krosp

Update: We got permission! Well, at least I think we did.... basically she said "the owner says it is okay as long as it is okay with body corporate" Strange, because they never said that about Cosmo in the first place. So if body corp doesn't allow it then wouldn't that mean we'd lose both? But she never said anything like "so I will send a request to body corporate" or "so you have to ask body corporate" - so maybe nothing will be done with going through them. I think I can interpret this as it being okay to go ahead though, since it was apparently okay the first time, and since the body corp here seems fairly unofficial, and the real estate isn't initiating anything. There is a new form we have to fill out- a pet agreement- which we didn't have to do the first time either. Oh well. It's all pretty standard. It does have the "this doesn't cover the replacement of a pet" thing too though like my old place Funny how they seem to be coming down harder on a second one than a first one. But... that's okay.

I thought so Darn ... it hasn't been growing too well and it took ages and has only just started growing nicely Learned my lesson

I have never heard of fatigue syndrome, but I have heard of chronic fatigue and have known of lots of people who have it. It's horrible, and I'm sure yours is too- I hope for your sake that it doesn't become chronic

I was spraying some Thrive on my garden and I realised that some of it would have also sprayed on the patch of Cosmo's sprouting seeds I didn't spray it directly on there but some would have definitely got on it. Can I wash the grass well and still feed it to him, or is it too risky? Should I just dig up the whole patch and start again? What do you think?

I had one person on here PM me in response to my question a few months back on breeders of pet types in Brisbane so that sounds promising. If that doesn't work out I'll contact the local budgie club for a breeder

Many years ago (1996 to be precise) we got my first budgie, Ricky. He was fine (although in hindsight the cage they sold us was too small) but then two months later we got another budgie from that same pet shop for my brother. She was very sick- riddled with worms and a moist cough So we lost both of them (we didn't know anything about quarantine) Last year we went past and discovered that that same pet shop was still open, so my husband and I went in for a look. It was disgusting- nothing had changed since I remembered it from 1996- there were so many birds in large cages that stunk and were dirty and dark, the whole shop was dirty, and the budgies all had one wing clipped. So today when my husband suggested that we go back there to look at cages, I was very reluctant, because I didn't want to give them any business. But I agreed just to have a look anyway to see what is out there. I was very surprised when we were looking at a few cages - this lady came up and started asking all these questions about what we wanted the cage for and how many we were intending to keep in it. "It's just that... we're real animal lovers here, and I really don't want to see anyone putting too many birds in these cages" she said. I was pleasantly surprised. She wanted the budgies to be kept in very big cages, and showed us that they were constructing this lovely big aviary at the back of their shop for their birds. I assumed then that they had had a change of hands but it was a bit awkward to ask. But eventually after talking some more, I was not at all surprised to discover that these people have only just bought the shop this year. It's so much cleaner inside too, and they only seem to have nice big decent cages for sale too. Currently no animals in the shop (apart from one parrot which was constantly on the guy's shoulder- I guess not for sale). So I am very happy that after all these years, that pet shop will finally be improved, and owned by people who seem to care

Well when our house is all closed up you can't hear Cosmo from outside. Only if we have all the doors and windows open, and even then it's not problematic. I don't think anyone else would be bothered by the noise at all, there are lots of outside birds that are noisier. I'm not sure about the neighbours we share a wall with though- what they can hear through the wall. We don't hear any of their general day to day noise (like talking, cooking, TV, general daily activity) so I don't think bird noise would go through the wall either. We do hear a LOT of guitar hero coming through at all hours of the night though and they have very large speakers and play loud music on weekends. So I don't think they really have a right to complain about bird noise!

Well we're in a townhouse complex so it's understandable why they'd be particular about pets. But they happily let us have Cosmo in the first place so I don't see how they could say no to a second. I'll keep you posted

I just sent an email to my real estate asking if we could get a second budgie. The wheels are in motion! Hope it doesn't take as long as last time :hap: but we are with different people now who don't have stupid rules like not being able to replace him if he dies so I think the response will be a bit quicker this time. I can't see why they'd say no since they have already let us have one and we can tell the previous people had several budgies here (they had not cleaned the feathers off the fly screen :rofl: )

Awesome! I'm not too far from Chermside.

Sorry, I have no idea about bactrim for budgies, but if it helps I know it's an antibiotic... I took heaps of it growing up with chronic tonisillitis

Thanks heaps AV - that's a great link, I'll look around some more there but those two look good already We just found out today that the smallest one that's white and $69... they're getting some more black ones in, and they come with a full stand for free! So we might check back there in a bit too...

