December 17, 2006

I have handed Luca and Petrie off to the next foster family. I do hope they find a good adoptive family that can continue to nurture their human-friendly personalities - they are just still a little shy.

The day before I gave them up, I was able to have Luca stand with two feed on my fingers. I tricked him with a piece of millet that i held mostly in my hand between fingers and a little bit of it protruding out. Petrie ate up the part that was sticking out of my hand and Luca just climbed on my fingers and nibbled on the millet. It was really cute.

What makes them so special is their intense curiosity of humans. I believe this is their greatest asset that will help them to be great pets for someone, one day.

Luca & Petrie (which I found out is a FEMALE!) - We will miss you very much and hope you find a happy home with a special family!

Much love and song, Katie

December 09, 2006

Besides Luca's tail growing in (so sorry about no pics yet...i keep forgetting to take the camera with me when i go into the room! DOH!), there have been some other progresses...

1) Petrie has become more calm during my presence. He doesn't always want to stand in their favorite corner. Actually, since I placed in their mirror-swing toy given to me by a worker at the Animal Control facility in to their cage, they have been spending much more time on or around that mirror than anywhere else in the cage.

Anyways, I have found the past 2 days that I can sit next to their cage (I move slowly and backwards toward the cage while singing to get to that position directly next to the cage) and when I glance at Petrie, he sits next to the mirror (which is closer to the front of the cage than their favorite perch/corner) and breathes and sits calmly. He doesn't look like he wants to run away.

2) During the past 2 - 3 days, I have been able to put my hand up to and on the cage without the help of millet. I consider it a small success since when I move my hand to the cage (s-l-o-w-l-y) the two budgies keep calm and just look at my hand. Their chests don't heave with anxiousness.

I have even opened up the door to their food bowl. They stayed in place, but they did feel a little stressed about this. I slowly took my hand away for a bit after opening the door so they can calm down a bit more. It was asking for too much when i tried to lift out the food bowl (the large white bowl out of the bowl slot was just too much) because they turned and went to their favorite corner.

I find that talking to them and singing to them really calms them. Depending on the time of the day, Luca will sometimes chirp along with my songs. It is sooooo cute.

December 07, 2006

Today, Luca was such a great conversationalist! When I sang, he started to make cute chirpy noises.

December 05, 2006

Luca and Petrie are doing great! They seem to be a lot happier since they try to "talk" to my conures in the living room. They would chirp back and forth exchanging stories.

Good news! Luca is slowly growing his tail in. I will try to take a picture of it tonight. Luca still is the more bold one. He will be the first to come to the offered millet when my hand is attached to it. He also finds a human voice rather soothing. If I talk or sing to him for a few minutes, he will preen himself a little and partly close his eyes and doze a little.

Petrie is still the more wary one. He will come to my offering of millet only if Luca is already eating from it. Petrie also is the smaller one, so I think that has something to do with it. He seems to always be on the look out, unless Luca bugs him for a head-preening. :-)
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9:39pm - sorry, didn't get a picture of Luca's growing tail today. There were a few things that I wanted to report. It was Petrie who came to the millet i offered first (granted that my hand was not touching the other end of the millet - i just stuck it into the cage near the bottom). Luca seemed to be enjoying my singing again tho. He actually started chirping along with me at times.

Luca also seems to be more at ease as each day passes. Today I saw him actually playing with the rope part of a kabob toy (round pieces of balsa wood strung on rafia-type rope. He was biting it and trying to hold it with one foot. It was the first time I saw any of them playing with any of the toys in their cage.

The one thing in the cage, though, that both Petrie and Luca really LOVE is the hanging mirror. They enjoy admiring themselves in the mirror. When I came into the room aftering coming home from work, Petrie was leaning up to the mirror and just staying like that for a while. It was cute! I guess seeing other budgies besides themselves is a comforting feeling.

November 29, 2006

Not much to report today. I had a test to do for my online class (had to go to the college campus to do the test), so I came home rather late. My husband made sure they had enough food when he got home around 5:30pm.

