Wendymoon

Oh wow, thanks everyone! I told Bogie he won, and he just looked at me as if to say, "well, then, don't I deserve some millet?"

Your babies are so cute! I'm not breeding birds, so I love seeing other pics of chicks growing up. :thumbs_up:

Hah! Didn't realize it would be such a crazy question! Here's an example of a heated / thermo perch. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...fm?pcatid=10899 I guess the idea is to give the birds a place to warm up if they want to. The reviews seem to indicate that a lot of birds really like them. It does make sense to me along the lines of providing warmth for a sick budgie. My husband found this actually, I think he's worried about our little budgie getting too cold during the winter. (Also, he's always wanted heated floors, so maybe he's just trying to pamper Bogie like he'd like to be pampered.)

Couldn't find anything about them by doing a search -- just wondering if anyone on here uses or has used heated perches? We're thinking about getting one for when the weather gets colder and would appreciate advice. Thanks!

Well, I haven't been around for a bit, but Bogie's been doing really well. He's quite a good little buddy now. He'll fly to my finger from across the room (or just as often to my head; he seems to like the bigger target) and is quite content sitting perched on my shoulder and nibbling my ear. He also likes typing with me on the keyboard or trying to control the scroll button on the mouse. :-) He talks tons, has added "whatcha doin" to his vocabulary and now I think "hi bird" as that's what I say when he flies to me. And he's started chirping for me sometimes when I'm out of the room. (Especially when I'm at the kitchen sink, he can see me down the hallway and he's like, what are you messing around in there for? I'm here! Come play!) It's amazing to me how much he's changed in the time we've had him. To everyone with a brand new scared bird, be patient and kind, having a tame little friend is so worth the work!

Thanks all for your comments! Brucies Mom, I totally relate to viewing the budgie as a bit of a moody teenager right now. We've tried to be consistent with him and he's being pretty friendly back again. Mostly I've been trying to make sure I talk to him a bit first before trying to get him to step up. Also we're not trying to get him to step up from inside his cage so much. He's got toys attached to the outside and spends a good deal of time out climbing and playing, and when we approach him to play and talk when he's already out of his cage he's much more agreeable about it. Sootie, thanks for the Moulting Aid link. I have seen liquid vitamin supplements locally, maybe I will try that or order from your link. I love hearing about Django's cheek rubs! The other day I did give Bogie a little bit of a cheek rub, which he seemed more to tolerate than to love. But maybe it will grow on him! Naomi, Peanut is so cute with the bell! I'm sure he and Bogie would be fighting over them if they were together. ;-) Bogie is STILL moulting (how long is too long? Is a first moult usually long?) but he doesn't seem as cranky. He's also saying tons of new stuff! He's learned gimme a kiss, thank you bird, and you're a good birdie. We say "gimme a kiss" to him and bump nose to beak. He seems to like that. Such a sweetie.

Moulting.

Thanks for the tips, Sootie! I haven't seen Moulting Aid, is it available in the states? We have been giving him some seed that says it's for moulting birds (along with his regular stuff). I have noticed the last couple of days that Bogie is fine with us talking to him. In fact, he will sometimes inch over to me and even come to me if I stay and talk long enough. This made me happy since for a few days I was sure he hated me! But it's just hands chasing him down he's not so into it seems. (Which is too bad as I'd love to help him scratch some of those feathers coming in! At least he has his toys to rub against, like his bell he uses as a hat to scratch his head. So cute!) OH, another cute thing Bogie's been doing lately, as he eats sometimes he will deliberately drop a half eaten seed on the hood/cover thing over his water dish. Like it's a table. Then he comes back for it to finish it. :-)

So here's the latest on Bogie... He's still moulting (it seems like it's been a really long time, he's lost tons of feathers and has had the pin feathers all over. I'm hoping he's almost done with it. I think it might have been his first moult as he's not looking like a baby anymore. The sad thing is that it seems to have made him kinda cranky (not that I can blame him, I'm sure the moult is no fun) but it's making us sad lately because he doesn't always want to play/interact with us. Sometimes when we try to get him to step up he'll run away to a high perch as if to say "leave me alone!" and sometimes he'll even bite a bit, although not hard at all. He's also asserting his independence more, like we used to bring him out to play or go to bring him back to the cage if he flew somewhere and looked lost. Now he'll fly away from us and back to the cage by himself. There's mixed feelings about it: I'm glad he can find his way home, but I wish he trusted us more. :-( He was also getting quite attached to his toys, so much so that we took a couple out of the cage. He likes to sing to his toys. He also chatters a lot and says "You're a pretty bird" quite clearly now. Sometimes he embellishes that to "pretty pretty bird." :-) So in all he seems healthy and happy, just a bit moody. I'm hoping when the moult ends he'll be more friendly again and not so stinky at us. Any thoughts or tips for us getting our trusting little buddy back? Is this just like a teenage phase?

Congrats! This is a great photo. :-)

Very pretty!

So sorry about Nibbles.

