let the vet know when you call for the appointment that you had them in contact with your original bird for a short time. He may want to treat all 4. Do not under any circumstances play with, touch, change food/water/cage paper or toys in your original birds cage after being around these new ones without washing your hands extremely well. And I also say all of your birds are female. Hens are wonderful and I prefer them over males, myself.

During quarantine they obviously would be taken out at seperate times, because they should be in seperate rooms. After that is over, it would be however you are best able to handle them while they are out. I didn't notice you already had 3 instead of 1. There is a huge difference trying to get 4 tamed birds back into their cages as opposed to 4 untamed birds. If some or all of those birds are flighted to boot, it means the fun will really begin, LOL. Your potential for a real party increases dramatically!

Well, after looking closely at your pictures again, it looks like the tips of two of the longer flights are barely peeking out from under the coverts in front. If you look at the feather that is obviously cut and go to the right, underneath the third covert feather is a rounded feather. That looks like it could be a new one, and there is another one a few feathers away further right at the tip of the wing. Next to the second new "rounded new feather tip" from the edge, looks like it could be a cut feather (and cut very short at that), or a new one that hasn't unfurled yet. If he is really 4 months old, then they should begin to drop soon. You could open the wing more, but you would have to brace it underneath with a finger or two while you hold the wing with one hand and him with the other. It may be too much trouble. Has he begun to molt out any other feathers? The full molt will take approximately two months to complete, so once it starts, you should begin to see more feathers there. I wouldn't worry until the molt is over.

Hello clonte, and welcome to the forum! I am sorry to hear about your friend Tweety. I named my very first budgie Tweety, so that name is extra special to me. She was a normal green. I still remember when she passed on, and I think that was around 1977-78. They always remain in your heart. As you can tell by looking through the posts here, we all can't get enough of pictures. So if you are able, post some up of Indy! And you will find plenty of tips here too. If you haven't already, try the search function to start with. Best of luck!

Well, you would need two cages at first. Even though they have met each other, it is still a good idea to quarantine the other bird away from Echo for at least 30 days. And even after they are introduced again, they may prefer seperate cages to sleep or eat in. Now, if one gets sick, the other most likely will also, which will require a higher vet bill and two birds to medicate instead of just one. They may decide they like each other's company more than yours. (Not necessarily, at one time I had 11 that used to fight for my attention, sometimes literally, so they can both prefer you to be around.) The mess will seem to increase more than twofold so extra cleanup time will be an issue. Especially if they retain seperate cages, when you dismantle them for thorough cleaning it will take twice as long. When I had two cages it would take a good 2-3 hours to clean all food/water dishes, perches, toys, grate, and all parts of the cage itself as well as wipe down walls and vacuum or sweep. Those are some reasons you might not want to. I'm sure there are others. If none of them bother you, and your heart tells you to give this other budgie a home, then your decision is already made, isn't it?

Only take him if you really want another budgie, not because you think Echo needs a friend. What thoughts do you have that make you unsure of whether to do it or not?

Kirby, there is no set time when the iris rings will become visible. The more removed from the normal green or normal blue a mutation is, the wider the variance. The normals seem to get them sooner. I have a dominant pied hen that is over two and you can barely see them. She looks like she has baby black button eyes, but the rings are there and you have to look for them. I doubt they will ever get any darker. I stand by my earlier guess.

How long have you had Merlin? I doubt he has an issue with growing those feathers. If you don't see any cut feathers at all on either side of the wing when you stretch it all the way out, look at where they grow from. Do you see new growth? You will need to look between and barely under the covert feathers at the edge of the wing. They will grow out stick-like, and the ends will unfurl a little from the sheath once the feather comes out a little ways. He may be using a lot of energy trying to regrow all those at once. If you haven't had him long, some could have been pulled at the pet store if they cut blood feathers, others could just have molted out before you got him. And Cheeta is right, when they grow back they will grow back at the same rate on each side, and they do grow much more slowly than body feathers. It takes months. **great picture, cheeta!**

I'm not sure I understand you. I didn't see any of the outside flights in those pictures. When outstretched, the wing should look like this: and Merlin's looks like this: To me it seems he is missing almost all of his primary flights. If you don't see them on the wing as cut, I would think they have molted out already and just not begun to grow back in yet.

Welcome! I hope you enjoy the forum. I think Flash is a boy. If you have only had him for a day, the closing of his eyes could also be due to him being a little afraid. Kind of like "if I close my eyes maybe this person will go away" or "if I can't see them they can't see me"... Not that there is anything wrong with you :ausb: I think it is a normal behavior for a new bird. They are like toddlers emotionally. It sounds like he is settling in pretty quickly if he was talking back to you this morning. That's always a nice thing.

