armchairangel

I just used a regular nail clippers when I trimmed Baby's nails. I would be conservative when clipping. I am used to clipping dog's nails and you owant to trim them as close to the quick as you can. I did this with Baby and found that she had a very tough time climbing around her cage till they grew some!

I have only given my birds vet prescribed medicine. We even asked him about putting supplements in the water of our ancient bird because at the time she only ate seed, and he seemed to think that less is better. If they're eating a fortified diet of seeds, pellets and veggies, they should be getting all the vitamins they need. Adding to the water only increases chances of getting too much of certain vitamins (which isn't good) and it also increases the bacterial growth in the water. As far as probiotics go, they are good for keeping the digestive system healthy, but I would still see if the vet recommends it. Its very difficult to ensure the amounts the birds are getting of things put in their water.

I love budgie veggie faces!! Baby has started to get the green and orange beak thing going now too. The ferris wheel of jingle balls looks like a super fun toy!

Could you take Oz out for some time without Blinkie? Oz won't be eating for that time and he'll be having more exercise. *L* Could you chase him a little during this time so he can get some hard core exercise? Blink can have some extra food at this time. Could you separate them for a day or two and find out exactly what each is eating? Maybe you can have some time where there's no food in the cage. Maybe you could get (or make) a mix of seeds that have less fattening ones in it - less millet or something. Or feed them their seeds separately and take it out when they're together.

Others will know more about this, but it could be that Valerie is just being hormonal, going through puberty of sorts. She should grow out of it. Others will know things that you can do to help her come out of it friendly on the other side.

I can't help you with the genetics, but in order for others to do so, they need to know the info about both the male and female. What does she look like?

Hopefully someone who knows more about breeding and keeping a large flock of birds will come along and give you better advice than what I have to offer. I have mostly heard that when there is a problem in the flock, they remove the one causing the problem - i.e. the one who has taken over all the nests. Not sure what to do about the multiple matings though.

I would say that if they're tasting it, they're well on their way. Just keep being persistant. Some budgies like the smaller pieces of the crumbles. I mixed the pellets in with the seed so my birds would know that they're food and slowly increased the amount I put in. I think I mostly got lucky though, cuz they seemed to take to them pretty quickly.

I love it!! Budgie boys are SOOOOO funny in their incessant flirting. I just caught Cupid with his head in the pellet dish bobbing and singing... *(Laughing out loud)*

In addition to eating a lot of veggies today, Baby spent some really good time bonding with Psyche! She was sitting within a budgie's width of her, singing like Cupid, stepping closer to her and then backing away again and again. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't believe that she did the whole feeding thing too! You know, tipping the head sideways and touching beaks. As I watch the three interact, I'm seeing that Baby likes them on HER terms. She spends hours on top of their cage, sleeping, playing or singing just a few inches above them. When she goes in their cage or they're in hers, she's fine when she goes up to them, but when they come to her, she wants to get away. At one point I thought that she gets along with them just fine, likes their company and stuff, but she just has a larger area of personal space than most budgies. *L* However, today she was very comfortable fairly close to Psyche. This made me think that maybe they have an understanding of each other. They enjoy each other's company, but won't bug each other. Cupid will sing and bob and dance and follow both of them around till they can't stand it anymore and he'll continue to try. The girls can hang out together without bothering the other one. *(Laughing out loud)* I anthropomorphize SOOOooo much.... *(Laughing out loud)* I wish we were able to leave both cages open all the time so Baby can spend more time with them if she wishes. I suppose we probably could, but then C and P wouldn't have to rely on me to have out of the cage time. The way I do it now is to open the door for her and see if she'll step in. And I have to watch them to make sure she's not having troubles with them. When they follow her around the cage too much and she starts freaking out, I then go and see if she wants to come out. Sometimes she does, sometimes not. I suppose its not too bad of a process. Maybe with her being so old she doesn't need the excitement and stress of more interaction with them. But if its on HER terms, she'll probably be happiest, as she likes doing things with us on her terms too. I love watching our birds together, growing and learning!

They were frozen - I have a mix of carrots, peas, corn, green beans and lima beans. They seem to like it well enough and its easy for me to prepare. Just run a handful under warm water till they thaw and toss in the bowl. I know its not as good as fresh, but its better than none.

There are now THREE veggie eating birds in the house!! I was watching Baby while she was in with Cupid and Psyche and she was down eating out of their food bowl. I watched her for a good five minutes or more, picking up and chewing on a carrot, a pea and a lima bean! I was so impressed I was speechless! This was from a 16 year old bird who hates soft mushy food cuz she doesn't like her face getting dirty. So now I'll make 2 bowls of veggies in the morning. Ohhh I'm so happy I could SING!!

I suppose she could have been scratching at her eye and lost her balance and fell, making her foot get stuck. She has seemed like her regular self this past hour now. Its good to know that they can fall and get twisted up and not really be any worse for wear. Thanks!

Thanks for the info everyone! Sailorwolf, I love that you call one of your birds Saffy. I had a cat named Saffire who was also Saffy to me. It makes me think of him everytime you say it!