When I did get home, I went to see the budgies. I reached in the millet spray bag and took out half of one. Luca immediately came down. He's really trusting, its amazing. I haven't tried opening the door and feeding them from my hand without the cage in between them and my hand because Petrie is still a little scared. I don't want to risk scaring Petrie even more. Petrie comes down to eat some millet once Luca happily starts eating. I'm thinking that Petrie will come around to being more trusting of humans because of Luca. No need to rush things.

November 28, 2006

When husband came home today he noticed the budgies, in our bedroom, responding more when they heard our conures making noise out in the living room. They seem to be more curious about their surroundings than being scared about it.

When I got home, i prepared some fresh food for all the birds (veggies, cooked beans, beak appetite, a sprinkle of fruits). Hubby tended to our birds and i did the budgies. i placed the food bowl in their cage but didnt stay to watch whether they went to eat or not. i peeked in about half an hour later and i saw Luca on the food bowl. He could've been eating the little bit of millet i sprinkled over the fresh food though. I will try again at a later date.

After dinner I went into the bedroom to spend time with Luca and Petrie. I sang to them, I read a little of our bird book to them...then I fed them a little piece of millet. Once I had the piece of millet spray in my hand, Luca saw this and immediately began to make his way from their favorite corner of the cage to the bottom of the cage where i sat the closest to. Once on the bottom, I pushed the spray through the cage bars, holding on to the other end of the millet spray. Luca dove right in. Petrie realized what was going on, so he hopped on over to where we were and started eating too. Once the millet was gone. Petrie made his way back up to the favorite perch spot but Luca stayed in place and just looked at me. I then extended to him a piece of avicake. He ate that. I gave him another piece and he also ate that. WOW, i thought, he's an endless eating machine.

Well, after that second piece of avicake, he also hopped back to the favorite perch spot and i exchanged the fresh food stuff to some avicakes. I later changed the water, newspaper (great poop!), and scrubbed the bottom of the cage.

Birds have been tucked in for the night and they have soft radio music to relax to till we go to bed.

November 27, 2006

I couldn't spend much time with these guys today since I had to go to work. My husband made sure that they got fresh water and food in the morning and I checked in on them when I got home.

Lots of great, healthy poop. They ate all two avian cakes and the millet my husband put in there. So I replenished it with two more avian cakes and they got millet from my hand. I pushed the millet spray into the cage through the bars. They ate happily, even when i pushed the spray in all the way that my fingers were resting on the cage. Luca was even trying to get at the millet seeds near my fingers. Petrie is still a little more apprehensive, but does eat the millet from my hand as well, just a little further from my fingers.

They seem to respond more to me when i sing or whistle to them. They chirp back more (not a whole lot, but a small chirp here and there). I played some happy budgie tunes from youtube and more chirps came out of their small mouths. so cute!

They also seem to become more curious. even after finishing the millet spray, both birds stay on the bottom of the cage (they don't automatically fly back to their favorite corner of the cage) and look at me as i talk/sing/read to them. They first look inquisitive at me (probably hoping to get another millet spray) and then the longer they hear my voice, the more close-eyed they become - that fluffed, half-opened eyes look. it's just amazing how calm they are around humans. It's just a matter of being calm yourself when approaching them.

Depending on how they react when I approach them tonight, I may try to open the cage to offer the millet from my hand without the cage door between us. we'll see. maybe that is too much to ask at this point.

Pictures From November 26, 2006

caption: this is how i left them before coming out of the quarantine room to post these cute pictures. :-)

By the way, I've come up with their names! Blue budgie - Luca, Yellow/Green budgie - Petrie!
Luca and Petrie continue to be great little budgies! The following pictures are probably the highlights. :-)

For breakfast, I tried feeding them an omlette with the same fresh stuff as the day before, but i don't think they touched it. i traded it with their avi cakes and more millet.