Looks like she still has baby bars in all the pictures to me. :ausb: My guess is type 2 yellowface skyblue dominant pied - the feathers on the body are yellow and not white. She's not a clearflight as the tail is the wrong color. What a cutie!

Not silly at all! When I first saw it I saw what is meant by "gossamer wings"...they look so sheer and soft, like silk, and the outline of the tailfeathers underneath is just a wonder. I love how we can find beauty in the simple things if we but look.

It sounds exactly like he is vomiting. The description you gave of the feathers fits perfectly, and if you wet those feathers after they dry they still don't look right. I'll bet if you touch them they feel slimey, even though they are dry. Seed is dry and will not stick to anything unless it is wet. He would not be able to regurgitate to all those places, and regurgitation does not affect the feathers on the head. If he is vomiting, you may not even notice it because it is usually a quick side to side flip of the head. I would get him to a vet ASAP.

Lovey, he looks like he is still missing more than two flights. I'd guess he's still got at least the first five or six at least (on each side) that need to molt out. If you look at the bend in the wing, in the last two pics, there are only 3 primaries that are NOT cut. There are 10 "long" flight feathers so it's no wonder he is not flying. If you open the wing all the way, is there a good inch that is "featherless" from the tip to the first full feather?

The first thing you might do is mix up how you offer them. If you are trying to get Joey to eat carrots, clip a raw baby carrot to the cage, offer them shredded in a dish or weave them through the cage bars. Lightly steam them, or cook them and mash them up into a paste and put them on a dish. Mix the paste with a few seeds. You need to figure out a way to offer them so that initially your bird isn't afraid of them. Smallish pieces are much better in the beginning. It may take several weeks before you hit upon some way he will try them. If you offer them raw at first, they will keep longer in the cage. Cooked foods should be removed after 2 or 3 hours unless the room is warm, then remove them sooner. Raw carrots can be left out much longer. If carrots don't work, try baby spinach leaves (usually a hit) or broccoli. Broccoli needs to be cut up small at first, or your bird will probably be afraid of it. Would you want to eat something bigger than your head? A regular sized broccoli floret is bigger than Joey's head, and if he doesn't know it's food will more than likely not go near it. Good luck and perservere! You might think you are just wasting the food, but once he begins to try new foods, he will be much better off in the long run. Budgies are very finicky about changing their diets, but it can be done. :ausb:

Thank you Terri.

All I can say is cute, cute, cute. What a delight it must be to have such a large aviary!

I think this link will take you to the "easiest to understand" site regarding pieds. And I answered my own question above thanks to another trip there for the link. :fear The varigated is a wing pattern, and occurs on the Australian Pied and the Dutch Pied. And the answers to your pairing questions are there too. Great thread Nerwen!

If it were me, I'd wait another 6 months. The violet one is female, the green I can't tell. In the picture towards the bottom where he is on the hand with the seeds, the cere looks awfully light. The rest look pink, and his mutation will not have a pink cere in the male. Is there any way you could get another shot of him?

I'd leave the swing. He has only been there a day, and how would you feel if you were boxed up, driven somewhere new, were trying to get used to a new home and people you have no idea you can trust, found something in your scary world that made you feel safe in your cage, and then someone comes and takes it away? :fear Poor birdies, considering what all new budgies go through when we bring them home it's a wonder they adapt as well as they do. You said he was swinging, chirping, and having a wonderful time. That's wonderful - so many of them are petrified and won't move or even explore the cage for days. He is trying to make sense of his new environment, and this swing apparently gives him enough confidence to announce to the world he is there. It makes him happy. If in a month or two he begins to defend the swing then that would be a different matter. And about him being a little quieter, he might be a she, and hens do not as a rule make as much noise as the males do. I wouldn't worry overmuch about it at this stage, since he is so new. He or she sounds like a wonderful budgie.

I would guess the little one tried to get back in the nest box. Normally a hack or two is enough to keep the baby from trying it too many times, and mom will usually stop at that. Since the first baby fledged, s/he would now be seen as a threat to the ones still in the box. Once they leave for good they generally are not allowed near the opening anymore. I also think she's about had it with this clutch and wants to start another family. What a horrible thing to have happened. Please let us know what the vet says.

AAAWWWWWWW....... :fear Congrats to Boris and to you too! I'm glad she is still tame for you. Skittles became remarkably more trusting once she was hatching babies too. It is SUCH a warm fuzzy when they let you feed and scritch them and don't mind you being there with their babies. If you think about it, that is a tremendous amount of trust that little bird has placed in you. More pictures please.