krosp

Sounds like some bonding behaviour there - and no he's not too young

Thanks for the advice, glad you both think my plan is good - and Nerwen yes that's a good idea about rearranging the cage, will definitely do that! I'm going to buy a new (bigger) cage for the two of them to be in when we get a second one. I was planning on just keeping Cosmo in this one until I eventually put them together.. but maybe I could get the bigger one sooner and do it the other way around

As I mentioned in other threads, we have been thinking of getting Cosmo a friend now that we're in our new place. I am not in a rush, but just want to think of what would be the best timing with my whole situation in general. The thing is... we have felt recently like Cosmo is reaaallly acting like he could do with a mate. We try our best but he has been quite attention seeking - whenever someone enters the room he'll start talking (as in, "pretty pretty boy pretty coshmo" etc etc) heaps.... come over to the side to be let out, etc. He hasn't always been like that, but over the last few weeks we've been so busy and we feel a bit guilty about it he is still bonded to his bell, and we have left it in there for him because he doesn't get aggressive over it at all. So he's probably okay, and once we get settled I'm going to start growing some plants and things I can feed him more regularly too so he has plenty of interesting things to eat on a daily basis. But I still feel that he wants more attention than he's getting. This year I am doing my final year of study, and my husband works full time, typical sort of hours (he's usually out between 7 and 6). But when I finish my course, in November, I will be looking for full time work too, and then both of us will be out all day every day. We have thought that we would really like Cosmo to have a friend by then. My current situation is that I'm studying online, but I have two pracs throughout the year. While I'm not on prac, I spend Mon-Tue at home, Wednesdays varies, and I work Thursdays and Fridays. Then on weekends we're both in and out for varying lengths of time. So, I do at least get to be home with Cosmo 2-3 days a week sometimes more. My prac is coming up in May, and it will be for 4 weeks... and then my final prac is in October, after which I may possibly go straight into full time work. So, we thought it would be good to have the new budgie totally settled in by my second prac so he can keep Cosmo company while I'm busy from October onwards. So our current plan for timing is this: - Continue with Cosmo as an only budgie until I finish my first prac, giving him as much attention as we are able to - Once my prac is over, in June, start looking around for breeders we can buy a baby budgie off. Can take our time in this. - Keep the new one in quarantine for 30-90 days (depending on how our taming of him is going, and whether we have any cause for concern to keep him in for a longer amount of time) - Slowly introduce the two to each other and eventually have them living in the same cage by the time I start prac 2, in October. My plan for actually getting a budgie is that we want another pet type so it's not too much bigger than Cosmo! I don't know anyone on this forum who breeds pet types in Brisbane, and don't want to get one shipped, but closer to the time I might post a thread asking if anyone knows anyone... and if not, I could email local budgie clubs (Cosmo's leg band has BNS, so at least whoever bred him has pet types! and that club is near where we live) and see if there are any breeders I could get one from. If there's no luck, I do know one or two pet shops that I consider decent, but would rather not get a pet shop bird since I will want a head start on the taming if possible. So.... do you all think this is a sensible plan? The only alternative is to start looking for a friend for Cosmo really soon. The reasons I don't want to do that are- it would be more rushed, and we're still settling into our new place, and we've just made a ton of requests to our agent related to our initial move in- would be nice to give them a break of not asking for stuff so they don't flip out when we're suddenly asking for another pet immediately. The reason for getting one now- Cosmo is already lonely so it would be nice to have it happen sooner for his sake. I also don't know when I'm most likely to find baby budgies available - what time of year? Because I'd want the new one by around August to have long enough to settle it in and quarantine and tame before October... are there less born in winter? okay I'm sorry to have written such a long thing but I would really appreciate any thoughts, comments or considerations

I agree- you really need to get them to a vet asap. You obviously care about your birds and don't want them to die or be sick-- but also you need to realise that HUMANS can get psittacosis, and it's totally nasty No matter how much it costs to go to the vet, it will probably be less than the value of losing two budgie lives, plus yourself being sick for a really long time and having to spend money on your own medical expenses too. Totally not worth it to delay a vet visit. By the way I think they both look female, and they're beautiful best of luck with it and I really hope it's not anything serious.

