Feathers

I love them when they are all pins My show budgies have just come out the other side of their moult. The babies are looking great. Feathers.

Hi Kyle, Budgies are one of the best mimmickers in the parrot world. If you want a talking budgie then you need to find a young male (one where the bars on his head come all the way down to his cere (nostrils). You need to spend a lot of time around your budgie training him. It can take some time, but if you don't give up it will happen. You need to pick a phrase and start with that. If it is "Good boy, (insert name)" then everytime you are with him, or walk past him etc you need to say "Good boy, (insert name)" It will help if he trusts you, so finger training him would be a good idea as well. Hope this helps, Feathers.

Hi Kyle, what area are you in? Feathers.

Mandy, I am really sorry to hear that, and of course none of us would be dissappointed with you. Give your kids an extra hug from me in the morning. *hugz* to all Feathers.

Hi Beks, yep, fresh, uncooked corn, they love... most veggies they love raw... dark lettuces, chinese lettuces, like bok choy, spinach... Feathers.

Excellent cage, Nathan.. great pick up. Feathers.

Hiya Dave, I await your photos. The 5 birds moved in will be absolutely loving it Feathers

Nharvi, that is a great picture of a bourke.. who wouldn't want one :hap: Feathers.

Hi Snip, great job.Black is actually better to see through than lighter colours, so it's not such a bad thing. Your reward is seeing how happy the budgies are in their new abode. feathers.

Hi Nharvi, I can't view that link, it may be in an area that only members of the site can access. As a rule most species don't mix well with budgies, but others may be able to give you more information on that. Karen, a member here, has owned both species so she would be a good person to ask. If it were me, I'd keep up the search for the Next Top Model Budgie Boy :hap: Feathers.

She is stunning, with or without flight feathers and tail, Nharvi :hap:

Hi Nhavi, I was going to ask if you had been married, I saw the engagement photo on the site that you post your pics (sneaky I know :hap: ). She will be fine with a mate, females are the bullies of the species, not the males, but even with another female she would be okay. There are several members here who have runner budgies as well as flighted budgies. My runner was in an aviary with many others when I got him, and he was fine in there. He is now with another budgie who has 'flight issues', a female, who is a bit of a bully, but they get along great. Go ahead and get Konrad a mate, but make sure that you quarantine in another room for at least 30 days, in case the new budgie is carrying anything contageous. Also use that time to 'bond' with and finger train the new budgie as it is often hard once they are together. feathers

Konrad is a sweetie. If you put a rope from the floor to her cage she would probably love to use it to get down and up. When you find out, please let me know :hap: Feathers.

Hi Nharvi, Konrad is a sweetie, such a beautiful colour, as I have mentioned before. She is what is known as a 'runner budgie'. I have one myself. Mine holds onto his perch and flaps his little wings as hard as he can, just for the fun of it I think. She will be fine without, don't fret. There are many pet budgies that go through life without flight or tail feathers. As for the brown look above the cere and the 'fringe', this is quite normal as well. Many budgies, especially around the time that they are moulting, get a brown tinge above the cere. I assume that is when she gets the 'punk look' as well, as she doesn't always have a punk style in his photos. She looks perfectly happy and healthy to me :hap: Feathers. p.s. you are gorgeous too :hap:

That is a problem with a lot of the rarer varieties and a major reason why not many people bother with them. They won't win "Grand Champion" - they simply don't have the size to be competitive in that division. But on the plus side for the people who do take them on, they stand a better chance of winning in their own class. Paul... the auction itself ran for 4 hours. Prior to that there was 1 hour for lodging the birds and 1 hour for viewing. I guess there was about 50 - 60 people present. Aly

Hiya Thomas. Sorry to hear about the loss of your first budgie. It could have died for many different reasons, and unless your rope toy was particularly frayed, I don't think it would have been the culprit. I have many rope toys and perches. The budgies love them as they are softer on their feet. I don't think I have ever looked in my aviary or a cage and seen a rope perch or toy that didn't have at least one budgie on it. However, I do check them over and would fix or get rid of any that looked damaged or frayed. So far, though, they are all fine. Feathers.

I just love his colour, so intense. Can't wait to see them as fledglings... Feathers.

Jojo is gorgeous Feathers.

