Dumpling makes himself look big and scary

Dumpling (aka Lilek) has been playing tricks on the other budgies. In an effort to make himself look scary he stood behind a magnifying screen and squawked.

Had no effect on the other budgies but gave us the fright of our lives.

Naughty Dumpy :)

 

Old Photo of Roswell, Snowy and Monty

I found a photograph that was taken only a few days after Roswell and Snowy had been introduced to Monty. Roswell and Snowy still had purple ceres and were about 3 months old here.

They did so much to alleviate Monty's grief after little Eric passed away.

Such a cute photo too, I think you'll agree. :)

Blurry Budgies

This update was inspired by my friend Sweetpea's blog post: http://onesweetiepea.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/2011-review-failures/

Here are two perfectly lovely photos. Or they would be if Monty and Snowy had stayed perfectly still.

First photo I like to call "Monty Two face" - At times you have no idea which side of Monty will be present - Jekyll or Hyde, He can be a lovely and caring leader of the flock.

OR, he can be a naughty little tyrant that we call "Monty Big Balls". He starts manically chasing Jerry (if Jerry is annoying him by chasing Snowy) and demonstrating to him that he is boss. This has to be broken up as it can end in a fight. Monty does not give up when he wants to make his point.

Second photo is Snowy running around, unable to stay still. He's a total blur. Just like the "ants" running around with their lattes on the way to work in the morning.

Dumpling likes to sleep in the weirdest of places

I was just wondering where my little Dumpling was. He's a bit quiet and I can't feel any biting on my toes.

I looked down under my chair and he has curled up asleep under my foot, right by my big toe.

Silly boy. He's lucky I always check before I pull out my chair.  I want to get up and make a coffee but I can't disturb him, can I?

Budgie bedtime is a military style operation

Budgie Bedtime can be a very fraught process at times. I have to follow the routine to the letter otherwise chaos can ensue.

After cages has been cleaned, food and water are changed we can get down to the serious business of the day.

Monty, Snowy and Sky all have to be on perches that are near the front of the cage. Lilek must be on his shelf at the far right end. If this is not followed, Snowy will knock Monty off the perch and Lilek will leap to his shelf in the dark - squiggling and chittering at any budgie in his path.

Photo One shows incorrect bedtime positions, photo two shows correct ones.

Blueboy, Jerry and Roswell get some millet to share before bed, this makes Blueboy feel like a more welcome member of the group as they all cooperate and eat together.

Photo three shows the boys eating.

Photo four is Dumpling (Lilek) on his bedtime shelf, ready to settle down for the night.

Abbie and Hector like to mess around a bit, making weird strangled noises at eachother and trying to preen eachothers feet.

Photos five and six are the two of them messing about!

The lamp is on, budgies are partially covered. I go to wash up their bowls and toys. This takes about 10 minutes as they are left to dry overnight.

When I come back I put the budgies to bed, gently whispering the "Bedtime for budgies rhyme" and pulling down the cage covers for the night.

If I am very lucky they will not stir until my alarm goes off at 7.30am.

Bed times for budgies, Budgie Bedtimes.

Dill-icious Treat on Medicine day

This morning we had the arduous task of giving the nine fiends for their 6-monthly Ivermectin treatment. This is necessary to protect them from Mites and various other nasties.

Abbie, Snowy, Roswell, Lilek, Blueboy and Hector were pretty easy to treat. My husband held each one while I applied one drop of medicine to their backs between their "shoulder blades".

Sky did not want to be caught, neither did Jerry.

Monty was another matter entirely. The king decided that being grabbed was beneath him, despite seeing his subjects survive the ordeal quite easily.

King Monty escaped us 3 times after he was placed in a cage to allow being handled. He made the most awful high pitched noise to indicate that he was not happy with the situation. One we finally caught up with him and treated him it was over in 3 seconds and he was free.

I don't think we have been forgiven quite yet. He sat on the top of Budgingham Palace for quite a while, staring at us and ruffling his wings in an annoyed fashion.

