Apr 19, 2024 11:53:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2021 6:22:28 GMT
willowsmum Yes! I love the bedtime blanket! I think I shall be adopting that term. Yuki's soooo soft feeling. Like a puffy marshmallow. Sometimes I just can't resist and have to catch him up and give him kisses. He's getting better at forgiving me for that.
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Post by Morgan on Mar 26, 2021 7:57:46 GMT
I wish I could get my boy MoonGoat to wait!! He is SO persistent! On the other hand, I love that he’s the first to jump on me when I walk in the room - only looking for millet of course.
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Apr 19, 2024 11:53:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2021 9:46:36 GMT
If they're all hungry then I don't stand a chance, Morgan! MoonGoat sounds like a right little character!
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Post by Morgan on Mar 28, 2021 1:08:56 GMT
Goat is always persistent. I’ve put him in a flight by himself with half a millet spray so I could focus on the others. He’d eat right through the entire thing in one sitting! I promise I feed him enough! He’s consistently 35-37 grams and his keel was nicely even with his pectorals. Just like some dogs are more food driven than others, he is immensely food driven haha
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Apr 19, 2024 11:53:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2021 15:26:43 GMT
Yikes! Your guys must be small, Morgan! Indie weighed in at 39g on Sunday, a 4g loss (weirdly last week Yuki had gained 4g), so I had a feel of him and he felt a little too skinny. Pippin, despite now maintaining what feels like a decent weight for his size (46-47g), is still insisting that he's being starved despite me now increasing their daily seed allowance again. At least, I'm assuming it's food he wants when he keeps calling incesantly. (It's very annoying after a while) They could just eat their veggies, which they know are edible, but nooooo. I'll let them off not eating the pellets cos they don't know those are food. But unless the fresh food plate contains egg, sweetcorn, rice or quinoa there isn't often much interest. Though it might just be that they hate celery as much as I do! 🤣
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Post by Morgan on Mar 29, 2021 21:20:25 GMT
They are definitely just wild-type budgies. I think everyone on here from Europe or Australia has what I would have called show types, or at least they have some show bird in them. All your birds look to me like what anyone out here might call an “English budgie” even if not actually bred for show. The actual show birds are ridiculous looking to me in comparison, so I’m sure you probably don’t consider them show-type birds either. But all my birds (besides the differing colors) look just like wild birds. No extra feather whatsoever. Though there is a slight range in body size. I wonder how mine might differ in person from tweetiepiesmom’s though. Cause hers weigh even a little less and I had been worried mine were all fat! So there is absolutely a huge range I think in body types and weights just from how long they’ve been bred for various traits - body size, feather, etc. My smallest are Xephy and Topsie, who feel very nice at between 34-36g, but Topsie is a little squishy at 39g. He’s at 38g now. I don’t want to limit their food any more than what I’ve already calculated should be good for them, and has been working for a while now already to mostly keep their weights stable (except when Topsie shot up all of a sudden!) so every once in awhile I’ve just been getting Goat and Soul in a cage to start eating first, with an extra teaspoon serving as well (Goat is always first to the food dish so I use him to get Soul in, who won’t go unless another bird is in there), and then let the others in one by one with Monkey and Topsie going in last. Soul’s weight had dipped a bit but he’s getting back up there now (36g) and Monkey’s and Topsie’s hasn’t dropped very quickly, so I think it’s working out pretty well. Monkey is at 43g now, lowest in a while! I’ll be happy to keep her there a bit before she drops another gram or two. She should be at 42 max, but I think closer to 38-40 would actually be healthier for her. When she gets to 40g I’m gonna catch her up again to see how she feels, but it took them a while to get over it the first time. Well, I had done it a second time because the first went well so I thought maybe they’d get used to it - but it had the opposite effect on a few of them so not gonna do it again unless I need to check specifically, because I think I have a good idea now of what’s what anyway.