For a while we've been trying to get Bogie to take a bath. At first he was so skittish of anything new, he really hated the bath getting attached to his cage and completely avoided it. I used a mister instead to get him wet. But the other day he took more interest. We put his bell by the bath (he'll always come for bell!) and he worked at getting to bell without getting wet. I splashed my fingers in the water for a while and that intrigued him, but he still wouldn't quite get in. Finally left him alone for a bit and he ended up diving in a few times and splashing around! Of course this activity ceased as soon as I got out the camera.

Well, I think I've been wrong before! But the majority were guessing boy on here. Also Bogie seems to act more like a male than female (head bobs, talking, doesn't bite). In some lights it does seem like a bit of white on the cere, though. I'm so confused.

Mine too, chatters to himself when he's getting ready to nap.

Better late than never? A closeup of Bogie from behind.

Flycow, I'm not sure how old Bogie is. We got him a couple of months ago, and were guessing he was maybe 4-6 months? Probably the experts around here have a better guess. Tried to find a young bird to make it easier to tame, was looking for one with marks down to the cere but because of Bogie's coloring it was harder to tell. Haven't been around much here lately, but Bogie's good. :-) He steps up beautifully now and is doing better on his short flights out although he's still happiest just playing in and around his cage. He's been molting now for a bit (he's really funny watching the little feathers when they fall down around him) and we can't wait to see how he flies when his clipped wings grow back in. Bogie has a new love: bells. (I'm glad we got rid of the copper toxic bell before he got attached!) Every toy with a bell gets lots of attention from him, and best of all he loves his big bell. He sits and taps it, talks to it, scratches his head with it. I think he loves bells even more than millet. That's saying something. For a while I swear he was even trying to talk like a bell! As in, all his little noises turned into squeaky little bell pings almost. But he's testing his voice a lot, imitates a little whistle we do for him, and I think he says "pretty bird"! (It's hard to tell since he likes to chat when other noise is on and he does it so quietly. But I keep repeating that to him so it's bound to be in his head. He still seems like a bit of a nervous-natured bird, doesn't like lots of commotion around him and really doesn't like new things coming into the cage. But at least he's okay with us and our hands now.

When we first got Bogie, he wanted nothing to do with anything fresh we tried to offer. I tried different fruits and veg put in the cage different ways: clipped on side, in a different dish at the bottom, offered by hand, etc. Finally I tried changing out his regular food dish with another one filled with a healthy mix. (Boiled egg, grated carrot, little bits o' broccoli all topped off with some seed.) He was so hesitant the first day to get anywhere near it, which was a bit discouraging, although he did try some eventually. The second day he still looked wary of it, but did eat from it. Today was day three, and he seemed a bit unhappy/squawky this morning. Once I put his egg mix dish it, he calmed right down and went immediately to eat from it! YAY!

Thanks birdluv, that's so generous of you! Actually we had an extra bell from a toy with mirrors that we are not using yet (so that Bogie will bond with us and not the birdie in the mirror.) So we hooked up the non-copper bell to the playgym and all is well. Bogie seems to like being in his cage best of all and doesn't always want to come out to play, although today when I went in to clean his cage I offered him the perch to come out instead, and he seemed to like being away from the commotion of cleaning. His favorite thing at the moment seems to be his rings, sometimes when we offer our finger or his stepping perch he jumps on only so we can get him closer to his precious rings. Like we're his personal elevator, lol! I've also been trying mostly unsuccessfully to get him to eat healthy fresh stuff. I've tried offering by hand, in another dish on the cage floor, clipped to the bars, etc. Today I swapped out his regular food dish for another one with little bits of hard boiled egg and shredded carrots topped off with some seed. He was not super happy with the change, but eventually went in and tried some (has the orange from the carrots around his beak to prove it). He didn't much like the egg whites, though, those got thrown down just like the pellets he so despises. We try to explain to him that these fresh things, fruits and veg are healthy, but it's hard to reason with a budgie! ;-)

Very cute! I love the one where he's looking out through the food dish. :bump:

Thanks birdluv! My Bogie and your Jasper do look alike (so cute!) I think Jasper's colors may be a bit brighter, though. :-) Finnie, thanks for the tip about the bell. I had no idea -- that's just wrong that they can sell items for birds that can actually hurt them. :-( Bogie will be sad though, he likes that bell. I'll have to find one to replace it. I wonder if our cages are the same... I'm pretty happy with the cage. Nice size, but the perches were just plain wood. (We added in some different ones for variety.)

Bogie will come on our fingers if we bribe him with millet! Steps up more consistently on an extra perch. We also got him a little playgym, and he was out today on that, seemed to like being out by us while we worked at our desks. :-)

It's interesting hearing what everyone does! You know those books at the start of this thread that Maesie binds? I design them! My last job was doing digital wedding album designs; I really enjoyed it and am looking to get back into it. I also do all sorts of artsy crafty things and sell my creations on Etsy. You can check my shop out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/wendymoon