After we had been shopping the fiends were treated to some Dill to try and make up for the nasty-but-necessary-medicine..

It's our chair now

Roswell, Jerry and Monty have claimed my chair as their own. I only hope I am allowed to sit on it occasionally.

They even land on it when I am at my desk.

Look at tiny Monty next to Jerry and Roswell. Jerry is trying to stand as tall as he can, you wouldn't think he was a pet type and Roswell an exhibition bird.

 

Monty in Flight (again)

Caught another photo of Monty flying this morning. He's so fast it's amazing to get so many of him flying in such a short space of time.

Go little fella go!

Toy chewing culprit found!

I wondered who had been chewing up the new toys. Well we found him!

Snowy is the culprit. Caught in action here having a good old gnaw. I am really happy that he's using the toys for their intended purpose as I am always worried that they'll ignore new things.

Good Boy Snowy! :D

[categories budgies,snowy,toys,chewing,photography,cute,fun]

Brave budgies..

Yesterday Both Jerry and Lilek flew down the passageway.

Then Jerry flew into the bedroom and did several laps of the room.

Both Roswell and Jerry have been landing on my computer screen and just now as I was typing this Jerry landed on my shoulder!

Jerry (the explorer) has also been making "talking noises" although we can't make any words out yet!

What will his first word be? - probably "Naughty"

Who says if you have more than one budgie that they wont be tame or talk?

[categories budgies,brave,photography,fun,pets,birds,cute,mischief]

"We hear you have been having IT Problems.."

"..We are here to fix them. Jerry, get the tools.."

Three Sleepy Blues

Hector, Abbie and Blueboy felt like a nap this afternoon. They dozed off side by side on the Mirror ledge.

Makes you sleepy doesn't it.

Yawn.

Monty taking off

Look at him go!

Where's Jerry?

He's a master of camouflage. Can you spot him?

Tonight's evening entertainment is..

Toys and millet.

I have taken all of the perches out of the Summer Palace - one of the three cages and put lots of the new toys that Jerry won interspersed with millet on the inside walls.

Hope they enjoy it, looks like fun.

Can you spot what the blocks on the roof spell out? :)

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!

Pass the Loofah

The fiends had been pestering me for a bath today. Their wishes were answered.

I put out some luke warm, diluted camomile tea with basil leaves and coloured ping pong balls floating in them.

Jerry had so much fun splashing around that he got a little too water drenched and I had to lock him in with Roswell for 15 minutes to dry off as he kept plunging to the floor when he tried to fly.

This is a stern reminder of why bath times should always be supervised.

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

Hector and Abbie on a mission of mischief

Here they are again, the naughty Duo. Trying to find trouble before it finds them.

As I write this Abbie is trying to pull a seed pot off of the Summer Palace by hanging on the outside and banging it with her beak so that it makes a loud knocking noise.

 

Never a dull moment..

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EAC780kTCqE]

Peace at last..

I am happy to report that there have been no Monty and Jerry fights today at all.

I even caught the two suspects sitting in Abbie and Hector's cage sharing a piece of millet together.

Hopefully no more scuffles in the near future.

Monty and Jerry - Battle of the bruisers

It's happening again. Sigh.

Monty and Jerry have been at eachother over Snowy for about 4 days now. We keep having to separate them into cages and giving them time out.

Snowy decides that green is the best colour ever and constantly chases Jerry and tries to play kissy-face with him. This makes Monty mad and he pounces on Jerry. Jerry flies off and starts flapping his wings at Monty, making a growling, gurgly noise. Then they end up in a ball of feathers and claws.

Poor Monty has a cut on his cere that Jerry inflicted and my husband and I have had to physically separate them several times, getting bitten in the process. We had a look at Monty's cere and it seems okay, I cleaned it with a cotton bud. It'll heal, it's not the first time he's been slightly wounded in this area.

They both gets like this every few months, I guess it's their hormones..

Whatever it is I wish they would stop!

You can see Monty's cere in this photo, also here he is incarcerated with Snowykins.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,600 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.