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[Tamusiko]

Hello everyone.

I'm new to this forum but I'm very excited to be part of this community. All my childhood I had all kinds of animal pets: birds, dogs, cats and hamsters. I love animals very much. But I wasn't the one taking care of their general needs,my mom was. When my husband and I got our place I really wanted to get a little kitty. Since both of us, my husband and I, work full time, we knew that it would be sad to leave a kitty most of the time alone. After considering many options, we ended up agreeing to get a budgie. It happened that I was home most of the time when we got our budgie Lovy. She's the most amazing ever. It was tough for her in the beginning but soon enough she started to hop on my finger and eat from my hand. She changed our lives completely. Made us absolute bird people. She's just cutest little lady; so fragile and tiny. Then my work started and I wasn't able to spent with her as much time as I used to. It got scared that she'd get depressed and lonely and after hours and hours of researches we decided to get another budgie, Blu. They Bonded from the day one. She's following him everywhere. While Lovy was clipped when we got her, on the other hand we were shocked when Blu flew around when he got out from the cage that same day. We bought both budgies from same place. However nothing stops lovy to follow Blu. She jumps right out of cage everytime Blu decided to fly around. We were scared she'd get hurt so we got super fluffy carpet and put some pillows around so that she'd land softly. Time to time you will find Lovy on the perch trying to practice to fly, which is the cutest thing ever. My husband and I are taking the best care we can of both kiddies ; however we are still new in this. We are trying to introduce them to the fresh food/veggies /fruits. No luck yet. Tried to incorporate them in a toy manner too. They are not interested. They feed on seeds mostly and we have millet as a treat for them. We have many toys for them. We bought great cage and it's spacy. It's been two month since we have them. Lovy still refuses to bathe. We wanted to try spray bottle but I've read many people don't recommend it because many budgies become very scared of it. Also we have second cage and we wanted to use it as sleeping cage. Didn't work well, Blu wouldn't go to sleep and was turning into "spider budgie" by spending whole night upside down on the roof part. And most recently Lovy became very dominant when it comes to food. She won't allow Blu to eat from our hand. She just comes and sits on the food so Blu won't get access to eat and she bites him if he does. They fight, sometimes more than we think. It know from the research we did on them that budgies do that but we are worried. I'd love to get any opinion about what you think I'm doing right or wrong. I love my babies very much and want them to be happy which will make us happy. Thank you and sorry for the long introduction. I get too worried abt them sometimes.

[Pajarita]

First of all, welcome to the forum and THANK YOU for getting little Lovy a mate! That was a kind thing you did for her and shows you really care for her happiness.

Now, first thing I would suggest is that you allow Lovy's primaries to grow back. Leaving aside the physical and emotional benefits of flight, budgies are EXCELLENT fliers that zoom about just for the sheer fun of it and I can assure you their flying around will delight you and your husband greatly.

Now as to diet, budgies are not fruit eaters. I have been giving mine fruits for over 20 years and could count with the fingers of one hand and have some leftover the ones that actually ate any so don't worry too much over this. What they do need and love are leafy greens so a different kind as often as you can will give them a good range. You can give them all lettuces (but not iceberg), escarole, chicory, broccoli, red/green/yellow Swiss Chard, kale (preferably the blue one), dandelion greens, all kinds of cabbages (green, red, savoy, napa), endive, celery and carrot tops, basil, etc. I don't give mine any collard greens or spinach and kale or cabbages only once a week.

They also eat veggies but they need to be cooked (or, at least, blanched) and diced unless they are of a small size like peas, for example. Mine eat corn (also corn on the cob), diced carrots, peas, baked sweet potato, all kinds of pumpkins and squashes, diced beets, finely chopped green beans, etc.

I feed mine the same thing I feed all my other parrots: gloop with raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a good quality budgie seed mix for dinner. During breeding and molting (we are not in molting season), I add sesame, flax and hemp seeds to their seed mix for an extra oomph of protein.

Now, as to Lovy's behavior. If she is over a year old and he is not, I think the problem is that she might be hormonal and he is too young for anything. With budgies, it's imperative to keep them at a strict solar schedule because they are HIGHLY opportunistic breeders and, although they are determinate layers (they will always lay the same number of eggs and stop), they can easily become chronic layers by producing one clutch after another (which would seriously deplete and weaken her and could even prove fatal to her). Just make sure there are two sources of food (two bowls in the cage and hold out two hands) so he can get his share. She will get over it as soon as she stops producing sexual hormones during the resting season and, by the time it's breeding season again, he will be sexually mature and start courting her in earnest.