They gobble up the avicakes and the millet (of course!). My husband will be tending to them most of the day since he is home. Tomorrow I will try to feed them fresh food again.

I did notice a little more wet poo on the newspaper than yesterday. But there were a lot more healthy firm poo than wet.


caption: birds dozing on their food bowl as i read them some chapters from a bird book. (the blue guy actually had his head tucked on his back just a few seconds earlier).



caption: budgies eating some millet as i held it up to the cage. (you can tell from this image that the ceres of both birds are of a bluish color - both males?)

November 25, 2006

Today was much like yesterday with the budgies. We woke up around 9:30, i offered them fresh veggies/beak appetite/bean mix today. they did pick at it for a while from what i saw. I just was not able to assess exactly how much was eaten.

i again offered millet while holding one side of the spray in my hand, and they needed a little bit to gather some courage, but they did come to eat most of the millet on the spray.

i've taken a closer look at their ceres, and they both seem to be bluish in color, which makes me believe that they are both males. i also don't think they are bonded - when sitting on a branch, they don't cuddle next to eachother as you would imagine with a bonded pair. they do, however, preen each other. i have taken more pictures, but they all came out blurry...i will try again tomorrow.

during the day, i keep a radio on for them. they respond happily when they hear other happy budgie noises (from youtube), and when they hear some happy noises from my conures, they also respond. i think its a good thing that they hear happy budgie noises, because i think it makes them happier (although they don't see the other budgies making the happy noises) and perks them up a bit.

November 24, 2006

Parakeets were uncovered at 9:30am this morning.

They completely ate another square of the avicakes, so i emptied it out and put two new square pieces of avicakes in. i placed a 1" piece of millet spray in to their food bowl while they watched - i am trying to associate my presence with bringing millet, which they eat up with gusto!

while spending about 2 -3 hours with them before lunch, i sat down about 5 feet away from the cage this time and sang and read a chapter from a book to them. they soon started to get hungry and they came down to the food bowl. the blue one landed on the bottom of the cage and looked at the millet spray package near my leg. so i took a long piece, held on to it at the halfway mark and slowly edged one end of the millet spray to the cage bars. i sang to them and didn't really look at them. soon they started to eat from the millet spray!

once they had enough, the moved back up to their favorite corner in the cage.

after lunch, i spent another 2 hours or so reading to them, singing to them and playing happy parakeet noises from youtube.com to them. they responded quite well to the parakeet noises. they were again hungry and came to the bottom of the cage. this time i took a shorter millet spray and edged myself even closer to the cage. i held out the millet and they again started eating. while they ate, i slowly pushed the millet more and more into the cage until my fingers were almost touching the cage. they kept on eating. well, the blue one anyways...the yellow/green one is a little more scared and when that one realized my fingers were a little too close for comfort, it moved to the favorite corner.

the blue one seems more daring and more dominant. i've seen both of them eating the millet and all of a sudden, the blue one would strike out at the yellow one to have it back off.

they have also preened themselves in my presence, and i plan to move a little closer to the cage each day. they seem quite comfortable with my presence, so i am happy about that. they haven't seem to be very skiddish from the start aside from normal stress brought on by the new surroundings. they haven't yet flown in a chaotic flight from being frightened. i can tell they are frigtened by watching their breathing.

i find that turning off lights, closing all drapes and wearing dark clothing helps to keep them calm when i need to clean out their cage and refill food and water bowls. they stay still and i try not to make much noise and move as slowly as possible.

as i write this, both birds are sitting in their favorite corner on one foot! that's the first time i am seeing them in this position. i think these budgies are really great birds and with a very calm, patient, loving person they can become people-friendly. it's been a while since i've worked with parakeets, but seeing how things are going, within 2 - 3 months, i think they can become hand-tame.