A few minutes ago, it almost looked like Baby had a seizure! I didn't see it, my husband did and he was the one who responded. After he talked about what happened, it makes me think that it wasn't a seizure, but some sort of freak thing. She was on the side of Cupid and Psyche's cage and she kind of fell and got stuck between the bookcase and the wall. She was flopping and twitching. Jared picked her up and her foot was stuck behind her wing and she was twitching to get it free. Her eye was blinking and twitching too, like she had something in it. He said there was a feather or fuzz in it. He thought she was trying to get the thing out of her eye with her foot and it got stuck. When I looked her over, she had a feather stuck to one of her claws. I'm thinking that this was just a case of acrobatics gone wrong. I'm hoping!! She sat on jared's finger quite well after she stopped flopping around. I think that he helped get her unstuck. She might have been sitting a little bit lower than usual, but she might have been tired from the incident. She readily stepped onto my finger and crawled up my arm. I couldn't look at her too closely cuz she flew across the room back to her cage almost right away. She's been sitting on her perch singing and screeping ever since, so I'm guessing it was nothing serious. I'm hoping it was nothing serious! I just about cried when he said, "Ummm... i think we have a bird who's having a seizure..." My heart is still racing. If she did in fact suffer a seizure, would she have been able to fly across the room successfully about a minute afterwards? I'm guessing no. And the singing? She's now foraging and eating. Things to look for would be a sleepy, fluffy bird, one who falls cuz her feet don't work on one side, etc etc... Is there anything else I could keep my eye out for to be sure she's okay? And heck, if she had hurt herself when she fell (only about a foot), would she have been able to fly across the room right away?

Stupid question time.... What is a runner budgie? I'm guessing its one that can't fly? Do they get that way from a medical issue, or do people 'make' them?

Baby used to completely take her food dish off the bars and throw it on the floor of her cage. I have no clue how many years she's done this since she was doing it before I knew her. She then loved to forage in the seeds on the floor, even amongst the poop! We figured she preferred foraging for her seeds, so when we moved her into her current cage, which has a barred bottom that she couldn't foraage from, we created a foraging area for her on top of her cage on her playground. She doesn't even try to spill the seed container anymore.

*L* My sister in law calls me a bird whisperer because of how I helped tame their budgie in a weekend. I don't know if I'd call myself that though. I like the reading idea! And slowly getting closer to the cage day by day is a good way of desensitizing them to your presence. Reading a little bit a few times each day closer and closer to the cage sounds like a really good low stress way of calming her down and teaching her you're not going to hurt her. One thing that helped me with my wilder birds was to not try to do anything with them when changing their food and water and stuff each day. That way they saw the hand come in and go out with nothing scary or bad happening and food coming in too. I did this until they stopped freaking out when I put my hand in the cage. They'd still move to a corner far away from me, but not in such a frenzied way. I changed their perches and toys around weeklly as well - more hand exposure with nothing bad. If your girl hasn't had exposure to treats, millet would be a great thing for her. Its very similar to the seed she's used to. Only let her have it when you're around working with her. If she's afraid of toys, you can introduce her to them slowly. Set them in the room for a day or two where she can see them and slowly move it closer to her cage. She'll see that its something regular and not harmful to her and then you can put it in the cage. My guys are all a little nervous around new toys, particularly bigger ones, so I'm going through that process myself as we speak. She's absolutely beautiful! I wish you lots of luck and patience!

I think giving (or selling) your brother a bird of his own is a great idea! Many people have already said lots of positive things about it, with which I totally agree. Here are a few thoughts I've had that I don't think people have mentioned yet. As far as your worry about him growing out of it, or not wanting it when he's a bit older, don't forget the bond that he's going to be creating. While the idea of a nameless faceless budgie might not seem like a cool thing for a 17 year old guy, one that he has raised and bonded with very well could be harder to push away and give up. Could you make some kind of agreement with your mum to help keep your brother accountable for caring for his bird? Like if you see he's slipping on some aspects, she'll back you up in getting him to do it, so it doesn't turn into a sibling fight. Having him pay you a small amount is a good idea because like its been mentioned on other threads, budgies aren't just throw away pets that are worth nothing (get a free bird with purchase of a cage). If he pays you, he'll feel like he has more responsibility for the bird. He's put something into it, so he might be more likely to take good care of it. Good luck and have fun! It sounds like a really exciting adventure.

the only downfall to the gradual switch over (which IS the healthy/safe way to change any animal's food) is that I only have one or two days' worth of pellets left. I dont' want to have to buy another whole container of each kind.... Although, I suppose I could just keep them on this stuff for now and switch when it gets low and there's still enough to do it with. duh! *L*

I didn't put new pellets in this morning and they're still eating from the container, almost fighting over turns. *L* The container is in a place where poop somehow doesnt' get in it, and if it does, I do change the stuff. They also get veggies and seeds every day. I like the idea of measuring out a certain amount each day. Baby gets a mix of seed and pellets and they seem to disappear in her cage too. I'm feeding them Lafebers right now and molasses is high on the ingredient list. I've been wondering how good of a brand of pellets they are and I'm tempted to try to switch to Harrisons or Zupreem (I've heard that brand recommended here too), but I'm afraid they won't like the new kind. I kind of have the idea that if they're eating this stuff, its better than not eating any pellets at all. I just don't want to end up going backwards, you know?

Oh my!!! 2 and a half minutes?! I couldn't watch it all... *(Laughing out loud)* But the girl sure didn't seem to mind either though.

Cupid is playing with the cage bars as we speak!! He loves his bell and the cuttlebone as well as his Psyche. *L*

So my monsters love their pellets! I've started keeping them in a separate dish in the cage all the time. If they don't love eating them, they at least love reducing them to pellet dust. My question is if people dump out the pellet dust, or leave it in there for them to eat. I suppose I could just not add more whole pellets for a day or two and see if they still eat from it or not and that might help me figure out what to do. What do you do?

OMG that's hilarious!! Cupid had to say hi to the birdies too. *L*