Budgerigars @ LiveJournal.com

Hey all, I just joined this community, and y'all seem fairly knowledgeable, so I've got a question.

I'm looking to get a budgie in about a month. I'd get one sooner, but my family and I are going on vacation in a few weeks, and won't be back until mid-august. However, my question...Does anyone know of any reputable breeders in either the central MA/Worcester area, or western MA/Northampton area? I got the idea of wanting a budgie while walking through petco a while ago, but I'd prefer not to buy from there. After owning a betta fish for about a year, and seeing the terrible health of the bettas on display at petco compared to the good health of mine from day one...I can only assume that the health of the budgies they sell is every bit as bad. As much as I may want to rescue those poor little birdies from their captivity, it would probably be best if I just didn't financially support the corporation.

So yeah...good breeders in Massachusetts, GOGOGO! I'll even accept recommendations from other New England states, though the closer to MA the better.

Thank you all muchly!

Hey~ I have a question.

I'm going on vacation next week for 6 days. Now, I've left Ezlo on her own for 4 days and she's been fine, but 6 days seems to be pushing it. I can take her along with me, but I'm not sure how she'll like being in a traveling car for 5 hours one way.

Would you leave her alone for 6 days (and have someone check in on her) or bring her along in the car, which is going to suck but at least it's a shorter kind of suck? What would be less stressful for her?

EDIT: I should probably add that I'm going to my parent's house and they have a cat. If I brought Ezlo with me, I would keep her in a separate room, but I don't know if she'll freak knowing there's a rather predatory cat around.

Thank you for any advice!

Sorry for posting twice in a row.

( New videos of my birds )

Just some cute pictures of Cloud and Lelouch. They're getting along better now. Well, most of the time. They still have separate cages but they often like to hang out together on one cage or the other.

I haven't posted here in awhile, but here's what's been going on with my budgies.

My flock is finally reunited in the big cage after being split up for fighting with each other. Since then, Irvine has stopped plucking his feathers for good and is actually getting along with my other budgies. He's still really possessive over his toys, but I don't think that will ever change. He also ate straight from my hand the other day, which was surprising!

Vivi, who I thought was female, turned out to be male and definitely the largest of the bunch. Rikku also turned out to be male, but I had a feeling since he's always singing and squawking. And Quistis is still into himself, but is very friendly with everyone now. So hopefully, this is the end of all of my flock drama. :P

Also, as recommended by another member here (I forget who, sorry), I replaced all my wooden dowel perches with natural wood perches and rope perches. Next step: trying to get my birds to eat carrots. If anyone has any advice, that would be great. :)

My last post here was asking about cats and budgies living together. Well, my friend with the cat ended up becoming my roommate, and her cat is a doll. He hasn't shown any interest in the budgies, and I don't think the budgies even know there's a cat around.

I think that's everything. I'm just glad my flock is finally happy. Pictures to come in a future post!

Today when I came home from work I received the news that my yellow parakeet, Sunshine, died. This is basically a repeat of what I experienced a few months ago. I'm sad, but I think I'm mostly furious. I don't know what happened so I'm going to see the vet tomorrow to get some kind of answer. This is just too f***ing frustrating! :(

My younger sister has been keeping a pair of budgies for around three years now. A male and female. We were made aware that at the time of buying, the female was too young to breed; but obviously that time has now passed.
Yesterday, the female has started laying; the egg that we have got so far is the size of the end of my thumb. (I think it's safe to say that one isn't going to do anything now)

We do want to try and make her feel comfortable with a nesting box, but at the same time we don't want to encourage breeding behavior...and if she notices that her eggs are not doing well, will she get depressed?

