krosp

For some reason, Piccolo has really taken to just jumping off his swing and crashing to the floor! It scares the living daylights out of me every time I'm not paying attention and suddenly *CRASH*!!!! I don't know what's behind it, but he's really enjoying swinging on it, and then he makes it go so fast and vigorous that he's swinging from one side of the cage to the other.. and then suddenly he decides to fly off, crash to the ground, and then go back again. Never seen one do that before, it's quite funny once you get used to it

I am so sorry I would be devastated if I lost Cosmo, who was also my first pet out of home *massive hugs*

Haha that is adorable that your bird was trying to break and enter a police station! A happy ending for these two :rofl: I hope you get many more back

Well... the avian vet won't sell any products without doing a comprehensive check on both birds... which is over $700 if I do everything they recommended on both the birds :rofl: although I don't think everything they recommended is necessary in my case (e.g. full blood test? if you've already done the routine check, faeces test, psittacosis test, etc) Not something we can really do at this stage though.. I'd take them straight to the vet the second either showed any sign of illness though. Which there still isn't.... maybe I'll just make sure the quarantine period is towards the longer side and be super vigilant with my observations. Reassuring to know that some people on here don't treat for everything during quarantine, but those who do have my utmost respect.

Yeah... I am thinking of calling the avian vet and seeing what he recommends... but I'm thinking maybe I'll just treat for things that can kill them extremely quickly. Whereas if it's something that takes its time to get bad and can be treated fairly well, I'd probably notice that before it got too bad and treat it then. Not sure :question:

Interesting ideas! I think anyone who chooses to be a vet probably has certain qualities, regardless of their gender. Never thought of it as a gender thing before. I have been to both good and and bad male and female doctors... the only reason I prefer female doctors is because it's less awkward talking about women's health stuff with a woman than a man. Our closest avian vet is a male and it never occurred to me to care about that lol

Yeah it is a tough call...and it's a shame there's no definitive answer. Thanks for that though, it's good to know that it's less of an issue in young birds. Do you know whether if young birds do catch something, is it also less likely to lay dormant as long? I think Piccolo is under a fair degree of stress really, having been taken away from his sisters and put in a strange place with strange scary people looking at him all the time. Hopefully if he is carrying anything I will see signs of it early and during quarantine.

Well, it is now day 10 of quarantine and so far I haven't seen any signs of sickness in my birds. All I have done so far is worm them though, I am planning to do that again later on, and also to treat them for mites and lice (hehe I accidentally wrote mice and lites first) I have been closely observing their poos for any that are runny, unusual in any way, or seem to have worms in them. No worms in the cages and poos are fine. Have been observing them for coughing, sneezing, gagging - none of that. There's no mucous around their ceres, no fluffing up or sitting low or lying down, scratching or picking... no blood... no flaking of the ceres, beaks or feet.. Both of them are active and inquisitive, noisy, eating well (actually they started eating a lot more when we had the cold snap last week but so did I ) So should I just continue doing what I've been doing for another month or two? Or is there more I can be doing during this time? I'm reading through all the other quarantine threads too at the moment but just wondering if anyone has any more tips for my situation with reference to what I've already been doing. I only have one other budgie, not a whole flock.. but he is very special! Thanks

I think the two babies are girls... My guess is that the two adults are boys, but definitely need a better picture of the second (pied) one

You've really done all you could. I hope he makes a full recovery

Sure Daz, I'll get some more pictures when he's more comfortable around the camera and when it's not night. I think his markings are going to go black when he's older but I can't be sure - at the moment they are a bit grey. He is opaline - has that V shape on the wings. If it helps... he has a big white patch on the back of his head ------ Edit: Actually I just realised I already do have a few of his back on my computer. So I'll put up what I have. Let me know if you need me to take one of anything else.

She's beautiful. Are you sure she's a girl? I would be sitting on the fence about that one I think. It's hard to tell from photos though, but I guess with the lighter nostrils that's probably why you're saying girl. We've had Piccolo 6 days now, and he seems to be at a fairly similar stage of taming to Tequila. The only thing I have found though about taming both of mine (and others in the past) is that I don't do any of my taming in the cage anymore. This is different to how most people do it. But I find that if they get frightened in their cage and flap about, because it's a confined space they panic and flap, and then they associate that memory every time that I put my hand in even to do anything. So I try to keep the cage completely safe and non-threatening. What I have been doing with Piccolo is putting his cage on the floor, with the front wide open. If he comes out to explore, then I do some stepping up and stuff, and he's free to go back into his cage by himself at any time. It seems like you've started having time out of the cage with Tequila too. Will be watching this thread eagerly as I tame mine too

I think that's what my mum gives hers because she has lots of brush boxes in her yard and uses branches off her native trees. But even if that is the case it doesn't necessarily make it safe, although if it's what she's using she hasn't had a problem. So I'd lean towards it being safe but please don't go by me! I'd want to check with someone who knows, too.

