melbournebudgies

No worries TB, I sex alot of my own(non-budgie) birds by feeling the pelvic bones so I can do it gently

Is mum feeding them? If she is maybe you could get rid of dad and just keep an eye on things. Otherwise you might need to bring the babies in and watch them VERY closely and be ready to supplementary feed if necessary.

Congratulations! I had a little white mouse in a kids book once, it was pretty exciting

Wow that's interesting TB! Is that a good way to check whether young first time cocks are gonna be up to the deed too?

I would say a girl too.

No not many at all... Dingoes are an interesting one. They are list as endangered but at the same time they are listed as a pest species which must be controlled. Which means that we legally have to conserve the species but at the same time we have to kill them Ahhh their's nothing like working in government :sad:

The grey one looks blue to me too. you canjust see the blue pin feathers coming through the grey down on hte chest

My favorite animal of all time is the Greater Stick nest Rat, they are gorgeous and I've been lucky enough to see them in real life, truely beautiful animals

It's not a feral bird unless it is exotic, the farmers might call them pests but they aren't feral. My take is that if you choose to go into any business you go in with the knowledge of the risks that business takes, including farming. Parrots are part of the australian environment and farmers must accept that (and believe me I know that's not easy, I have to deal with farmers so I understand what they face).

As someone working in the area of land management I have no issue with the culling of feral animals, I have a pet rat and a pet cat but would quite happily have someone go out and kill ferals of both those sspecies, they need to go there is no doubt about it. I think that PETA sign would have come from the use of lab rats, which I also don't agree with Of course TB, we are just discussing the ethics of killingone animal to save another, it's all very deep :sad:

I think the main issue we have with pet shops is the massive overpopulation with backyard bred critters with the sole purpose of making a quick buck. I think compulsory desexing would stamp out a lot of that. Down on the mornington peninsula there is actually a huge campaign to encourage people to desex their pets by six months of age. If people were forced to pay upfront for their desexing when they purchased their pet then there would be far more animals getting desexed. Desexing is not cheap at anywhere between $150-200 and many pets have their desexing put off until the last minute as a result because their owners did't factor in that cost when they bought the animal. I know that if I had already paid for something worth that much money I'd want to get my money back on it and send my animal for it's snip!

Many knowingly give the wrong advise though, in the interests of making a sale. I have worked in a number of pet shops, some good some not so good and the things I have heard would make most knowledgable pet owners shake thier heads in disgust.

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I think licensing is never likely to work, but what about a information package about pet ownership that pet shops must give out when you purchase your pet. Detailing the reasons for desexing, vaccinations, etc and some of the common misconceptions. At the moment they are under no obligation to give you anything other than the pet and any paperwork pertaining to things they have had done, such as vaccination or chipping details. I also thought a scheme whereby the desexing cost is included in the sale price with a gift certificate that can be used at any vet clinic and the vet can cash in the certificate with the place of purchase.

I always think the ones for pull-ups, etc....

Have you ever seen those ads on TV with kids in really embarrassing or daggy situations and thought "gee that kid is gonna hate their parents for that when they grow up.." Cute though

...How you know your hobby is taking over your life ...

Actually I didn't learn anything in home ec, it was pointless. I learnt to cook from my parents. My mum taught me how to make great scones, lasagne and pumpkin soup and my dad taught me how to cook the perfect camp oven roast! I think that the main issue is probably that kids are now groing up in a world where they hardly have to associate with real people anymore. I am glad I have a great relationship with me parents, I still 'hang out' with them, they arent at all daggy parents which does help though Many of my friends tell me about their 200 friends on facebook, etc. though and I think, gosh I wonder how many of those people you realy know though... I'm much happier with my few really good close friends and my family and I get much more enjoyment out of spending time with peple that I share real interests with. I think things like facebook devalue real reationships... Hmm, I'm getting off the point now but it's already written so I'll post it anyway

I microwave my eggshells for thirty seconds or until they just start to go brittle then chuck them in my mortar and pestle, if I have lots of shells I put them in the blender and turn them into dust.

No matter how you raise your kids though I think they need to understand those important life lessons though. Those same teenagers I cared for looked at my little boy who was 18 months old at the time (we lived in an apartment on the property) when they came to visit us and he was cleaning his own room "Is he cleaning his own room, my dad does that for me! " he stated in amazement. This kid was 15, I doubt he'll ever move out!

Never mind ...

The cement doesn't only block them up, it dehydrates them which is also one of the effects of 'ratsac' too. It would be about the same result as regular rat poison, I wouldn't expect much difference in the time it took for them to die. Also the cement is acidic, it would actually be a rather quick death I think you would find. It sounds gruesome when I lay out all the facts but if I layed out all the fact of rat poison they'd be pretty similiar.

What do you do with them after you catch them Kaz? I have thought about using one of those but then I have a bunch of live critters to deal with!

What I wonder though is whether our generation is staying emotionally young until later though. In the past young people had more responsibilities and were babyed less than they are now. I have worked as a 'nanny' for teenage kids that didn't even know how to grill cheese on toast!

Those of you who felt it was cruel do you use regular rat poison? Personally I steer clear of any method if I can get away with it, I don't even have traps out here, like I said though regular poison is not particularly humane...