Phoebes

Thank you.

I had my first clutch of babies, none of them had black beaks. I am used to seeing pictures of babies with black beaks. Why do my babies all have normal colored beaks whereas some babies have blackened beaks?

Where I live my neighbors will complain if I feed the bird. I will get threatening letters from the landlord. Here it's like the only thing the neighbors like is concrete.

I'm going to try to grow some on the balcony. I know it will take a long time. In the meantime I guess I will only buy the red millet. It is more expensive but there is no aniseed smell so I can really tell if the odor is right.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a box of millet. I put some in the cage but my birds approached it and did not touch it. I smelled the millet and imediately thought it smelled moldy. I took out the millet and went and got a smaller box of red millet which had no particular smell. Usually my birds like the millet no matter what the color. This week I bought two types of millet of another brand. One of them is scented with aniseed. The millet smells fine but what if underneath the aniseed odor there is mold. I can't smell any mold and the birds like it. I wonder how safe this scented millet is for my birds. What do you all think. I threw out the moldy millet by the way, all of it.

Have any of you painted a bird room? What kind of paint did you use? How long did you wait to put the birds back in? Any other tips.

I think a few great minds should get together and solve this for us.Just a few people like Barbara McClintock could brainstorm and get back to us on it. There was some theory about them being baby dinosaurs. I didn't quite follow that, it was a bit complex to understand.

Wish I could fly there and buy one. They are lovely for sure.

Loved the articles and I especially liked when Bird Junky writes not to stand over the bird like a predator. I never could put it into words before but I instinctively approach my birds cage on a rolling office chair. My daughter is 5' 11" and when she looks at the birds she gets very close to the cage and they start to pant. I never knew how to explain it made me so uncomfortable. She does back away if she see's them pant. I think now I can just stay back and offer her my chair if she wants a closer look.

I had one of the baby budgies bite me very hard this week when it was bed time and everyone was in their cages except the youngest. I don't like to grab at the budgies but someone once told me not to react to even the worst bite. I found this advice useful because as I watched the baby bite me I softly stroked his cheek as I put him in with his parents. He seemed to me just like he was reacting to something evolutionary to protect him from predators. Like a last ditch effort to save his life. Although I did handle them to clean their nest he still seemed to just be reacting out of instinct much like a mouse caught by a snake. Yesterday the father was at the door begging for some flying time. I hesitated because I thought it would be hard if all his flock got out but he just kept coming to the door and propping his head up and staring at me with that one big begging eye. After half an hour I caved in. The father first left the cage with his eldest sons in tow. Then the mother flew onto the opening of the door and looked at me intently as if to ask permission. When she left the two eldest girls followed her. They flew around and had a great time and after a while the parents started to go in and out of the cage, as if to say this way children. One by one the babies all entered the cage as if they understood the parents cue. Only the youngest was out on the door of the cage. I observed him carefully and it seemed like he was lost as to how to go into the cage. I approached him gently and he flew to the other side of the door. I sat back down thinking he really didn't know the way in and had every intent of finding it. It took him a few seconds and then he found the door. Everyone was safe inside without me handling them. Even if our birds understand we are not dangerous there is always the instinct of survival, like a blinding flash of light it inhabits them. I have had extremely tame budgies when I was a child so I know that after a while they learn to overcome their instinct. I already see so much difference in my adult birds which do not bite at all. At three months your budgie is still so young and learning. Eventually they may even fly down from the curtain rod to an out-held finger. Let your budgie bring out the Jane Goodall in you.

My budgies like to perch on the highest part of the cage at night. The babies usually fight for the swing. I have to leave on a night light or I find them clinging to the top part of the cage. I don't like to see this because it does not look comfortable. With a night light they settle in nicely on one of the top perches.

The pet shop finally got back to me and wanted 52 dollars a piece for the item.They would have had to order it too they have none in stock. I ordered 5 online from the States and with all charges including shipping got them for 147$. The pet shop cost would have been 260$ and because this price is before Quebec taxes the cost would have been higher. These taxes are 5% tps for the first and 9.975% tvq, this would have been charged on top of the 260%. The Canadian and American dollars being almost equal I wonder how it is so much more costly here. I am so thankful for the internet.

I like to bring them close to the patio door from time to time so they can see the big maple. I'll just take it down and put it in the bath when I do that. Thanks for the info.

I don't know about mutations but wanted to say your birds are very beautiful.

