Meet my budgies!

[usamma]

Just wanted to share my budgie gang. They all have their own stories and personalities. :) I will post separately for each bird.

This is Chickity. She's around 2.5 years old. and is a recessive skyblue pied, opaline also. She was one of our first budgies, purchased at a pet store that specializes in parrots and other birds. She's a bit portly because her mate Freckles feeds her so well. We have tried separating her out and she will lose a bit of weight but she and Freckles are heartbroken. We just have to work on exercising her more or something. Chickity is the sweetest hen we have, and is my oldest daughter's special bird.

[usamma]

This is Thistle Whistle. We got him at the same time as Chickity, and he's about the same age. He is a split pied (has one white spot on the back of his head). I felt sorry for him because of his poor feathering and thought maybe I could fatten him up and make him healthier. Nope. He just has awful feathers. He does not have any diseases that we are aware of, or the vet either. Still has his wing/tail feathers and never got worse, he just never looks that great, either. He's the most aggressive male that we have. He paired with Lucky last summer to have 14 chicks(!). We no longer are into breeding our birds because it was too hard to find them good homes. Which is why we kept 4 of them.

[usamma]

Lucky is a hen of unknown age. We found her when we were jogging at the high school track. My youngest was sitting on the steps and Lucky flopped down right next to her in a heap. She was exhausted. I scooped her up in my shirt and took her home and she ate and ate. She was being chased by a cow bird (or something like that) before she landed next to my daughter. She is not tame at all, and she must have known that humans were her only hope of survival. Lucky does not ahve the use of her back toe on one foot. She is the mother of the chicks we had last summer but is now "retired" from breeding. However she lays too many eggs and we worry about her health. It's been a few weeks since the last clutch. Hopefully she has stopped for awhile. Her chicks were more than 50% recessive pieds like she is, with just 4 normal blues. She made beautiful babies!

[usamma]

We bought Oliver shortly after we found Lucky, thinking she needed a friend. The two have never been more than cage-mates and pretty much ignore each other. Oliver is the most timid and picked on male. He got in a very very bad fight last year with Thistle and lost one of his toenails. Oliver is a split recessive pied opaline.

[usamma]

Freckles was hatched last year, the first offspring of Lucky and Thistle. He is the most friendly, intelligent bird ever. He has fallen in love with Chickity and when she's taken out for play, he is beside himself with worry. When I open the cage Freckles will hop right out onto my shoulder. Freckles is a recessive pied. He got his name because when he was a wee chick, he had gray spots or freckles on his cere. It was hard to get a photo of him because he was hopping around so much.

[usamma]

Primrose and Otulissa are two of the hens from our batch of chicks last summer. They were pretty much born grumpy. Otulissa will step up when she feels like it, but Primose is a fighting little thing that will bite if she gets the chance. I worked with her from the time she hatched and she just does not like people. Thus the reason we kept both of those girls. They are happy enough with their own kind, but we have to watch Primrose as she will bully the other hens sometimes.

Primrose is a violet-blue recessive pied opaline in the right light.


Otulissa is also a violet-blue recessive pied opaline in the right light, and a very pretty one indeed! I think she is the most beautiful of all the birds.

[usamma]

Bubo (also sometimes called Simon) is the brother of Freckles, Primrose, and Otulissa. He was my preemie baby, as his egg cracked a couple of days early. He was too weak to get out of it by himself and when the pips stopped happening after a day of him trying to get out, I went ahead and helped him out of the egg. It was very delicate work! I hand fed him until he was strong enough to get fed from his mom. He is a little bit "slow." He is the favorite of my younger daughter, and will happily sit and play on the circuses and such that she builds for him. He loves to hide in towels. Bubo is a split pied because of the single white feather on the back of his head.

[usamma]

This is sweet Spirit, a hen I birdnapped from the neighbors because she was so badly infected with scaly face. She is about 9 years old. She has a very sweet call, and you can find her on the side of the cage close to people. She does not enjoy being held that much but will sometimes sit on my lap. She will copy me if I bob my head up and down slowly, and will whistle if I do, and click if I do. She has lost the use of one toe due to the severe infection she had. Spirit has come such a long way and I hope she lives a long time. Spirit is a dominant pied.





Here she is several months ago when I first got her.

[jenseits]

Awww... Love that you've shared stories of all your budgies. I remember when you first mentioned rescuing Spirit... amazing that the neighbors didn't take her to the vet, but budgies really are so underappreciated. (I think I recall the young daughter was pretty heartbroken, though... do I remember that correctly? If so, does she still come visit?)

Hopefully you'll inspire other soon-to-be budgie lovers with your photos and the obvious love you have for your birds. These little guys just don't get enough credit. Great job!

[usamma]

Originally Posted by jenseits

Awww... Love that you've shared stories of all your budgies. I remember when you first mentioned rescuing Spirit... amazing that the neighbors didn't take her to the vet, but budgies really are so underappreciated. (I think I recall the young daughter was pretty heartbroken, though... do I remember that correctly? If so, does she still come visit?)

Hopefully you'll inspire other soon-to-be budgie lovers with your photos and the obvious love you have for your birds. These little guys just don't get enough credit. Great job!

Those neighbors are just 2 doors down, and I have always mentioned that she can come over whenever she likes. She just never has. I wonder if the family feels awkward about it or something.

Yep budgies are sure a riot. It's like having a soap opera in my house with all their chatter and arguments and loving that they do. I really wish I could understand what they are talking about all day long though. They never stop except at night-- and even then they will sometimes wake up and chatter if the light gets flipped on or the toilet flushes.