brunof

Hey! Thanks! I took a few pictures a few days ago, and I thought I would share this one. I'm not the best photographer -- I scared my birds and failed to get a good picture anyway. Again, Sheldon is the blue one, and Buttons is the yellow one. What do you guys think? Since the image is 800 x 600, I'll just post the direct link. pictures of the girls Rainbow -- Thank you also for the response. I hope I can somehow figure out a way to live with my birds full time so I can continue to work with them throughout the year because I know it takes a lot of work. I realize that because my birds are fully mature, so perhaps changing them for the better will be impossible. (Sheldon is probably a two years younger than Sheldon, and I purchased her in 2003) From what I can remember, from the introduction on Buttons has taken on the role of being a bossed around. I couldn't believe it when Sheldon started begging like a baby and Buttons actually fed her. It's not this bad now, but I can still see that Buttons does continue to cater to Sheldon, but unfortunately she receives little in return it seems. I'll keep working on them too. Thanks for your advice everyone! P.S. - Going by the cere, wouldn't you say that Sheldon and Buttons are both girls?

Hey guys! I'm new to the forum. In some sense I have been recently reunited with my little guys as they have moved into my summer theme house while I take a few courses during the summer. They've gone months without being handled back home, so I'm slowly trying to regain their trust. Here a background on my two birds: I purchased two parakeets during the summer of 2002, named Pluto (the male) and Buttons (the female). Well, after almost a year I lost Pluto, because he was a 'seed-junkie' and developed scaly mites. Pluto had quite a bit of personality, but I always wrongly labeled Buttons as the 'dumb one' because at the time she seemed to have no personality, at least compared to Pluto. I switched Buttons diet to Harrison's/seeds/vegs and began to work with her as much as possible. Eventually she came out of her shell I guess (for the second time, haha). But, I thought it would be beneficial to get her a mate, so I purchased Sheldon. I thought 'she' was a 'he' (she has since developed a nice brown/bronze cere) and after a quarantine period I introduced her to Buttons. At first the two birds were thrilled to have each others company, but as time went on, Sheldon became more demanding of Buttons, and would sit and beg like a baby bird to be fed, and Buttons would regurgitate her food to feed her although she could eat well on her own and was well past fledgling stage. Sheldon continues to demand being the dominant female although she still acts like a baby. When I take out Buttons to interact with her and leave the room Sheldon will make a huge fuss and cry out of her, but when I put Buttons back in the cage she kind of pecks at her and 'chews her out' for leaving. She also chooses to squabble with Buttons over food. For example, I put some carrots in their dish today and when Buttons stepped up to eat Sheldon knocked her off, and took the carrots from her mouth and dumped them on the floor. Buttons never fights back and just waits until she can try again, and often the same thing happens. Sheldon is also jealous of me and has bitten me when I have tried to interact with Buttons. For this reason, I guess I'm not the greatest fan of my younger bird. Does anyone have any suggestions on curving this annoying behavior or is Buttons stuck being the one who gets bossed around? Also, does anyone have suggestions on how I can work with Buttons without having Sheldon scream for her across the house? I forgot to ask what this may mean. Many times Sheldon goes up to Buttons and pushes up against her (breast to breast) Like this: O><O () . () and kind of rears up (stands up taller) forcing Buttons to stand up taller herself. At this point Sheldon will kind of open up her mouth as if demanding food or something. She does this all the time. What does this mean? Is it a dominance thing do you think?