Bea

Scrounged together the last few of my beads and made this toy, Bailee thinks it's a lot of fun - he likes anything i make. :ausb:

*hugs* I'm really sorry to hear about Giny. :hap:

The only eye damage i've received from my birds are when Bailee tried to land on my face - some nice scratches around my eye from that - or when Blinkie head bopped my eye ball. :hap: Can't say any of them have tried to gouge my eyes out, and i rub their heads and feathers with my nose all the time.

To find cheapo beads check places like Hot Dollar, The Warehouse or The Reject shop. I found a key ring making kit that came with some beads and some scoubies (those plastic braiding strings) for $2 a packet. In the past i've also found decent sized bags of the beads for $2. Definitely worth looking.

He's a grey spangle!! :D And he is TOO cute, i just love him! You found a gorgeous baby, that's for certain. He looks young, i wouldn't think he's more than 10-12 weeks old.

Good luck with taming! I'm sure you and your budgie will bond in time, it sounds like she's got a lovely little personality.

*holds phone to ear* MUM!!! I told you, i know to preen my feathers everyday now!!

My namesake i s gorgeous too Elly, but apparently dumb.. I am wondering if that's why he was named after me Feathers. Aly, your namesake ALI BABA was the only one smart enough to figure out the honey seed treat was food and not a perch So technically that must mean he's a genius. :ausb:

I do this quite often, although only the aviary birds will eat them. Blink and Oz must be snobs. :ausb: All mine love a freshly picked and washed leafy branch from a gum tree. They all go nuts for the leaves.

They really do!! Lime has got to be one of the most proud and handsome budgies in my aviary, and to look back at him as a tiny little baby is just amazing. Although you can see he would become a fearsome budgie. :ausb: He's got a very Ozzie-like glint in his beady little eyes. :(Laughing out loud):

I was looking at some of dads photos and found these cute baby photos of Lime and Lemon from October 2004! How a little bub with scrappy feathers (look at his head, (Laughing out loud)) can go from this: To this handsome bloke: I just don't know. And here's his baby sister Lemon (RIP): Weren't they gorgeous!!!

(Laughing out loud)!! Love that second lot of pics.

Aww, a little spring chicky!!

Gorgeous babies Kaz!

I got crafty again this afternoon!! First of all a brilliant (in my opinion, (Laughing out loud)) idea came to me when i was lying in bed this morning and was taking my time getting up! I think it works for holding a till roll! I was thinking how nice a little ladder would be, and that sliding a till roll onto one of the rungs would be a good idea. And then i thought that using those useless dowel perches that come with new cages would be perfect and FREE to make the rungs of the ladder! I cut the perches into evenly sized pieces and then painted them with food colouring. Once they were dry i drilled the holes and got to work! Next, and all credit for the idea goes to a friend of mine cause i wouldn't have come up with it, is the crazy paper stick ball! An instant hit with my tiels (of course it is, they can destroy it)! And that idea led to this idea! The budgies have the double crazy stick ball at the moment, but it will no doubt end up in the shredder cage of the tiels eventually. I felt like i was over run with wiffle balls so this seemed like a great way to use a couple up in a way that they would be enjoyed! And this was the linking system i used on these toys. They're some great plastic links Boomberry sent me from England. To close them up i just used a little star shaped pony bead. Looks pretty too! And of course here's some photos of the toys in use. Bailee having fun with his birdy toilet paper, hehe. Cookie trying to decide what that thing actually is... I've now run out of beads again, hehe, but i should have a big package of them arriving in the mail on Monday *fingers crossed*.

Can i just remind people that for some people decisions like this are HARD when to others they seem like they should be a no brainer. Sensitivity is always helpful when dealing with people, please be tactful when presenting your opinion and keep the discussion from becoming heated. Sailorwolf i know exactly how you feel. Decisions like this are tough to make EMOTIONALLY even though they should be quite simple to make LOGICALLY. We get attached to our pets and we do put human wants and needs on them. This isn't wrong of us i don't think, people do it all the time. With Saffy just having bounced back from the terrifying experience of being egg bound, it's probably not in her best interest to be breeding right now. There's also the age issue. I have got the same issue with shaking/boiling eggs when they're being looked after. If a budgie lays from a perch, then it's no issue, but if it's being incubated and i know there's a possibility of it being fertile i feel sick to think of destroying a chance at life. However, i have watched a hen (Razzo, Blinkie's mum and the super mum of my flock before she died) try to breed so often that i could see her physically wearing thin. When i noticed this she was really drained, because my desire for everything to be fine and for her to keep being able to raise babies and be happy was such that i let it cloud reality. Reality was that she wasn't fit to breed anymore. She was about 5 years old, and she was ready for a rest. In the end i realised this and i chucked the eggs she'd laid and was incubating, and put her in the flight. I'd rather she live than die raising babies. I felt SO sick to have thrown those eggs out! I was just about ready to get Razzo back in and scoop those eggs out of the bin. But after a few attempts at laying in the aviary food bowls and a few eggs laid on the aviary floor she was happy to be pampered by her mate and boss all the other hens around. She lived until she was 6 i think, and i think she was a very happy budgie in her retirement once she had the idea of breeding out of her mind. I think it's when we can make unselfish decisions like this, that is what makes us good pet owners. Some things to do with what's right and wrong in bird keeping are tough, but that's always the way it is with decisions like this. It's important to think about Saffy first, you have other budgies that can give you babies if that's what you want, but Saffy, while seemingly fit and healthy now, could be at a point where getting from start to finish of laying eggs and raising chicks is too much for her body. She could lose body condition much more quickly than hens in the peak of their breeding years, and then you could end up with dead chicks when she's too worn to care for them. And that would be much worse than losing a few eggs now. Hope this helped!

No, i had to order the stuff from My Parrot Shop

I was luring Blinkie to my finger with his mirror.... And Fizzy to my finger with Blinkie... And i got a few other photos too! *fluff* *budgie fiiiiiight!* Ozzie, why are you being a meany! Me? Mean? Never!!

My stuff from My Parrot Shop arrived today and i was eager to make my very own Baby Disco. It was TONS easier that i would've guessed, and the only thing i'm not happy with is the rope i used to join the quick link, but that's okay, the birds will still like it! To make it i got a wiffle ball, enough pacifier beads to poke into all but 4 of the wiffle ball holes, an o-ring, a bell, a little bit of cotton rope, and a quick link! Stuff the pacifier beads into the holes leaving two up the top and two down the bottom empty. Then attach an o-ring into one and add two extra pacifier beads and a bell. Then using the rope add the quick link up the top. Too easy! Took me about 5-10 mins! It was cheap too, all up it would've cost me about $7 which is a lot cheaper than the $20 i would pay to buy one made. The other toy i've been planning to make all week is this: Very simple and very fun for the birdies! I've had the idea in my brain for several days, only took a couple of minutes to make too. Now i'm waiting on more beads to arrive so that i can make more, and i still want to get my hands on some raffia because i am thinking of a fun idea which involves raffia and a wiffle ball!!

They're both adorable!!

*hugs* Sorry to hear about Angel.

Looks weird without a white egg white.

I love that shot of Nikio, really nice shots!

That last photo of Sweety flying is great. :dbb1:

It's more Blinkie and Fizz these days, with my poor little Oz getting left out and chased away by Mr Stinky if he tries to join in. That's okay though, he still has all those forks and spoons to chat to. :(Laughing out loud):