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I notice that there is a mention of English and American budgerigars. but to my understanding all budgerigars originally come from Australia. so why is there no mention of Australian Budgerigars.
FYI: Budgerigar means "good to eat" in the aborigine language.

Awwww.... sooo cute! The second picture is adorable! I want some! And so does rocky, by the look of things.

Errm, sorry for the gushing.

InTheAir ~ Don't know if you can see her, but that little greyish thing on the left is Riff Raff. in the Rocky pictures. They all just hang out like that, and it makes me feel a little mean for not putting them together. But, safety first. After another hundred years I'll get a photo of them all (4 Budgies) in the big cage together.

Zentoucan ~ That bothers me too. I think they should be called Budgerigar and Show Budgerigar.

Missk, I saw that. Sooooo cute! Watch out for those budgiexirn hybrids!

Well it's about darn time lol. Your babies are so cute

Thank you!

And a *Big Huge* thanks to Redzone for posting those pics!

I think Riff Raff only loves him from afar because of that Big Bad Boy/Forbidden Love kinda thing...... as for him, I think he just has round heels.

So cute! Someday I will get a budgie too... In the distant future.

I am going to be content to admire other people's cuties from afar. Lessons learned and all that

Skyes_Crew~

Air mattress at standby. You wanted Snow for Christmas, didn't you?

Ill be in Baltimore with bells on

I have a story which is sad
Around 11 years ago we had a family move into the house behind us. Average family father, mother, two sons and two daughters. Anyway the youngest son (12yrs old) was into breeding and showing Budgerigars. Which he had around 30 Budgerigars and was starting to sell off the offspring to pet shops. The aviary was round 7 metres long and 2.5 metres wide and divide in two compartments. At times I would be standing on the back balcony and would look down at the Aviary and there would be this young bloke sitting inside the Aviary interacting with the budgies by talking and hand feeding them. This young bloke did this everyday for 2 to 3 hours and this is not including the morning feed and greet. He did this rain, hail or shine and had been for ten months before the tragic incident.
Sometimes I would have a bit of a chat to him about the breeding and budgerigar shows and how he was going with it. The breeding program was working and He was starting to win some of the categories.

It was a Saturday morning, I had gotten up at 6:00 am made a coffee and went out the back balcony to drink it. When I heard crying from the neighbor yard. So I went to the back fence and saw the young bloke in the aviary on his knees holding two of the Budgerigars. All I could get from him was "they dead all of them dead". I rang his parents from my mobile phone and told that their young fella was very upset in the aviary and you better come and get him. Later in the day I was speaking to the father and it seems that rats had burrow into the aviary that night and killed everyone of the Budgerigars and took 18 of them. Apparently rats can sneak into the aviary climb up quietly and dispatch the sleeping birds without any noise.

The father blamed himself because his son had been asking for him to concrete the floor of the aviary. He had been too busy with work and had just not gotten around to it. But the really sad part that the young fella never breed or showed Budgerigars again. Which was a shame because it not often that you see the kind of focus and dedication from a young bloke. Those rats not only took 18 budgerigars, they took this young bloke focus and dedication. Within the month the aviary was gone.

That is so sad. That poor boy. I wish he had had a mentor to help pull him through

Such cuties, MissK! I want to squish their little cheeks! Gently of course!

Joey'sMom-

I *know*! Hee, hee, hee!

OK MissK...I need your help. Went on a rescue today. Pulled some birds out of deplorable conditions. Two of them were, you guessed it, budgies. Ill get a pic up for you later. These two are so sweet.

Anyway, what do I need to put in their cage? I put some guava branches, and some palm fronds so far. Food recommendations? Toys? HELP!!!

Budgies, it is my understanding, are primarily seed eaters, so I would give them a seed mix, but please, something with a good amount of canary grass seed. I would like to see them get some fresh sprouts. Some Budgies like their fresh foods, others not so much. Offer some carrot (I give thin slices made with the peeler). Greens will go over best if you offer them wet - they'll roll around in them and then maybe eat some. Little Bluebird of Mayhem (RIP) just loved Parsley, and my guys are into their kale. If you want to give pellets, start with the tiniest size, and coloured. If they won't eat anything, you might have to give them millet, or spray millet (god's gift to budgies). Offer whatever the other birds are having fresh, in little bits, and if they like it, give more. Ease them into it, in case they never had fresh before. Kiwi sliced might prompt them to investigate if nothing else will. Expect them to sit in the food dish.

