Everybody in the whole cell block was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock

The birds are really enjoying their new climbing structure. Every time I see them on it it reminds me of the scene in Jailhouse Rock - I think you know what I mean, if not then look it up on youtube!

Maybe it was the incentive of the Dill and grass-seed that I had pegged to it but I prefer to imagine that my budgies are Elvis fans :D

Birthday for me = Presents for the budgies

It's my birthday today, I am aherm *cough* years old. Got some money from my family and of course I spent half of it on my feathered fiends, they got a new playground - some swanky new food and 8 treat sticks.

My husband kindly fitted together the playground for me - DIY isn't a strong point, tends to make me a bit mad!

We had to weight it down in the base with some pebbles and stones (not sure what the difference is between those two) to make it more stable.

So far most of the budgies have tried it out and also had a smell of their new gourmet food..

Oh and look closely at Blue-boys throat spots, they're heart-shaped - how cute! :)

Happy Birthday Monty!

Yesterday we celebrated an anniversary with Monty - it has been a year since we brought Monty and Eric home. So in effect Monty is one year old (even though he's about a year and a half really, but we don't know his true date of hatching)

I made the budgies small white party hats and we bought them some treat sticks that fell apart so we put them in a dish (actually it's the budgie bath..) for them to feast their little beaks upon.

Earlier on Snowy presented Monty with some art that he had made from a sandpaper sheet that I had lined the bottom of the playground with. Let me know what you think it is, Snowy seems to think it's abstract and open to personal interpretation.

Lilek has been very busy landing on our feet , arms and hands then singing to them as well as his ongoing relationship with Sky - it's really nice to see them as friends.

Anyway I have party hats and millet to clear up..

Enjoy the pics

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Keys are exciting

Lilek has come out of his shell so much more in the last few days, I have even managed to handle him a fair bit - he has the most razor sharp bite but he also gives little nibbles which I think are meant to be affectionate! Monty has shown a few signs of being jealous of all the attention that Lilek has been getting, so he sneaked into a photo my husband took of Lilek on my hand, just flew over to see what was going on. Came back from my shower today to find Monty, Jerry, Roswell and Snowy all lined up on the arm of the sofa next to where I sit with my laptop. Maybe they were waiting for millet? Yesterday all of the budgies ventured onto the sofa to watch Lilek play with his keys and nibble on the remote controls. They're getting so more adventurous since the arrival of Lilek, have to double check where I step and sit to make sure I don't flatten one of the little tykes.. pics..

It is such a hard life being a budgie.  Monty keeps telling me that the amount of playing and eating he is expected to do is difficult at times, how to fit it all in when you only have 24 hours a day.

Perhaps this is why all seven birds have been reluctant to settle down at night, far too much playing to fit in.

Right now they are relaxing with a little bit of Absolute 80's.  Today they have enjoyed egg-food, vegetables, millet and lots of playing around - especially Roswell and Snowy on the rings hanging from the rack on the wall.

Snowy and Roswell love these rings, they have been hanging on the bottom one ringing the bell with either their feet or beak and then flying off squawking.

Monty has been doing his nut today too - flying in figures of eights round our heads squawking like mad!

Sky persists in trying to make friends with Lilek, I think he's softening to his advances as he doesn't chitter at him nearly as much these days.

I had Monty sitting on my thumb eating some red millet earlier and Roswell decided he also wanted a go so he flew onto my shoulder for a brief second.

I got him onto my other hand and then Blue-boy tried to get in on the act but I had ran out of space, so we pegged some millet to the cage for him and he shared it with Sky, Jerry and the greedy piggy Roswell later on.  Turns out that Blue-boy prefers to eat in a goup when humans hands are involved, safety in numbers I suppose!

Would you like some pictures from the day? - tough here they are anyway! :D

 

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Update on the mob

It's been more than a week since I updated the blog on the fiends so I thought I had better give an update! News in alphabetical order.. Blue-boy The Blue-wonder is settling in very well, he loves to sing and get on especially well with Jerry and Roswell, they all fly and wander about together like a trouble-some gang of teenage tearaways. Roswell is the muscle, Jerry the mouth and Blue-boy the pretty one that keeps his mouth shut. Jerry His cheekiness still knows no bounds, although occasionally he'll hang out with Monty and they'll sing and biff eachothers beaks both trying to gain the upper hand (wing?) on the other. Monty never backs down! Lilek Still slightly anti-social with the other birds but he's showing great signs of improving. In the past few days he has even been singing really quietly to the other birds. He took to the vegetables - especially basil really quickly!We saw him sit in his play rings a few time and this boy really loves keys, he flaps at them, chirrups softly and tries to feed them. We're trying to get him to play more and he enjoys an occassional head scratch from a wooden lolly-stick. He turns his head, it's very cute :) Monty What to say about the King himself. Just today he landed on the arm of the sofa next to me and started singing to me - he's never done that before, it was so sweet. Jerry came over and landed next to him to see if there were any treats on offer! It's very strange but Monty seems to know when I am concentrating on something and this is the time he's most likely to pay me attention and try and get me to notice him! Roswell His friendship with Jerry continues to blossom, Jerry can often be seen preening Roswells big fluffy head. Once I saw Monty try and preen Roswell slyly but Roswell backed away thinking that Monty was trying to beak him! Roswell sometimes hopps about and sings, it's really something to see because he's quite big but the dude can still hop wih the best of them! Sky Sky can be quite In-yer-face with the other budgies and frequesntly takes part in Snowy-chasing, in fact he quite likes to chase any budgies around until they get tired! He's the one that has most tried to strike up a friendship with Lilek, he's very persistent and I am sure it will pay off eventually. Lilek is definitely tolerating his antics more these days. Snowy He is really enjoying the play-rings that Lilek brought with him! He's taken to climbing down to the bottom ring and dinging the bell continuously with his little pink feet! I'll try and get some pictures on later too :)

Give us stuff.. or else

Or else what you may ask - well I didn't want to find out so I gave 'em stuff.

Monty wouldn't let me near his food in case I stole some, he said I eat more than the budgies and it wouldn't be fair on them if I shared. He has a point.

Sky did his Taxi Driver impression, it was very good.

The rest just scoffed food and sang all day long - it's what they do best.

Another thing they do very well is bite stuff - Snowy bites the sandpaper I put in their play-station, he has made it his goal to tear off as many small pieces daily that he can - I am worried what he is doing with them, perhaps building a raft or making a loofah so Monty can scratch him in the bath.

Blue-Boy also loves biting stuff, I keep having to shoo him away from the budgie screen as he's chipping away at the wood - maybe he's whittling it to make it pole-like, we'll have to see.

Roswell is budgie of the rings

Roswell has been practising his acrobatics yet again, he loves the new rings that Lilek brought with him and uses them to perform stunning acrobatic tricks worthy of David Coppernuts himself.

He certainly is an agile little budgie as you can see by these photos. When he got to the bottom he rang the bell and flew off. We think that his sole purpose of climbing onto the rings was to get to the bell on the end :)

Good morning from the budgies

Rise and shine say the seven little terrors..

...greet the new day.

Gourmet breakfast, Lord of the rings..

I hung up a new toy yesterday - it's Lileks and I had it in his cage but he was ignoring it so to entice him to play I hung it from the rack on the wall.

Monty and Roswell have both balanced in a ring so far. I am hoping that Lilek takes an interest in it at some point.

Look at their lovely breakfast - these birds eat better than I do! :)

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