Finnie

Wow. I'd suggest being very careful where you walk when you go in the house!

Hey Hannah, in the most friendly way possible, I'd like to mention, you might want to cut your mom some slack. Not only do us moms have to be responsible for our own bag when we go on a trip, but we also have to plan the trip, plan for having everything at home looked after while we're gone, pack up all the stuff the whole family will need on the trip, and, depending on the ages of the children, oversee what they pack! If animals are going, we need to make sure we have every possible thing they might need, which is basically another suitcase. Your mom is probably so busy doing all of this the night before, that she doesn't have time to get to her bag till morning. (Did I mention laundry before packing?) Well, I know in my case, I am a wreck by the time we all get in the car, and we are inevitably later than planned, and the kids will be bored from already sitting in the car for half an hour before we even start driving! Maybe it would help your cause if you volunteer to see if there is any work around the house you can do for your mom while she's preparing for the trip. If she is able to have things under control, she might be more willing to park the car down the road and drive it around the block a bit to get the aircon going. (i.e. 2 days before the trip, do all the laundry for her, so she is impressed and pleased! )

You are right, they are both hens.

That is so neat!

Yes, that is the type of egg food I bought. Are you mixing it with cooked or raw veggies? How much of it do your birds eat? The Cream of Tweet ingredients are here ...it sounds delicious! LOL My vegs start out raw. I do freeze them, though, which tends to soften them. And I thaw them in the microwave, usually it ends up part icy and part hot, which I stir together and let get room temp. I don't think it really cooks, but probably a little bit in the hot parts. I put a little less than half crumbs to the veggies. I give them about 1 T per pair, for the ones paired up, and for the 11 grouped in the community cage, they get what's left, probably under 1/4 cup. I throw away almost all of it after 3-5 hours, but there is usually evidence that they have at least played with it, and I have caught some in the act of eating it, but I doubt they get much. Naughty birds! I forgot to mention, I also add some special seed mix, some moulting and conditioning aid, and some mineral powder. For Sorcha's portions, I have also been adding Milk Thistle Seed Extract powder. It would be great, if they ate it!!!

I've seen this one on the internet, and wondered what the design was like. So you like the t features on it, it's convenient? I did a search for Marchioro U.S., and found lots of items, but none of them was Kaz's nest box. I so far have only found those on their European site. DF, I'm guessing that in Canada, you don't have the heat issues they would be having in Australia. But do you have cold issues? Does it stay warm well enough? Finnie...my birds are all indoors so I m able to control the temp and we don't have any issues with humidity here...it's always dry. It's nice and versatile as you can put the opening and perch on either side and it mounts both inside or outside of the cage...hooks onto horizontal bars easily. And being plastic, it's easy to clean and sterilize between uses. There is a clear plastic insert that fits nicely into the bottom so quick and simple to do any nest box cleaning een when in use with chicks. We havent found them over here yet....but we are looking How much are they there ? Looks small for show budgies. Kaz...it measures 9 inches long, 7 inches tall and 6 inches across. Whaat size do you use for show budgies? I think I paid 11 canadian dollars for it. If you can't find it and want to try one, I don't mind shipping one to you. That's not a bad price at all. I think I will order one to try, and also keep looking for one like Kaz's. I'm hoping to put down 7 pairs in September, so I will be needing 4 more boxes, at least.

Thank you, Macka and Renee. I wont stress over the rings. So far, I think my second attempt at ringing #1 is working. I will wait on the others till they are bigger. Chick #4 was there this morning, so I think he wasn't necessarily late, I just probably checked too early You can see 3 separate heads, and the newest has his head buried under the rest. It will be a miracle if the remaining 3 eggs are not addled, because Colleen goes nutso, trying to keep the chicks away from me. Not much I can do about that except to try to bother her as little as possible. Still have a couple of days before any of the other nests should start hatching.

He is very nice. I like your video, too.

Tonight's update: Baby # 3 appears to have more food in it's crop. I'm not stepping in at this point. But I would like to see Colleen stuff him like she does the others. They're never empty! Baby #1 has been re-rung. I put the ring up higher on the leg, this time. Hopefully it will stay on. Hopefully it won't be stuck in a bad position! :sadsorry: Baby #4 has NOT arrived as scheduled. I'm hoping it's just a tad late. If #4 turns out to be infertile, or dead, I think I would still expect #5 to hatch on it's proper day, wouldn't I? #4 should have been tonight (Sat), so I think #5 should be on Monday night, right? (And when I say "night" I mean, it wasn't there in the morning, and it hatched/should have hatched sometime in the last 12 hours.) No new eggs in the other nests, so maybe they are holding at 5 and 9 apiece.

Does the egg food come in a bag and look like breadcrumbs? That's what I was buying for a while, and I just mixed some of it up into their soft food, which in my case is finely chopped vegetables. Cream of Tweet sounds funny! :sadsorry: I wonder what it's ingredients are.

yes......have you ever watched a fencing tournament?

