Cara

well Molly and my Grandad have something in common...... they both love singing to country music. LOL

okay so I did some research here and on other sites and found this sentence:"Budgies are not as sensitive as many other bird species and normally bear a journey by car without getting into trouble"Just wondering if this is a true statement. I also found some useful tips for transporting budgies.* Supply millet * Small Cage* Remove all toys/ swings as it can cause injury*Secure cage with seat belt* I did some research on transporting small birds and found this sentence was wondering if it was true or not:Budgies are not as sensitive as many other bird species and normally bear a journey by car without getting into trouble.Things to do: (Please if there are better ways or anyone knows some things that could be wrong feel free to let me know)* Provide millet*Food/ water provided* Remove all toys and swings* Lower perches* Calming music?????*Cover cage* Air conditioned carwith the water issue these are some sujestions I have found for providing water:* freeze water before transporting so that its slowly melts during travel????* provide water in cotton wool????Please correct me if needed, I need your oppinions also on the providing water part

okay thanks for that. Is there a FAQ thing for limiting stress when transporting birds?

I was reading that and found this section: 9. POSITION · Inside conditions; separate air space. Does this mean that they should be in different rooms. Also the room that has there budgie in opens up into kitchen and other living spaces does that mean that it would not be suitable for Molly to be in any of those rooms either?

Yes there will be my grandparents in the car. I will be with the cage in the back. The car is fully airconditioned the back seat as well. Should I cover the cage, any other tips about transporting budgies would be great thanks.

But what about the travelling

Im volunteering at Australia Zoo again next month and because everyone knows what happened to her partner Blue when I went away last holidays he got sick and died. Well I have arranged to take Molly to the sunshine coast with me. The family Im staying with have a female budgie as well called Tweety. Tweety has been by herself every since they got her so about 4 years. I was just wondering cauld I put Molly's cage next to Tweetys cage in the living room. as both birds have been by themselves for a few months or more they wouldn't effect each others health would it???? and also transporting Molly cause it is an hour and a half away. I have a smaller cage as well as her big cage which I will take with me. Should I put her in the small cage and with or without water and food. Also anything else that might be good to help her with the trip.

So cute, I had the same play gym for my first budgie Auzzie which he to loved. Awesome photos your camera takes really clear images there amazing, so cute.

Ive seen so many wonderful photos of big budgie flocks in avairies and small flocks kept in doors. I have a question though, how do you keep multiple birds healthy? Also are there any tips to keeping multiple birds healthy?

Hi Guys, sorry I haven't been on in a while with end of year exams etc. Molly trusts me enough to eat out of my hand sometimes and when she feels like it and if she tries to fly and lands on the ground she trust me enough to climb on my finger to lift her back up onto her cage. I think thats probably as far as I will get with her. She never got Blue's sickness which is a releaf. She will never fly though, she doesn't seem to have the bone strenght to get her up into the air cause no matter how high she tries to jump and how hard she flaps she always comes straight back down doesn't get any lift of what so ever. Shes a real cutie, I love her. Thats it for today hopefully be on in the next few days.

Its all right saying that but I leave home at 7:30 in morning and don't get home till just after 4 in the afternoon then I also have my house chores to do, religious preperations, a dog to walk and tones of school work.

Well with school and everything I spend 15-20 minutes with her in the morning and about 5-10 minutes in the afternoon. On weekend I try to put my hand on one of her perches evey 1/2 hour or so.

okay so Molly had some grass seed from my last weekend but since then she hasn't taken to the grass from my hand, and there is no more hand taming improvement yet so I am thinking it may take a while longer than I had hoped. She is a strang but very pretty little bird with her colours, she has a bright yellow face, pale yellow small feathers with black markings on the top of the wings and her flights (she has most of her flights, they actually haven't fallen out) are white with black markings, her tail feathers are pale yellow and white with black markings her body is dark aqua with a shade of green in some patches and under her tail she has green feathers with brown and blue markings. When I have time I will post some more updated pictures of her. She has now been in a cage by herself for almost a month and still no sign of illness and shes chirping and playing etc being her old self also she is also starting to mimic the wolf whistle and a some other songs too. She has just turned 6 months old.

