Michelle

Wow... they really DO live in a box! Maybe you could invest into a big cage soon enough? It will make the lighting better, and it will be cleanable (cardboard + poop + water = not good.). After a while, this thing will probably not be very very hygienic. and plllleease make sure the snakes never get to them!! PS: Trisha is gorgeous!!!

A good start would be to buy just one. A male (females rarely talk). When you have two budgies it makes taming very hard, and they'll be wayyyy more interested in talking and playing with each other than with you. Buy #2 when your first budgie will be totally (or close to) tamed. (PS: I heard mirrors make the task tougher since they'll think they have a budgie friend there.)

Well... seeds mostly. Apples when they're not picky... But it's hard to feed them anything special, they're more interested in destroying the veggies and fruits. :\ They think it's a toy. I think they ate it all then whoops, nope, it's just that the whole vegetable is in tiny pieces all over the carpet! What's that? Is it bad? o_o

He lives with his girl... Bud has a pretty tail, never broke a feather... So I don't get it either. I don't think it's the cage. :mellow: ...Unless they're getting beaten around too much?

I love my budgie Pat. He's a shy boy, so most of the time he doesn't mind me. But all of the sudden he has these outbursts of "Oh man I'm so happy!" and comes to see me to munch on my glasses and hair (and bite my nose. What was THAT for?!) But MAN does he have an ugly tail! He never could grow a sturdy one for some reason! Look at that! Always that messy and broken! It just never gets pretty! Whenever he gets a long tail feather after a moult, a week later it's broken. :X It can hang there after his rear for another week until it falls. Got any birds with ugly tails?

They're so pretty! That's sure to give pretty babies no matter what (The girl is like a younger version of my girl and the boy's the spit image of her youngest son!) I also think you're right on the target...

I clip my own budgies... The petstore lady showed me how to do it. They need a cut this weekend actually, they got a few feathers that grew back and these little monsters just keep flying in the kitchen! That's no good, silly birds! S'where the dogs hangs out and he just sees flying toys! See? S'what the doggie will do to you if he catches yous. And you're interestiiiiiiiing. (that hole in the wall is next to their cages so they often hang out there. But they never cross to the kitchen there... Only through the door for some reason.)

Thanks. I'll be sure to post whatever info gets to me about the chicks. I really want them to grow up strong, but there's just so many odds against them I don't have high hopes. Still, who knows... I might actually take one if they get to maturity! I'll be sure to try to take a boy though... I don't want another girl! I got two guys here and the only spot there is for it would be in Godzilla's cage! That'd be... Bad. very bad.

Hey! It's been ages since I posted here... I still been hanging around and reading and looking at the nice pictures, but just not posting. I been so busy this year!! So I'm awfully worried right now. I just had to post it away to folks who would understand, you know, get it off my chest... Back in june, my beloved little budgie Bud and her sweetie AKA punching bag Pat had five little babies. Well, they had 7 but 2 died at 3 days of age. She kept them full but they just never grew... And well, at 4 weeks old or a bit older I gave 4 of them away and kept the first one. Godzilla's his name. He used to like me but no more, he decided to snob me and go for my mother only instead! So we got a cute rivalry thing going now for my mom's attention. The other four... #2 I gave to an unknown woman I met at the petstore. I don't know how it turned out, she never called back. No idea if it's a boy or a girl. I hope it's okay and plenty happy! From the sound of it, her first budgie was very happy and even speaks so I can only imagine my Bud's chick is just as happy. #4 is called Lemon. I gave her to a workmate, along with Bud's old cage. I visited her a couple months ago. She's absolutely delightful. She wouldn't let me go and kept giving me kissies. She's just as happy around strangers as around her owner. Now... #3 and #5... I thought they were both guys. I gave them both to my aunt. And boy was I wrong. Now, I knew they would be well treated, my aunt had lots of budgies before. She even raised them. Old style since she warned me that I should never touch my chicks otherwise Bud'll kill them and such... 'course, that never happened. Turns out #3, Charley, it um... A girl. #5, Blue Moon, is a boy. And what does boys and girls do? Yah. That. First mom told me they were doing stuff. I suggested my aunt should split them. She didn't. Then, a few weeks later, mom said to me that Charley laid an egg at the bottom of the cage... Now I was pretty worried. But she was ignoring it. I still suggested my aunt goes buy a fake egg and trade. Then more eggs came. I'm not sure how many she had... So I suggested she should at LEAST scramble them. Cuz the resulting chicks might not be too great. And well, she didn't do it. On the weak genes part, I just had a "I'm not sure they bother checking that in nature."... Of course not, but there's at least a lot more budgies to choose from! So a couple days ago, my mother and I were talking and she asked me when budgie eggs hatch... I say that if her eggs were to hatch it should be anytime soon, but we didn't remember the date she had her first egg on. I thought it was a long time ago, so I said "They must be duds. They may never hatch" Annnnd I was wrong. They did. Today, the first chick came out. So let's see... There's a what, 10 months old bro and sister budgie that got kids at the bottom of a cage, there's two small hyperactive dogs that walk around the cage pretty often and probably offers extra stress... I don't know why, I smell problems coming. I'm seriously worried, and helpless too. Not only for the newborn chicks, but for the two kids of my budgies too... I wish I could help, but how can I help? I can't just start counselling her, she's my aunt that raised hundreds of budgies. And well, it's her budgies now. I was 5 I think when she stopped raising... so for all I try I can't remember what it was like... Thoughts folks?