You didn't confuse me, GB. I think I get what you're saying. It's hard to tell the combinations by looking, but if you can breed them to normals and separate their genes, so to speak, and you only get doms, then it's most likely df dom, and if you get the odd norm/rec pied, then you have learned the truth, if it has the rec. pied in there. By the way, I got a look at Phoebe's eyes, and took some (blurry) photos. It was hard to tell. One side looked maybe iris rings, one side looked maybe not.

Cool, that means she's a girl! Read here:All about budgie ceres cheers for that. its quite weird finding out shes a she but i supos it doesnt change anything. pimms works as a girls name. will her cere turn brown? Yes. :rip: You could try calling her Pimmie! :sadsorry:

Plus the following year you could breed the babies from pair one to the babies from pair two, and it will be like breeding all 4 original birds together. (You'll mix it all up! :sadsorry: )

I'm impressed by those throat spots! (Should I be? I know nothing about show budgies :sadsorry: )

Can you tell if they are eating it, or if they are leaving most of it behind?

Oh, Alicia, that is very sad I'm sorry for your loss. Just remind yourself that you did a wonderful thing, taking care of him. You have no way of knowing what you were trying to combat, but you did a good job, regardless. :sadsorry: :rip: , little Mo, you were loved.

That's too funny! I had to ask my son, and he said "Yeah, Kevin is actually a bird" He is the one who picked the name Kevin, so now I wonder.... For those of us older, it makes me think of the line from "A Fish Called Wanda" where the guy says (stutters) " K K K K Kevin is trying to K K K K Kill me"

Cool, that means she's a girl! Read here:All about budgie ceres

You know, Elly, sometimes our weather goes straight to you, and sometimes it veers north to Michigan. I was surprised when you said your schools were closed, and it was after the storm had passed, and you would already have been covered by then, and the roads cleared and ready for school. I guess the main storm must have missed you guys! My kids go with our church youth group up to a "snow camp" in Michigan. They have a blast, and there are always lots of snowy fun photos!

I used to think Timothy and Alfalfa were the same thing. (Back when I owned guinea pigs.) Now I think I've learned that alfalfa is a legume? And it has round leaves and purple flowers. Does this sound right? About 5 years ago we moved to a 4 acre place of which the back half was sown in hay and alfalfa. The farmer who tended it for us showed me the alfalfa, and said horse owners like to have a certain percentage of it in their hay. (I think that was to make it a more complete diet.) He retired a few years ago, and the hay is gradually being replaced with weeds, but the alfalfa seems to be going strong! The farmer also told me that when you are harvesting the hay, it needs to dry in the sun until it gets to a certain amount of dryness. It needs some moisture, but not too much, or else it will mold. I wonder why it needs any moisture at all.

It makes sense if what you mean is that you have to go by the eyes, not the markings. As an example, I have Phoebe, here: Who I originally assumed was DF dom pied. Then I was told she could be Dom/ rec pied. (Combination) Since she has the odd wing marks further down, away from where you would expect a DF dom, I thought that made sense, and could be an indication. So what you are saying, is that I should check Phoebe's eyes. I don't know why I haven't made that a point before. Off the top of my head, I can't remember iris rings. She is in the nest box, right now, but as it is time to check on her eggs, I will try to get a good look when I flush her out. Maybe this will help all us newbies with our ablity to identify!

Wow, that is HOT! The hottest weather I have ever been in was one summer on vacation on the East Coast, it got to 106 F. Intolerable! Went out to dinner that night, and even the A/C in the restaurant couldn't cope! I'm with you there, as far as getting warmer vs cooler. Heat grinds me to a halt! BUT, I love the green growing stuff so much, and the sunlight, that I am no fan of winter. It's only pretty when it snows. The rest of the time it is grey bare branches and muddy looking ground. Ug!

About the head-scratch...well, this may not work for you, given each bird's peculiarities, but I'll tell you what I did: Qwerty can be quite moody, but often affectionate at the same time. If I hold my finger out in front of her beak, she'll start to complain and chew on it. When the finger doesn't move, she'll typically quiet down and start rubbing her head on it (she does this to my nose sometimes, too). When that happens, I attempt to move my finger around and start actively scratching her neck. Often, Qwerty accepts, and leans into it. It must feel pretty good since I'm usually allowed to do it for awhile. But it only ever works when I allow Qwerty to initiate it (this is starting to become a trend with Qwerty). okay, so Qwerty had to be the initiator. Kevin is getting used to my finger, but if I move it around, he will leave, So I guess I will just keep it still until he is more comfortable. That is an excellent idea! I have Kevin's playground on the other side of the room, but now I will move it closer.

Aww, GB. I wouldn't "egg-nore" you! You have lots of good information that helps me learn things. In fact, it was your comment and the way the others responded to it that gives me a lot to compare to figure it out! DF, your new bird is LOVELY! I can't wait to see if that yellow spreads through more. I don't think the wing clip matters. I bet when they grow back, they will be pure white, as she is a dom pied. I am also guessing that her tail is white, too, is it not? I haven't learned tail colors, yet, only cheek patch, and so far, I don't think that is helping me much! But I will ask anyway, in real life, are the cheek patches paler, or brighter than your other, normal birds? (One thing I can identify, is that the cheek patches have white areas from the pied mutations! Yay for me, finally!)