Catherine

This is going to be a wonderful thread to follow, Liv!

I'd like to think that we would share the accommodation for the birds and both enjoy all the birds. P.S. If it were a really big house with an aviary attached, maybe we could have some macaws, too. lol

Oooh yes. GB! You have caught my idea exactly. I would like there to be a shallow, self-filtering fountain for the birds to bathe in. There would be a section of roof which opens to let in the sunshine and which automatically closes the second it senses moisture. There would be a pop out aviary where the birds could go if they fancied sitting in the rain. There would also be cheap, easy-lift floor covering which I could fold up, throw away and replace on a regular basis. The house would have top level security and be fire, tornado, cyclone and flood proof. A small house for me (and perhaps my partner) would be attached to the bird house where I would sleep and store the things I don't want pecked.

I think a singles' thread is a nice idea, although it rather depends on the purpose of it. I am a widow and am really quite happy now. (At this point everyone rushes to my profile to see how old I am. ) However, a pet-bird-loving partner, who would build me an entire house just for my birds would be a bit special and definitely worth a second look. :party0011:

He is a beautiful little bird and he is very lucky to have found you!

You are very welcome, Squeak_Crumble. Come to Totally Tiels. We have a Shoutbox and a chat room, we love pictures and we talk tiels all night long. Lots of us have budgies, too.

The sweetness would be part of the attraction but, I believe, the main one would be that they instinctively go for the most energy-dense food. If you want them to eat a particular food, you don't provide choices. A smorgasbord invites them to choose some and leave the rest.

Cook the rice in the ordinary way (no salt). A cooked teaspoonful in a day would be heaps. Don't give any of the other things on the same day - it would all be too much. Pour boiling water on cous cous, leave it on for about 4 minutes and drain it in a very, very fine strainer and it is ready. (A nylon tea strainer is good). For three budgies, a level teaspoon would be fine and make it last 2 days. Then change to something else. Soak a teaspoon of green lentils over night. You find them in the supermarket with all the split peas and stuff you need for soup. Sometimes they are just called lentils. They are cheap as chips. The day you give these, don't give the other things I mentioned. Dry them on a paper towel before serving. Quinoa - again, soak over night. They will sprout in that time. Allow plenty of time for them to dry/drain. A paper towel held under the strainer will help this process. About a teaspoonful would be heaps. Quinoa costs about $6.50 in Australian supermarkets for 350 grams. The health food shops charge much more. You will find it in the supermarkets with the health foods. It is the 'in' thing at the moment because of the TV cooking competition. Mung beans usually need a 12 hour soak and a 12 hours over a strainer with a couple of rinses will do in summer - and a bit longer in winter. Start them off in warm water. Feed when the sprouts are just showing. Keep a close eye on your birds' weight while you are feeding these things because they put weight on fast, as I found to my cost. Your birds will probably go for the quinoa easily because they are seeds.

Barney was a lovely boy! It is great the way the photos merge in that collage - so much better than straight lines.

Cookied whole grain rice and cous cous are full of carbohydrate and pack the weight on. Green lentils, mung beans and quinoa are low GI foods and are nutrient rich. These three things need to be soaked. Sweet corn is very nutritious. Don't overdo it, though. Budgies can get fat quickly with too much of these things in their diet. I would want to see my budgies weighing around the 40 gram mark or a bit over.

I like the very first picture best. I think the block colours in the eye make the eye a real feature so that it contrasts well with the mistiness of the rest of the sketch.

Kaz, I wondered if this might be helpful. Paralysis

The wood from the bush look wonderful! I bet your birds just love it.

My sincerest condolences on the loss of your darling Barney. You will miss him terribly. His little corner will be a very sad place for quite a while, though it will be a place where you can remember and pay tribute to him for the joy he brought you. I trust that, in due course, you will find another special budgie.

Well done! Congratulations! This is a cute picture and very engaging.

I love the legend, David.

Thank you. They are pretty birds.

Here is my favourite:

Grevillea looks like this but there are lots of different kinds: Grevillea Bok choy will be with the Chinese vegetables in the supermarket. Others include pak choy (which is fine, too). Bok choy

Hello Cathrine, Thanks for your ideas ad tips they have helped muchly! Its been rianing lots laltey so i havnt been able to go outside to look for branches... Can budgies eat alfalfa? We dont have much bottle brush trees around here. I have put some lettace in cage and they are scared of it. I guess they've never have had lettace before. Poor budgies. Grevillea is great if there is no bottle brush or some leafy twigs from gum trees (always washed). Alfalfa is fine. I think the budgies would be more interested in sprouted mung beans than alfalfa because there is something to chew on. (My birds love them.) I suggest you sprout them yourself because you can do the exact quantity you need rather than waste a whole pack from the supermarket. You can buy raw mung beans at seed merchants and health food shops. Lettuce is not recommended. It can cause problems with excessive pooping and it has no nutritional value for the birds. Instead, I suggest you put in a leaf of silver beet or a leaf of bok choy or similar vegetable. Just poke the leaf through the cage bars. The birds will regard it as a toy to wreck but any they eat is beneficial. Always wash their vegies very carefully.

I would not buy a rope perch. My budgies shred them and the loose threads are a danger if they are swallowed. I would get a small piece of gum tree branch, two small hooks and two short pieces of chain from a hardware and make one for about $2.

I would not use those skinny dowel perches. I would have 2 perches made of varying thicknesses e.g. small gum tree branches. I would place them on either side of the cage along the short sides so that your bird has the maximum flying distance between the two perches. The perches would be quite high up in the cage. I would allow a clear flight passage unhindered by toys. That would also mean that you could leave a bathing dish or food dish on the floor of the cage without there being a danger of poop landing in it. Dishes on the floor will encourage your bird to move around the cage as much as possible. I would put pieces of washed bottle brush in the cage for your budgie to wreck. Pebbles will enjoy doing that.

I put some green lentils in warm water to soak yesterday afternoon. About 8 hours later, I rinsed them and put them to soak again in warm water until this morning. I rinsed them again and ate one. They were quite soft and tasted good. I dried them and gave them to the budgies. They did not hesitate and started eating them at once. I only soaked enough for all the lentils to go in with the budgies' vegies. I am not attempting to store any.

Hi, Where would I get this at? I will be happy to try them out with my budgies. Thanks. I buy it in the health food section of the supermarket. You can also buy it at heath food shops. I have only seen the white quinoa. You can also buy it as flakes but I get the seed so that you can sprout it. It costs about $1.70 per 100 grams in Queensland. Another bird lover has told me that it is small fraction of that price in California. Still, a little of it goes a long way.

Quinoa (pronounce: KEEN-wah) is another great addition to the budgie diet. It has very little carbohydrate but is protein rich and contains calcium and iron. The seeds sprout very quickly. If you soak them over-night, they will have sprouted in the morning - even in winter. You need to rinse them several times after soaking to remove any bitterness.