krosp

Thank you! You both reckon YF1? I thought some people had said YF2 when I first posted pics. He is pretty much that colour in real life, but does have a greenish tinge in some lights, and he has green feathers above his tail. The yellow is also through his wings. I'm not too sure- never had a yellowface before

That does sound concerning... could he be bored? Otherwise it is likely that there is something irritating him there that you don't know about. Sounds significant enough for a vet trip in my opinion.

Haha in response to that- check out my new signature! Yes he likes them a lot - if it's done with a chopstick. Thanks for that - it's great advice! Well, good to know that he's probably still quite young and what to do once the moult eventually starts

I was so surprised when I first got on here and heard that people had flown with budgies. Last time I travelled overseas on a 7 or 8 hour flight, my luggage was extremely cold and the chocolates i'd bought for people were rock hard inside my bag! So I have this mental picture of the luggage compartment being like a fridge. If I was travelling with budgies i'd be harrassing the airlines for all the information I could get about them being stored and how it all works and will they be with other animals etc... just for peace of mind. Good to hear that it's worked well for other people though.

okay so we have established that Cosmo has not moulted yet. When he does moult eventually, what is that supplement that's good for them and where can I get it? Or is there a better way of taking care of them during the moult?

The back of a ute?? What is going on? How strange. What a sad story. I really feel for you and the birds. If it's any consolation... at least the birds have each other! Even though they don't have anything else to play with at least they have a companion.

Wow, what a fascinating bird! She's so mottly she looks like a checkerboard! okay that's all I can contribute haha

I still think boy, but am interested to hear what others think, and also how it looks in a few more weeks/months. Actually.... see the green normal in my display picture? He's the one squished under the two others, you can only see the top of his head in the right corner I'm pretty sure he had a brown cere for a bit.

It's been ages since I bred, but I do remember chirping from the egg first thing in the morning was a sign that the egg was going to hatch that day. The mum should help it out if it needs it. Next thing you'll see eventually should be a tiny little chip in one spot. You might not want to interfere with it too often though in case it disrupts the mum's routine of helping them out, but in terms of checking on it and knowing when it's gone on for too long and needs your help, I'm not sure about that sorry. Good luck! It's a very exciting time.

Thanks everyone - I had a feeling Cosmo hasn't had his first moult, but wasn't sure about the cap thing. Cosmo looks a LOT like Merlin in that picture, in terms of his markings and everything, and even his cere colour.

Oh okay... that's interesting... but did his cap change colour before the moult? Because Cosmo's cap has already lost the bands, but it's still soft and pale. I remember all my other birds used to have quite hard thick sort of feathers on the cap. So that makes me think he might not have had his first moult, but then would his bands still be there?

How do you know when a budgie has been through its first moult? I have read a few different websites and articles about this, and it seems like they all have slightly different indicators, although most of them seem to agree that the loss of the bars right up to the front of the head means they've had the first moult. I'm not so sure about Cosmo. He's definitely yellow above his cere, but it's not like really bright and strong like adults. It's still kind of soft and pale, and if you look closely at the tips of all his yellow cap feathers, they still have a slightly black edge to them. His eye is still dark, and he's only just lost the black tip to his beak. His throat spots are a bit random and incomplete looking. Otherwise, his body feathers are soft, a bit paler than adult colours, and a little bit mottly in colour... and he has a lot of fluffy white down feathers underneath. Every time he preens his stomach and puffs out, I see a lot of white fuzz underneath. He has no pin feathers at the moment and i've never seen him with one, nor are there many feathers lying around so I don't think he's moulting right at this moment. Any guesses? Or is there a "second moult" that makes them look even more adult-like than the first?

