Phoebes

I really love Nadine's picture this time round. All he needs is a little pillow.

Here is one of my babies in her new home. She does have her wings clipped for security purposes this is the only time they will be clipped. Her cage is a playtop so this is a means that she doesn't panic and fly into all the walls while she is new there. She has already been finger trained by her new mom since she has been there two weeks now.

Dr Foster and Smith sell the lixit bath. I order them online. They have a website by that name without the spaces.

So sad to hear this. I really want to build a hospital cage now. I know that the UK sells some very good ones but we can't get them in Canada. What a terrible ordeal. Hopefully the other budgies will do well too.

Great news!

It depends if you think one will get hurt. All my females tend to kind of tell the males to back off from time to time. However my males all are old enough not to try to mate when the female isn't giving them a clear invitation. Usually the female that wants some space just kind of throws her face and beak towards the male into the air and the male backs off. Some females can kill a partner they have not bonded well with. Does the male feed the female and does she accept being fed? Do they groom each other? When I was a child we had a female that seemed to like every new male we brought home she waited till she was all alone and we would find them dead in the morning. I really don't get why my dad kept buying her mates. I have heard of other females doing this. She was quite the hypocrite acting all nice when we were around. I guess we did not know how to read the signs. If there is any chasing around the cage I definitely would separate them. That is not a good sign.

I know this has probably been done many times before. I'd love to see your best bath pics. Here are some of mine.

So sorry to hear this. I'm remembering Sunny when he came home. I really thought he was so ill. He still has always fluffed up more than all my other birds but is healthy. Some birds like some people do have genetic predispositions and take stress badly. I read that the white budgies are more fragile to drafts. It's frightening for me to see this when three of my babies are all white. I still hope for a miracle for your sweet Whitey.

Have been doing some experimenting with a bottle on an empty cage. With a better water quality there is no biofilm after 48 hours. Problem solved thanks everyone. Also I did look up the aviclens and I am looking for a place in Canada to order it. I have to be careful when buying elsewhere for unexpected border charges. I think this product will do well in a outdoor fountain I was thinking of adding to my room. I didn't have any idea this existed so thanks very much.

Poff poff is really handsome. You can upload photos to photobucket. That makes it easy to resize them. I take the second link they provide from the top and insert it into the image link on the forum. Sounds like you have some cute budgies there.

You have a good point robyn, if a baby helps feed the smaller one he might deprive himself of food. I think my bird was just contributing a bit because he had mom and dad going in and out with him. Also later all the elder babies fed the two youngest when they were inside the cage. I added booster and the dad seemed to be really happy when he would see corn going into the cage. I had at one point placed a cardboard box with wood at the bottom of the cage. I thought the babies could fall out and hurt themselves. I had to take it out because I observed the dad trying to shred it to feed to babies. I started giving corn every day instead of every two days. I have no idea if this was okay. The babies seemed to get full faster when the parents had access to corn.

I'd love to see pics of that little guy. He sounds like quite a character.

Here is an interesting thread from this forum. http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=17915 However I am really glad you are going to the vet for your little cutie.

I thought budgies were not supposed to have lemon. I'm sorry to hear he has taken a bad turn. People usually say to keep them warm and some make hospital cages. If they can't make a hospital cage they cover three sides of the cage and try to keep the cage warm. You have said you are keeping him warm. Also I have heard north Americans talk about mega bacteria but I have no first hand knowledge of it's prevalence. Many people use a natural kind of vinegar I think apple cider vinegar to make the water a bit acidic. I never tried this because I want a sick bird to drink as much as possible. If your bird is too warm he will let you know by holding out his wings. Many sites have threads on budgie body language are you familiar with this? I only once had a sick bird (aside from Sunny's depression) and he seemed to heal himself with lemon grass. This was a year ago or he just got better while going crazy on the lemon grass. I have always thought that the lemon grass did it though. He was having trouble breathing and tail bobbing and a year later he is doing fine. I have added booster often to my birds food also. My vet sells this. Have you tried putting some booster on the seed? It's a little bottle that I put in hot water and pour a bit over the seed and mix it in. It might help pick him up. One last thing I have been growing some small eucalyptus trees and the birds seem to become extremely energetic after having at it.

Well it's okay to post, it gives us ideas on what books to buy. I'm not sure where to get the book though sorry.

The bottles don't get sunlight. I really think the water was the problem now. I have read that filtered water is preferable to source water. I didn't know if bleach was safe on rubber stoppers. I boiled water for the last rinse each time. The film is just transparent and feels slippery on the rubber stopper.

Thanks, this was our first time having babies. We feel really blessed that everything went so well.

I think you are on to something there. Lets say I get a smaller breeding cage if my birds decide to breed again some time. When do I take the parents out. Allie the mother was so strict with the babies that they kind of left her alone. However the dad was starting to become picked on. This guy is my top male and yet he was such a push over with his babies. It was heart warming to watch. He had no malice towards them at all. I did finally catch them one by one as they escaped from the cage and landed either on the floor or walls of the cages. It was tough and not recommendable. I got two really nice fish nets, one 8 by 6 inches and one 10 by 8. It was easy not to hurt them as when I would finally get the net on one it just stood still. The nets are very soft but still I would like to develope something better as far as technique is concerned. The larger nets meant less time to catch them, so less time where they were stressed, but still too much stress in my opinion. The smaller breeding cage sounds good. Also my computer died and I am using an old one. This one has been rescued a few times. I hope I don`t end up with no computer for a few weeks.

I'll have to look into this product, thanks.

Is chipboard okay to use with budgies, I heard it has glue in it? The progress looks good though. Looks like you have been working hard.

Here is the update; the dark room did not help. I have poor eyesight so maybe it wasn't dark enough. They were still as fast as lightening. Hopefully I'm learning something through all this. The birds and I both nearly had heart attacks. My birds eat so many carrots, I feel like I need to start learning echolocation by clicking my tongue. How do you all get this job done? Hats off to you all.

I totally agree with you. I handpicked each of my budgies but at my age I wasn't looking for them to be tame. I thought I didn't mind them being just like a bouquet of flowers. However now that they had babies that backfired and kind of complicated things. They are wild and they taught their babies this. I guess only time will give me enough training to do this. I was irresistibly drawn to each of the budgies I chose. I couldn't even tell you why. I wouldn't give one of them up either. I haven't seen any budgies like yours though around here.

Yes, usually every 48 hours was enough with the bottle. It is very cold here all winter. However with the hot weather I won't leave the bottle more than a day now. I change the bath every day. Also I used to use baby water which is distilled then they add minerals for taste. I used ordinary bottled water this time. The baby water never made the bottle slimy. The bottles have been in exactly 24 hours and I detect the start of a biofilm. I am just washing them out now. I think I will have to go back to a more sterile water for now. I realized by doing some research that the rubber stopper is probably the problem.http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/14626903 http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/15040259 " no significant biofilm growth was observed on pipe surfaces, but in a number of cases, visible biofilms were detected on rubber-coated valves" It seems that scientific evidence has shown that bacteria like rubber.

Yes that photo is really something.

They do grow fast and we get attached just as fast. I'm glad it's going well and that you are keeping us posted. Lovely pictures on the facebook.