Angelic Vampyre

I am going to assume that when you say mate you mean breed? Unless you know everything that is involved in breeding I would not do it. Check out the breeding section of the board and read up, there are a lot of issues that come hand in hand with breeding. Please don't think it is as simple as putting a nesting box in a cage and bang you get eggs and then chicks because it's not 95% of the time. As for ages, normally 18month/2 years is a good age to start them up till 4 or 5 years. Some cocks will go for longer then that but it just depends opn the bird however the hen it becomes to stressful for them. You have to be prepared for your birds not to get along. I have Boof who does not really get along with anyone in my aviary but LOVES Buddy so those to hang out inside. However I have been lucky. If you end up with two birds that do not get along then you need to house them in seperate cages and be prepared to spend equal time with them out of the cage. Also I find that two cocks get on better then two hens but that really is a personal thing as other people will say it does not matter or the other way around. ETA - if you do decided on a new budgie then please please please make sure to qarantine it, I have had the worse outbreaks here because I brought a new bird into my flock that was sick but I did not know this. Again check out the FAQs section for quarantine processes and know what you need to do before you bring home a new guy.

Do you have any pictures? it may be as simple as molt or it may be his mutation. Pictures would help (also we like picture here! ) *snap libby*

yes I can't wear earings around him cause he had leant to take them out, not such an issue for hook ones issue for stud ones cause he just keeps pulling them!

we use to do this as kids with our ponies not as fancy but we could stop start and turn directions. we had to lean to ride and control the horse with a rope around it's neck before we got any tack. Sometime going bareback is still more comfortable for me! It was great skill to have. My dad breed and rode polo ponies some we could not do it to but most we could just go out into the paddock and jump on and ride, nothing better then riding silver... an old stallion we had he was so quite that I would go out and lead him to a fence post jump on and just take off across the paddock on him... it is an amazing feeling and a huge amount fo trust involved

yeah I know a few times my sister has come in and started doing something and then he chirps and she freaks out cause she did not know that he was there! Come on he was sitting right in from of you!

LOL Buddy sometimes bounces on my keyboard Boof normally take up his spot on the watch (he LOVES that watch for some reason) and watches (no punt intended) as they both have their wings clipped they do alot of half flying that means they go up and down in the same spot. If i need to type then i have to move Buddy to my shoulder and then boof gets all squaky and has to be moved as well!

okay so my guys decided to do a bit of surfing of the web and yes my desk needs to be cleaned up! Look mum I can speed type!

Well i just got a call from the mother... seem that she might want to give me Charlie as she thinks that it might be to much work. I said I was sorry for being short with her last night and I would like to help her and her son take care of the bird and am willing to offer guidence and support. She sort of huffed down the phone at me and said that she did some research and it not sure her son is ready to take on a pet that takes this much time and money. I again said I was happy to take the bird and offered to pay for him, i also said that her son could come visit Charlie in my avairy with Brandon at any time. we just had a chat and she said she will think about it. I told her that I would give Brandon some more seed to take to school tomorrow to give her son and also some millet so that will tide them over till they decided what they want to do. I feel sorry for the budige and hope that they do decide to take my advice on board and keep them and treat him right but in the end it is up to them. Will keep you posted.

She has been on doxy for about 15 - 20 days and she was sick before she went on it. Maybe I am jsut seeing things that are not there.... Here is a video, first up Ashley then Grey and last Brandon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp1JB2LC7Yo

I tried to measure and can't really tell, but the guys seems to be doing it now as well. I really think I am going to curl up in a corner and hide somewhere....

Arghhh look at my little guy!

Don't know who is cutter the kid or the bird? Is that Buddy by the way or one of his brothers?

I was always told increase their veggies and decrese their seed. However you need him to fly. Can he fly at the moment? If not then make him work to get his dinner, litterally make him walk across your floor to get to this food, you can then pick him up and let him try and fly to the ground increasing this distance and the amount of times that you do it as he gets better and better at it. Just watch his breathing as you don't want him to have a heart attack. Flying is the key to getting weight off a Budgie

Neat I have given them all the information that I can and if they close to follow it then that is up to them. A few times when I was talking to the boy the mother was making comments like "this seems like alot of work" "Never knew it was going to cost x, y, z" "If I had known this in the first place he would never have gotten the dam budgie" so I gave her an out to give me the bird, she may or may not take it. I am more mad at the fact that someone gave her the wrong information in the first place. I get that they did not know and I am hoping that what I have told them will help them learn but the mothers attitude worried me, all of a sudden an cheap and easy to care for pet had become alot more complicated and I am not sure she was prepared for that. They had not clipped the wing that was done by the "breeder" and I use that term losely. My first gut reaction was to take the bird away from them but I did not. I attempted to educate and help. Yes I got mad at the mother but that is cause she was not listening just telling me I was wrong and she had been told X. I was tired and mad and could have handled the situation better but that is what happened. I understand that owning pets is a learning curve and however bad it may be some poor animals will die to allow humans to learn how to care for them. I have done the wrong thing with my budgie in the past and have learnt from it, so I get that people need to learn and grow but I don't feel like the mother will do that. In fact I think she will convince the kid that it is all to much effort and decided to give the bird away, my fear is they will just let it go and with his wings clipped that would not work in the birds favour at all! They where told things like, only clean the cage once a week, if it does not look to dirty then once every two weeks is fine. Just feed the bird pellets just top up the dish when empty no need for anything else, new water every few days is fine.... etc... so the pet has gone from a do x every few days to do y on a daily base and I am not sure how the kid or the mother will handle it. This is why I offered to take the bird if they wanted. it's hard to explain I just have this feeling that I might end up with another bird if I do fine if not then hopefully they will take my advise on board and look after the little fella.

