~ Charly ~

I own four budgies. Charlotte ( male, lol ), Sunshine ( male ), Ice ( female ), and Danny ( male ). I thought I would write a little something about them all, for anyone that might be interested in reading it. Charlotte: Well, Charlotte is tamed, so, I hate to say it, but he is my favourite. He is white, with some black/grey markings on his wings, back, face, and breast area. He gets nippy at times, but hardly bites me, but he bites everyone else, the naughty little thing ! He gets free-flies around my room ( supervised, and and I try to budgie proof the room as much as possible ), and he loves that, nibbling on blankets, jumping all over desks, even chewing up books ! Now, a little past history: At first, when I got him from the breeder, he was already called Charlotte ( they thought he was female ), but i was going to name him Bicky, because it rhymed with my other budgies name ( Beaky, who sadly passed away last year ) and I thought it was cute. But it just didn't suit him, so I kept the name Charlotte. I think it fits him, even though he is male. And it may sound ridiculous on a boy budgie, but it seriously fits ! Sunshine: We got Sunshine from a pet store ( reponsible, caring pet store owner ). They were selling him as "hand-raised", but he wasn't tamed, which we were hoping for. I am taming him now though, and it is going well. He is a bit older than the bird you would usually try tame. Usually taming a bird of a few months is easier, but i thought I would take up the task of taming a 3-year-old budgie, and it is working out well, just taking a bit longer than the usual. He hasn't much background with me, he is a nice budgie, but not like Charlotte who I play with and well ... just love. Still a nice budgie though. ' Ice: We got Ice from a pet store, like Sunshine ( not where we got Sunshine though ). We got her along with Danny, Danny was free, although I'll talk more of that when i tell you about Danny. I choose Ice because I thought she looked pretty, she looked playful, and i thought she could possibly be tamed, although she was not a young budgie. Again, not much background with me. We only just got her about 4 - 5 months ago and I have not yet tried handling her, but when we needed to catch her for one reason or another, she seemed calm, as if she had been handled a few times in the past. Ice is a very good girl. She plays with Sunshine a lot, I think they have paired up as i catch them kissing, feeding, and preening each other sometimes. I will try tame Ice some time soon i think, and I'm sure she will be a very nice tamed budgie. Danny: We got Danny from a pet store also, he has splayed legs, the poor thing. He has, however, learnt how to get around, and seems okay with his derformed legs. He is a common green budgie, and the reason I got him was because I felt sorry for him. About ten budgies crammed into a small cage, about the size of a computer screen. Danny was getting picked on by other budgies, and the food bowls were very hard for Danny to access due to his splayed legs. Danny has very strong wings, I guess he uses them more than he does his legs. We wanted to tame him, but we thought it would be too hard and stressful on him. We couldn't clip his wings, since he has splayed legs, we couldn't take away his right to fly. I did with Charlotte, and Sunshine, but I can't with Danny, it's the only thing he has pretty much, and he gets very stressed when we handle him. I love Danny. And would any one know how to get his legs back to the usual ? Perhaps a particular perch ? i would love it if I could help him and get his legs all normal again. So, these are my four budgies. If you could just answer that question about Danny's legs, that would be nice. I will get some photos and show them to you, however I can't get a picture of Sunshine or Ice as I am away and they are back with my grnadparents. I have pictures of Charlotte and Danny already, just need to find out how to get them on this page !

That is a ridiculous poem, but very funny.

I was wondering, because I know how unhealthy a pet shop bird is and because I know where they com from, I was wondering if it is at all possible to breed the bad stuff out of a bird from a pet shop ... Can I ? And if I can, how ?