This is my budgie room. I am basically using the spare cage to change cages when one is dirty. Sometimes I just swap out the bottom. I am planning on giving the spare cage away. I wish to purchase stainless steel cages but I have to find the right spacing. It's expensive so it will be a one cage at a time thing. I find this room ugly because I did not take the time to repaint it and I'm not quite sure how to decorate it. It's an odd and small room. Opposite to the window is a huge closet with ugly yellow doors on it. The same ugly yellow on the electrical outlets and the heater. I had a palm tree but the room was way too small for it. The budgies also got into it. I take the other plant out when they are allowed to fly around now. I was thinking some kind of green for the room because of the yellow heater and closet sliding doors. That carpet I am not allowed to take out and it's kind of a brownish grey. If any of you are good at decorating please tell me how to cheer up this room. I like to sit with them from time to time. I have a small off white chair that doesn't take up much room. I am just inside the doorway when taking this picture.

I can hardly wait to see pics of this project. My father was a bricklayer till he became a contractor. Most bricklayers can do any job on a construction site, so I bet you're going to have a nice aviary. I don't know much about making aviaries. I myself would like to make something for a window so the birds can land there and get some sun. I don't want them to chew on the screen or get contact with other birds that land on the windowsill. I know I have to take into consideration the type of wire mesh, some are toxic to birds. Maybe others know more about what kind of mesh is safe too.

Thank you, it looks quite different than the fern Charlie nibbles on.

I will have the people who are taking one white budgie home read this. They were wondering how they would tame her. Most of my birds came to me adult. I had the choice but everyone seemed to choose babies and the adults were sitting like rejects in another cage. The sad thing is once they are more than six months old they are transferred to the adults cage in the pet shop. I got six of them and they are all together in the budgie room. Only one little outgoing guy named Charlie pays any attention to me. I see all the talking budgies on you tube and think "wow" that would be something if one of mine talked. Hopefully some of these babies will learn from their new families. You must have been awfully proud to hear him talk.

okay so I know we are not suppose to advertise for companies so I will leave out brand names. I have been looking for a product for my bird for about a year now. In the States it sold for 21$ but in Canada it was on sale on the internet for between 90$ and 120$. I wrote to the company who makes them who only sells to stores. They gave me the name of a Canadian who sells the product. He has no price on his website and wants me to call him long distance (Calgary) to make a deal. He has no Paypal, no information about shipment fees on the website. I decide to search elsewhere in order to avoid adding long distance to all the other fees. I write to a few American companies who all tell me the same thing, border crossing fees are my problem. Having been charged 50$ fees on a 50$ book by an unscrupulous broker after getting the book at the door, I decide to try something else. I go to one pet shop after another here in Quebec looking for the prized item. I wish to put one per cage. Nobody has it every time I ask they look at me annoyed and tell me just to buy what they have. I search for a year. Unfortunately what they have I have tested and it has been rejected by my birds probably because it is made for rats and mice. I try to talk to a manager. Before I can make a complete sentence she says in a very angry tone "what is your point, what do you want". I ask her if she can order this product. She can't do this for just one client "bla bla bla". She is not even sure that her supplier sells it ect. I get in touch with the company who makes the product twice more finally she gets that Calgary is kind of far from Quebec. Then she tells me who supplies one of the chain of pet stores I go to. I write to him. He tells me just go to "this" pet store and the chain of stores all have them. So he is basically telling me that the store I have been going to weekly asking for this carries it, but I know they don't. They have told me over and over. Maybe one of their stores far away buys them. okay in my hundreds of visits for bird food, they never have had them and tell me they don't stock them. I ask him if he knows or can tell me which particular store has them in stock. He doesn't know and says his stock is very low, anyways he can't sell to ordinary people. I call the store who say they will call me back. They don't call back. Finally a store in the States (the very first I contacted about a year ago) changed it's policy and will send them for an 18% charge on the total sum of the bill to cover the border fees themselves. Well I don't know if patience is a virtue but tenacity does pay. Times change, I can remember a time when if a store didn't have something in stock they would call their other stores and get back to you on where to get the item and even have the store hold it for you while you traveled from one location to the next. I hope my birds will love these

Thank you Jenny. Two of the white budgies are going together to a home. I didn't want to send a boy and girl as they will be in the same cage. Ghost is very beautiful and looks so tame, Paulie how have you achieved this in a mult-bird household?

okay, will do. I recently had a bunch made for my cages.

He is beautiful. Now though I am wondering about the three white babies with red eyes my female has. I thought they were girls. So how can you tell he is a boy?

This is good to know. I am wondering if a mirror is a bad thing for a lone bird. I told the couple a mirror might need to be cleaned often because the bird might try to feed it. I don't have mirrors because my birds have each other.

Thank you. My husband found a place that makes perches. Mine were all chewed up. I will have a few made as a gift.