I think I'll stick with another budgie this time around Thanks for the thoughts

I have a friend with lots of types of parrot (I can't remember what they all are but I know there is a lovebird, two ringnecks, a princess parrot, and a few more types) but she doesn't have a budgie. I told her that I am thinking of getting another budgie, and she reckons I should get a different type of small parrot instead. Her logic is that they will still have a friend if it's another species, but the flocking instinct won't be as strong with another species so the two of them will be good company while still remaining very tame towards me. What are your thoughts? I am still set on getting another budgie because I am happy with budgies, and am also happy to compromise on some degree of the tameness for the sake of my budgies having likeminded companions although I must admit I did fall in love with some beautiful peachfaces at a pet shop the other day

Cosmo was still talking (saying "pretty boy") while rubbing his face all over the branches today! Don't they do the funniest things

How exciting! I hope it goes smoothly for you. Well, you know where to come to get all the info and help you need :rofl:

Elly - which one in the third picture is yours? The bigger one or the smaller one? Ebay does sound great, but something happened and we can't use it until it's all been sorted out... so that's not an option for us at this point :rofl:

Yes I wouldn't use the cage for breeding itself, but just that it could be useful to have a variety of cages when I have more birds. Does anyone have any objections to any particular cage? I think I'm leaning towards one of the black ones with the stand, like Lewis has... so far anyway.

Nice try, but you will NEVER be as tall as me.

Well, today I was at work and it's a new job and all my clients cancelled so I don't actually have piled up work to do yet... and I don't have a computer log in... so I basically had to create my own work to do all day. I did manage to fill the day, but it got quite boring so I did a bit of browsing on my phone...... and I discovered that the BBC forums load really well on my mobile!!! But I can't actually make posts, because when I click to reply to threads the box you type in is missing. This discovery has the potential to be quite dangerous if I can check BBC at any time of the day

Thanks for your comments Boris's Slave -- Goodna is pretty far away, we're on the north side... I will keep it in mind but hopefully there is somewhere just as good somewhere in between! Thanks though, if I don't have any luck with somewhere closer I'll give them a phone call to see what they have Liv - so would you say that any of those cages would be good enough to house two budgies? I'm not too sure what I want, I think it encompasses a broad range. I would not want to spend over $100 for a very basic cage, but I am happy to get a basic cage at a decent price that would house two budgies. It would be nice to give them a bigger space though, but I do plan to let them out every day. However, since I also plan to have more in future, I'm happy to spend a bit more if it's going to be a larger cage, since I would have wanted to get one of them in future anyway. I'd spend a bit more if it's going to be really versatile and worthwhile in the long run. Those $250 mini patio aviary things would be my upper limit though. It's a bit of a balancing act.... so I am very happy to think over anybody's comments or suggestions Daz - I prefer to use natural branches anyway of varying thicknesses, lengths and directions (not cluttering it up though- still leaving them enough open space). Funny how cages always seem to be sold with perches going side to side.

Thanks Lewis..... it does look good and I like it... but for $20 I could've got so much more Someone else obviously thought so too :fear

okay I have since been reading up on this, and it looks like that $189 one that was sold would have been the best for two budgies I don't know how long it would take them to get me another one, or how much more money it would cost. I almost wonder whether it's more worth it to get the $250 one (that is almost half price) when the one I liked that was sold is probably already going to be close to $200 and is a lot smaller. But then I wonder how useful a tall cage will be divided into two? Would the budgies in the bottom mind being near the ground and lower than other budgies? (assuming they can hear the ones on top) The $189 one seemed so worth it, being only $20 more than one heaps smaller :fear Oh well.... back to the drawing board in the meantime.

Hi everybody I know that a lot of you have advised me to buy a cage from ebay but there are a lot of reasons why we can't won't use ebay. So I just visited three pet shops and they all have possibilities I'll run through the situation in dot point form - Cosmo needs a new cage anyway as it is - We are planning to get him a friend - We could get a cage that fits two budgies nicely - We would like to slowly get a few more budgies and breed on a small scale in a few years time - So we could get a cage that allows for that if it's a good bargain now, but it doesn't have to be - Cosmo's cage can still be used for quarantine - My mum has a patio aviary for us to take when we want it. Pet shop #1 had two large cages for sale, $400-something, reduced to $250. They were almost identical- except that one of them had a divider in the middle so that you could separate it into a top cage and a bottom cage (I preferred this one) and the other one had a bigger door but was a bit more flimsy and couldnt' be divided into two. That would be useful because you could separate them off into two cages, or you could have it as a big holding cage or even a large cage for pets in the meantime. Here is a picture- this is of the one that was more flimsy and couldn't be divided, but they were both this size, and I didn't get the dimensions Pet shop #2 just had these ones for $69 40cm x 57 cm 47 cm Pet shop #3 had two good ones - The smaller one was $169 and was 71cm x 62 cm x 44 cm - The bigger one was only $189 ($20 more) for 85 x 78 x 46 BUT it was sold It was the one we had liked most... but they said if they get more in the price will have gone up. They are the black ones Please share thoughts thanks!

Cosmo eats spinach, but his absolute favourite is sprouted seeds. I discovered thsi when I used to blow his seed husks off into my garden bed and some of the seeds sprouted... it looked like little blades of grass. I cannot express how crazy about them he is.. if he sees me coming with his sprouted seeds, he will sprint to the side of the cage and press himself up against the bars, then he eats it so fast he probably barely gets to taste it That was how I got him started on being interested in veggies, because with most other ones I tried before that he occasionally took a peck or two but rarely ate much.