Brucies Mum

I am sorry about the picture size I did and always do resize my pics, dont know what happend this time, once again sorry.

Bruce does that in his seed dish just like Kaz says. Boy does he make a mess, the seed comes flying out of the cage everywhere, when we tell him to stop he looks at us as much to say why whats up.. it is so funny.. here is a picture of him doing it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/liz...an/DSC00077.jpg

I never clipped Bruces wings, and it does take time and patience getting them confident enought to step on your finger, but keep trying and I'm sure you will be rewarded, just remember go at the birds pace never try to rush them. It is so easy to scare them and lose their trust.

Well we have had another beautiful day, and it is predicted to continue until at least the weekend. It is amazing the variety of temperatures that you get across Australia. We have slight variations in as much as the south of our country tends to be a bit warmer than further up north but it isnt that great a difference, but we are a miniscule country compared to the land mass of Australia. How on earth do you ccope with temperatures in the high 40's. our bodies would struggle with that as we are not used to such high temperatures. I have experienced it that hot once when I was on holiday in Greece and although I love the heat I found that too uncomfortable, no doubt if we had it like that all the time though we would get used to it. I must admit though Bruce loves it when it is warm enough to put him outside, he has been such a happy chappy the last few days chatting away and watching the birds fly around in the garden, I wonder if he secretly thinks why cant I be out of my cage and flying round with them. You can tell though how happy he is out in the fresh air. Here he is enjoying the sun. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/liz...ce/DSC00228.jpg

Today 21st June here in the UK it is the Summer Solstice, the longest day (light) of the year. After today the sun starts its long slow journey back to the Southern hemisphere. ( I hope it doesnt rush away ) We are enjoying glorious sunny and warm weather at the moment, I have spent some of the day out in my garden, it is even warm enough for Bruce to have been out side in his cage. It is so good to be able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine as we have had one of the worst Winters on record for over 30 years. I lost a few plants in the garden due to frost and a couple of foot of snow which hung around for weeks on end , and yet most of the plants are thriving and flowering better than they have done for quite a few years. What are your Winters like in Australia and how cold does it get, this Winter just gone in the UK we had temperatures of minus 17 celcius, and a few days up to now in early Summer it has been almost 30C, today it was a pleasant 24C. This next 2 months are what we class as Summer properly and were our temperatures start to climb if we are lucky, but we never get it as hot as some parts of Australia.

That is amazing, she looks great now, so glad she isnt suffering any more, it must have been so hard for you to see her the way she was.. good on you for sticking with her.

I have to agree with you, I still dont approve of putting "clothes " of any description on birds and animals, yet again just my opinion. If you let your bird fly free all day in a safe environment does that mean you leave the suits on all day and contain the poop, or do you decide when its okay to let them go without a suit and poop everywhere? If its okay to poop everywhere sometimes surely its okay to let them poop freely all the time, it takes seconds to clean up after them! Maybe my opinion is wrong? But it is my opinion.

Ohhh lunch sounds delicious can I come and get my nose in the bowl as well :nest: They are growing all the time and still as cute. It is good to see a responsible breeder making sure her pups go to good homes, sadly this doesnt always happen. Here in the UK we get what we call puppy farms where unscrupulous breeders just breed dogs for money, and the poor bitches are just there as puppy machines. Most if not all of the pups are unhealthy and come from unhygienic surroundings. People are told to avoid these farms like the plague but the breeders are crafty and try to dupe people into thinking they are reputable. We do have good breeders as well not all are bad, but people have to be so careful, what looks like a bargain pup can prove to be very expensive in the long run because of vet bills for sickly pups and some times sadly dead pups. So it is lovely to see how you operate Kaz, your Maggies pups are a credit to you.

Yes, i tried. Not a chance. I cant even suck my toe let alone my elbow :nest:

How exciting for you, cant wait to see some pics of Tatoe... great name you have chosen.

Just because there are idiots who buy from this site doesnt make it right! The poor birds must end up with their rear end feathers caked in poop, and what about the stress to the bird whilst putting the diaper on and off them. Dont some people realise owning any sort of animal involves cleaning up after them. If you dont want to be responsible and take on animal care dont own an animal or bird. Sorry for the rant but things like this make me angry. An animal/bird is just that you shouldnt try to humanize them. Phew glad to have got that off my chest feel better fot that now.

Read this link from FAQ for ideas on fruit and veg http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...&artlang=en and this one for toxic and non toxic plants http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...&artlang=en

It could be because your budgie is frightened that it bites if you put your finger near it. As they say the best form of defence is attack. You must always be very gentle when going near your bird, if it doesnt want you near it dont force the issue or you may frighten the bird and then you will never get its trust again.

Yes he does it all the time, but if he goes the other way from my hand and climbs up my nose to get to my glasses it doesnt half hurt, his little claws put tiny perforations in my nose.. ouch I think he like my glasses as they are shiny frames and he can see reflection in them, its funny though when he sticks his head down inside them, looks like he is trying to read the newspaper with them

Well the boy dogs in our family are Polo as he is a white Westie and Polo mints are white Alfie he is a rescue Shitzu Oscar was the name of my Golden Labrador but now the name of my Daughter's Border Collie My next door neighbour named their Westie, Mac Enjoy your new Pup you are in for lots of fun

Make sure though that if your bird is touching your hair that you dont have any hair products on it that the bird could ingest or breathe in vapours, and get on its feet as it could then ingest it. My bird uses my head as a landing platform then slides down onto my glasses and proceeds to chew them.