As far as housing, I suggest at least a cubic 18" per Budgie. They're probably used to the meanest type of perch, so just give them something they can get their feet around for now and upgrade as you can. As you know, I favour the natural wood stick, ropes, and natural vines. Pet store sells a metal ring covered with fringed cloths bits that they like. Please give them several perches.

Mine are *very* into nibbling the bark off stuff. They like to beak-bonk things that move and swing, and I've seen them play with their seashell. As far as purchased toys, mine don't seem too keen, but a mirror should provide some interest. Everybody says budgies like ladders. Mine don't, but they may just be odd. Mine ignore their bath, but bathe in their kale. I have some textured beads, blocks, and a cat ball woven into a rope for them and they like it, ditto any bead hanging on jute. When they were young they didn't like any toys - had to grow into it, I guess, or maybe were content to be with each other.

--Of course they're sweet!

Sad news...one did not make it

So one lonely little budgie now. He doesn't make a sound. He was locked in a dark room. I don't even know when they had eaten last. This was a very sad rescue from an animal hoarders house. I don't know why I continue to do this when it breaks my heart to see them suffer. But if I can save most of them, then it seems worth it. How can people be so cruel.

Well, check his little keel and feed him up with whatever he wants. It's no good feeding healthful food if the bird won't eat. Get him safe first. I'm sorry you lost one, but you know it wasn't your fault.

My Budgies are doing nicely, for the most part, together. Yesterday and today I pulled the divider between the new and old for several hours. I put it back overnight and when I can't be nearby. There were a few drastic sounding spats, and I would hate to find I had made a mistake leaving the young ones in with a maybe disgruntled older one. Magenta's flight is really improving.

So sorry for the delayed response. It's been a busy day for sure. I put the little budgie that didn't make it in a basket last night. I watched his breathing slow down. I left him there because I couldn't watch him take his last breath. He was laying on his side when I left him. When I got up this morning, he was perched on the side of the basket. Do budgies sleep lying down? Either way, it is a miracle in my book!!! Both of the little ones are sampling the seeds I have provided. Not much, but it's a start. I will keep you posted.

W. O. W.

That was a great stroke of luck. Do you think he is OK now? Might he have been just really, really frightened? Stunned?

Pamper him for me. Keep a close eye because if he really is compromised, the other one may attack, just one of those "nature" things that sometimes happens.

Poor little guys. Send a photo. (I can say that now!)

Oh wow! That is amazing . I have never heard of a budgie lying down to sleep. I am glad to hear that they are trying to eat. Hopefully all will work out well.

The little one that was lying down to sleep went to the rainbow bridge last night. I know she had been attempting to eat, she had seed stuck to her beak. The other one has labored breathing now too. No discharge from the nares or beak, and is a bit more active today. We completed the rescue of the other birds yesterday. 8 cockatoos. I feel like hitting someone

Dave's mum showed me a picture he drew when he was little:



A one legged budgie!

I like it! Got all the right parts. This Budgie was a mime, I see. No perch.

Maybe he was sleeping very good work Dave

His eyes are open. Maybe he was a pirate.

We shall call him Peg Leg Bud

Lol, you guys! She was a one legged female

Judging by the tail position, in the mating position too lol

You had quite the active imagination

Peg Leg Bud, short for Budgette..... She was a "lonely" lass, "friendly" when approached, stealing hearts along the waterways of Australia, sleeping with her eyes open, with never a perch to stand upon. Pirating in the grasslands of Australia was not very profitable, and so she went to live with Dave where she turned to a life of Mime!

Ok...I take that back...MissK, you definitely have the active imagination!!!

<shrug> You knew.

Riff Raff takes a trip ~

Recently I came home from work to discover SOMEBODY had been loose all day because I didn't latch the cage properly........ It seems she wasn't able to get back in, so when I found her she was fast asleep on the outside of the cage. I put her back in and tried to get my heart rate back to normal. Then I went on about my life.

Today I went to put some little plant pots at my kitchen window. Space is dear in my house, and my cuttings need "bright indirect light". That Northwest window should be perfect, so I got out the step stool to access the middle of window over the sink. I found Budgie poop up there!

