Our Winged Friends

Bird Keeping Journal Page 3:

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My post to the budgie chat room about budgie noise.

Funny when I brought BeBe she hardly made a noise for a week. Just getting her bearings and used to her new home.

Then one day she just started hollering loud contact calls! I frantically read and did searches on screaming and learned to respond to them with a hello, whatcha doing, love you, or aloha and then if she called again -- I'd lower my tone and just say uh huh softly. She had to stop calling to hear my softer tones and stopped calling for me. I also learned to greet her as I pass through the living and say that I'll be right back or bye bye setting her expectations --so she doesn't yell the minute I leave the room.

She started calling loud when the woodpeckers came visiting. I started responding to them and telling her it's ok. She's stopped yelling about them now. whew....

She chirps a lot, softly sings a bit, and the other day I swore she was making some sort of jibberish speak. Mostly she's very quiet except when she wants my attention and hangs upside down in her cage making kissing noises. Oh, and she makes kissing noise when I pick her up and when she wants more kisses.

I think she just has the sweetest little voice.

Good luck and welcome aboard,
Leilani

10-14-03 Updating pages BeBe will be in care of pet sitters for the upcoming weekend. Her cere is brown again and she's very moody & nippy.

11-10-03 We have passed through whatever the nippies were and BeBe is just a love again. Sweet and doesn't flock call as often. We still pay close attention to her moods but she hasn't been nearly as moody.

11-28-03 BeBe had her second avian vet appointment with Dr. Onorati. We chatted about not clipping her wings, listened to her heart beat, did an exam, and learned to file her nails. She was an angel. He thought we were doing a great job and just needed to be sure she was eating her pellets. She's been a sweetheart lots of chirps, whistles, and love. She liked her bites of organic dairy free pumpkin pie!

11-30-03 BeBe likes pomegranate seeds! Especially if taken from my teeth. The three of us had a great time sharing the lovely red fruit.

12-2-03 Tip from the budgie chat apparently our saliva has bad things for budgies in it and shouldn't be shared with our winged friends. Doesn't surprise me actually our mouths probably have lots of ookies.

12-8-03 A post I sent to the budgie chat...

Greetings everyone:

I read the bathing thread below and thought of one of the questions we asked our avian vet when we took BeBe in... Whether it was ok or not to shower with her and how much she likes it and how wet she likes to get. We don't let her in the shower stream but she hears the water running and starts fluffing and getting excited. We only do this with her maybe once a week; otherwise she's just misted daily. Once she baths and rubs herself against my neck or in my wet hands in the shower and feels she's bathed or wet enough. She acts like the shower is a sauna. She closes her eyes likes she's napping. Usually one of us is in the shower [me] and I call for my partner to get her and we take her back to her cage and she dries very quickly. Oh, before we start this shower process I crank up the heat in the house so she doesn't get a chill and never do it before bed time.

The vet said it sounded fine and that he wanted to come back as a budgie in our house after I had described this and her fresh organic produce daily, sprouted seeds [thanks to the tips on this site], pellet dirt, and regularly updated perches & toys...

Hope everyone has a great week!
Leilani

12-15-03 another post to the budgie chat. E. commented about being inspired about BeBe's tameness.

There are several factors in BeBe's tameness. I had been reading and trying to learn about bird guidance and tameness stuff prior to getting her.

First, she was hand raised [not sure if that's the right term.] I bought her at a local pet store when she was a bit over 8 weeks old. I immediately started handling her while still in the store and as soon as we got her home. Some of the books and such said to give her time to get used to her surroundings but I chose not to wait. I wanted her to get used to us. She quickly began to see me as a safe fun place to be. I work at home and get to spend more time with her and my other pets. I did a bit of reading and trying to learn more about companion birds. I used parrot handling techniques with her. I do need to remember to teach her things besides cuddle her and kiss on her and let her have her way all the time.

She's doing great and I really appreciate this list. We've weathered some screaming and some biting that came up when her cere turned brown. I read more and tried to be more attentive to her moods and learned new ways to approach her at her cage.

I did find that most of the people I talked to here in Seattle didn't really tame or work with their budgies. I'm not sure if why that is... People seemed perpetually surprised that she's so tame. I have clients come in my home several times a day and she's very friendly. She gets to meet new people regularly.

Once I let her stay out while I worked [I'm a massage therapist.] She stayed on my shoulder about half of the hour and the last half she perched on the clients upper back with her eyes half closed. The soft music low lights and rhythmic rubbing... The client has birds and loves her. It was very sweet. My dog was sleeping under the table and BeBe on her back while I worked on her hips and legs. Certainly a first time for BeBe but she was great! She's familiar with the room, I often have her perch on the chair in the treatment room while I fold laundry.

Yesterday I deep cleaned her cage which consists of cleaning the perches with warm water and spraying out the bottom ledges so they're clean. The bottom papers get changed daily and a quick wipe but the deep clean is good because then I rearrange her cage a little. I made a few toys with my wood beads and corn husks and such. I leave her two favorite perches in the same place. Her grape wreath and her dried cactus thingie perch... Her cage is 14"x26" with some busy play stuff and some areas for her to workout [she grips the perches and flaps her wings hard.]

Oh, well see you just gave me more of an opportunity to talk about her...

I guess that's one of the great things about this bulletin board. I learn something every time I come here.

We've been having fun singing Christmas songs. Well, ok I'm singing and she's chirping and whistling.

Leilani

2-9-04 Sorry haven't been journaling much. We've been busy working, volunteering and having pet adventures. We showered with BeBe yesterday and she loved it of course! Her cere turned brown a few weeks ago and she shifted her attentions to H. Normally, I'm the favorite person but I'm trying to not take it personally. She did seem to enjoy spending time with me yesterday.  She really likes that my hair is getting longer she spends time hanging in the hair whenever she's on me.  I've been concerned about her diet even though she eats some organic veggies. I don't think she's eating enough pellets versus seed. So, I've ordered some seeds and sprouting kits to see if our animal family will like them. I used Sprout People and we'll see what she thinks.  I'd feel better able at least if she's eating seed that it's sprouted.  I do sprout her millet some of the time but her other seeds is this non-organic vitamin sprayed stuff that I think we should phase out.  I also got some sprouts for us and for the cat & dog to share.  So, it'll be a whole family thing:) On a sad note, the UAS budgie forum I used to be on has deteriorated to name calling and flame wars. It hasn't felt very friendly and people don't seem to hardly ever respond to my posts. It seems like folks generally don't tame their budgies and or either breeders or just "let their budgies be budgies" whatever that's supposed to mean. I've decided I'm over it and thinking I'll move on to other budgie bulletin boards.

2-20-04 I decided I really like the budgie cafe and the bird hobbyist much better than UAS. They are much more friendly less harsh and seem to tame their budgies more.  BeBe is not sure she likes her new seeds but we'll see. Time I hope. She's starting to play with her corn husk doll more.

More to entries to come.... Next Page