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Apr 19, 2024 11:53:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2021 21:49:33 GMT
My lot have gotten used to the odd handling, fortunately, and will accept forgiveness millet straight after. Even Pippin will, though he's the least used to it. Yuki's the most used to it because I will admit that there are times when I can't resist scooping him up just to feel how soft he is. Fortunately he's a fairly easy catch, and I don't keep hold of him for long. I'm mean but I'm not THAT mean. I just try to keep the positive interactions (hand=millet) higher than the negative interactions (hand=grab), which is fairly straightforward given that they're only interested in me when millet might be on the cards! At least they're fairly straightforward to manipulate... But no, by actual standards my budgies would be pet type, not show. Pippin leans more towards show, just looking at the feather around his eyes and his larger, sturdier body build. But it's likely that most budgies here have a show bird somewhere in their distant lineage. Pippin is the hardest to catch up because of his size. His flying is improving though. Indie is the neatest flyer. He can turn very tightly. Makes him the second hardest catch. Munchy and Yuki swift rankings on catchability. Yuki is always the same, but Munchy is super easy if he turna his beak on me, but closer to Indie levels if he decides to dodge.
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Post by Morgan on Mar 29, 2021 22:39:18 GMT
Mine will still come for millet, but I’ve noticed Soul and Moxie in particular, followed by Monkey and Topsie, are a bit more skittish around me in general. Especially when it comes to my hands. It’s a slight body language thing, but Soul and Moxie will sometimes fly away even, which they didn’t before. So a definite difference. We’re working on building the trust back up still though. In the other hand, Goat didn’t care at all, and Pig is becoming bolder by the day which is super neat because she used to be the most skittish. She’s still least dominant of the ladies, but she’s come such a long way! I wonder what you would think of most of the budgies out here, where I think breeding for show is perhaps a bit less common? Yours all look definitely fluffier than mine I think. But when they’re at rest mine can be a bit fluffier looking I suppose. Hard to say by photos anyway! I’ll have to go looking at pet shop budgies just for fun if I ever decide to travel out your way xD (Probably not any time soon with all our pet responsibilities haha)
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Post by tweetiepiesmom on Mar 30, 2021 0:01:34 GMT
Even though my guys are light weights, the vet said they are a good size with good pectoral muscle development. I'm keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't drop any weight. Trying to catch Tweetie Pie is like trying to catch a hummingbird. Unfortunately, I just have to tire him ut and then grab!
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Post by Morgan on Mar 30, 2021 6:41:24 GMT
Even though my guys are light weights, the vet said they are a good size with good pectoral muscle development. I'm keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't drop any weight. Trying to catch Tweetie Pie is like trying to catch a hummingbird. Unfortunately, I just have to tire him ut and then grab! It’s kinda hard to tell exact body size differences since they’re all covered in feathers anyway! I can only ascertain that Xephy and Topsie are overall more “stocky” by looking. Like their tails aren’t any shorter in relation to their own bodies than the other birds, but their bodies are overall shorter-looking in length. And Topsie’s head is smaller than Xephy’s even, even when he’s resting all relaxed. Which is why 39g on him feels squishy, while 38g on Soul or Chopper feels just fine. Goat is right smack in the middle. I’ll bet your Tweetie Pie and Buddy are probably not much smaller than my Topsie overall, but the tiniest difference could make a few grams. A teaspoon of something finely ground to a powder (not packed down) is usually about 4 grams right there, for comparison. And your catching Tweetie Pie sounds like what I would have to do to catch Soul or Moxie if I had to again haha! I might just start catching Goat up for quick kisses though just because he is the most compliant. He might get used to it after all even if the others may not.
