CaspersRose

hmm... not working for me either... will fiddle and if I have no luck, we can explain my technological ineptitude away as being problems with photobucket! Hmm... have fiddled, and re-entred the link etc. It is working when I preview the post, but won't work once up onthe board... mysterious... will continue trying. If anyone else out there has a botter idea of how to tackle this let me know!

Well, we've discovered that threading a string and some beads through the holey ball, attaching it to the side of the cage and draping it over a perch creates the ultimate plaything! Smokey had us in stitches. The video is about a minute, but he kept on going for at least 20! I love the look on his face at the end of the video when it falls down... Video: Smokey and his Ball

As promised, here are the pics of the cage wrap I made: So, here's the piece of tulle I used, and the locations of the hooks: This is how the hooks attach onto the vertical bars of the cage: And the hooks so that wrap can be partially removed and the door opened: And... the finished product!! As you can see, the fabric is very see through, which means we can still see the little guy, and he still gets the lovely summer breeze through his cage. He hasn't shown any interest in nibbling it or clawing at it, so it mustn't be too obtrusive for him or anything. I'm really happy with it, and all up, it cost me around $4.50 all up (1/2 metre of fabric, 1 pack of plus hooks)! Very cheap! PS. Enough procrastinating...I am now going back to studying, before Elly gets on my case again :rofl: :lol2:

The blood could be from a broken/bent feather... it would be best to check the girls to make sure and remove the offending feather if you find it. You don't want it to continue bleeding too long. My Casper once had a night fright and broke a blood feather in his wing... blood everywhere cos of all the flapping! But he was fine once it had been removed.

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Thanks Elly...I will get a picture up once my exams are over... On that note re: your "PS get back to studying"... I think the little cat in your avatar says it all for me!...

I have had an inventive afternoon... it is exam time at the moment and i am the master of procrastination! We were getting tired of Smokey's feathers and husks ending up all over the unit and had one of those seed catcher thingies around the bottom of the cage, but it never really did much. We had to pull it up so high around his cage that we could barely see him, and none of us (Smokey included) liked that! So I had been pondering a design using fly screen or something to wrap around the cage and attach using little hooks or something... Today I went up to the fabric store and bought some lovely thin, black tulle (like the stuff wedding veils are made of) and some little sew-on hooks. I cut a length of tulle long enough to wrap all the way around his cage, and high enough to reach about half way up the cage walls (no seeds getting out now, no matter how much flapping he tries). I attached the little hooks to each corner of the tulle, and one extra hook in the middle of one end. The hooks are a perfect size for hooking onto the vertical bars of the cage, so I hooked up the end with three hooks first, then wrapped it around the cage so there was a little bit of an overlap and secured the end with two hooks (one hook sits either side of the underneath layer of tulle). The tulle is lovely and see through, and super thin so the breeze still gets through, and because it's black, it matches his cage beautifully and you hardly notice it's there. You can also get the fabric in white, which would be good for a white cage. I will try to get some pics up in the next couple of days, but I am so thrilled with the finished product that I wanted to post right away!

yeah, and I like to think that it was a less stressful experience for him than it would have been if he weren't just that little bit tame.

Just posting to boast... Smokey had a mild case of scaley face which was responding well to topical treatment (oil to his cere), not getting worse, but not really getting better either, so I decided to take him to the vet to get some ivomec for him. He was so well behaved! I opened up the box, and he hopped out onto my finger, sitting nice and still to let the vet get a look at his face. Then the vet held his finger out for him to step up onto, to get a closer look, adn he stepped up for him! He then climbed up the vet's arm and sat on his shoulder for the rest of the consultation! Very proud mum here! He was a bit cranky when he got done with the dropper, and made his opinion known when we got him back in the box, but settled down and as we were leaving, said "hello" to the vet on the way out! All that handling and hard work is worth it! I hadn't really considered him all that tame, and my goal was always to have him tame enough to take to teh vet's, not neccesarily super-dooper friendly kind of tame...but at leat now I know he can pull out the goods when I need him to!

i like to think so! do you often skip breakfast?

Your creativity has inspired me... here's my one! Smokey the Carol Singer:

She obviously doesn't realise what she's missing!

Go fish... I work at a school thank goodness! Do you get cranky at yourself for being lazy?

Ooo... haaand-SOME!

Wow... that's so cute. Was Apple the one who got his tail feathers stepped on while he was running around on the floor hence ending up with a stumpy bum? It happened to someone's budgie a (long) while ago... was it Una's.

If it is just a short trip, you could probably use a shoe box or something similar to transport them. That's what I use for trips tot he vet, and they can just be lined with newspaper to keep them clean for the trip or just thrown out after the trip.

Hi there! Welcome! You'll find there are heaps of people here with good advice and able to answer plenty of questions for you... I found the forum when I got my first budgie too! Have been here ever since! I don't know enough about leg rings to answer those questions, but in terms of his sleepiness, perhaps he is just still taking in his surroundings. Budgies can take a little while to settle in and be very quiet at first. Try talking to him gently, and often... that's what worked well for my little guy. Just keep an eye on him, and if he's not all puffed up or doing funny looking poos (sorry to talk "****"!) it's likely he's still settling in. It's great that he's spending time on your finger... keep this up (again, a little bit often works a charm) and he will hopefully become and remain nice and tame. Good luck with your new family member, and we're looking ofrward to seeing you around the forums!

I've had my boy for six months now and he's very much like your little man. Mine has a few reflective toys in his cage, but it is not these that pose an "infatuation problem"... it is his swing and water dropper ! I just make sure I get my hand in and around his cage often, give him lots of sleep when he's a bit randy, and rearrange his cage each fortnight or so. He seems to settle down if I'm dilligent about doing these things. It is rather funny to see him trying to "get it on" with a wooden swing!

probably back in the days when we were all turning 21! That's seven or eight years ago now!... these days it is friends' weddings we are needing to juggle! When was the last time you attended a live professional sporting event eg the tennis, football, netball etc?

She's very pretty! The others have all offered some really good advice. In terms of developing an attachement/taming etc, I have a new-ish budgie who has proven to be a bit timid. I have found spending time with him on my shoulder in a room AWAY from his cage has been really helpful. He was always wanting to just go back to his cage when I got him out to sit on my shoulder. But I have been getting him out and doing stuff in other rooms where he can't see his cage and he's been much better. He even did the dishes with me yesterday! Since I started doing this a couple of weeks ago, he will now sit on my knee or shoulder in the living room (where his cage is) for an hour or so, just nibbling my ears and muttering sweet birdy nothings to my earings! Just be patient with her... a little bit of person/budgie interaction often is much better than a lot of interaction every now and then!

we never had dogs, but used to bath our cats when I was still at home... has been years since I washed a cat myself though! Cat-washing is quite an art-form, and I think I'd be quite out of practice now! When was the last time you had a budgie bite you so hard you bled?

hats

You could put a little photo of them at that young age on their "file" along with your guesses, and if any turn out to be incorrect you could look again at their features at that age to work out where you went wrong. It would be a good way to learn and hone you skills.

I'm always DIYing something! Am currently sourcing out the best materials and design for a super secure storage cupbard/bench to put on our balcony for storing the barbie and gas bottle etc... at the moment they live in he laundry and make everything smell like saussages! When was the last time you wished you could just disappear?!

It's funny how much their colour changes when they are wet!