I didn't think little Riff would have traveled so far through the house, and really didn't think she'd leave the other birds. But I think she did! Maybe she went to visit the Canaries and took a detour.

G'day Budgie fans, interesting seeing so many USA fans of the humble Aussie budgie, but the domestic budgie as been world wide for a long time now. I from a town about 1 hour from Sydney I and my family have been breeding budgies for probably about 40 years.
I usually breed about 30 to 40 a year, these are the normal domestic size, bigger from the wild budgies but smaller from the big fat headed English show budgies which I don't like. The ones you have are probably the same size as mine.
I currently breed colours such as sky blue, yellow face violet, violet pied, blue pied in blue and white and blue and yellow, white cinnamon, yellow cinnamon, blue opaline , green opaline , single factor cobolt blue yellow face, aqua pied. I have both dominate and recessive pied . In foreign birds as well as Ringnecks I have Moustache, Kakariki, Sun conures, Canary and Mask lovebirds in violet, cobolt blue and pastel violet blue. My Aussie flock also include Cockatiels, King parrots, Princess parrots, Scarlet chested parrots, Hooded parrots , Eastern rosella's in lutino, red and splits, Pale headed rosella, Western rosella, Galah and Major Mitchel cockatoo. I also have finch's such as Gouldian's in normal and white breasted, Double bar finch's, Painted finch's and Red browed finch's.

Wow, Smick, you've got an awful lot of birds!!

As far as my own little crew, Spring came, things got feisty in the Budgie cage, and I ended up inserting the divider to separate the sexes. I made a little error in sexing the Albino, and after the dust had cleared and the shrieking ended, I had three males on one side of the HQ Double Flight, and one lonely female on the other side. My beloved little Riff Raff. So, I did as you might expect -- I brought home another adult female. Pictures will come eventually. She is a typical bright blue Budgie, and since she is a girl for sure, she gets the name of Janet. The girls are finding their way to amicability, though at the start it was the newcomer who was a little nasty. I'm sure it was because she was used to feeling unloved in her prior situation......

AND, here's something else -- When is a Parakeet not really a Parakeet?
--> When it's a Lineolated Parakeet!
And so, I did today bring home a nice little Olive mutation Linnie. It was sold as a 2 year old female, but it was also supposed to have a band to match the DNA certificate, and that turned out not as expected (no band). The seller had only had it about 2 months. She bought a failed breeding pair, and then bought another female. The original male immediately began attacking this "female", which put her in the market for a new home. With this somewhat shaky foundation, "she" begins her new life with me. Of course, the name will be Lynnie. Lynn is used as a name for either gender, and for a Linnie, I thought no better name could possibly be! EDIT: Yup. Lynnie is a BOY!

Wish us luck! Anybody who keeps Linnies, please chat me up. I'm a Linnie Beginner!

As some of you may know, I finally brought home that second Ringneck, so he kicked the Budgies out of the big flight cage. I bought them a matching pair of new cages and lashed them together back to back. My hope was that the flock would still feel like a flock, even though the genders are separated by wire.

I made sure to include some natural perches that go through the actual dividing wall, so birds can share a perch as they would naturally want to do. Today I see some great success in this effort to keep the flock apart but together: Frankie is feeding Janet through the wall! Awwwwww!

Thanks for all the info! The husband brought home 2 little budgies a few weeks ago... we've named them Lucy and Ricky. They are just the busiest, cutest darn things ive seen in a long time! They are not hand tame bit are coming along...Ricky faster than Lucy. Ill pour some seed into my hand at feeding time and put my hand into the cage he will fly around for a bit, land in my hand for a few seeds then fly away. After that ill pour the seed into their bowl. I really get a kick out of watching them play.

Tasha try some greens like seeding grass or silverbeet, they will be super eager and will soon land on you, thanks Mick

Even spray millet is a good treat for that, too.

I wanna share my budgies . I have two budgies , one female ( 4 years old) , one male (3,5 years old). . I was very ignorant about parrots a year ago. I only gave them budgie foods.And I didn't know how important training my birds. They only know step up and give kisses. They uses their cage only eating and sleepng. A year ago my female's health condition started to getting worse. I searched about parrots and I learned everything I currently know. But Iwas so late I'm so sad because I couldn't good mama for them. they don't want to eat anything but budgie foods. I am trying give them different foods but it doesn't work out. I give her vitamins too but Her condition still bad. They have a strong bond each other so they don't interested in me. so there are my budgies :

GeveZe, you take great pictures! What's wrong with your Budgie girl?