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Apr 19, 2024 11:53:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2021 8:13:05 GMT
Even though my guys are light weights, the vet said they are a good size with good pectoral muscle development. I'm keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't drop any weight. Trying to catch Tweetie Pie is like trying to catch a hummingbird. Unfortunately, I just have to tire him ut and then grab! It’s kinda hard to tell exact body size differences since they’re all covered in feathers anyway! I can only ascertain that Xephy and Topsie are overall more “stocky” by looking. Like their tails aren’t any shorter in relation to their own bodies than the other birds, but their bodies are overall shorter-looking in length. And Topsie’s head is smaller than Xephy’s even, even when he’s resting all relaxed. Which is why 39g on him feels squishy, while 38g on Soul or Chopper feels just fine. Goat is right smack in the middle. I’ll bet your Tweetie Pie and Buddy are probably not much smaller than my Topsie overall, but the tiniest difference could make a few grams. A teaspoon of something finely ground to a powder (not packed down) is usually about 4 grams right there, for comparison. And your catching Tweetie Pie sounds like what I would have to do to catch Soul or Moxie if I had to again haha! I might just start catching Goat up for quick kisses though just because he is the most compliant. He might get used to it after all even if the others may not. That's like when we had to catch Pippin once or twice to return him to the cage in the evening! Basically just forcing him to fly lower and lower until he was tired and we could scoop him up. He'd be so hot and bothered, bless him. He's much fitter now though, but also fortunately now responds to millet and will be transported on a finger whilst eating it. I'm starting to teach him 'wait', as in just because the millet is gone doesn't mean there won't be some so don't fly off yet, but it's slow going. Once the millet is done, so is he. Mine don't seem to move away, unless I move too quickly by the cage, but then a lot of their perching spots are reasonably high. Plus they usually only get caught in the cage so they might feel more nervous when I'm in the cage with them rather than outside. They'll drink out of a bowl that I'm holding so I consider that a sign of trust. I think they know that I won't hurt them, they just obviously don't want to be held so they try to avoid. But considering that I can't really play anything with them, the younger 3 hardly play with toys because they have each other, so I'm mainly the source of food, water, and a safe space to exercise, I'm more likely to just scoop them up for a quick hold because I enjoy the softness. I just try not to make it too stressful and to keep the association with millet going. I'd rather be able to teach them to accept handling through disassociation of my hand as a threat, like you did with Lottie, but they're waaaaay too flighty for that. So at least if they know that nothing bad comes of handling, even if it's just something that they have to accept, then if I ever have to give medicine they'll be more used to it. I'll worry more about building up a trusting relationship if I ever have a single bird or a pair again in future that might want to actually hang around with us. (Munchy still occasionally lands on my head or shoulder for a 5 minute chat, which is nice. He's sat talking Budglish to himself right now.) I am not the type of person who should have such a skittish animal as a pet, but ah well. I love them. At least I'll be more used to less interaction if we ever get to be a single bird household again. Hopefully I'll just remember to go super slow in future. And now I'm going to leave them to their day whilst I go spend time with another human for the sake of my need of company. Give it a couple of hours and I'm sure Pippin will start yelling to me for food. Ah, but first, the vegetables they don't want!
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Post by tweetiepiesmom on Mar 30, 2021 16:13:46 GMT
I recall Marianne Marlow writing once that she and her OH have a night time ritual where one turns out the light and the other grabs a budgie to get them back in the cage. She said it didn't take too long before they'd go back in on their own to avoid being caught - sort of like when you're at the opera and they flash the lights at the end of intermission to get you back in your seat.
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2021 6:03:59 GMT
Lottie's breeder(s) were super good with her - but I also asked them for their most outgoing and sweet bird. Either way, she stepped up the very first time I offered a finger, even though they never taught her that. Happy did have to learn by disassociation. He definitely was hand raised too, but he was a little more hesitant at first. I think the hand raising, or at least the socialization, as well as individual personality, plays a big role in that. Soul and Moxie will only fly away if my hand gets too close without food. They'll still come to a bowl I'm holding if it has food in it - but also only if at least one other bird goes first xD I have lots of high up perches for them, now double to try and keep them off the curtain rod. It's actually been working!! Except Pig every so often still goes up there and I have to shoo her. She's so funny, always acts like a little princess. And Lottie is the queen.
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Apr 19, 2024 11:53:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2021 9:40:53 GMT
These lot usually put themselves away but are pretty obliging if I have to put them in. I was feeding Yuki millet yesterday and holding my other hand above him to try to desensitise him to it. Indie then jumped onto the top of my upper hand and proceeded to start spinning around to earn millet! Three out of four now know that totally pointless trick.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2021 1:15:46 GMT
That is so cute though!! It’s not pointless - it’s amusing! For us anyway. And if it earns them a treat, then it isn’t pointless to them either I think
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