If a budgie is more than a year or so can you still teach them to talk or can you only teach a bird to talk between a certain age? Also.. Can female budgies talk, I know that males are easier to train to talk but is it possible to teach a female budgie to talk?

"WEVE HAD A BREAK THROUGH WITH TRAINING" (excitedly yelling) Yesturday I was cleaning Molly's cage out and she was in the small cage, I had just gotten her a heap of fresh seeding grasses and decided to offer her some through the bars of the cage. She was hesitant at first but she reluctantly came up and had a nibble from the grass which amazed me as my hand has never been so close to her in months. Yah for Molly I am now trying to offer her different foods. Will keep you updated with her progress and will have to reorganise my taming methods to suit her new achievment.

Sorry to quote this as this is a sad time for you but 2 weeks ago today my boy Blue died also he was the same age as your bird. People say that there life span is 7-14 years buts vets and bird specialists i have talked to say that 4 is old for a budgie. Im sure you gave him the best life he could ever have had and rest easy knowing that he past away peacefully. ((hugs))

What types of safe foods would you feed underweight budgies? Also what types of safe foods would you feed overweight budgies?

Molly is chirping and running along the top perch she is not panting and she isn't frozen or heavily breathing so I have decided to move onto the next step. Training steps: (Ones I have made up to suit Molly's needs) - Chores in lower part or her cage and around it (Completed) - Placing hand on lower perch (completed) - Next step: placing hand on a higher perch - Next step: placing hand on the highest perch gradually moving my hand closer to Molly - Next step: teaching Molly to step up - Next step: letting Molly sit on finger in her cage - Next step: scratching neck and head feathers - Next step: then bringing her out of her cage - Next step: moving around the room with Molly on finger

Yes I know that what I meant was those steps would be complete. We do have a down fall to following these steps successfully and thats the weekly cleaning of the cage, toys etc and the changing of natural perches we I have had to go through a few different tactics to get Molly into the other cage without grabbing her. I have tried to substitute my hand for a natural perch (she got so scared), then tried opening both exits so that she could find her own way into the other cage, but In the end I did have to grab her. So this cleaning thing could be a set back until she gets used to my hand.

Well it has been 6 days since I started hand training Molly again, shes now fine with me doing the normal chores within her cage as long as it is done in the lower part of her cage. For the past 6 days I have been completing chores in the lower part of her cage and around the cage always talking to her in a low gentle voice. I feel that she is ready to move onto the next level, I am taking this slowly just because of her treatment when she was younger. From the information I have read about hand taming I have come up with a few simple steps: Training steps: (Ones I have made up to suit Molly's needs) - Chores in lower part or her cage and around it (Completed) - Next step: placing hand on lower perch - Next step: placing hand on a higher perch - Next step: placing hand on the highest perch gradually moving my hand closer to Molly - Next step: teaching Molly to step up - Next step: letting Molly sit on finger in her cage - Next step: scratching neck and head feathers - Next step: then bringing her out of her cage - Next step: moving around the room with Molly on finger Then hopefully training will be complete

Well I tried the stick solution but she only just freaked out (So I let her settle down), then I tried the cage door solution but that didn't work, so in the end I had to grab her, she was fine once she was in the other cage, I open the cage door to both of the cages when she goes back into the big cage and she does that without any trouble just not the other way around.

okay will try all those tactics thanks for your help

I have never tried that I will try that and see how she does, If that fails is there anything else I could try.

Normally I would put Blue in the cage and then its easier to grab Molly and put her in too, but with starting the new training I would rather not grab her unless it was absolutely necessary.

I need to clean Molly's cage today and was wondering how I could get her out of her cage so I can put her in the other cage without distrupting her training. Shes still not that great with my hand being in her cage, so how would I go about getting her out If I try and grab her she may get frightened all over again. What should I do???