I have a cage with just one budgie in it and every morning I wipe his perches clean with damp paper towel and vinegar solution, I then use a small dustbuster type hand held vac with a crevice tool so no accidently sucking budgie up to suck up any husks from his seed and any feathers from the bottom of the cage. I also check his seed to make sure it is seed and not just husks and I give fresh water every day. I change the sand paper at the bottom of the cage every other day, and give the cage a complete thorough wash down once a week. I know most on here dont recomend sand sheets for the cage floor as they are not too gentle on the birds feet, but Bruce has never gone on the floor of his cage he panics if he accidently ends up there, so I doubt it would affect his feet having sand sheets on his floor, and I think they look tidier, I wouldnt use them if he used the floor of his cage.

Why thank you kind sirs I dont like having my photo taken, so always think it isnt flattering, but its nice to be complimented. The picture was taken while I was on holiday in Spain a couple of years ago, by the owner of a restaurant, they used to take everyones picture and put them on their website.

Ohh well done Molly is improving for you, I bet you feel better for that, see she does still love you I found when Bruce was a bit nervous of hands I would take a step awaay from the cage and bring my hand up to my face and touch my cheek, at first he backed away but slowly he got used to my hand not touching him but still being in his sight, eventually I could put my finger on his cage and although he wouldnt come to it at first he did eventually. It was all a confidence building exercise, to let him see my hand would not hurt him. Yet when he was out of his cage he had no fear of my hand, he just didnt like it in his space. Now I can put my hand in even holding my little dust buster hoover and it doesnt bother him. He makes as much noise as the hoover :rofl:

I hope no one walks in the room while I'm trying this, they will think I have flipped... needlesss to say I cant do it my limbs have a mind of there own.

Great pictures Ratzy, your Marigold is like Bruce in as much as he likes to stick his face next to the camera lens and spoils all the pics of him, all I get is a big beak stuck in the middle of most of my pics

Well being only a pet owner of one budgie I cant offer any answers to your questions but I'm sure someone will. But I can say that Sonny Bill is a little cutie pie :rofl:

Wow Ratzy so much knowledge for 12 years old, and thank you so much for that piece of information regarding the saliva, I will remember that seeing as I look after my grown up children's dogs, but I dont let Bruce out when the dogs are around, it was a lesson well learnt.

Firstly I must say if there seems a delay in replying to posts it is only because of the time difference between us, I do read every day but my day goes into your night. I must thank you all for your replies, they are so interesting, I wasn't sure anyone would reply, just thinking I am a nosey old biddy from the UK Your stories are fascinating, it seems like most of you are like me and got your first birds as children, unlike me your intrests grew to greater things, while I have waited until I'm a lot older to aquire another bird. I would love to have an aviary but hubby says an emphatic NO. I can understand where he is coming from though, as we have spent most of our lives tied to our own children ( well perhaps tied is the wrong word but you understaand what I mean) then looking after Grandchildren and our own dogs (we still baby sit our childrens dogs) and Hubby thinks it is time we had the freedom to go away for breaks and have our own time together seeing as he works away he wants our time together to be just us. We have just purchased a touring caravan so can now travel around when he gets home on leave, and it is okay to take one budgie with us, Bruce has been with us a lot now when we have rented cottages in the UK and he loved it. Having to arrange for someone to look after an aviary every month while we head off would be quite difficult, so I must be content on owning just the one bird "FOR NOW" Generic Blue your story was great, I think you definitely deserved your aviary even after all your tantrums ohh if you had been mine :rofl: thats the Mum coming out in me now! Some stories have been tinged with sadness as part of the learning curve but we learn by these things, I too learnt a hard lesson, after losing a bird. We were taking the children out and they had me pretty pre occupied, our bird was always out of the cage when we were in the house and the dog we owned never touched it, you can see whats coming cant you Yes in all the rush to get out we forgot to put the bird back in its cage, and when we got back home the bird was dead on the floor. I dont think the dog had touched it but maybe frightened it to death... so one very important lesson was learnt. Keep your stories coming I love reading them, and hearing about your lives so many thousands of miles away, so many similarities but so many diffrences in our lives, yet we all love our budgerigars.

I am curious to know how you all came about having an interest in Budgerigars and for most of you to go on to become breeders? I used to have a pet budgie when I was 7, my mum bought it for me from a friend who was a breeder, at the time my Aunt was very ill and Mum was looking after her so thought a bird would be company for me. He was called Peter and blue, that was the limit of my knowledge at 7, but he was a great bird he talked and played and was a constant friend for me. After I got married I also bought birds for my children, but they never talked and didnt amuse the childreen as much as Peter had me, and they always wanted a dog instead, so we had two dogs that took over 27 yrs of our lives. After the last dog we decided now there was just me and hubby that we wouldnt have any more dogs, but I couldnt stand the house being so quiet and desperatley needed company again as hubby works away and so we got Bruce. When I was little everyone seemed to own budgies as pets but now I find not many people do here in the UK (well not in the area that I live), in fact we stuggled in our area to find a nice bird.. all of the birds where in pet shops and didnt look very healthy to my untrained eye, but eventually I came across a local pet shop that I had not used before, so we went in to look and yes they had some budgies, and you could tell they were only young and they looked healthy. The shop owner explained she only dealt with one dealer and all his birds had been good, so we purchased Bruce and he has turned out to be a smashing pet bird. But still I find not many pet shops cater to budgies needs, they only sell a limited amount of stuff, but happily I have found another shop that seems to cater predominantly to birds so I can now get a variety of supplies. (trouble is their birds dont seem as good to me but that is just my opinion) So I am really interested to know is it much more common to keep budgerigars especially in Australia than it is in the UK, and how did you all get interested and aquire so much knowledge?