Hills

Please don't say that, my mother in law is as mad as a hatter!!

I thought it would be interesting to take the boys to a budgie show to see what the champs look like, does anyone know of any upcoming events? I have looked on the BCSA site as per another thread on this subject, but their events calendar only goes up to Oct.

Its an ethical dilema isn't it. I can see both sides of the argument. If the farmers don't produce, we don't eat, but no one wants an animal to suffer. I'd hate to have to take a side on this one.

They look great Sunnie!! Baby 1 is my favorite, I love the colours

Haha, thanks! Must admit when I saw Liv's avery the thought did cross my mind. Daisy was just sitting there...

That's what I'm thinking Elly, he seems to really enjoy his flying time and I'd hate to take that away from him. If he's going to be happy to step up after a flight then I was thinking I won't need to clip. I'll see how he is in a couple of weeks.

Perhaps you should start another class of show budgie where the judging criteria are based on the "perfect" healthy wild budgie. :rofl:

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Phil BOY NAME: Peter 4 LETTER WORD : Pick GIRL NAME: Precilla OCCUPATION: Proctologist A COLOR: Pink SOMETHING YOU WEAR: PJs BEVERAGE: Pinot noir FOOD: Pumpkin (D'oh just read Trish's - Pastie SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: perfume - D'oh again!! - pimples A PLACE : Peterborough REASON FOR BEING LATE: Passed out SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: P--- OFF!! :rofl:

Where did you get the bush budgies from?

My son named ours Ernest (or Ernie for short) as he'd just watched "Ernest goes to school". I'm glad he hadn't just watched Godzilla!! :rofl:

Oh dear!! I'm glad you told me that after his first flight here and not before.

Woohoo, thanks Liv!! Well he's just had his first session out of the cage. We let him out in the entrance lobby where his cage is with all the doors closed. He sat on my finger while I showed him around the room, then I sat him on the play gym. After a bit of an investigation on there he flew loops around the room without bumping into anything and landed on Michele's shoulder. He then flew down to the ground where I was able to slowly put my finger down and he stepped up and I put him back in the cage. Now he's enjoying another millet spray and looking very proud of himself. I thought we'd give him another fly later this afternoon, so we don't over do it.

Thanks Elly, yes Liv showed us how to clip wings and we'll do it in another few weeks once he's strengthend his muscles a bit more. We're following your instructions from the FAQ page, its just we're finding he's progressing really well as Liv has already done much of the hard work, but we want to make sure we do it right and not go too fast and undo her work. He is a great budgie isn't he! We would strongly recommend getting budgies from breeders who handle them. All of our previous budgies have been from pet stores and the difference is amazing!!

Hey, Stop picking on us boys. Its our job to be gross! We only have sons, so this is all normal to us. We had to get the doctors to remove a bead from our oldest's nose when he was younger as he'd pushed it up so far. We found growing up with bull terriers was great training for raising sons, they're basically 3 year old boys in a dog suit!

Thanks mate, that sounds like a great plan!

I think you might be right there Kaz! He's unbelieveable!! He's already so much tamer than any budgie we've had before and I really don't think its because he's scared. He has come up to the font of the cage for a neck scratch, as you can see here he's eating millet sprays from my son's hand and he quite readily steps up and the hops off again. The last time he stepped up I almost had to push him off and he's now sitting on my son's hand eating the millet sprays. Liv certainly knows how to tame budgies!! Do you think tomorrow would be too early to try him out of the cage or are we pushing him too fast?

Well after 150 posts :bluebudgie: we are finally a budgie family. We picked up Ernest (formally known as Claude) from Liv today and he has already settled in nicely and is singing and preening himself. His cage is currently covered on 3 sides as per Elly's taming instructions so this looks a bit dark. A big thanks to Liv for taming him so well!!

Wow, I wish I had a park like that over my back fence! The weathers is crazy at the moment isn't it!

That's a great photo for comparison!! Sorry its me that's being unclear not you The article states negative things about current show budgies for reasons that they wouldn't survive in the wild (ie the large ones get caught by sparrow hawkes). My point was simply that the budgies of the 50's wouldn't survive in the wild either due to their mutation away from the wild ones, ie colour. To me that point seemed to negate the argument. Its an argument that could be applied to absolutely every domesticated animal or bird. So my question is where do we stop. Leave them all exactly as nature intended them to be (therefore kill the wool and meat industry and we only keep wolves and dingo's as pets) or change them to where they are now, or somewhere in between. Not wanting to get into budgie showing I'm not really fussed about the answer, but being a keen bull terrier owner, this argument means that breed shouldn't exist either. Just food for thought :hi:

No that's my point. I guess its a matter of where do you draw the line. The article implies colours are fine to change but shape isn't.

Very interesting article, but just out of interest aren't the blues, violets and greys also mutaions away from the wild stock, which from what I have seen are all green and yellow (correct me if I'm wrong), therefore would also be taken by the same sparrow hawke that took the larger ones? I guess the good news though is here in Aus we have a huge number of wild budgies that are exactly as nature intended them to be. :hi:

No worries, but I don't think that will be an issue Elly :hi: I hope we're not going to upset him too much by separating them, Liv

Thanks for the replies, sounds like its a goer then. We're not really all that fussed about them speaking, nor seeking our company, but just want them to accept it when we seek their company. We'll see how long it takes to bond our first budgie then make a decision on when to get a second. Both my son's want one each, but there's no point if it makes the budgies not want to interact with us at all.

Yes! Do you like riding bicycles?

Mines a bit stupid. I desperately needed some info from a Jeep forum, so in a rush I signed up as hillsjeep as I live near the summit of Mt Lofty. Since then I have just used hills on other forums as I didn't want to be hillsbudgie here and hillscycle there etc. I now wish I had chosen a better name but as everyones starting to call me hillsy so I guess it has stuck.