Phoebes

On another note have you tried biological broccoli and carrots? I studied in horticulture and specialized in pesticides and I myself can't stand the smell of broccoli when it 's cooking. I keep thinking it smells like diazinon. I won't eat it either. Grown without pesticides it sometimes needs to be soaked in salty water a few seconds to rid it of parasites but it is much more healthy for the birds. I only give biological broccoli and carrots to my birds because they are so small I don't want the pesticides in their tiny bodies. Ironically studying pesticides taught me not to use them.

Sounds like you're on the right track. I'm still learning myself from trial and error so I'm not sure how long you will need to keep him isolated. I had one budgie who nearly died and his story was similar. Then a tiny miracle I named "Loki" happened. After months of being rejected by all the birds and originally being separated because the males wanted to bite his feet off he started to go downhill quick. He was fluffed up all the time and his head even began to droop constantly. I got a little female as a gift from my daughter. When she was out of quarantine she miraculously saved him. She took a liking to him and only him. She chased away all other males and ended up being the most dominant female changing the whole dynamic of the group. She preened him constantly and within about two weeks he was a new bird. I got quite lucky on this one. I guess her being new she took to the underdog or maybe he was just to her liking. He is yellow and I thought the others didn't like him because he looks more like a canary than a budgie. This taught me that even birds can suffer depression. I am pretty sure he would not have made it through without her. Nobody will dare harm Sunny because they do not want to deal with the wrath of Loki. I'm not sure how you are set up and I'm kind of playing this by ear for now. I wonder what the more experienced members think. (loki is on the far right, next to Sunny)

That is a great picture too, did you take it? Impressive work!

Mine are eating and drinking by themselves but wow 40 days seems young. I told people they could have them at around three months. I guess mine are more than ready.

It was so sweet of you to vote for my picture. I think your bird is prettier. I do like the context of my photo though, the way he is peeking out.

Does he eat stuff like grated carrots, broccoli (good source of calcium), corn and cooked egg yolks? I read somewhere that a stained cere can be caused by a vitamin deficiency. It was on a veterinary site. Also I like to have a zoo med light above my birds. I have one for now and move it over each cage for around 2 hours. They need vitamin D3 to absorb other vitamins. I'm still rather new at this myself. I have had my birds over a year. I wanted to add that my budgies are crazy about lemon grass. I read that in the wild they use it when they feel sick and gave it a try. They go nuts when they see me come in with some. I think it may have medicinal properties. I just found this topic on the forum so I wanted to share it with you. http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=30788 Notice the second person says vitamin A deficiency.

My birds love corn as well. Once I tricked them into tasting Mango by cutting it up in corn size peices. They did pick it up to throw it around the cage but didn't seem to like it either. I guess it's like was stated before try try again.

I have my picture uploaded to my photobucket. Do you think this version is big enough. http://s1055.photobucket.com/user/bbbirdie/media/a0777d42-544b-4ba3-8067-771af5fc6d29_zps24a42958.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7 The original is in my computer, I can send it by e mail also. By the way that has got to be one of the cutest budgie photo's I've ever seen. Looks like true love.

Does she like veggies at all? It would be interesting to know what kind of vegetables she likes so far. Some people give sprouts. I have been worried about the stagnant water so have not tried this but often see people suggest sprouts for overweight birds. I know my birds would like sprouts because they keep dropping seeds in the bath. Unfortunately for them I change it too often for anything to grow. I know when sprouts are grown for human consumption they often have to clean the seeds with some kind of bleach solution, this is why I haven't tried the sprouts. Any bacteria on the seed will proliferate in water. I know many people give sprouted seed successfully though.

Such a lovely set up. Where I live this would only be possible a couple months a year. Great job, looks like a nice place for budgies to live.

I've had a few cages since I first got a budgie. Usually the ones sold in the stores here are all wrong. When I first got my two boys as a birthday gift they came in this awful round cage. They seemed very unhappy in here. They seemed a bit better in this square tall cage but not really happy there was not room for flight. I would not suggest getting this cage either. The next cage seems big but actually the birds did not use the bottom part at all. I had three birds in here comfortably. I now put two birds per cage (male and female) in cages similar to one that was shown above. I have heard that some people separate the males and the females when they are not breeding. I have had much fighting among my males and hesitate to put them together. So for now this is my set up. I'm still in the learning process. During the winter I let them fly around as much as possible. This spring when two of them started breeding the male of the couple started attacking another. I had to isolate them to their cages. Also the six usually get along well in one cage as long as the door is open. They choose to stay together in one cage during the winter.

Thank you. If you don't mind how old should they be when they go? The first was born the 16 of April. This is my first clutch. Sorry didn't see I had two responses at first. I've never tried in the dark. I think now with these two answers though I will try this.