Is our only choice to seperate the pair into two cages alongside?
Advice needed please! (I'm inexperienced myself, I'm terrified of birds lol)

Hey all, I'm a newbie and glad that I found this community. I'm hoping some of you might be able to give me some advice on what to do next.
Here's what's going on.
Yesterday I did something that isn't in our(me and the fids) routine and I gave them boiled eggs for breakfast. This is something that I have done before. That afternoon I noticed that my budgie, Buggy was sleeping more than normal. Later I checked on him to find him resting on the bottom of his cage. O.O
By this time the vet had closed, so I decided to wait until today to make a decision.
I had to make supper for the family, so I set up a video camera so that I could review it later to see what Buggy had been doing. I checked him again and he was vomiting : *(
He vomited at least three different times. By now I'm thinking the world is coming to an end, but popped in a new mem card for the camera and continued to make supper. The second video was much different. In the first he was pretty listless and poofy, but he seemed to feel better after throwing up (he also had VERY watery droppings)
In the second vid he moved around a lot and sand and ate a little bit and I was pretty happy, thinking that maybe he got the it out of his system.
Cut to today, and he's doing pretty good, but he's still not quite normal. I caught him resting on the bottom again and he's sleepier than usual.
So, do you guys think that he might be recovering from his throwing up yesterday? Or think it's something more that I should be concerned about?
I hate that this is the weekend and after today I won't be able to get him to a vet until Monday, but I don't know if I should bring him or not!

Thanks! :)

Hi, I stumbed across this community and thought I would join. I currently have about 40 Budgies not including those in the nests. About 9 years ago an ex boyfriend bought me Harley a little blue Budgie and we got on great. I then decided to get him a friend first came Olive who was nasty to him and then got out of her cage and flew away, then i got Queenie who was suppost to be a girl but then turned out to be a boy and then died due to tumors (which is why we think her/his sex changed) then on the 7th of the 7th 2007 I got Blue and he and Harley get on like a house on Fire. Somewhere along the line the obession grew. I converted half my garage to a breeding room, got a large outdoor avairy, also got into handraising Quakers and Green Cheeks and got a pet King Parrot.

At the moment Harley my 9 year old gentleman lives inside with Lemon a retired blind Lut Breeder that i have (I just can't think of knocking her on the head just cause she is blind, she gets around fine) and in a cage next to them my 1 year olf King Parrot. I love breeding Budgies and handling them and sending them off to good homes. I also breed to show.

Other then that I am from Australia and also am owned by 2 dogs, 2 cats, a few horses and some fish.

So, I was going in to feed my budgies today and I noticed that one of them has some odd colouring to his feathers. He's a blue/white guy, about 6 months old, and the white feathers around his beak are slightly pink tinted. Is this normal? I'm converting him and his buddy to a pellet diet (and some of the pellets are pinkish). Could it be he is just playing around with the pellets? Idk. Figured i'd ask.

My husband says I'm odd and I say the internet is full of odd people so I have a question:

Does anyone else love the way budgies smell?

I love that smell. I don't know what it is, but I love it.
My husband said it's probably not good to huff my budgie five times a day... and that I should admit to having a problem.

Well? Do I have a problem? ^_^

Lola had a night fright last night.

She's OK I think.  She tried flying though and ended up having to land on the floor.  She's eating and chirping.  Do I just keep an eye on her and leave her be.  She's still feisty and beats my finger up and will still sit on her Daddy's shoulder and pick at his neck.

Should I be worried?  It's the first one she's had since she came to us.

TIA

Just curious, for those of you who buy/have bought cages for your budgies online, does anyone have any specific websites/models that are good? I'm looking for a new cage for my budgie pair, right now they're in one of those taj mahal looking cages that are white with a colored accent (mine is light blue but I've seen them in red, dark blue, green, I'm sure they come in more colors too), whenever I look for "small" bird cages I end up with stuff like this:

(sorry about the size but you get the idea)

which is...not exactly what I''m looking for. Not to sound like I don't care about my budgies, I do (even though they are absolutely insane, rofl) but...they're budgies. It's not like they could realistically break through a metal cage unless it was made out of aluminum foil or something. If I was shopping for a larger parrot like a macaw or something who could break through flimsy bars with its beak, having a heavy, sturdy cage would be a major concern...but not for budgies. Not to mention that my two aren't really bar chewers anyways. I don't mean I'm going to stick them in any old flimsy cage I find, but I don't think that budgies require a "parrot" cage made to stand up to big heavy beaks...I'm going around in circles here, I hope you guys get what I mean without thinking I'm a total idiot.