Norm Wheatley I would guess. Kaz's birds came from Posthuma, Kobilanski, Hugo and Mitchell & Torricella. The top bird of the day went for $350. It was a very nice double factor spangle hen. Another from the same breeder was passed in when it failed to reach the reserve price of $300.00. I came home with 3 new birds, a really nice grey cock, split for greywing. I also ended up with 2 birds that failed to meet the minimum reserve price of $30.00. On second offer I ended up with both birds for a total of $51.00. They are medium quality Black Eyed Self's. Both originally from NSW. As there is really only one breeder in WA that is working with this mutation I have decided to take them on as a specialty breed. It will take a few years to get the standard up, but that is a challenge in itself. Here are the birds I bought: I also won one of the raffles that was being run on the day. It was a hospital cage. It has a built in heat lamp and thermometer. It was an interesting day. Feathers.

Hi Vonn, If Lukie likes his veg clipped to the cage, that is great. As long as he is eating the vegetables is all that matters. Elly's advice on changing over to pellets is fantastic, as she is doing this with Merlin as well, so she knows what it is like to get them to change over. It is also great that Lukie chews on his cuttlebone, so he is probably getting a good supply of calcium. As long as it is up high and not getting pooped on, it does not need to be washed. If it is a little dirty, you can try to shave the dirty area off. I am unsure what brands are available in the UK. Here in Australia, Vetafarm and Dr Marshalls suppliments are used a lot. Most are put into their water, but they are also sometimes crop fed and I sometimes put them into the oats that I feed my birds as that is a good way to make sure they are getting them. I wouldn't worry too much about it, unless it is taking a long time for Lukie to get used to eating pellets. Feathers.

Hi, did you get to the vet? How is she now? Feathers.

Hiya, He is a cutie, from what I can see. Poor Saffy, how is she going now? I have it on my to do list this week to get some gaffa tape to cut off and tape over any toys that have fuzzy rope hanging off them. Feathers.

It is just a really interesting observation. Thanks Sailor for bringing it up... I am going to be checking all my cocks tomorrow... Feathers.

Hiya Vonn, I can fully appreciate how scared you must have been through all this, but please do not beat yourself up because you didn't realise he was missing important elements in his food. The problems lies with the lack of information that is given by pet stores when people buy their pets. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who are just interested in the money. For the next 10 days don't change anything, just feed him his normal seed, and don't give him fruit or vegetables. If you give him fruit and vegetables, he will be able to get moisture from his food and won't need to drink his medicated water. So seed and medicated water is all he gets for 10 days. Once he is better then you can start to change his diet. Introduce other vegetables, especially dark leafy vegetables; dark lettuces (not the round iceberg type - that give them sloppy poos), chinese greens like bok choy, brocolli, grated carrot, corn. Cut it into tiny bite sized pieces that he can pick at. If he isn't interested try sprinkling some seed over it so that he realises it is food. If he still doesn't eat it keep on trying. Try larger pieces, try pieces sticking through the bars of his cage, but do persist with it. As I said, pellets aren't really an option here in WA, so I use suppliments instead to ensure that my budgies get all the vitamins and minerals they need. I am not sure what brands you have available to you, but they are there as England is the leader in breeding exhibition budgerigars. A good multi vitamin and a calcium suppliment would be good to use. However, it sounds like you do have decent pellet available to you. Make sure that they are as natural as possible and contain a lot of vitamins and minerals and steer away from coloured pellets. They are coloured to make them look pretty for you, but the dyes are not the best thing for the birds. You need to try to introduce Lukie slowly. A lot of times this information on how to get birds to eat pellets is written on the pack. You usually need to introduce them by making them up into a 'mush' to start with, putting in water and mixing it up. Slowly, as Lukie starts to show interest and starts eating the food use less and less water. Eventually he will realise that it is a good food source. The vet is right, budgies usually eat in the morning and then in the evening for their 'main meals' before settling down for the night. So taking out the seed in the afternoon is a good idea, but make sure that you put the seed back in when you cover him up for the night, so that if he is taking his time to start on the pellet mix he won't starve. The key is to keep on trying, Vonn. He wont change his eating habits overnight, but if you keep on trying, he will eventually . In the meantime, if you are worried about deficiencies, use some suppliments like I mentioned before. *hugz* to you and Lukie, Feathers.

They are both looking absolutely beautiful. Loved the tree Feathers.