Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Mutant carrot, Orange beaks and Acrobatics

Today has been a fun day.

The weather has been lovely and breezy and I gave the boys some mutant carrot to munch on - I made slits in the carrot and slotted in Chives.  Jerry  was first to explore and tuck in, within 10 minutes they all had orange beaks and there were chives all over the place.  The aroma of Chives filled the flat and budgies sang happily to themselves.

Roswell has been showing off again with acrobatics, hanging upside-down seems to be his very favourite thing. I guess things look more fun to him if he's upside-down.

We had a visitor for an hours or so, we had to have them in their cage, they were not happy about that and squawked their little beaks off for a while.  When we finally let them out, the husband offered Monty the stick to climb on and he jumped on and promptly shot off again.  We think Monty was snubbing him because he didn't like being kept in his cage.

He's sitting up on the play centre giving me the evil budgie eye (Monty that is and not the husband)

I haven't tried them again with banana yet, maybe another time when they have calmed down..

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Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Chive Talkin'





Went to the shop to get the birds some Basil but it looked pathetic and wilted so decided on Chives instead. It's been a complete success, they like the stalks of herbs anyway and chives just look like stalks. They have enjoyed munching on them quite a lot.

Roswell has especially enjoyed surfing on the peg that I used to clip the Chives in place.


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Monday, 28 June 2010

Bite da birdy





Well they never did pluck up the courage to try the banana skins that I left for them. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

Basil, on the other hand was a complete success, they tore it to pieces getting to the best bits. Usually I give them Parsley or Coriander leaves to go with their grated carrot, broccoli and baby sweetcorn. I peg several leaves and stalks together otherwise Monty will just take the lot in his beak nibble it a bit and dump it on the floor.

Jerry has been playing in the "summer Palace" play cage (in case you're wondering, we call their main cage "Budgingham Palace") that we leave by the balcony window - the birds like the view, they stare at the random pigeons, crows, sparrows, seaguls and Blue tits that fly past.

Here is a pic of Jerry having fun biting the plastic budgie. He likes to turn it upside down and bite the tail.


Beware the banana of terror







I like to give the birds new things occasionally for nutrition and enrichment purposes so I decided on banana skins - the idea being that they bite off the remaining banana flesh and eat it.

As soon as I had arranged it on their play centre they all flew away like little scardy chickens, no doubt they think that the yellow peril fruit is going to try and murder them.

I'm sure they'll forgive me when they wake from their nap. Three of them are lined up on the climbing frame with their heads back and Roswell singing to them.

Monty is eating - the leader has to keep strong, lots of terrorising and budgie sommersaults to do ya know!

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Feeling hot hot hot

It has been disgustingly hot today.

We had to go out, so left the fan on and plenty of salad and seed for the birds.

They are currently cooling off in some water.  I however, look like a lobster. Sunburn, why does it only become apparent when you get home?

Oh and ssssshhhhhhh .... don't mention the football.. Monty is a bit touchy about england's crappy performance.

Saturday, 26 June 2010

Own up, did you eat the carrot?

Snowy, I am only going to ask you once.  Did you eat all of the carrot?

"erm .. nope, not me"



What's that coming over the hill...is it a Monty..is it a MONTYYYY?



Roswell and Jerry having a dance. I think Jerry might be rapping, he usually is.

Would you like some of my dinner?





Hot hot hot day so we had salad for dinner, I caught the budgies giving me that "you are eating and haven't given us any?" look out of the corner of my eye.

So I put down my food and race to the kitchen to get them some grated carrot, broccoli and baby sweetcorn - a current favourite.

I half expected to find them clustered round my plate picking out the best bits when I got back, luckily I was fast (having pre-grated some salad veg for their breakfast tomorrow)

They're enjoying their NOMS right now.

Although Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine" have just started blaring out of the radio so they're also singing and being playfully excited too.

Monty loves a bit of Rock.


Playtime





As you can see my birds take playtime very seriously indeed, it's an important part of being a budgie to be able to play and express yourself.

If you would like to see videos of the budgies playing then you have come to the right place. Scroll down and look to your right, there are at least 17 videos of my feathery fiends to feast your eyes on..


It's a scorcher..





It's so warm here in London and they're threatening 31 degrees tomorrow. The budgies don't like the heat and neither do we.

They had a light misting this morning and Monty had quite a flap about in the budgie bath, splashing us both in the face!

I expect they're going to want double misting tomorrow - maybe even triple if they get really excited about the England Germany game in the afternoon.

Here is a pic of a previous bathtime so you can share in the watery, beaky, manic fun..


Friday, 25 June 2010

Millet Frenzy - beak beak!





Just gave the birdies some millet, which they enjoyed. Wish they could learn to share though, even though Roswell and Jerry are best buddies, it all goes out of the window when millet (or any other tasty treat) is concerned.

Roswell kept beaking Jerry to get him to move so he could hog the treats for himself.

Millet makes a lot of mess...


Budgie breakfast

Monty and Jerry are really enjoying their salad today.









Monty clings to the side of the cage and threatens to bite my face off if I get any closer.



"Yes I know I am handsome, and what of it?"



