VippiN

No worries - Thanks all, good to know. In the meantime I picked up a friends mini-aviary to use. KAZ - I notice by your '.....' at the end of your post you're probably a bit bored of having to quote links of what could have been found with enough patience. I thank you for your post and understanding - However I strive to do the right thing by my animals, and a post in vain asking for info is much better than just going off and doing it the wrong way. I'm sure you understand. Regards.

Hi all, I have a a decent sized aviary, used to quarantine my birds inside. Right now that is impossible, so i've been thinking of ways to have a 4th Budgie in the group, which would make two males, two females. Exactly how far does the bird need to be away from other birds? Is it physical touch that we are restricting? If so, a closed off area inside the aviary should be fine for quarantine. If not, then i'll have to rethink my options. I have two cage sizes to use for quarantine. I was thinking of having the one smaller cage in the aviary, with the other larger one on top of the smaller cage. That would give 1-2" of room so no budgies could touch. But they could get close. Would this be suitable? Thanks for any on topic replies.

Rats are predators regardless of how small they are. They will kill and eat small animals like birds. It's just common sense to keep them apart.

The cats around my place are my neighbours I know this for a fact. I won't be hurting or catching them.. I just want something that will make them avoid an area of my backyard.

okay so after recently getting my new aviary i've got two neighbourhood cats hanging about constantly. They're not really harming the birds but it's not a great enviroment for them either. One usually sits at the base of the aviary, the other on top, just staring at the potential meals. What can I do about this? Are there anti-cat sprays or something I can lace around the area? So far i've tried squirting them with the hose. Done it quite a few times now, they're back within 15 minutes.

Hey hey all. My two males have finally moved outside leaving the entire house open to the resident female Pidgie. So first Pidgie needs a mention being left to her huge cage, err, room. Her cage is never closed, this is where she spends most of her time. The aviary. I bought two of these at $100 each. The second one is at my mother's place until I buy my next home. The inmates.. Tweeter and Duo. I had a solar light already there, lights up the area a bit so they shouldn't have any night-frights. Now I just have to stop myself buying more and more ..

Only way to keep them quiet in the morning is make the house pitch black. They only chatter when the sun comes up.

I take pride in making little pieces for my animals. From a six foot hutch for my rats to bits and pieces for my birds. Currently my girl has a whole study to herself, no cage whatsoever. She was dozing here, she hates the camera!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFxfUr9-E5o Female, about 7-8 months old. She always goes off on this song.

Good to hear that your Russell is good with the birds, Bea. When I buy my next home i'll be getting a Russell and hope both species can mix.

Hey guys. Is there a type of 'anti-budgie' spray that can be used to keep the birdies off certain areas? Kind of like citrus spray for dogs?

Oh yes, currently she lives in a medium sized cage, but most of the time she's out and about somewhere on the many purches i've placed in my study. Of all the months she's been in here she's never got into trouble. Though me bird-proofing any possible nuisance probably helped it. Currently she's on the chrome door handle, only reflection she can find! Just need a few more days off work to get into this gym.

Thanks for the replies. Once again the female is alone, the males together again. On the upside, the female has an entire room to fly in as the cage door is open almost 24/7. At least this way she has a lot of room to move about it, it's always been that way. I've began construction a massive bird-gym (think human-size) so she can do-away with the cage alltogether. Hopefully be finished in a week.

Unfortunately dorm style isn't really appropriate right now. I did plan on doing this when I bought my next house with a twin avairy setting. With the ages, the smaller male is about two years, the alpha male a year and the female about 8 months. Speaking of which, when is she ready for breeding? Not that i'll be putting a nesting box anywhere near her until my house is bought and aviary set up.

Thanks for the reply. What would you suggest? Leave them be? It's heartbreaking to see one become the outsider.

Hey guys. Long time between posts. This is an ongoing problem that i'm trying to fix without success. In a nutshell, i've had two males living together for more than a year and they were happy as can be. I introduced a female, and the larger of the two males now does nothing but keeps the other male away. Mostly violently. I tried seperating them at intervals so to speak. I removed the violent male for a month where he could not hear or see the others. On reintroducing the male back in to the other male (with the female removed now) they were generally fine, and it got to the point where they were happy together again. It's now been three months since the male was reintroduced and the female has been by herself. Last night I reintroduced them, and IMMEDIATELY the fights broke out. The alpha male once more made a beeline for the female, then to attack the smaller male. Right now i've got them all together. The smaller male is always in a corner of the cage away from the other two. If he tries coming anywhere near them he is fought off by the alpha male. The only thing I could think of is PERHAPS to buy a young female, train her up and introduce her to the population. I'm hoping that then they could be partnered up and all would be good with the world. Either that or the alpha male claims both females. What do you guys think?

Any help regarding the pictures I put up in page one?

Hey everyone, I might've found a peppermint tree, but i'm not sure. Pics:

If you get desperate 'The Bird Company' here in Adelaide ( Main North Road ) sells cage fronts in all sizes.

It really suprises me how these Budgies can be so violent, suprises me more on how they can do so much damage. It'd take more than one or two pecks to do that sort of damage I believe..

Howdy, a quick question, I might be trying to gain the impossible. I own three Budgies, in general i'll have two in a large flight in a main room, and one singled out for 'retraining' in my Study where I spend most my time. I say 'retrain' because at one stage, each of these birds were as tame as they could be. Wouldn't move when hands come to them, first stages of talking, bonded with me. However when I got a second bird ( and tamed it mind you before introducing ) they still went untame, I assume because they go back to their natural instincts when with their own kind. So what i've been trying to do is routinely move one bird into the Study for retraining for three months, get them back to the tame stage they should be, move them back into the main flight and take out a different bird to retrain. It just seems like a fortnight later, they're back to their old wild selves. It's upsetting. Is it just a fact that you can't keep a flock tame? Or do some of you out there have every bird in your flock bonded to you? Thanks, Rob

After introducting a hen, my two males can't be in the same room together let alone the same cage. The aggressive male will peck, claw, even jump on the male until he falls off whatever he is on. All the other passive male wants to do is have some company. Sad, really, before the hen was introduced those two wouldn't spend seconds away from each other.

Great read Daz, that will help all of us eventually. Don't suppose you want to do a write-up on how to build those lovely cages of yours?

I've never heard of giving Budgie's 'sand' before. Can someone elaborate?

Nice pics. What exactly was in the mash?