I rehomed her in May 2021 at the age of 5, she was used as a breeding bird for most of her life and I bought her for £10 from preloved.
Penny was never able to fly, possible due to her harsh early life.
I hope she has her wings now and is reunited with her friend Lyra.
A lovely selection of recent photos of the gang. Also to add that yesterday morning I took the cover off of Penny’s cage and could not see her at the back on her usual bedtime perch. I looked all around the cage, including the floor – fearing the worst. My heart leapt. Then I looked up and there she was, at the front staring at me!!
This is Penny below! Little minx tried to give me a heart attack 🙂
A few days ago, I decided to let some of the non-flying birds out on the floor for a run about.
Penny (violet hen) was fed and preened by her friend Chipper.
George enjoyed a run around too, he’s the bright green boy and is almost 11 years old. Due to a stroke he cannot fly anymore. I was surprised he enjoyed it so much.
George enjoyed it so much in fact that when we came in from collecting our daughter from nursery, George was on the floor again running about. When he saw me he ran up to me to be picked up and returned to his cage. When in his cage he started vigorously preening his best mate Peter.
I let Peter out too. He cannot fly because he prefers to stay in with his best pal Gorge and he seems to have lost the ability to lift off.
Penny is moulting very heavily at the moment. I managed to get a close up of her poor head.
The budgies are having some millet to cheer them up on a gloomy day. Also in a bid to stop the girls chewing the curtains. Obviously the latter did not work.
Max and Chipper are getting on very well. They like to come to my table to play on the T-Perch and have a general run about. Chipper is also about to go into his first moult and is changing colour! His face is more of a golden colour now and the yellow is coming through all over him. Who knows what he will look like once it’s finished 🙂
Max is very sociable, both with the other budgies and with me. When he’s not chasing Chipper about he can be seen trying to sing to Daisy, or sitting with George, Bertie and Peter, preening.
Iris is being her usual henny self, trying to pull off the seed pots and scatter seed everywhere.
Daisy keeps biting the curtain.
George doesn’t come out much as he cannot fly too well, but he is 9 and a half and had a stroke last year. He still sings and plays, but takes it easy and rests quite a bit.
Penny and Lyra still do their own thing, I have changed things around in their cage a little by removing two rope perches that they didn’t really use. I’ll be very gradually making more changes for them as they do not like me putting my hand in their cage.
Bertie’s flight feathers have returned, so he’s not ending up on the floor any more and can fly about properly.
Peter occasionally likes to sing to Max and is trying to make friends.
Colin and Billy spend most of their day chasing after their hens and trying to keep them in line (Daisy and Iris)
Here are some photos!
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.
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.
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.
Featheredfiends 