If it becomes a problem we might have to try covering them somehow, but I can't think of any easy way to do it just because of the shape of them and the size and weight that the blanket might have to be to successfully cover the base. But it's a good idea and I'll do it if we need to, thanks

I have heard that it's a bad idea to give budgies a mirror, and that was certainly my experience too. The very first pet I had was a budgie when I was a kid, and he was super sweet and tame and talked and was lovely, until we got a mirror for him. He became aggressive towards us and sometimes the mirror, and as soon as we took it off him he went back to his old self after a few days. Since then I have always avoided giving them a mirror. With Cosmo it has been tough, since our place came with this enormous mirror in the stairwell that can't really be avoided if we want to bring him upstairs. So far I have got away with just carrying him up as fast as I can, and he has just kind of leaned around and stretched himself to try and catch a glimpse of that other bird. But now he has gone and found a reflection that I didn't even think of! We have two barstools with a chrome base and stand, and they even have a little round perch-like bar thing not far from the ground! Cosmo has found himself a friend there: Hehe it's kind of cute but I just think I'd better keep an eye on it and hope he doesn't become too obsessed. It would be a huge hassle to get rid of the stools, but he goes straight to them now when he gets a chance.

I don't know, I still reckon it could be a cock. Sometimes I've seen young normals with black beaks have purply-brown ceres. It's too young for a hen's cere to go crusty brown anyway. If it looked very much like a male cere before, it probably is one, but if you weren't too sure before then it's harder to say. Looks a lot like my Cosmo only a bit younger :question:

They're adorable.... especially when they're wet :question: Haha I hadn't noticed that about Pie, but now you point it out, that is very cute

This one might be a new favourite-- Cosmo as a round little fluff ball Trying to yawn and stretch at the same time Picking up a twist tie... ...and dropping it! Getting exhausted

Yeah, and we're very lucky we got such a good natured and fairly calm little guy... so far it's been a lot easier than I expected it would be. Or maybe he's younger than we're guessing he is. Either way we're on a bit of a roll now so it's going well

okay all's good now! He's not so afraid of my hand anymore. He seems to be a really fast learner. He learned to step up on the chopstick really quickly and now it's automatic, if it's in front of him (and he wants to) he'll bounce up onto it easily. Today, he was just walking up the chopstick (it gets thicker as it gets closer to my hand) and he suddenly found himself on my hand! I slowly got rid of the chopstick and he awkwardly realised he was sitting on my hand. I left him there for a while and he stayed. Now, he already lets me put my hand up next to him. He steps up with one foot but not the other :laughter: But this is huge progress, so with the aide of my trusty chopstick I think I can see how he will learn to step up on our fingers too. Seems like that initial barrier is slowly crumbling

Hehe aww thanks... it was a heap of fun to make! You wouldn't believe he's still an untame bird hey?

Haha aww, she's so round and roly poly!

Ah that makes sense! I saw them during the daytime. Funny, it looks like they have a totally different face during the day and night!

Hmm do you all reckon it really is a tawny frogmouth? I thought it was until I saw the front on shots. I thought they had beady little hidden eyes, not big round ones? The tawny frogmouths we've had looked like tree stumps and you could hardly see the eyes and beak. But.... the rest of it does look a lot more like one than an owl so maybe there are different types or something. Either way they are very cool shots of a rather scary looking enemy to your precious birds! I like the suggestion of covering the wire- would be good to see if that works

My husband made a little video today of Cosmo letting me scratch his head with a chopstick. Amazing - I did not expect him to be happy to do something like this so soon. He doesn't seem extremely motivated by food rewards.... maybe this head scratch will be a new trick up my sleeve? Although I might risk him becoming bonded to the chopstick rather than to us. See for yourself, it's very cute! (warning though, the whole thing goes for about 3 mins if you watch it all the way through) http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=tvwVzSnpeoE

Thanks.... it is going well. Today and yesterday he happily let me carry him around the house on a chopstick... and also let me touch him with my face! When he was on the chopstick and also when I was giving him kisses and gently stroking him with my cheek he didn't look like he was even considering flying away (actually he put his beak up at one point when my husband was giving him a little kiss)... BUT... he still hates hands of course. I haven't tried anything with hands yet, but I just notice than whenever I put my hands near the cage to change his food etc he moves away from it, but with faces or inanimate objects he doesn't flinch. I always thought I'd start with step-up and getting used to the finger first, as I did with all my others, but this guy might be the opposite! Maybe he'll be better off with going from face, to shoulder, to finger. Who knows... will take it slowly and play by ear a bit.