^ I think it can go either way. My guess is that the "tame" one will still require some taming. Most breeders who say they have tame budgies have got lots of babies that they handle regularly, and who appear very tame within the setting they're in with the breeder they're familiar with. Sometimes they stay just as tame, but other times they'll take a step or two backwards when you bring them to a new setting with new people and it's all unfamiliar. But even then I'm sure they won't take long at all to get tame as compared to a totally untame one. So when you have your tame one in quarantine make sure you work on getting it as tame as you can, and then yes it may help with taming the other one, but also putting them together, depending on their personalities, there is a chance that if the other one is anxious the tame one might feed off that anxiety a bit too. But I'm sure if you just keep with it they can both be tame

No idea... but maybe you could give her a rest for a few months, make sure she gets heaps of calcium in the meantime, and then put her down to breed again. Perhaps if she has more calcium she will feel less inclined to eat her eggs... and if that doesn't work then yes, she may well always eat them.

Interesting..... yeah I can see what you mean now, but in real life, he does look like the second picture when far away, and he does look like the first picture when close up Guess time will tell! I don't mind too much either way, really. We were hoping for a boy just to tame more easily, but didn't mind too much if it's a girl. ---------------- (why does it always put my new post into my old one? grr)---- Update: My goodness! I could swear the cere has changed within a few hours. I took that first photo a few hours ago. Now it is getting lighter and a bit more brown than purple When I got him I was 100% certain boy. When I posted this I was still 95% certain boy. Now... I think I'm 60% boy... starting to lean towards suspected hen. This is fascinating! I'm going to be looking at the cere every hour at this rate lol. Here's a new picture of the cere 5 minutes ago:

Even though we decided on a name, last night we realised that Sprinkles would be a good name for Piccolo. Because he LOVES the sound of running water. So maybe if he decides to be a she, I will change her name to Sprinkles we'll see...

Lovely Do you think Tequila might get more tame if you get another one that is very tame already? Not sure how that works. Do you know anything else about this budgie yet apart from it being tame? If it was me I'd probably go for it, especially as it's from a breeder but obviously it has to be the right choice for you.

Really? What is the difference between the two pics? I can't quite see it myself but I am very interested to know.

I found lots of names off http://www.cockatielcottage.net/names1.html

They would have to be stupid to bath in it anyway, the house is absolutely freezing Cosmo does flick a lot when he drinks, so I don't know whether a droplet could get in his eye or something but any type of container wouldn't change that

I am so certain based on Piccolo's cere alone, that he is a boy. It's even purple. It looks so different from his identical sister's white and pastel blue cere. Here are the best pictures I have of him: The reasons I think he acts like a girl: - He is very quiet, doesn't chortle along to music or outside bird noises much (although he does chortle along to running water - very soft gentle babyish noises though) - He chews the branches in his cage - He bites hard! He didn't bite at all when I first handled him. But today I had to reclip his wings because one of the feathers hadn't been cut properly... and he drew blood! - Not too sure, but also maybe because he seems less social than Cosmo? Placid, doesn't do much, doesn't interact a lot with his environment unless it's chewing stuff up. - Oh and he's opaline So........ what do you think? Could he possibly be a girl? I was so sure of his cere. If he's a girl I will never have confidence sexing a budgie again!!!

^ I think that is just if they're not used to red and black. My budgies used to get fed out of a green box, and one day when I went into the aviary with a different brand that had a red box they all flapped madly about. They're also terrified of glow sticks

No more of Millie yet... I'll ask my brother. Here is more of Millie's dad (Sunny Boy) Sorry that's all I have already uploaded that show his markings. And here are Millie's sisters (also Sunny Boy's daughters) Obviously over 10 years ago I wasn't taking quite so many photos. I think my digital camera only had a capacity of 13 photos in its memory and took ages to upload them

Good tip! Luckily they don't bath in their water. Cosmo is obsessed with baths, but only under running water he sprints down my arm any time I have him on my shoulder and go past a tap.