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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.
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