Finnie

Well, I've been gone a couple of days. Went to Detroit for a family Christmas get-together. Only one daughter went with me, so I hired my son to take care of the budgies while I was gone. He did a great job. Before I left (Dec 20), Colleen had a 2nd egg, and Finnie laid her first one off the perch. Colleen's: Finnie's: We decided to put Finnie's broken egg into her box in the hopes that it would help her to know where to lay the next one. I don't know if it helped or not, but this morning, (Dec 22) she had a new egg in her box, and the old one was thrown out to the bottom of the cage. She seems to have got it figured out now. Finnie's 2nd egg (first good one): And Colleen's 3rd egg arrived right on schedule last night (Dec 21): Colleen seems to be staying in the box all the time now, so I guess I can start counting down to a hatch date. I think that will be around Jan 8. It's been fun seeing a new development almost every day. Phoebe and Bailey have been feeding and preening each other for almost a week, now, so I'm hoping they will start laying soon, too. With all these eggs, it looks like I will be having a "white" Christmas!

Finally got done with morning chores. Here's my report. I put lots of oatmeal into Colleen's box. Just sort of pushed it towards the corner with the egg. I will let her spread it around how she prefers. That way I didn't have to touch the egg, and I didn't bury it either. I also added some oatmeal to the other 2 boxes. They hadn't thrown all their pine chips out, but now they will have both kinds to play with and get used to. Finnie still has no egg, and today her poops are more to normal size, but I will say there is quite a pile of them! Check out her egg bum! : (At least, i think this must be what egg bum looks like.) She's not normally shaped like this, and no one else is, either. (I checked ) So maybe there will be another egg when I go to check tonight! When I was driving my 11 year old to school this morning, he told me that if there was a new egg at morning check time, I needed to tell him as soon as he gets home. (As if I would be able to keep it to myself! ) He was as excited as I was last night. After we took the pictures, he kept saying "okay, time to go post this on the forum!" He's my little bird buddy. I'm glad, because he's the only one who's interested. Oh, and he said I should use a bunch of these guys: :rofl:

I'm with Dave and GB.

These 2 are my favorites. Love them!

That's wonderful! None of mine talk, but I love it when they make the kinds of noises that sort of sound like talking. Maybe there's hope yet. :rofl:

Jasper is a good name ...my friends ragdoll cat is called Jasper. I like the name Jasper. My favorite special plush rabbit from when I was a kid was named Jasper. (Still have him in a box somewhere- I'll never throw him out!)

Yay!! You got the "Dalmatian" one! He is very cute. Is he cinnamon? (or is that just my monitor? :rofl: )

okay, I will do it this morning when it is checking time. I have 2 or 3 spare cartons of oatmeal ready and waiting And, yeah, that box is the one without a concave, so I was planning to put the bedding deep, to prevent splay legs. This is what I have been doing since I opened the door to the box, about 6 days ago. (Even with no eggs, I wanted her to get used to me tapping on the box.) She's funny, because she was actually not in the box when I first saw the egg, but then she went in as if to say "what do you want with my egg?" Yes, very! You would be surprised how silly I feel about one little egg! :rofl: It's like after all the pictures I've seen of all of your eggs and chicks, and everything I've read, it still seemed like just a legend. But now that I have an actual egg, it's like " Oh my gosh, it's all true! They really do lay eggs!" Just think how I will feel in a few weeks if I discover that they actually do hatch, too.

I GOT MY FIRST EGG!!!!!! I can't believe it!!!! I've been checking the boxes once in the morning and once in the evening, and tonight there was an egg in Colleen's box! Even though I've been expecting it, it was still an awesome surprise! Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry, I was in a hurry because I didn't want to disturb her too much. None yet in Finnie's box, but maybe tomorrow. So, would it be a good idea now to add more pine chips now, since she has thrown most of them out, or should I wait a while longer?

I'm so excited! There are no eggs, yet, BUT, this morning when I went to check on the birds, two pairs have Really Big Poops! :what: (Sorry, no pics, don't want that to be the first image in my journal :rofl: ) I will post pictures when there are eggs. Also, before I was even finished with feeding time, I turned around and saw both of those pairs in what looked like successful mating positions. Before, I would sometimes see them trying, but it seemed like the male would fall off or fly away pretty quickly, but this time they seemed to take forever! Is it normal for the male to switch from side to side? Maybe he's still not quite successful. Here are the pairs: Pair 1, Patrick and Finnie Oh, let's look for a better shot of Patters... Here's one from last year: Pair 2, Bailey and Phoebe And pair 3, Sean and Colleen Last year: "> And this year: Another sign of progress is that Bailey and Phoebe are starting to bond. I have seen them feeding each other. So, it looks like things might start happening around here. I can't wait!

Hi Grant, welcome to the forum! My first thought would be that if his foot hurts and he won't use it, I wouldn't want him to associate the pain with me or my finger or shoulder. Plus I wouldn't want to set back his healing by making him put extra strain on his foot. I would just let him rest in his cage until he is feeling better and using his foot normally. You can still make taming progress in non-physical ways, such as talking to him a lot and offering him millet through the bars. If he already perches on your finger and shoulder, I don't think he will forget how to do that in a week or two, as long as you are spending the time making friends with him. Hope this helps!

Cute! Is she a girl?

Me too. But this always happens to me. There are a lot of times when all of you will say that a bird is cinnamon, but I can only see grey. Maybe it is just my monitor.

What are you seeing in the tail that indicates opaline?

Shamrock, I think it's going to take a long time to tell whether an improved diet helps or not. I read your post, too, so now I'm going to watch and see if her beak overgrowth outpaces my trimming. At first I had just thought it was too long, and I'd shorten it. Now it sounds like it might continually grow too long. It's too soon to know, yet. How often have you had to trim Shamrock's beak? When I trim Sorcha's beak the 2nd time, I will take some pictures again and post them. Maybe it will help to have a pictorial record of her progress.

Thanks, I hadn't read down that far yet

That's a lot of blood! Is that budgie okay?

I, too have a budgie with an overgrown beak. It was suggested she could have a liver problem. I looked up some information about that, and it seems that when a bird gets overweight, it gets fat deposits in it's liver, which causes the liver to lose proper function. One of the symptoms of fatty liver disease is overgrown beak. But you have been taking your budgie to the vet. Has he not had any suggestions? Is he an avian vet, or a regular small animal vet? It makes a difference. You should ask the vet about this. Anyway, is your bird overweight? It could be a possiblility, if he hasn't been getting enough vegetables and greens to supplement his seed diet. Somewhere in the FAQ section is an avian vet locator that you could use to find a different vet, if necessary. Good luck, I hope your bird gets better!

Can't wait to see what you get. How fun!

Well, tonight I opened the doors to Finnie and Colleen's nest boxes. Colleen went straight into hers! Finnie took a while, but by the time it was lights out, she had gone in! Fingers crossed we will be seeing some action soon.

Here is a link to an excellent post that teaches us what to look for when sexing baby chicks:click here

Do you have any pictures? They must be beautiful! (Rhetorical question- I'm sure you have loads of pics ) http://www.artiglass.com.au/ Wow. All I can say is WOW, WOW, and again, Wow. Your are fabulously talented. I learned something from your website: my front door is leadlight! here it is "> We learned the hard way that it was repairable! (One summer our son hit a golfball into it. Turns out, each of those glass shapes is a separate piece, and he only broke one of them! Thank goodness.)

Do you have any pictures? They must be beautiful! (Rhetorical question- I'm sure you have loads of pics )

Neither did I- I'm going to try this too!

Have you tried broccoli, spinach, other greens, and carrots? Also celery tops (just the leaf part)