SL26

Absolutely! I've already got a cage set up in a separate part of the house which is well away from the others.

Thanks KAZ and Clearwing!! Hmmm, this means that I could always get some baby hens later on and then decide in a year or two if I want to get into breeding - that would give me plenty of time to research/prepare....oh and convince hubby of course!!!

We’ve been bitten by the budgie bug and will be expanding our flock from 2 to 4 (for now!). They will be all cocks, so there will be no problems in housing them all together in one large cage. However I was thinking that if further down the track we decide to expand the flock even further, would there be any problems in housing hens and cocks together in a cage? There wouldn’t be any nesting boxes or nice hidey holes for them to get broody, as I’m not looking at breeding (not unless I get bitten by the breeding bug!). Or would it be better to house them in separate cages and allow them to mingle when they out of the cage for ‘playtime’. Any advice and/or people’s experiences in housing hens and cocks together would be greatly appreciated.

If he turns out to be a she, you can still call her Tommy, just perhaps change the spelling to Tommi? My niece has a female kitten called Tommi and if anyone asks why a boy's name, they just say it's short for Tomisena. You're certainly going to get a wonderful gift Houman!! I'm sure he/she will bring you heaps of joy and amusement for many years to come!!

You're right maesie, my budgies love it! I've got as part of a 'budgie mix' iPod playlist I created for them. The playlist is played when we're not at home. For those who are interested my playlist includes: * Budgerigar Country (Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak) * The Experience of Uluru (Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak) * Happy Budgies (Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak) * Spirit of the Outback (Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak) - the above can be bought as a package online and saves $$ * Australian Bird Calls Favorites (David A Stewart) * Birds of the Rain Forest (Naturescapes Music) * Rainforsest Magic (Tony O'Connor) * Bird, Sea & Bush Symphonies (?) I found these online, on iTunes and a couple we already had on CD. There is a variety of sounds for them and they get quite animated with some of the sounds. It's also nice background music when you're home as well. My budgies also love bagpipe and accordian music!! They try to churp in time to the music and go silent each time the track changes - it's quite amusing .

Well after a couple of weeks, things have improved . Alfie has settled down and has started moulting. He's also quite happy with Hubby now (who has been working from home lately so he's able to spend time with them when I'm not there) but still prefers his mummy!!!!

Thanks Elly, KAZ and maesie!!! I thought that they might begin moulting soon, but I've never encountered this type of behaviour with budgies I've had in the past. My hubby hasn't spent much time with them as they are my birds. He's never had pet birds before so I've been teaching him how to read their body language, how to care for them etc. so that he becomes comfortable with them. He certainly wants to interact with them, but I guess because they haven't bonded to him as much as me so it'll take some time. This morning I started getting him involved in the routine I have with them in the morning and evening. Alfie was better this morning, but they both still wanted 'mummy'!! I have considered clipping Alfie's wings, and have done this before with birds I've had previously, but I'll see how they go with having hubby involved in their routine first. Their cage is quite large (~77cm w, 100 cm h, 48cm d) and I've put in natural perches at different heights for them. They have plenty of different toys to keep them occupied. When they are out of the cage they have a timber frame I made which hangs from the curtain rails and some of their toys are hung from this. They also sometimes get large eucalypt branches placed on top of the cage so they can climb and chew to their hearts content. I have been switching their toys around and giving them food challenges (eg. seed scattered in a sand tray, seed stuck to pine cones), so they are kept stimulated. I've got a number of ideas for more toys to make for them, so they'll end up with a wide range of toys which will be rotated, so they'll hopefully never get bored! Many thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated!!!!

Alfie is definately a male and he's about 3 months old.

One of my budgies, Alfie, has started to get a bit grumpy in the last couple of days and I need some advice. When I get him to step onto my hand, he sometimes bites me and gives a warning swark (like go away!), but he will still step onto my hand. He'll generally stay on my hand but may continue to bite my fingers!! Generally his bites are not hard. When he does this, I just ignore him. With my hubby, it's worse. When he tries to get Alfie, he gets bitten quite hard on the fingers and Alfie tries to get away. When Alfie's out of the cage and flying around the house, he evades him by flying erratically around and has crashed heavily into doorways a couple of times. So far, he hasn't injured himself. I'm quite concerned about his behaviour, especially towards my hubby and the risk of Alfie seriously hurting himself or worse. He's healthy in every other way (ie. eating, flying, babbling, playing with toys and his buddy Sandy). Alfie's also gotten grumpy with Sandy and they tend to squabble more. I know they normally get on because they always want to be together and often preen/feed each other. Since we got Alfie and Sandy just over a month ago, they've really taken to me and see me as their mum. I'm the one who spends the most time with them and looks after their needs. Could Alfie just be going through a phase or could it be that he prefers women? (my family once had a galah who loved my sister but hated dad). Has anyone encountered this type of behaviour before and/or has any advice on how to address Alfie's grumpiness? Thanks

I certainly do!!! They've only been with us for a week and I can't remember what it's like without them!

Thanks KAZ...they really are a lovely tree! Do the budgies like the flowers and the leaves or just the leaves? I just found this site with the proper names ...which do you think it is or are any of them okay? http://www.anbg.gov.au/callistemon/index.html My goodness, the neighbors are going to be jealous of my australian paradise if I can get all these lovely thinks growing! I'd better buy a greenhouse me thinks They are a spectaular tree, that's for sure!!! And they certainly attract a range of native birds to the garden in Australia. I think the budgies will probably like the flowers. My parents have a large bottlebrush in their garden and they get wild rosellas coming in who just love to destroy the flowers!! Depending on how cold it gets in your area, you might not need a greenhouse to grow bottlebrushes. Where my parents are they can get quite severe frosts and the tree doesn't get affected.

Ditto ...no picture. Read in my signature on how to post pictures. Oops, user error!! Here is the picture:

After much searching I have finally found the perfect bubs!! Many thanks to Lib for these boys!! So now I'd like to introduce 'the boys'. They don't have names yet, as we want to find out what their personalities are first. They came home on Sunday afternoon and immediately settled in. Lib has done a wonderful job in raising these bubs because they are so tame and relaxed. The picture below shows them on their first time out of the cage on Monday night. They are happily sitting on my hubby's shoulder preening each other.