The bottom of a budgie's cage can get pretty rancid if not cleaned, so I can't imagine how that could be good for the pond. But also, I don't think it would be good for the budgies to have a swampy like environment... even just the evaporating moisture around them- and perhaps mosquitoes and all kinds of other swampy things-- just doesn't sound like the right environment for them. Hope you can find a great way to keep these animals separately

Aww I'm happy to hear that it worked out so well for you too... I'm moving on Saturday too! Remember a few months back we were both talking about it and knew it would somehow work out- and now here we are! Shame you won't have the internet though As long as you can have your budgies that's the main thing though but I hope you can get some form of internet before too long too.

*UPDATE* Cosmo says thank you to all of you who told his owner that she could feed him green seeds The first day I gave him a little bunch he still ate the grassy bit first and only ate the seeds when there was absolutely nothing else left to try. Was a little apprehensive about it... but as soon as he discovered he loved it, now that is the first thing he goes to eat when I give him a bunch of his sprouted seed. He even eats the fluffy tuft thing that the seeds grow out of. Since I'm clearing out the whole patch because we've moving out on Saturday I've been giving him a lot more than usual. Now he has a permanent green tip to his beak

The blue one is a boy- the green two are girls

I like pet types better, and I'm not planning to get into the competition, so I imagine that I will go for the colourful variety of pet types if I eventually get back into breeding. *enters dream land*....

I really like your birds-- so pretty. I think if I ever get back to breeding, I will want a large variety of bright colours like yours. Love the aviary set up too... it's always quite soothing looking through your photos!

Thanks Elly- that was a confusing read at first because krosp is me and Cosmo is my budgie LOL! But thanks for your experience and advice--- my plan would be to get a young handled budgie from a breeder if I can find one, so that it will be easy to tame quite well. Cosmo is already not as tame as they come because we didn't get him that young and he's still afraid of hands to a certain extent-- but that's okay.. I mostly just like having him around me, out of the cage, interacting and chattering and only occasional handling is fine. I think that it sounds like two budgies will stay at that level of tameness... not so much the regurgitating and preening and smooching, which is okay! Oh also--- another question-- do you think it would be better to try and get another male? Or wouldn't it matter?

It is great having Cosmo as an only budgie, but I am not sure whether this situation will work forever. Currently, I am studying and working part time, so there are a few days every week when I can have Cosmo out with me, although other days when he hardly gets to see us. So far I think this is okay - he seems to play with his toys in his cage quite a lot, so it's not too bad, but we've been busy with planning to move lately, and he does seem to be a bit attention seeking lately.. like, he'll be really noisy and talk so much whenever we're around, cling to the side of the cage asking to be got out, etc. So I do feel that he might be getting a little lonely. I will continue with my few days out few days in routine once we've moved house, and hopefully for quite some time will be able to still spend a lot of time with him. I will be looking for full time work later in the year though. I still want Cosmo as a pet, but realistically I obviously won't spend as much time with him as I do now, and I think he could really do with a friend. If we do get another budgie though, I want it to be as tame as possible too, so I would quarantine and tame at the same time, probably longer than 30 days, as long as it took for me to be confident in slowly introducing them and keeping their tameness to whatever extent I can. So I am thinking in a few months we might look for another very young budgie to tame and be Cosmo's buddy. What are your thoughts on this idea? I would still like two birds to be bonded to me, but I am okay with them being more bonded to each other than to us, as long as they are still interested in us, play with us, let us get them out, and hopefully still talk. Any thoughts or tips? I will read all the other threads about this same topic again at some point, just don't have time now.

My mum lives backing onto bushland and has a veranda off her bedroom so she often gets birdy visitors that she tends to feed. A while back, she had a baby kookaburra coming regularly, and she just threw it some cat food (her cat refuses to eat any food that hasn't been poured immediately before eating it so there's always some spare!) The kookaburra came back for a while. Apparently now, it is all grown up, but still comes back to visit sometimes. Recently, it has started bringing her things it has caught... e.g. it comes with a mouse in its beak, calls and calls and calls, and then when she comes out to see what the commotion is all about- only then will it go away and eat it! I said that it sounds exactly like a cat coming to show its owner what it has caught! I have never heard of kookaburras doing this kind of thing before... have you? Never thought of them as a type of bird that would bond to humans or have much of a personality in that semi-tame sort of way.