Er...so what kind of cages do you have for your budgies, any suggestions for good ones? I'd prefer one that doesn't have a playtop, my budgies never come out of the cage (not that I wouldn't like them to, but they're not tame and being out of their cage seems to just stress them out).

I bought another budgie yesterday! His (or her?) name is Lelouch, or Lulu for short. He's so cute!!!♥ At first, Cloud was pretty jealous and was biting poor little Lulu, so they're in separate cages. They're both adjusting pretty well now, though. Lelouch is still pretty shy and nervous, but I did get him to sit on my finger a few times. He even stayed there for like ten minutes one time. He hasn't eaten much yet, but I've heard that's not uncommon for new birds. Should I be worried?

EDIT: Lulu is eating well now.

( Pictures under the cut! )

Imagine, if you will, that this LJ post is an infomercial. It begins with shots of people jamming their fingers awkwardly up their noses, sometimes missing their noses altogether, and sometimes even falling over backwards from the force of their own fingers.

The announcer begins by asking, "Does this happen to you?"

You look at your finger and recall all the times you've experienced difficulty picking your nose. The infomercial has you hooked. The people on the screen are suddenly having their noses picked with miraculous ease. You watch on...

Announcer: "Now you too can rest that picker finger and have your nose cleaned like the rich and famous with the all new BOOGER BUDGIE! For only 13 easy payments of $29.99, you can go from this (close up of broken finger dangling from bloodied nose) to this:





Operators are standing by...on perches. Order NOW!"



(Hey, you were warned!)

Hi gang, if you haven't heard of Webkinz, it's an online virtual pet game with a twist - you buy the stuffed animal and gain a year's worth of access to the site. It's like Animal Crossing with web games. They recently released a green budgie although it's not very budgie like...the tail and beak aren't correct, but it's a cute little puffball all the same :-)

Winston is watching:

And it is Tofu!

He sleeps a lot, eats a bunch, chortles at me from the top of my laptop monitor, snuggles against my neck, and doesn't much like my husband O.o

He continues to be especially adorable... even when his feathers are askew:



Thank you to everyone who helped with his name ^_^

It looks like a local parrot boutique sells Everyone's Favourite Cage, so I'll go with that :-)

Hi gang, I'm thinking of getting Mr. Jill a bigger cage by the first of June. I'm concerned about the amount of feathers that he's been losing since Moxie died in February, plus I think a larger cage would be great for him. He does not have any bald patches, it's just more feathers on the floor lately, which could be from molting or because I have been gone for a few days. His current cage is a basic budgie starter kit one, although he has access to Moxie's old cage when we're home. I think he'd really like more room to move around more. I have no idea what Moxie and Jill did when we were at work, but he was a lot more active during the day anyway!

My plan is to find him a little friend around the end of June and use his old cage for quarantine. The space where the cages are can fit a cage about 21" inches deep and 36" wide. It would also be nice if the cage had a divider of some sort in case Jill doesn't like his new friend. Jill is a pretty sweet budgie, but he does have a touch of vicious in him. The cage would also need to be purchasable from Canada.

In regards to the feathers on the floor, I've been rotating his toys and trying to provide him with as much attention and activity as possible. He's not a people bird like Moxie, he would really like another of his kind :-)

I just got a new baby budgie this past Thursday evening. Though he wasn't hand fed, he came to us practically tame. The first night we brought him home, he rode around on my shoulder and shared a cracker with me. He must be very young because he still sleeps quite a bit... I'm trying not to be a worrywart about the sleeping because he chirps, eats and drinks really well, his poops are completely normal, and he looks very healthy and clean all over. I've read that the babies do tend to sleep quite a bit.

He hasn't started doing the the budgie 'bob and warble' dance yet. Does that usually take awhile? I cannot remember if it took my last bird a while to start doing that because he lived for 14 years so it was almost 20 years ago that I'd gotten him!

My real problem, however, is a name! I've narrowed it down to a few, but can't seem to settle on one... maybe you guys could help, please? I made a poll in this post in my journal. Please vote?

( Some pictures of the little guy... )