New to forum and new to bird keeping!

[ciderminx]

Hi All, my name is Leanne and I became the owner of a budgie today after her (I think) elderly owner could not look after her any more. She's very active and apparently around 12months old, I think she's going through a moult although the condition of her cere is concerning me a bit. I'll try to attach a picture and hope you guys can tell me if I need to be concerned.

[Marianne Marlow]

Welcome. The brown crusty cere indicates that she is in breeding condition.



Well done for taking her on. Does she have a name?

[ciderminx]

Ah fantastic, I had hoped that was the reason. She'll probably be refered to as 'the bird' mostly but she came with a name of Lucy, which I quite like. The spiky feathers in her head means she's also moulting doesn't it? Under her wings are some small areas where the feathers are really thin, I'm hoping this is just down to the moult or the change in her circumstances recently as she has been in a temporary home for two weeks. She was with her elderly owner for 12months or so.

[samwiseg]

Hi and welcome ciderminx and Lucy!

She might be a little older than 12months but she is lovely, so glad you took her on and found us!

Hopefully you will find the forum a great place to be a part of

[OP]

Hello and welcome to you and Lucy.

[jellybean]

Hi Leanne, welcome to the forum.
Well done to you for looking after Lucy. This is a great place to learn.

[ffiscool]

Welcome to the forum, you will enjoy it here

[ciderminx]

Thanks for all your posts guys, this place certainly seems a friendly one! What do i need to provide her while she's in breeding condition? She spends a lot of time with a little plastic bird attached to her perch but is there a better option? It's on a spring that i think could trap her claws. I've already read about changing the sand paper in the bottom of her cage for newspaper. I also covered her pastic perches with the gritty covers but i figure now that they're not good for their feet either. I'll look at natural perches, is there a particular place that you guys buy them from?

[jellybean]

Hi Leanne, both sandpaper and sanded perches are bad for their feet, natural wood perches are far better.
Lots of members on here, including myself, buy from a lovely lady called Karen, at,  Naturalbirdco.co.uk
They do all sorts, and Karen is very nice, they have toys, or toy making parts if you wanted to make your own, balsa toys which budgies just love to shred. Hope that helps to get you started 

[Hezz]

Natural branches are the very best perches for your birdie's feet. The areas of thinner feather covering under her wings is normal. Budgies are clever little creatures - they don't waste feathers or colour on feathers where they aren't needed.

Welcome, Leanne and Lucy.

[budgieholic]

Welcome to t.f looking foward to seeing more pictures of lucy

[ciderminx]

Well it's not quite two weeks since I got Lucy and she already has a new cage. After poking around the forum and looking around at other websites, I got the medium Hagen vision. She's now got plenty of space and I'm looking forward to not hoovering up seed that's been scattered everywhere! She has real perches and no sand paper any more

[Hezz]

Woooo, Lucy; welcome to the good life! Is there anything she doesn't have??

Leanne, just make sure she has room to flit between perches without running into toys, or having to climb the bars.