Eek Emma-- those are TERRIBLE

I don't have much experience with pieds, but I do suspect Jasmine is a boy. And the aggressive behaviour he/she is displaying is probably because he/she is attached to the mirror. Mirrors can make even the sweetest bird aggressive sometimes- they are quite unpredictable with them.

Ooh great! Well, I'll get him to eat all of them before we move out then... then it will be time to plant some at the new place :thumbs_up:

Cosmo's sprouted seeds are growing little clusters of what looks like millet. The seeds are still green, although a few are going golden brown like the ones you buy. When should I feed it to him? My intuition has led me to not feed him any yet in case underripe seeds are bad, but then I realised that they might actually be really good! So please let me know whether I should feed it to him yet or wait until they look like the ones you buy. Less than 2 more weeks until we move.. so I hope he can eat them all up soon!

They are all reaaaally pretty, but I especially like Phoebe- she looks like a watercolour/ink painting!

Aww what a little sweetie- I love ones that look like that. Such a shame.... would they mind if you moved more things around? Maybe if you started showing enough interest in it, and they realised you really like it and seem attached to it, it might be less of a surprise if you ask one day if you can have it. I don't like your chances though- people aren't quick to give away their pets... she is probably happy to just have her random moments of enjoyment of it and forget about it the rest of the time :happy-dancing:

Wow.. exciting! I look forward to seeing them as they start to feather up

Sorry to hear that somebody dobbed you in (surprised anyone would actually do that), but glad to hear that the duck is being cared for. Good luck with school and everything and your lovely budgies

Dont they change a lot ................. as a baby and this one as a baby Strange! This one looks like she was born with a brown cere! Very cute though

Cool.... Liv I don't think he could have mites but I might as well spray him for it again thanks. Elly -- hmm good to hear that others have had on-off moulting birds. I don't think that we have any artificial heating or cooling near him (there is just one ceiling fan at the total opposite side of the room and that's it), but the natural weather has fluctuated quite a bit lately. He's been unusually friendly and affectionate today and very talkative... probably a good sign

Cosmo is moulting. A bit of history..... He is about 6-9 months old, and started having his first moult in December or January. During that time he lost a lot of feathers - first down, then his chest and wing normal small feathers... then he started regrowing his clipped wings and lost a tail feather. For the last month or so, he has stopped moulting the smaller type of feather, but I knew he was regrowing his tail feathers during that time. He also doesn't seem to have finished his moult, because only about half of his wings grew back (maybe 2 long feathers on each wing still haven't come back), plus he still is patchy in parts of his chest and wings - they are not all darkly marked like adult feathers. So I assumed his moult had slowed down but wasn't finished. Over the last week, Cosmo has been moulting again. I know we can't know for certain, but I am just hoping it is his first moult continuing again, and not for another reason like stress or illness. Here are some other factors that may contribute: - No changes in diet or cage - About 2-3 weeks ago, my friend who has lots of parrots came over and we decided to take that opportunity to get her help clipping his wings - Over summer, there were only two of us in the house... but three weeks ago my sister in law came to stay, and one week ago, my mother in law came to stay.. so now we have gone from 2 to 4 people in the house. Things are a bit noisier and lights stay on a bit later with them around. - My husband and I are in the process of moving house, so pieces of our furniture are leaving, and we've had a lot going on and not our usual routine. - When Cosmo was having his first moult, he stopped letting me give him head scratches. He started again for a while, and just yesterday I noticed that he has lots of prickles under his neck again. Given all the evidence, do you think that he is moulting because of stress, or because his first moult wasn't over yet anyway? (The diarrhoea cleared up-- was just one or two softer poos and he hasn't shown any other signs of sickness, that was almost a week ago now. I don't think it was anything but I'm still keeping an eye on him). Thanks

Oh boy. Look at this one: How would i go about getting a penguin? My girlfriend said she's always wanted a penguin as a pet and i want to get that for her so how could i do it legally?