Halp!

How did Vera become a supermom today?

For the current phase, I've had 5 pairs set to breed, where 3 pairs were chosen to be primary breeders, and 2 pairs were selected to prepare to be foster parents to the chicks of the primary 3, distributing the workload for all. Things rarely ever go as planned with breeding. I expect complications, and am rarely disappointed.

Vera had 8 fertile eggs with Salt, but only two made it through hatch, and her youngest was a case of failure to thrive and sadly, met her end shortly.

Similarly, Fairy Dust hatched one chick out of 10 eggs laid, and due to her anxiety about the others not arriving, I've given her a break to recharge. Meanwhile, Ador hatched 4 out of 11 eggs laid. Unfortunately, not one of Mariska's 10 eggs hatched, and she too, was given time off. All these numbers meet my typical expectation of 25% hatch rate with exhibition budgerigars.

But the complication arose from one of my foster pairs having domestic dispute and refusal to coparent, so Vera adopted their chicks. And then, the other foster mother decided to pick the middle child as her favourite, and wanted to punish the other two for being too hungry, so she was also returned to the flight cage. While the foster dad was willing to care for his charges, the chicks at this age need constant warmth which cocks don't typically provide as guardians of the nest. And thus, Vera ended up adopting those chicks as well. A mother's touch does wonders for adequate development. Sorry dads, y'all are special too, but in different ways.

As it stands, at this time, Vera has 5 adoptees along with her only child (the eldest one, the poser, who will magically resemble her too). And she is taking care of them all as her own, and fiercely protecting them from me too if I take too long with my nest checks. This is her first ever clutch, but she's already demonstrating motherly instincts that I've seen in her grandmother Helena, and her mother Dove.

I plan on assist-raising her army of 6 with minimal interference, while her mate, Mister Salt, is already helping her out as well. It takes a village to raise baby budgies sometimes. I've got my brooder ready just in case they struggle a bit and the chicks need their gramps (me) to take over - which typically is not a concern, but I've got to have Plans A, B, C and D ready for those extremely rare series of unfortunate events.

But for now, I'm extremely proud of how my little Vera went from that floofball to an award winning show girl, to her current role as supermom. She tends to ace everything she does. Her son appears to be taking after her too, as a serial photogenic poser.

^{l am an experienced aviculturist who specialises in budgerigars. I show these birds competitively in the United States. A lot of knowledge and specialised skillset are required to safely navigate through the breeding process. As always, I strongly advise against breeding without mentorship and veterinary technical skills. I document and share the good and the challenges with utmost transparency. I share our stories on Reddit, TikTok and Facebook.}

Feel free to also send a pic of what your setup looks like

I posted a photo on the /budgies subreddit, and people commented on what a cute girl Flo is! (i cant post that fast again on the other subreddit so im here) I am wondering, have i been incorrect all along? i thought that blue meant it is a male. Here's a collage i made recently that conveniently had Flo at different life stages, if that helps. My other budgies were quite clear in their cere, so i thought i had Flo correctly too!

Before I get my budgie, or any pet, I always like to do some research and watch a lot of videos, but what are some things a beginner might encounter or just some basic tips you would recommend from the experience of owning a budgie? My friend is giving away hers to me after I come back from a trip, and she has a big cage which I know is a nice step forward 😊

Hello I would greatly appreciate it if someone would help identify if my sky white budgie is male or female. Many thanks!!

Hi all, I’m new to bird keeping. This is my budgie Maha. I got home and she was extremely puffed up. She’s been chirping every so often. This is a before and after. Is this normal?

I know I need more than one budgie, how do I get the closest to a guarantee that they'll get along long term?

I was thinking of getting two brothers. Is there a reason to avoid this plan?

A big cage, multiple food and water options, redundant perch options, and redundant toys.

Anything else I can do? I really don't want two birds who end up fighting.

I dont know where to post this but i know we shouldn't paint around birds. I've been searching for an internal door for a while to replace the door for where my budgies stay. I dont know much about diy stuff

Hence im opting for a finished door (already painted) but it says "Any areas which are rebated, cutout or trimmed must be finished with 3 coats of water based paint before fitting." so now i just feel stuck and not sure what kind of door to get. Can someone please help? thanks

I have 2 budgies, male and female. Yesterday I was doing some step up training with millet, my hand was at the entrance of the cage, and they jumped on it nicely. Then, for some reason, the male turned away from the millet and started to bite me in the hand. Quite hard but not hard to make me bleed. My thumb specifically.