[Wolf]

The first thing that came to mind when reading your post is why would you choose to get a bird if you thought that you would be gone for too long for a kitten to work out for you. Then it worked out that you were home with the bird most of the day. Are you sure of the sexes of your budgies? Even if you do have one of each sex it sounds to me that you may have them reversed as to which one is the male and which is the female, this is based solely on the description of their behaviors.
Budgies are such lively and inquisitive little birds that I find it hard to believe that they would not spend a lot of time playing with their toys, if you had spent any time teaching what they were. Perhaps they are the wrong size or type of toys for them? I guess pictures would be helpful for this, however two months with them is not much time for them to settle in. You said that the star for the first budgie was a bit rough, but soon enough she started hopping onto your finger and taking treats from your hand. Could you elaborate on this a bit more.
Since budgies are such small birds and have a slender build making them very light that I would not be surprised at the second one being clipped and still be able to fly, but I wonder about what their ages are as it could be making a difference in their behaviors. I am thinking that it might be a good idea to put them in separate cages next to each other while we figure out what is going on in order to keep them from fighting and hurting either of them. Pictures of them might also help with working out what is happening. At the very least I would make sure to have at least two sources of food and water on opposite sides of the cage. Also how big is the cage they are in? The size of the cage may be a factor in their fighting. Are they fighting when not in the cage?
Budgies are ground feeders mostly and also eat mainly grass seeds, I believe so they can tolerate a larger amount of seeds in their diet than many other species of parrots. Still they do need to eat a variety of vegetables and a little fruit. They do seem to like green leafy vegetables such as romaine or bok choy served wet and on the bottom of their cage, they might even use the wet leaves to take a bath of sorts. The best time to get them to try new foods such as veggies is early in the morning before receiving any other food. It is also helpful to give them new foods when you are eating, this works best if you prepare some of the same foods that you are eating specially for them and share that with them as they begin to express an interest in what you are eating.

[Tamusiko]

Hello again,

thank you both for your replies. I will start from the age part. When we got Lovy, at the store, they told us she was about 4 to 6 month old which makes her at this moment about from 7 to 9 month old. Blu, on the other hand was about 8 weeks old, which makes him now 4 month old. According to the fact that mostly budgie genders are determined by the color of their ceres, Lovy was identified at the store as female and because blu was too young his cere was white. Later on Blu started to get blue color on the base of his cere and that's how we thought that he's a male.
About toys, they have many. They play all the time. In order to keep them excited we switch them once in a while. Also I make some toys by myself, with cilantro and carrots in them to also introduce them to some healthy diet. The cage contains two sources for both food and water. The problem is that most of the time whenever Blu starts to eat from any food container Lovy goes there and kicks him out. They fight but they don't seem to get aggressive to the point of hurting each other. Blu usually gives up right away and goes to other food container, which he has to switch again since Lovy just follows him there too. It takes couple minutes and then they start to play again like nothing happened.
Also, they used to come out of the cage all the time. We have the cage in our living room and its always open when we are home. Lately they stopped coming out and I wonder if i'm giving them too much opportunity to play in the cage with all this toys. Do you think i should remove the toys to let them get more interested to come play outside???? We also got them "playground" which we weren't able to get them interested in. At this point I think i'm overwhelming them with all new things and I should just stop )) We just love them so much that it kills us to be apart from them during the day. We even cancel weekend plans to spend it entirely with them.
Lovy is a "Chirp Beast" (no screaming though). She chirps all the time. Which does indicate she's happy. Blu is quiet one but time to time he chirps as well.The funny fact is that Blu was the one who initiated the trust between us and them. Even though we bought him month after, he came out of the cage right away. He ate food on day one, unlike Lovy who took 3 days to eat. Blu was the one who started chirping first on 3rd day and only after that Lovy started to chirp as well. He is our explorer and Lovy just followed. But again, lately they stopped coming out of the cage. I will be attaching pictures of the cage and you can see we made an easy passage for them to be able to go on the top of the cage. and they used to do that all the time.

[Wolf]

I think that your budgie problems at least the ones relating to how they get along with each other are because of two factors. The first is the difference in the ages of the birds and I am fairly sure that you have two males. Lovey appears to be an albino, to me, and if so then it is normal that their ( albinos) ceres will remain a pink color throughout their life regardless of their sex.

[Pajarita]

Yep, one is going through puberty while the other one is not. And yes, it looks as if you have two males because, if Lovy was a female, it would be getting a brown tinge to her cere. But, in reality, you can't really sex budgies by cere color before they are one year old.

[Tamusiko]

Thanks you both. We did hear about albino budgies being slightly different with gender identification so i guess it's time to treat them as males. Now I have to tell my husband to stop calling her Princess

[Pajarita]

Well, you have to wait and see what happens next breeding season. That will tell you for sure so, for now, let him call Lovy 'princess' (I think it's very sweet of him )

[Tamusiko]

Thank you for your care Pajarita. We really appreciate all your time and help. My husband says he will never be able to look at Lovy other way and says that Lovy will always remain as his princess. I'm scared now that he might love Lovy more than me and I'm happy for their special relationship.