Thanks renee. She is currently being treating as a sick bird anyway and she is already on Doxi. I caught her today and had a quick look could not hear anything so maybe it is the breeding thing. Will remove Grey from the cage with her and leave her on her one hopefully that will stop all this... here is hoping anyway!

They got him from a breeder which is sad and makes me think of Budgie farms Yeah i know that is why I am going to monitor from afar. i did tell them last night that If they want to give the bird to me I would be more then happy to take him and even pay for the cost of the bird, the mother mumbled something and we left so you never know my numbers might grow but not counting on it.

Neat I have not taken offence. I know that Brandon will continue to see his friend so I know that I will hear about the Budgie and be able to check on the bird in a third part sort of way. brandon is a smart kid and I think that if he feels the Budgie is seriously ill then I would say that it is. If I feel that they are not taking care of it and it's life is in danger then I will contact the RSPCA and let them step in. I am not going back the house because as you said it is none of my business in a sense. I have done everything that I can do, I have attempted to educate and have given them tools to start them off but here is hoping that they continue.

He has got the bug big time. Today he rocks up at my house at 6.10 in his PJs cause he slept in Very cute he was all puffed and worried that I thought that he was not living up to the task that had been set for him. Really if he rocks up one or two days a week I will be happy so far it is every day!

Last night I got home and just wanted to go to sleep when Brandon the little boy to has been helping me with my birds came knocking on the door with him mum. Brandon had spent the day with his friend who has a young budgie that he got in the past few weeks. Brandon thinks that this bird is very ill but the mother of his friend will not listen to him about it. So Brandon mother asks if I would go down and talk to the family as Brandon is very upset over the situation. So armed with some fresh fruit and veggies (had just cut some up for my guys) some seed, multi vitamins, calcium dot, nail scissors and Ivermectin I head down there with Brandon and his mum. The other boys mother was not happy about us all rocking up on her door step but after Brandons mum did some talking to her I was allowed to see the bird. NOT HAPPY JAN! Seems that someone has told them that all he needs is pellets and shell grit so that's all they have been feeding the poor boy, when he didn't eat eather they just left the pellets in the feed dish which was not covered in the budgie poo and was pretty gross!. (and yes he was a boy not a girl as they also had been told) So I grab some seed attempt to get him to step up onto my finger which he does more out of not having energy rather then wanting to do it I think. I gave him some seed, took him a bit to get interested but then went for it, never seen a bird eat so much and so quickly poor little guy has been starving. It was a little funny as the seed was in my cupped hand the little guy pretty much tried to do a handstand on my hand to get the seed quicker, bit me a few times but not his fault so I will forgive him. At this stage the kids mum is all up in my face saying that she had been told blah blah blah and I finally cracked it and told her to F off and she knew squat and she was slowly starving the budgie to death. The young boy however was more receptive, I explained about feed and water for the budgie, also about fresh veggie and gave him the lot that I had cut up and the reaming seed which should last him for a few days. I recommended for the next few days that he had some vitamins to the water as the poor guy has not been eating but there where no signs of tail bobbing or discharge around the cere. I checked him over and discovered that some little *insert words I am not allowed to use here* had clipped ONE wing and I was told that the budgie kept crashing into things so they now don't let it out of the cage. So I clipped the other wings and thanked the lord that MB had shown me how to do this the other day and I also said a prayer before each feather I cut! The mother refuses to take the bird to the vet as it is "just a bird" and that really annoys me cause they are within walking distance from my avianian vet! GRRRRRR Brandon was all upset and wanted to know how come someone like that could have a bird when he can't have one yet and he knew something was wrong with the bird and the owners did not. I am annoyed and really wanted to walk out with the Budgie but I am hoping that if I keep and eye on him that he will work out. Also I reminded Brandon how he is going to pick his baby from the nest and be able to watch it grow from an egg until the time he gets to take it home so he perked up a bit. I was so mad last night and I hated leaving the poor little guy there but here is hoping that he makes a recovery and gets the treatment he needs. If not I think I will check in on him and if I feel that they are not looking after him right then I will see about how I can get the bird out of the situation.

Insert AV crying in a corner okay will split her up from everyone else in case she has got something more serious. All the other sickies look great and a few of them you would never know had been sick. Once I get paid at the end of the week then I think I might take her back to the vet and see what he says. If it was Grey then I would not be so upset. I really like Ashley and had hopes for her and Brandon but now I am thinking that maybe my luck is running out. (and so is my Budgie medical fund!)

Is there any other reason then being sick that a bird would do this? Ashley has started to do it again and I don't understand it, she is on Doxi she has been getting better and then today I noticed that she was tail bobbing again. Please tell me there is some other reason..... I was once told that it was a sign that they where in breeding condition but have never heard this again so not sure if it's true. I feel the need to

LOL cute pictures

Honey that sucks! *hugs* PS thanks for the link KAZ do you know that someone is giving away a monkey on that list????

it's weird Libby it like a physical pain sometimes. Sometimes I just want to risk it, screw what the Drs say and just do it again, but logically I know it's dangerous and costly and I can't afford nor do I have the time to do it at the level I was 7 years ago. Doesn't help that about a year ago i lost my old dressage horse, Tec knew me and the routines so well that once I got him started on one i litteraly could just sit there and make sure we stayed on the right track use to drive my instructor mad as I didn't have to do any work and we won almost everytime I miss him even if he did spend the last 6 years of his life getting fat and annoying my father because I just could not let anyone take him.. sorry I am a mess tonight.

I am crying... god that is just an amazing horse... I use to do things like that not anywhere near as good but still I miss it so much and that was just..... I want to go ridding now just.... I so wantt o do that and I can't and it sucks....