I am posting this to show people what a pet shop will do to bring money in with as little work as possible. Well, a pet shop over in WA, Australia, that I visited was owned by an old couple. It was a small shop, but they were still able to cram a lot of unfortunate animals into it. There were tanks of mice, I caught the mice crowding around their water bottle - about seven of them - desperately licking at the tip where the water is SUPPOSED to come from. I look in the water bottle ... No water. I notify the pet shop owner and he says "Oh, i didn't notice, oh," or something of the sort. The budgies and cockatiels are in reasonably large avairies, I admit, but the condition - filthy. Some cockatiels had missing feathers, but that meant nothing to the owners of the pet shops. The budgies were living in pretty much the same conditions as the cockatiels. I saw some young birds sitting on the bottom, they couldn't even fly yet, so they were left to sit on the floor. Again, the owners couldn't care less. The quails on the bottom of the cage had HORRIBLE living conditions, their water was almost black. I saw some quails picking at a small budgie that sat on the floor, and I wondered why it didn't move. I began thinking that maybe I should buy the young bird, so it wouldn't have to go through this and die a painful death. I talked to the lady and she said he is a bit unbalanced and disabled, and she sold it to me, FREE, just to get it out of the shop, so no one would report her. And this is how i ended up with a mentally-disbled budgie. I loved him though, even if i got him from the worst place ever, but sadly he died about a month after we took him home. I know this has probably already been posted, but I wanted to share what I have seen. And I would like everyone who can, to avoid buying any pet from the pet shop.

Really ? Sorry KAZ, didn't notice.

No, it is not essential. However, if you do wish to use nesting materials, use something edible as they will chew on the nest materials. I would say something like uncooked rolled oats, flakey bran or wood dust/shavings. When I used to breed, I did not provide the hen with any nesting materials. They do seem to chew the inside of the breeding box up though, so they make their own wood dust really.

I have heard of many stories about Colony Breeding, all ending tragically with the loss of two or three clutches, perhaps more. I advise those who are new to breeding to not Colony Breed as it has a disasterous and sad ending to it. What is Colony Breeding you say ? Colony Breeding is when you breed more than one pair of budgies in the same cage. Often, the parents-to-be will fight with other pairs on what breeding box will be theirs. If they end up laying a few eggs, another jealous budgie from another pair will come and crack the eggs or throw them out in order for them to move in. If any chicks hatch, another budgie will likely kill them or their parents will be denied entry to their own nest by another bird, leaving young chicks to either starve or freeze. You would be lucky to get out of this with even one young budgie. It is so bad. So, I will repeat, please, for the budgies sake, DON'T Colony Breed !

It is certainly not a budgie. I believe it is a Rosella maybe. Please, do you have a clearer photo ? The one you have here now is blurry and the bars of the cage gets in the way of your vision.

Scaly Face is very contagious, so, to erase this particular mite from your avairy, dab a spot of Ivermectin on the back of all the infected birds' necks. You can get the Ivermectin from your vet, who can explain and show you how to apply this treatment safely. It takes about 2 weeks for the Ivermectin to work properly.

I do not recommend mixing species. I say if the specie isn't meant to be with another specie in the wild, it shouldn't in captivity. The love bird will probably attack the budgies, I have heard of them doing this and killing budgies. Please don't try it. Perhaps, if you do want to get a love bird that bad, you can keep the love bird as a tamed inside-bird, and keep the budgies as is, outside in their spacious avairy.

Thank you, KAZ, I try to tell this to every person I can when they ask me where to get their new bird from. Sometimes I worry they don't listen to me, but hopefully the message has been spread around to most of the users on this site.

You can try but they won't eat it. Budgies are herbivores, therefore they do not eat very many bugs.

Hello everyone, I used to be a breeder. I used to sell the offspring but now I wish to breed and show budgies. Is there any breeders in Brisbane, Australia, that may have some good breeding stock ? I don't wish to begin immediately, rather in a year or two. Also, do you get money out of this ? Because I was hoping to possibly do this as a job. Although I'm not sure.

Hi ! I literally just joined about ten minutes ago ! I also used to be a breeder, but I never showed budgies, although, I wish to in the near future.

I'm sorry to say, but Dusty is female. At least you choose a uni-sex name for her though.

Your picture has not shown up, no one can see it. Maybe try again and see if it works.

It's a little girl. Cute bird by the way.

Lovely. It reminds me of my dear little friend, Beaky, who sadly passed away only last year. I was almost crying first few sentences.

You have a boy I believe. Cute budgie too by the way.