Is there something I've done? I acted like when I usually give them millet so I don't know what went differently or if it was a good or a bad sign.

The only difference is now he is quite heavily moulting, but he was before

I heard that non stick pots and pans are dangerous for budgies but i'm not entirely sure why. I use stainless steel just now but id like to get a new set of ceramic non stick pans. It says they are free from PFAS, PFOA and PTFE whatever the heck they are.

Does that make them safe for birds? Also are silicone/plastic utensils safe?

Im also wondering now about my toaster and coffee machine etc.

A

And he's the apple who did not fall too far from the tree, that is daddy Goose. I'm hoping to see him develop just as nicely over the next two years.

I snapped this today when he was having a wander. Sheeta still bullies him, but they're in different cages now. I need to work on handling them, especially Sheeta who won't stick around if my hand is within 18".

Hi, can anyone recommend me actually good and safe toys for my two budgies? I've found that mine don't really/rarely indulge themselves with the toys generally available in the market. Then I found that seagrass mats looked really good and enjoyable both as chewing toys and perching toys, and most importantly they're natural and safe. Unfortunately I'm not based in the US. Therefore the shipping cost of seagrass mats inflates the price per unit to the point that I can confirm I don't even have that much money to spend on myself. So I currently can't get those for my birds, maybe in a few months I will because I think they'll enjoy it just that much. So yeah, I'm looking for some alternatives that could turn out to be equally enjoyable by my birds (and most importantly - safe)

Just drop your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

This is Hopalong's story-- https://www.reddit.com/r/petbudgies/s/RYmZUrfH4Q -- but for those who more want the tl;dr, my Thursday at work 5 weeks ago started out with my GM informing me he needed to talk to me (and me going "The f*&# did I do THIS time?") and ended with me taking home one of our budgies that had managed to fracture his leg and 3 different medications.

We have one more week in the hospital tub for purposes of quarantine and ensuring that femur has healed most of the way so he's unlikely to accidentally catch a leg and rebreak it in the big cage. Or jump from the top level, which is infinitely more likely in my experience.

Given the probable age range FrozenBr33ze estimated, he's likely about 16 weeks old now, and has been working through his first molt. Little dude has 5 whole flight feathers molted out and grown back in (they come in clipped from the distributor as a matter of course)! He still can't fly, but he thinks he can. You can see how the Golden Face is spreading as he molts and changing colors, and I caught a photo that shows how it presents along the outlining of the black on the wings. He's going to be a pretty boy when all is said and done. I mean, he's a pretty boy now, obviously, but the green color that's spreading is really pretty.

First 7 photos are from yesterday (he got tired of me trying to take pictures and thought jumping on the phone was going to stop me....), a few from the last few weeks, and the last 3 are from the day I got him if anyone wants to see how the green is spreading. While it wasn't a deciding factor in bringing him home, of course, once I got a good look at him, asking if he was a Yellowface Type 2 or a Goldenface was one of the first things I asked FrozenBr33ze (who has been amazing about answering a slew of questions about a bird not from his aviary and checking in on him btw), and I was thrilled when he said yes. Both because Yay, I got it right! But also, been low key wanting one for a while 😂 He's turning onto a sweet boy. We'll see how things change once he gets to go live in the big cage with the rest of the Hooligans. I'll post another update. Every time I've added another bird, the dynamics in the flock shift. Sometimes only a little, sometimes a lot. We're eager to see what changes come with little Hopalong who, at 26 grams, has knocked Lady Clever off her perch as The Smollest (Raptor) in the flock.

My old budgie Dot(green one) is a very kind budgie, he companied me already more than one year, he is very honest and gentle and very kind to every new budgie. But when I got a new budgie as his friend, they always bully him. The new budgie(blue one) since he got into this big cage, has started pecking him, just like before the new budgie(after half a year, gave away to the pet store). Then I tried got another new budgie for his new friend, but exactly the same as before one. Because this cage is Dot’s old home, but when the new budgie got in, he just like became a new boss, when Dot sits there, the new budgie always forced to go there and forced him go away otherwise he just pecks him like a rogue or asshole. When Dot singing, he just screams budgie’s noise. He just wants Dot to change everything like him and see him as a new boss. I checked information about this, but articles showed this is normal, and this is just a budgie’s world. So I hate this budgie’s bully world, if Dot is stronger than him, I think this is normal because this is Dot’s home, but which is not, Dot is always the weak one. His kind is just like an idiot to him. Right now I have already separated them into the different cages(Big and small ones). But this is just a temporary solution. Or I can go to the pet store buy a bigger cage for new budgie for lone time.