Yea, I see what you mean. I guess the door isn't quite practical for taming and cleaning. There should've been a couple others, at least centered, so you can at least try running around. ...Just the thought of trying to reach in that cage makes my shoulder hurt. But I guess that for fully tamed birds it would be a great spot to live!

I don't know, that cage looks absolutely wonderful to me! Maybe a bit too high? I'm not sure, but I think I'd like it. I would build up some extra perches for lower down and hang the toys directly off 'em instead of adding hooks. Or maybe build some extra smaller perches (fit with a screw and some washers to the side) just to hang the toys right above a desired bigger perch. And if they won't go below, maybe you need to put something down there to attract them below?

Lime looked just like Godzilla! :ausb: Aww babies are so cute and fuzzy.

Wow. Your camera's speed is awesome. If I would try to take flying pictures I'd get a blur! (and I'd get nothing, I have clipped birds. )

They're all so gorgeous!

Here's a few new pictures of my little bird family. Either she's stretching on the second picture... Either she's preparing to go ninja on the two others. <.< I can't decide. Baby Godzilla and daddy Pat who tries to score with it all the time. Eep. My favorite camera target, Bud. I love my big girl Bud, with her bad temper and everything. Seriously, I adore her bad temper, she's playful and wants to take over the world at the same time!

(Laughing out loud), okay! thanks. I guess she's just a big girl. Someone told me that females are usually bigger?

Hey guys, I wonder, what's the usual size for a regular pet budgie? I remember that this last weekend I had brought Bud and Pat over to the petstore for a little nail clip (Yep, now I have some special perch to do it more naturally but whoops, I had forgotten to buy one before...) and I noticed that Bud was much bigger than Pat is. She's noticeably taller, though not as big as a show budgie, and she weights more... Tonight I had both in my hands I could just weight the difference just like that. I don't think she's overweight or anything, just... naturally biggg girl.

Why did you put him with a violent female? Did you want to teach him a lesson or something? o_O

It sounds like getting her to the vet is the best thing you can do for her right now.

USB microscopes?? Woah, that's much more hi-tech than my cheap toy microscope! ...which I wonder why I still have. Oh wait, I know. Cuz I'm a curious sneak

Living so many months in her condition was really a feat. She was a great girl and she proved it to the end.

Yah, that would be who they were complaining about. They started airing his show on a local channel in french. But looks like they are against that. (They prefer their puppy mill dogs to stay out of control I guess.) But all I know of that Cesar dude comes from South Park. In one episode he "trains" Cartman. Haha.

Yea, if he understands I'm the boss it should work just swell. But what I get from all you guys say is I better hang out very close anyway to stop him from having a quick snap. And I'll do just that.... when I'm sure he won't pee on the living room carpet. ;P It reminds me... I was at the petstore a couple weeks ago and I looked at a sign near the dogs... They were going against some show on TV that shows that your dog needs a master saying that isn't true and that they are made to be your equal. Maybe they should look up their evolutionary lineage and behavior...

Gotcha, thanks folks. I'll do my best to keep my birdies safe. :3

Hey guys, I just got the permission to get a dog! I'm so happy. I always wanted one and I will in a month or two! I'm thinking of getting a cocker... Of course, at first I was thinking of leaving the dog out of the living room, where the budgies are... There's carpet there and well, he has to be trained to do his stuff outside before being allowed on that... So here's the thing... Do you guys think the dog will eventually get used to the birds or will he forever try to snack on them? Is there any of you that own a dog and knows how I could "train" him to not see birds that have clipped wings as a munchmunch? Of course, I can just block the access to the living room when the birds are out of the cage but hey...