Catherine

Oh! I am sooo sorry to hear that! :sad: :rip: Bessie.

I am really sorry to hear of the loss of Rosie. I do wish you the very best for Bessie. Are you able to tell us the name of the parasite? There may be others here who have experience dealing with it. Until recently, I have kept my 12 budgies in two large indoor cages. I housed them according to personality and apparent friendships. I moved out any bird that consistently kept any other bird away from favoured perches or the food and put it in the other cage so that it had to start over in the pecking order. Eventually, I got it right. I have made a point of mostly keeping an even number of the sexes in each cage.

Well done, Admin team. It is all working well. :budgiedance: Will there be a shout box? P.S. Smilies not working?

I mentioned the gloves because Suichi may be frightened by the gloves and have even more reason to reject you. A pet type budgie could live for 15 years if he has a varied diet, does not get overweight and stays well. When you get your new bird, be sure to quarantine him from Suichi. If your new bird is carrying some disease, you could lose both birds. The quarantine period is to give time for the disease to become evident in your new bird. Your new parrot will, no doubt, be expensive so you will be taking him to an avian vet for a check.

Tough love is the anwer, I think. This is an issue which will not go away without it. Your boyfriend is going to have to be very strict with himself and ignore the bird. If Suichi alights on his shoulder, he must lift him off. He must not feed him or talk to him. Only you can attend to him! You may need to use gloves but try not to. Please don't let the bird see any hesitation on your part. It does not matter if he lashes out, you are still going to attend to him. You just approach him steadily and treat him the way you did before your boyfriend arrived. NO punishment! It is harmful and does not work. It he bites you, he goes in his cage for a while OR both of you completely ignore hm for a while. Don't let him see your reaction to the bite. Making noises indicating pain will reinforce his behaviour because parrots do like a bit of drama. Only when your bird is back with you should your boyfriend pay him some attention. You may find that your boyfriend won't help you here because he likes the attention from Suichi. Well then, you have to choose ...

A very beautiful photo. Well done!

Oh, go for it, Kaz! I would cover in all those verandahs and have inside/outside aviaries. You would probably have spare rooms so that you could have some indoor bird rooms, too. I must sound like a philistine to do such things to a lovely home. lol The truth is, I look at all houses from the perspective of how I could make things better for my birds.

Well, Wendymoon, it looks a bit cheaper than a heated towel rail. Maybe hubby could get one for his bathroom. I really don't know about a heated perch. I believe that budgies regulate their temperature through their feet. I would rather see a heated shelf. I would put a piece of carpet tile on it and the birds could hunker down on that if they were cold. My cocktiels cuddle in all over me in the winter. I think they regard me as a warm, soft, undulating shelf. lol. They might settle for an artificially heated shelf which they could sit on all night.

That was wonderful, rachelm! Well done!

:sadsorry: Oh, nubbly5, what a simply dreadful experience!!! I cannot imagine how you felt. You would have been afraid out of your brain! Someone was looking after you both today. Your husband will be very sore indeed for quite a while. I do wish him a speedy and full recovery. My kindest regards to you both.

I think they would like it and it should be fine when it is popped and has no salt or sugar. I had a bag of honey popcorn once. My cockatiels stole some and thoroughly enjoyed it. They have not gotten any since, however

I love the pictures, Kaz. Those little, fluffy canaries are soooo cute.

It is a very pretty photo, Jack. Congratulations!

I am so very sorry, Kaz. That is a terrible blow. Rest in peace, beautiful girl.

That is a lovely little salad! I am sure your budgies enjoy it. I do a salad, too. It has similar ingredients to yours. It includes flowers of broccoli roughly chopped (my siamese fighting fish get those little bits from the top). I partially cook the carrot and dice it. I use zucchini rather than cucumber. I also add sprouted mung beans. My budgies dig into the salad at once for the mung beans and carrot. They would not eat grated carrot.

I am so glad you did that! All the very best for getting your budgies back to full health.

Thank you everyone. :rip:

Do you wash it in plain water?

I would like to know, too.

I adore the pictures of you and the budgies, GB!

Thank you very much, RIP. I will put some to soak now.

Kristy123, the vet is at Chermside. You will have to talk to him or one of his staff about the details. It will not be cheap but it will be worth it. He has saved the life of two of my birds. All the very best with getting your birds healthy. I would love to hear of them being well and of you being able to enjoy them.

I have searched the forum for information on buckwheat. I see that members do feed it to their birds. My question is: Can I sprout it? I have just bought some organic buckwheat which I propose to add to my sprouting seed mix if it is suitable. Can you help, please?

Kristy123, I knew you would be upset when I read what was written yesterday. You are dealing with people here who care passionately about the welfare of birds. To hear that more of yours are dying when it is preventable, really tears our guts out. Use the medicine you have and if the birds stop dying, it works and you have the right solution. If it does not, go to an avian vet urgently. At the beginning, I pmed you the name of the nearest one to you and he is excellent. If you had rung and asked, you would have learned that he allows people to pay off their bills. He really cares about birds, too and will not turn one away because the owner cannot pay on the spot.