My budgies are all full winged and not tame. I don't want to terrorize them when I send them off with their new families. I do have a small net which has not worked for me. The pet shop did use this technique but it was mostly young girls with very sharp reflexes catching the new budgies. I am really dreading the moment I have to catch the babies. Any advice? I had originally bought the net to move my budgies from a cage I found too deep into the cages they are in now. The cages they are in now have large doors giving me easy access but I still have the same problem, my birds are fast and furious. It was a real nightmare back then changing cages and dangerous to say the least for my budgies. I was thinking of getting a bigger round net. I don't know if this is a good idea and if so which net. I have tried catching them with towels ect for veterinary days but to no avail. I guess my reflexes are really bad. Every time I think of this task coming upon me I feel so anguished and not up to par.

My favorite is Gulskeggur, the colors are amazing! Quite a masterpiece.

Beautiful birds and lovely photos of them, well done. Thanks for taking the time to post them. I could just spend all day looking at photos like these.

I didn't know this. I will have to look into it. The filters are so easy to buy too!

So how did it all turn out?

This sounds interesting. I guess some modifications would be required though? I don't own this condominium so I can't modify to let the air go outside. I was looking at some on a website and realized they had something in them that I have not heard of; kreolite. I don't think this is a good choice for me as I looked it up and apparently it is not good when exposed to humidity. The humidity here is limit, I have to open the windows when it goes a bit too high. I do have a thermometer which indicates the humidity as I do not want my birds exposed. I have been reading on the subject and think I would like to find a model with lots of charcoal. So far the problem is finding where to buy it. I hate the idea of getting something than realizing I can't get a new filter because the company has gone belly up. Some of these replacement filters are a few hundred dollars too. I wrote to a company to find out if he sold them in Canada and instead of telling me where I can buy one here, he is pressuring me to tell him the model I want, just like a salesman. My idea was to go and see them, I don't want to make a bad decision because the models I am looking at can go from 600 to over a thousand. I want to make sure I get the right one. I wish I could find some comprehensive guide. Also I did get an expensive one last year which started to whistle after a few months use. I could not take it apart because of the screws and as I don't drive taking it back was something my husband didn't get around to. I don't feel that the models in our stores are any better. It seems like I need something more heavy duty. Anyways I had got the wrong model because it had an ionizer encorporated that you cannot shut off. I got a temporary smaller unit that quite frankly is doing nothing in that room.

I love the colors of your birds. I have never seen any like this where I live. Thanks for posting the photos.

I am looking for an Air purifier. I find the bird room stuffy. Being indoors I worry not only about my lungs which I had problems with prior to having birds but also about their own tiny lungs. I heard that some produce ozone which is dangerous for birds. Any imput is welcome. I looked online for some kind of rating on Air purifiers but it seemed very complex.

Thank you. I feel blessed that it went so well. I must admit that the two parents really impressed me with the care they provided for each other and their young. It's a humbling experience.

My daughter studied in microbiology and worked on vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline. I know the method of preparation of slides is quite complex. There are some online guides on how to prepare slides. There are kits also for doing tests on fecal matter where they do fecal flotation. I think they sell kits for lizards online. Look for fecal flotation methods. I found some interesting and complete guides online for doing this. I would link something but I don't think we are allowed. Also some nice photographs of what you are looking for are online.

Very well written! I agree totally and I am not a breeder. I did have two budgies breeding unintentionally (well apparently intentionally on their part). I have been reading this site a while and imediately separated the female and male I caught breeding from the group. The female eventually started to lay. I am so glad I did this because the other birds became quite curious about the nest and especially the females seemed intent on getting in there. It was of course impossible. I suppose they wanted to go and mess it up. Everything went fine and my babies will be going to their respective families soon. Thanks for putting this out there.

I was doing a lot of reading about the quality of water. I found articles expaining that scientific tests done on dead babies often proved the water to be a source of contamination (water source of parents). They even said that in some breeding facilities they were injecting antibiotics into the eggs. I don't know if we are allowed to link up these articles but I think if you search online for articles of the safety of water for budgies you will come across the same ones. They tried in different places many ways of getting water to the birds and all the ways had problems. Reading these articles made me very careful about the source of their drinking water during my birds gestation.

My birds bred on their own so I really have no merit. I just gave them a nest because the female layed an egg. My birds came to me as a pair that had bonded strongly at the pet shop. I did have a bird as a child who killed her new playmate while I was at school. We bought her a lovely male and she murdered him. If there is this much aggression I would not put them together. I also do not know much about breeding but read that it is better when the birds have other couples around them.