CaspersRose

Hehe... perhaps it isn't such a good idea then! It IS hard to teach a budgie to clean up after themselves!!!!!

Oh dear!

yes... my Nanna. And she's not a happy granny, Jan! Do you ALWAYS seem to have cold feet, regardless of the weather? (I do!)

Whilst he is still under 18 I believe you should be able to sign on his behalf via the nominee thing. Most forms require an adult or legal guardian if the applicant is under 18 anyway, so I can;t imagine why Centrelink had so much trouble pointing you in teh right direction... then again, as a few have mentioned, they are Centrelink, and we shouldn't expect any more from them! (I too am a disgruntled, disenchanted ex-Centrelink client)

I know the tops you mean... it does have a very "shiver-me-timberrrrs" look to it, doesn't it?!

perhaps you could try having a little dish of his favourite food on the desk or table with you while you're doing your homework... food always keeps them interested! He could just rummage around on the table with you, and nibble when he wants, or you could offer some to him in your hand.

I put sand on the bottom of Smokeys cage. You can get packets of it, specially for cages from big W. I just put it through some old shadecloth to clear out the leaves and poo etc each week... its great!

if they are freaking out, maybe you could do a bit of the old psycological "conditioning" or CBT... try just sitting it on the top of their cage for a few days. Having it close by but outside their fear will gradually decrease. Then you could try just sitting it on the floor of their cage. They will be a little wary, but will soon learn that it is not going to harm them. Through these two stages don't make any reaction to their behaviour (like taking the toy away, or soothing them, either verbally or physically). Just let them adapt in their own time. Then you could try hanging it up if they aren't showing any interest in playing with it. It might turn out that after all that, it isn't a toy they will ever be interested in anyway! I had a budgie who didn't even batter an eyelid at a fancy toy I bought him... my current budgie thinks that same toy is god's gift to budgies!

My budgie pays no attention to those balls when they're on the floor of his cage. It's like they don't exist. But he does love to play with them when I tie them with a long string so they dangle from the roof of his cage. I hang them close to his perches and he grabs them in his beak and throws them around... just like other peoples' budgies seem to do with them when they're on the floor! So hanging them around in the cage might help? Mine generally dangle somewhere around half way from the floor to the roof.

hehe... it's all just a game for him/her! Just like naughty little kids...

good idea... I don't show, or even breed for that matter, but always enjoy the threads about all this stuff. Always interesting, and always something to learn!!

never owned one, but certainly find them very attractive! Do you like Vegemite... if so, how do you spread it??? I like it right to the edges and thick enough that you can see your reflection in it!

can't wait to see pics once all your guys have moved in!

Isn't it great! My sister is a REAL cat person and I sent it to her a few months ago... makes me giggle every time i watch it! They have better conversational skills than some of the people I work with (I too am a speech pathologist!). Not butting in on each other, keeping a bit of eye contact... wonderful!

I don't know much about how the ringing systems work, but if they're numbered, surely it is a logical thing to put the lowest numbers on teh firstborn of the year, and move up through the numbers as new chicks hatch? That way, the earlier the number, the earlier in the year the bird hatched? Sounds common sense... Breeders, would there be any reasons why a breeder would do it differently?

Cool, ta!

go fish... all flows smoothly from one family to the next... the only complicating factor is the fact that several generations have four or more children, which just makes it a pain to fit the whole extended family on a page when people got married and four or more children of their own!! Do you have any "shady" characters on your family tree? eg, mine has convicts from the first ships to sail to Sydney!

Thanks Liv! It is good to know that keeping his wings clipped will be a relatively easy task. He was a bit grumpy with me, but no bleeding feathers etc and he's quite content now flirting with his swing. I have encountered the problem that arises when one of these feathers breaks (poor old Casper had a night fright once and flapped his way into the bars of his cage ) and I got great advice from this forum on how to manage that problem! Will it be easy enough to see the vessel in a newly growing flight feather and therefore guage where to clip it, or is it best to wait til it looks like it is pretty much fully in before clipping it?

been a bridesmaid twice - both times we were all just bridesmaids, no special titles like maids of honour etc As a kid were you ever a flower-girl/page-boy?

Hi, Just a quick question. Smokey has clipped wings. He has just gone through his first moult and on one wing, his last wing feather has grown back in. This is the only one at this stage to have grown in. Worried that it would get caught on things and do some nasty damage, I just clipped that one feather in line with where the rest are clipped. Was this the right thing to do, or are there better ways to manage this for next time?

Wow! Thanks!!!!

Poor Smokey is pleading not to have another photo taken... Mum just want to show off his first little pin feathers!

Yay! My curiosity is starting to get the better of me... am itching to see pics now! It's like when you're told at lunch time that you'll be having [insert favourite dinner meal here] for dinner... once the idea of it is in your head, it never seems to happen fast enough!

For those of us who don't know, don't show, or are just curious, it would be really cool if any of you could post photos which show budgies with particularly nice examples of the features you have mentioned. I am really curious now!

hehe... it's like the little birdies that sit on the hippo's in Africa! Do they preen the bunnies as well?