Update 2: I'm making alright progress! And FIGHTING :(

[blumuffin]

Good news for me!
Well, and sorta bad news.
I got Muffin to step up twice today. I think he'dve done it more if Mango didn't start climbing ONTO the millet stick with both feet!!! When Mango climbs up onto the millet he does seem to scare Muffin a bit. I REALLY wish I had a longer millet stick!
Also, Mango mlemed my finger twice =v= it was so cute!
I don't really want Mango to be climbing onto the millet stick, because he climbs down towards the nicer millet and scares Muffin.

Talking about them scaring eachother - Muffin is being chased around by Mango, sortof.     Mango just is beeping and a bit puffed up and tries to approach Muffin, and he's just like NOPE IM OUT, then bounces around the cage. Mango just looks confused.


And they are fighting again. They look like this except they do it for shorter periods of time. Muffin always backs off, he doesn't usually stand his ground. It's neever escalated to anything beyond that, but sometimes they flap around the cage a lot.

Sometimes they seem to haeve short breaks. I saw Muffin preening Mango two days ago, and twice i've seen them cuddle up to eachother - maybe Mango sleeping with Muffin beside him, or just staring into eachother's eyes.

They also scream into eachother's faces A LOT. I'm getting slightly worried that this will escalate, because it's been going on since i got them, escalating slowly until now.

And yes - i can see people telling me; "Let them out for a superivised fly, if they're in eachother's faces everyday they'll get annoyed!"
But they just freak out when I open the door and will not come out!!!
As i'm wrighting this I can hear "Rak Rack! Beshaawble bka blalala bedloop ra rak rak rak rak rah!!"
Sorry for the silly budgie noises but that's the only way I can describe. It doesn't sound like they're getting along - put it that way...


Welp. Hopefully i'll havev some more updates on the weekend. Thanks for reading
(sorry for all the typos - the letter 'v' is acting up on my laptop)

[Hezz]

If you can't get a bigger cage for them, and you can't let them out for free time, can you get another cage of the same size and separate them if one is showing signs of having had enough of the other? They are not really fighting; they are squabbling, arguing if you like. Rolling around on the floor of the cage, locked together, feathers flying, blood flowing ... that's fighting. If you don't give them room soon, that might just be what you are going to be seeing. Have you tried actually bringing either of the birds out of their cage, yourself?

[blumuffin]

I bought a much bigger cage for them (which my parents agreed to) which I was going to put them in, but then my mum changed her mind and says I can't put it in that place  - after it came, it's still boxed up in my shed (and which place is the only place in the whole house it will go,) so what we're going to do is buy me a loft bed and put the cage under it, but that won't happen until at least August.

Mango is a millet junkie so I might try bringing him out of the cage, but I wouldn't be sure how he would get back in.... I do have a perch which I could put on the outside of the cage but they are very neophobic (eg. i've had a perch in the cage that they're scared of for almost two months, after four months they're only just touching their cuttlebone and egg-stick treat (i'm a bit worried it might be gone off) and the bridge has only been stepped on by accident, even though it's been there since they moved in.)

And my parents come into my room a lot so i'd have to pick a day when they're teaching a lot.
There's also some dangers in my room i'd have to block of. Under my bed is very dusty and full of junk, and under my desk there's an almost portal to a landfill lol.

I think Muffin would approve of Mango being out of his face for a while. I could also get some training in.
But I have a few precarious things placed on a shelf, one of them being a glass bottle and I wouldn't want that to smash and, you know, shards of glass flying everywhere isn't so great for budgies.

I also have some things that are probably toxic when chewed on, like the three tinsels going across my room haha.
I'd basically have to turn my room upside down to get them to come out safely, and that's IF they don't freak out when I try to bring them out of the cage...

And they'd probably just try to play with eachother if seperated, which would be annoying because they'd probably fight if together
I'l give it two weeks or so, yes, I might have to end up seperating them if they won't come out...

Wow, this was long, but honestly thanks for your advice!

[blumuffin]

If this escalates anywhere close to actually fighting, whether drawing blood or rolling on the cage, then they should prepare to be SEPERATED! They will not hurt eachother on my watch!

[ladybird]

Have you got a picture of the cage to show us? Where were you going to put a show budgie?

[blumuffin]

Oh yes I have a few pictures of the cage, but I meant I was getting the show budgie once they move into the bigger cage lol! No room for any more budgies in this cage.


As you can see it has slide-up doors which I am not fond of! I really want a door that opens horizontally

this is the cage I want to move them into.
It was originally going at the end of my bed and I would install a seed-catcher.
edit: yes, the smaller one is a terrible cage. no way to clean the grate without putting my hand in. slide up doors that rattle the whole cage when I lock/unlock it (so I keep it unlocked.) food and seed gets stuck behind the drawer (audible crunch when you slide it in) and the cage doesn't really lock together properly.

but it's portable. it cost my parents 40E (lucky i didn't have to pay for it lol, but i did pay for the new one) and tbh it should've cost half that. i'm really not that satisfied with the cage and desperately want to move my little friends into the new one

[ladybird]

Not quite sure which is the bigger cage? Great picture you have done ( really clever) but maybe put two separate pictures?

[blumuffin]

Feb 14, 2020 13:49:30 GMT ladybird said:

Not quite sure which is the bigger cage? Great picture you have done ( really clever) but maybe put two separate pictures?

All those pictures are the same cage, the brand new big cage I want to move the into is in a box in my shed

[ladybird]

Arrr understand now, silly me 🙃....then just one picture of that cage would be better please.

[blumuffin]

OK! I'll show you a photo in a while.

[ijustcantsayno]

That new cage would be much better! I have 2 cages that are similar, just not white. Lots of room in there for the birds,toys, and perches. The cage they are in now is (in my opinion) to small for 1 budgie, so with 2 budgies they have no room to get out of each other’s way when they have a disagreement. Supervised time outside the cage is probably a good idea, but you definitely want to bird proof the room first.

[blumuffin]

That's what I keep telling my parents that it's too small! They keep saying that "I'd feel guilty keeping them on a cage anyway" WHICH i don't, and they also keep saying I have to be grateful for what I have (which I totally am!) but it's too small and my parents just won't listen to me
I might be getting my room redone at the end of the year so I'm hoping to make it more bird friendly.

Another thing. We were watching Star Trek Picard tonight and my dad had it turned up really high and they were shooting at eacother and stuff was exploding and it was so loud it made MY ears hurt! So basically I kept asking him to turn it down for the fight scenes and he said no. I didn't dare mention that the budgies were trying to sleep because "were not making our lives around these animals!" Whereas they should've considered this before actually letting me buy the birds...
And he keeps sticking his fingers through the hg the bars of the cage and putijng his head up close and whistling (which freaks them out)

Anyways sorry for the long rant I'm just a bit mad at him right now lol

Thanks for your advice.

[Hezz]

I have to say I'd be fighting with my housemate too, if I had to share a house that size full time.

[ladybird]

Dusky ,I thought the birds were in your bedroom? I am just wondering as you mentioned the telephone being too loud?

[blumuffin]

Yes they are in my bedroom, it's the only place that would work in this small house (my parents bedroom, no. My brothers bedroom, no. Kitchen, no. Living room, no (we watch TV late at night))

I know its not really that healthy but it's on the opposite side to my bed, and I can spend a lot of time with them too