Her feathers are huge problem. I take this picture right now :
Look at that ! These feathers looks so bad. And when she flies , she exhausted so quickly. She eats a lot end she is very active but I know ,she is not good I tried a lot of things ; I take her a vet. But in Turkey there is any avian vets . I know only one avian vet in whole country but he is lived another town. So I'm very upset about it I think It's my fault. Because I give her only budgie foods.

haha great toilet paper pic

Donovan wrote:haha great toilet paper pic

Oh! if you like it We have plenty of them these are for you Donovan:

Her feathers seem quite unusual. Do you know if any of her brothers or sisters have the same problem? I am thinking that this cannot be diet alone? Consider that the male Budgie has lived the same, but he doesn't look like that. I hope we get a Budgie Expert here to see this.

I forgot to tell important thing. A year ago she laid eggs aftet that her health went bad. So I thought it's because her diet. Actually , my family owned them when I was far away from home. I came and found these little babies. I don't know any siblings of them. I have theories Her feathers are less than they should be. Because of that flying is tiring for her. And because of that she is making her feathers deformed. Is it possible ?

So I understand now; she had normal feathers before she laid eggs and after the eggs she has deformed feathers? That does sound like a diet issue, sadly.

You cannot go back but you can go forwards and try again to help her eat better foods. I have a link to an article on feeding parrots. You can read that or take these few simple ideas from it: http://www.parrothouse.com/pamelaclark/ ... anion.html
Parrots are naturally inclined to eat at particular times of the day, early morning and late afternoon/evening.
Parrots are suspicious and unwilling to eat new things they have not seen and eaten before.
If you offer the new food at the time of day when the parrot is not already inclined to eat, the bird is not likely to try it.
If you offer the new food so it looks the same every day the parrot will get accustomed to seeing it.
If you eat the food when you give it to the birds it will help them understand it is food and be interested in eating it.

Therefore you should chop the vegetable and fruits so the bird always gets a colorful chopped mix that looks the same every day, even if you have included different foods.
You should present this food at the time of day that the parrot is already looking for something to eat.
You should show them how to eat it.
You can sprinkle some of the old food (the seeds) on top so that the bird will be drawn to the mix.
**You must still provide the old food, so the bird doesn't starve, of course.
You should expect that the new food will be not be eaten for weeks before the bird gets accustomed to it.
You should give it to them every day.

I would like to add that if one bird will eat it, the other should learn by watching. I know you are an experienced Budgie Keeper, so I don't mean to insult you by telling you these things you probably already know. Just, if you missed this, or somebody else is reading it could help them. Try to give the Budgies a whole leaf, maybe kale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kale-Bundle.jpg or collard http://www.finecooking.com/item/5217/collard-greens . Wet the leaf and do not shake it off, so water clings to it, and place it on the floor of the cage. Budgies may roll on the leaf to bathe and they may taste it, too. If the birds will not eat a chopped mix of vegetables, but they will eat a leaf, this is a great improvement, still, over only seeds. You can also hang a leaf from the wall of the cage where there is a perch, so they can lean against it if they want to. If Budgies like to chew on things, and it looks like they do then make some toys out of food. I know you will be very good at this because I see you are clever and creative, as well as very loving to your birds.

While it is very hard to say why she has bad feathering I would still push for diet changes.
I do note that only one of your birds has this problem, which is interesting.
You could do as I did and have blood tests done to make sure there are no issues.
Sprouts would be my first consideration, these will start the process of introducing natural vitamins, minerals and trace elements that may of been missing or in short supply.
If you can find my thread on Dexter in the Alexandrine starter, you will see a few of the things we have done for him.
It takes or can take a very long time to work through these things. Not very often is there a quick fix. Dexter is 18months into his reconditioning. Where my Budgie Blue came right in just a few months.
Omeg3, protein, Vitamin A, Flax seed, Red Palm Oil, calcium, I would be targeting.
Consider to start building towards her next molt, and see what happens then with her diet change.
No matter what they will only eat, you do need to make changes.
I know it is not easy. Presentation and location is the key to getting them onto new foods.