Iris is a funny character. She likes to play with the other budgies. But she also has a very mischievous side to her. She pulls tails and knocks iodine blocks off.
She also likes to knock seed troughs up and down from the outside of the cage, while a budgie is sitting on it, eating.
One thing is for sure, she’s very photogenic.
Blithe and Iris
Bertie and Iris
Billy feeding Iris
I have been looking for a non flying friend for Penny for a while now as I have seen Penny get very frustrated that she cannot come out to play with the others.
I made a post on a facebook group for budgies that needed homes to ask if anyone had a little budgie that needed a home that was flightless.
A lovely lady got back to me to say that she had a hen called Lyra that she was going to breed from but she became aware over time that she had French Moult and so did not. Little Lyra didn’t do very well in her flight cage, so she asked if I wanted her as a friend for Penny.
So yesterday I went to Dartford to pick her up, getting a cab there and back as it was a bit out of the way.
I weighed up the pros and cons of quarantine and decided against it as Penny has been very lonely pinging at the bars, running back and forth and just being generally unhappy and Lyra also needed a friend quickly.
They have had one night together so far and have no arguing. Fingers crossed they will be the best of friends.
Peter has a new way of eating.
It reminded me of this flashback photo of Monty from 2012.
The budgies just had a massive bath-fest.
I caught a great action shot of Iris come in to land. Trust Iris to land right in the middle of a bath while other budgies are in it 😀
George is much better and enjoying being out all day with his friends now. They have all enjoyed the sunny weather and also stared at the masses of rain we have had lately in London.
I also caught a lovely photo of Bertie preening Blithe.
I took this photo of some of the boys this morning.
Blithe, Peter, George and Bertie are all looking at me as Colin is coming in to land, you can even see his little feet getting ready to grip the bars.
Colin was fast that I only realised he was flying in after I checked the photo!
George is almost 9 years old. He had a stroke a few days before the 15th June and couldn’t move much, his left side was almost completely paralysed.
I knew that if I took him to the vet they would insist that I had him put to sleep as he looked very very sick.
At first I tried him in my hospital cage, but he could not climb around and wasted his energy trying to do so. He just skittered all over the place. So then I put him in a pet carrier that we use for transporting budgies.
Every 2 hours during the day I changed his piece of red millet, fed him water(also daily essentials vitamins) from a tiny medicine cup and changed the kitchen paper underneath him. It was almost like having a newborn again.
Each morning I would be surprised and thankful when I uncovered him and found that he was still alive.
Each day he would bite me harder and harder when I picked him up to change the paper towel.
One morning when looking stronger, he flapped around when he saw me and started to try to climb up the carry box to get out.
I put him at the bottom of Penny’s cage while I sorted out his carry box. To my surprise he started to climb the ladder and up the bars to the top perch.
I would let him stay in Penny’s cage for longer and longer each day until he got very strong. At first he barely had any balance and would have to flap his wings hard to right himself when he fell backwards.
He’s flying now and back to 80% of his normal self. He also sings a bit.
He and I are so happy at his progress and hope he’ll be with us for many years to come.
I have summarised this post greatly as a lot has happened.
Here are photos of his recovery.
It’s funny, but some budgies seem to have no go zones. Sky never played on the swing in front of the balcony doors, some budgies never land on the big mirror.
Peter has been with us for around 6 months, but in all that time he has avoided a particular cage.
Well, to my surprise, today, Peter decided to try that cage out for size.
First I noticed him in the doorway (Peter is the Sky Blue spangle in the doorway in one of the photos).
Then he made his way in. He stayed in for an hour or so. For a while it looked like he couldn’t work out how to exit the cage and I was about to help him when he figured it out alone!
Penny has now met all of the other budgies. She seems to be forming some sort of friendship with Iris.
We let Penny play on the floor for 20 minutes to an hour a day, supervised of course.
Today, Iris flew down to play with her, or at least to play with the mirrors that we had put out for Penny.
I hope Penny is having fun with us.
On Monday 3rd May, we took in a new budgie hen. I was told that she might be 5 years old and had previously had several clutches of chicks. She cannot fly, we are not sure why, but it could be because of continuously breeding and not having enough calcium.
She is in a cage on her own for quarantine. The floor is padded with two towels under the newspaper. She also has two ladders as she cannot fly or jump up to perches from the floor of the cage.
I have named the little hen Penny.
So far after feeding her carrot, Dill and Basil, she has tried Dill on it’s second attempt.
When quarantine is over, I shall let her meet one budgie at a time, if they want to come in and see her. Due to her not being able to fly, she wont be able to play normally with the others. I may let her run about safely (under supervision) on the floor of the living room when our toddler is in bed.
I do not encourage any of my budgies breed and do not provide nest boxes, huts or dark spaces for them to lay eggs. So far only 1 hen has laid a single infertile egg as nothing is 100% foolproof and hens can be very determined.
