Art

stace - Thanks for the newspaper tip. That will certainly make life easier. I'm all about that. Maddy - I don't think that picking him up at this point is such a good idea. He'll freak out. When I get to that point i'll check him out, though. Thanks for the tip on how to do it. On a positive note DP started singing today. He cracks me up. He perches on one leg and hunches over to keep one eye on me. I was told that the best way to get him to perch on your hand was to "chase him around the cage until he's tired and he'll eventually give up and get on your hand". Hmmm. I don't think so...

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. I have a name for him, however it may be a little racey to post on a public forum. I don't want to be asked to leave so we'll just refer to him as D.P. stace - I will have a "stainless steel bird kabob thing" sent my way from the States. Thanks. Does he look lean to you guys? He seems a little on the thin side to me.

Hello to everyone! My name is Art and I just got my first Budgie the other day. I currently live and work in Iraq so getting this guy was no small feat. I have him set up in my office where he is near my desk and I can spend time with him throughout the day. He is roughly 2 to 3 years old and is not very tame. I am taking things very slow with him. Currently I talk to him and three or four times a day I will open his cage, put my hand inside for a few minutes and then remove it. He tolerates that well. I'll do that for a while until he gets used to my hand being in the cage with him. My wife is sending me some quality food as well as some treats and toys. He does eat the seed that I was given. I don't believe that he was ever offered any fruits or vegetables. I offered him some cucumbers, pear and some shredded carrots, but he just eyeballed it. The next day I put a wedge of pear up by his perch in the wire of the cage and he went to town on it. I was pleased with that. I did the same thing the following day with some apple and he ignored it. I put in another pear wedge and he went right over to it. I figure that I'll just try different things and see what he does and doesn't like. His cage may not be optimal, but I'm sure it could be worse. It's not like there is a pet store anywhere nearby... Here are some pics. They are from my phone so I don't expect to win any prizes. I welcome any advice that you guys may have for me. I have been doing as much research as I can and feel that I have recently learned a lot about these little guys.