Progress of a Blueboy

Blue boy has recently moved in with Roswell and Jerry. He didn't have much to pack but he did bring with him nightly millet rations. He, Jerry and Roswell enjoy sharing these in the evening as a team-bonding experience.

It was decided that Hector and Abbie were being a bit mean to Blueboy, pushing him off the perch and not letting him eat. He was very reluctant to leave but now he enjoys his new digs.

Roswell and Jerry however are a lot kinder, of course there is a little shuffling about to get the best position but in the end they all eat happily side-by-side.

Blueboy is sleeping a lot better too - actually I have no idea whether he'd sleeping but he's calmer and quieter at night. Much less stressed.

Yesterday I witnessed Blueboy sing twice, Very small songs and quite short but it's the first time he has sang since September.

Each morning Lilek tries to bash beaks with a reluctant Blueboy. It's good that other budgies are trying to socialise with him.

A new toy was bitten a bit the other day but Blueboy says it wasn't him. Sometimes I wonder if they realise that I want them to bite these things and play with them or they think that they are being naughty!

Jerry wins new toys for the fiends!

The budgies received a parcel today from Canada!

They watched excitedly as I sliced it open with some scissors. Inside were 7 lovely toys that Jerry had won in a competition!

Thank you Zohie they are lovely :)

I have hung them up all around the place and so far the birds are scared of them but one day when they are less chickeny, they will enjoy them :D

A very blustery day

Yesterday was so windy and scary for the budgies that they all clustered together in and on the smallest of the three cages.

Safety in numbers I guess!

Fly my pretty!

Got a great photo of little Lilek flying towards me yesterday.

It makes him look a little more chunky than he is cos his wings are behind him and it makes them look short.

Look at the eager expression on his little chops :)

[caption id="attachment_1848" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Dumpling...coming through...make room!"][/caption]

 

Treats and sunshine

It's a lovely sunny day and I thought I would treat the fiends with a big plate of their favourite food - sweetcorn!

I hacked the nibblets off the cob and washed them. Then I smashed up some pine nuts and harrisons bird pellets. Sprinkled this mixture on the corn with some avian seaweed. I can get the fiends to eat nutritious stuff this way that they would ordinarily ignore - sneaky huh!

They love it and have no idea how good for them it is. Poor little fiends :)

I gave them some basil too so don't feel too sorry for them. These birds are treated very well indeed, they eat like kings. Of course Monty is the only true king!

Hot? have a camomile bath..

The budgies have been enjoying camomile tea baths for the past few days. They love to take a sip of the water and then have a wade through it.

Roswell and Jerry like to get particularly soaked, little Roswell puts his face right in it to make sure his beard spots get soaked.

Just the thing to cool down on a 26 degree day.

I use a two litre jug, steep the tea bag in 200ml hot water for two minutes and then top up with lovely cold water. Remove bag of course!

Serve to fiends in see-through glass dishes. Relax and watch them splash about and have fun.

Spoilt budgies

Corn and basil again today. Well, they do love it :)

Jerry tried to bathe in the basil, with varying degree's of success too. He did this while the others tried to eat it though. I don't think they were too impressed. Bathing in ones food is not considered good table manners.

Abbie has taken to climbing to the top of the new ladder toy and singing, sometimes upside down. I have also seen her nibble at the wooden blocks!

On another point, we got a new Chest of drawer from a lovely Freecycler. We have used it to house Blueboy and Hector's cage. All of the budgies love to run around on it and explore it. They are getting less scardy!

Sorry about the quality of the photo, I used my mobile phone camera as my digital camera batteries had gone splat.

Marianne, Toy Destroyer

Yesterday I performed a very hard task. Not tough physically, but mentally. I had to destroy and dismantle some of the fiends toys.

Recently it has come to light through a fellow Budgie Forum Member that the rust on my budgies metal toys is dangerous and can be fatal to the poor little mites. They lick and bite all of their toys, even if you don't always see them do it.

I pulled off all of the cheap metal bells and attachments. It means that their toys are currently mostly plastic and mirrors. But this is a small price to pay for good health.

Also found out that it's impossible to buy stainless steel "Bird-Safe" bells in this country and have had to resort to ordering them from America, expensive but worth it.

This post is dedicated to Mikko the budgie, thank you little guy.

New Toy

The fiends have been getting to grips with their new toy. It's a swinging perch with eight places on it for them to land. They seem to like using it to preen eachother on, especially Monty and Snowy in the evenings.

I'll look up at about 8.30pm to see Snowy on the lower part and Monty above preening his head. It's very cute to watch.

Here are some photos of them enjoying the new toy having a swing-a-ling.

Also see Dumpling below, still obsessed with my feet. Just when I thought he had grown out of it!

Abbie eats with the Big Boys

She's settling in so well, I am so happy with her progress. Not only has she got both Jerry and Hector running after her giving her food but she now comes and has a nibble at the vegetables I put out for them.

Good girl Abbie :)

She makes such cute and funny little noises too, really different from the boys, a bit like Gizmo!

Fiends Frollicking - Photos from the day

Here are some photos from the day - the fiends have had corn and basil so are more excited than usual.

Pay attention to me!

Monty decided he needed a little bit of extra attention today so he flew over to the husband and hopped up and down his arm and sang.

Whilst this was happening Dumpling (aka Lilek) was on my shoulder squawking in his best high pitched way right in my ear)

Gotta love 'em, they do like you to know how they feel :)

Seed Storage and a new table for the fiends

We managed to get hold of a great cool box for storage of the 20kg sack of budgie seed that we took delivery of recently. It didn't all fit though so we had to store the remainder in some klip it boxes!

We also got a great new(ish - we got it from a kind soul on Freecycle) table on wheels to put the Summer Palace on, this should make it much easier when vacuuming and sweeping as it can be rolled out of the way.

When Monty saw it he felt he was one step closer to owning that Harley he had always dreamed of.

Recent photos of the fiends, humungous table and masses of seed are below..

Treats for the Terrors

How about this for a bargain - in our local pet shop we can get seven big sprays of millet for a quid. So this weekend we made a special trip via the Island Hoppa (Which is a free bus service) to the market and also ended up buying some 700g bags of budgie seed and budgie tonic seed, two ping pong balls - one orange and one yellow plus a couple of fruit treat sticks.

These treats will last them a while as I only give them a millet day once a week and the rest of time time it is used as a reward for good behaviour. They are not that well behaved!

These budgies are so spoilt..

Of course we had to reward ourselves with a Chelsea bun each too. Well why not!