Time to rethink the cream walls?



King Monty surveying his Kingdom..

They're BAD..you know it







Well it's been a whole year since Michael Jackson left us, it's gone so fast. They're playing a lot of his better tunes on the radio today and all four of my birds are singing along to "Bad" at the moment.

My husband says that we should only worry if Monty starts Moonwalking back and forth across the perch.

Thursday, 24 June 2010

This is what they look like when they're quiet..





Ahhhh.....Silence..

Bliss..


It's a Budgie Soap Opera..

My birds are such little angels, there is no way they could be thinking this..

..is there?



In their Frankie Goes to Hollywood phase..



Yes Monty is Top Bird, but Roswell is the biggest!



and Snowy is Monty's bird...are you following yet?

He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty Budgie..

So King Monty has been up mischief yet again.  Only a couple of weeks ago he was pretending he had an injured foot, because Jerry did, to get sympathy.

This time he's copying the sneezing noises that Jerry has been making.

We were watching TV last night and heard a little "snit snit" noise coming from our left, turned round and it was Monty vying for attention.

Cheeky little beggar!

Who says birds aren't smart?

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Budgies cheer England to Victory!

Monty, Snowy, Roswell and Jerry got almost as worried and tense about the England Slovenia  (1-0) game as I did.  They sang almost all the way through and danced about displaying to each other how excited they were.

I am sure that my four birdies pick up on the feelings and emotion in the room.

Clever little peeps they are.

It's so warm the budgies are thinking about summer holidays

Beautiful day, lively birds

It's a lovely sunny day here in London and the budgies are singing their little beaks off, currently to La Isla Bonita which is playing on the radio.  They have had their breakfast of grated Babycorn, Broccoli and carrot with some parsley and are very lively.

They love it when it's sunny.  If it's an overcast and dull day they squawk at me as if I turned off the sun to spite them.

Last night as per usual it took a while to settle them down to sleep, Monty clung to the side of the cage and I managed to coax him down onto my finger and place him on one of the natural wood perches in the cage.

He didn't try to bite me and seemed reassured by my help which makes a nice change.  He also seemed very pleased to see me this morning :)

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Budgie Bed Time

My budgies usually head into their cage at about 8.30 and we gradually make the room darker til 9.30 when we cover them.

This Saturday I went out for my sister birthday to see Sister Act the musical and then had dinner and drinks.  You should have seen the look on my familys faces when I told them I wanted to get home for Budgie Bed Time.

But then they think it weird that I give them salad, camomile tea and leave the radio on for them if we're out..

Am I nuts?

Better go, nearly budgie bed time..

Trained by my budgies

Yesterday a HUGE crow landed on the balcony, scared Roswell and Jerry a bit.

King Monty bounded straight over to the window and onto the handle to watch and see if it came back, he wanted to take it on, even though it was 10 times his size.

I love my little attack budgie he can be so gentle when he takes millet from me and yet he's a vicious little bugger too, scared of no one or no thing, such a personality.

Please Miss can I have some more?

Roswell has decided he needs to let me know when to vacuum the seed husks off as I am apparently not doing it fast enough. He's started banging the seed trays by lifting them with his beak, I have to come over to make sure he doesn't tip them over and everytime I have checked they have needed vacuuming.

So I am being trained it seems.
(Edited: 18th April 2011 to include Sky, Blueboy, Lilek, Custard and Hector)

This blog is going to be all about my four Nine budgies.  Monty, Snowy, Jerry and Roswell...+ Sky, Blueboy, Lilek, Custard and Hector

This is Monty, he is the King and was here first, he's a normal pet type budgie from a pet shop.  We originally got him in November 2009 with Eric who sadly passed away on 23rd January this year.  Eric and Monty were best friends.



This is Roswell, he's an exhibition type bird and is a lot bigger than Monty, he's from a breeder. We got him at the end of January 2010 to keep Monty company.



This is Jerry, he's young, lively and pretty cheeky, we got him on 13th March 2010 from a pet shop to keep Roswell company!



This is Snowy, we got him at the same time as Roswell from the same breeder, he's best friends with Monty also he also likes to play with Jerry, much to Monty and Roswell's annoyance.



This is Sky, he and Blueboy arrived together on 5th October 2010 (our wedding anniversary!) we rehomed them from a nice lady as she did not have time to take care of them.




Here we have Blueboy, as I said he arrived with Sky on 5th October 2010, Blueboy likes to ping the bars a LOT!



This is Lilek (I call him Dumpling as he waddles and is slightly more round than the other budgies, not in a fat way but a cute way!) he arrived on 10th October 2010. His owner had previously had another budgie kept with Lilek but that budgie flew away so she wanted to rehome him with other budgies so he would be more happy.


This is Custard, we're still not 100% sure on his/her sex but she squawks a lot and has attached herself to the Hunky Roswell so we're saying she's female! She arrived with Hector on 1st January 2011 (Happy new year us!)


This is Hector (he's on the left!), as said before, he arrived with Custard on 1st January 2011.  Hector is bestest friends with Blueboy and they can often be seen flying around together, preening and feeding eachother!