it maybe just me (being around 2 green cheeks and a yellow naped amazon) but these guys look rather small for parakeets. i could be wrong. while feeding them millet, i tried to look at their eyes to see if maybe they are young budgies, but from what i could access, they already have the light ring around their irises. i am also questioning if these two budgies are a male/female pair. i have a suspicion that they are both males, based on the color of the cere, but being that i haven't been too close to them yet, i have recheck this tomorrow. i also don't think they are bonded. they don't usually sit very close to eachother, as a bonded pair would. they would both sit in the same corner, but they don't lean up against each other.

tomorrow morning, i will try to feed them some fresh stuff. i will give them some of what i feed my birds in the morning (a mix of fresh soybeans, beak appetite, beans, broccoli, cilantro, persimmon fruit, pureed carrots - baby food, peas, carrots). maybe i can get them to eat something other than seeds (and pellets if they do eat that from the avi cakes).

November 23, 2006 (con't)

picture of poop newspaper.
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well, about an hour before putting the budgies to bed, i decided to try something. i went in to the room with my laptop, sat a foot closer to the cage (i now always enter the room while singing something and approaching their cage on my knees), and started up the laptop. i went to www.youtube.com and looked for a few videos that you could hear happy parakeet chirps. i played a few of them for these two and i got some really great responses! they sometimes chirped with the parakeets, when the video stopped, they sometimes carried their own tunes. after they stopped responding to the videos, i turned it off.

as i look over at the cage, the female (the yellow one) is sleeping with both feet on the perch, but with her head tucked under her wing, on her back. the male is sitting facing me with both feet on the perch. i will put them to bed now. we'll see what tomorrow brings!

November 23, 2006

I uncovered them at 9am this morning. 3 sneezes were heard. I sat about 7 feet away from their cage and sang to them. I sat facing in a direction 90 degrees from the cage. When I did chance a glance in their direction, i looked at them side-eyed. Looking at them head-on would probably frighten them too much (they would probably feel like they were being stared at by a predator). While singing, I heard a few chirping, which was great! I also did the wolf whistle a few times.

My husband and I headed out to do some errands. When we came back, we made some lunch. I took my sandwich and pear pieces into the bedroom with a book. I again sat down about 7 feet away from their cage where i ate my lunch and read them a little from the book. I also sung again to them. There were a few chirps.

After I put my book down, I stole a glance in their direction and I saw both birds stretching out their wings and the blue one actually started to preen itself! wow, that was cool. Before I left the room, i gave them a small piece of bread crust and a piece of pear. Not sure if they will touch them - it doesn't look like seed.

I will go back in there in two hours to change their food, water and newspaper bottom. It is then that I will better inspect whether they have eaten some and how their poop looks.

Michelle, from your recent email, I will try to crumble the avian cakes more. I never thought that they wouldn't be able to recognize it as food. Also, I haven't looked at the bottom of the cage for poop, but I have heard on a couple of occasions something going "plop!" on the newspaper below the cage grate.
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I just cleaned out the budgies' cage and filled up fresh water and food, and guess what? They HAVE been eating! See the pictures! In the food bowl, I had two of the same sized avian cake pieces. There was only one piece left! I am so happy! I accidentally put the millet in their water bowl..ugh. well, this time I made sure to put it near the food bowl, actually i stuck it between the bars above their food bowl.

Oh, i can only post one image per blog post...I will post other pictures I made of their poop newspaper. Let me know if things are okay with that, or what I should be looking out for. (There was some watery poo. Those that were solid were of a dark color.)

November 22, 2006

I went to pick up two budgies from the SFACC. They are a bonded male/female pair. Currently, I believe the blue one is the male, and the yellow/green one is the female. Had problems getting the yellow one out of the cage, but managed and she squawked in their carrier all the way to the car.

Got home; the cage was set up and i put in 2 square pieces of lafaber avian cakes and a 1" piece of millet spay in their food bowl. I also gave them some fresh water.
I did notice that the blue budgie has lost all of his tail feathers. Other than that, they are in good feather.

I did not apporach them too much. When I did, I noticed the blue one breathing heavily (i saw the sides of his body heaving). I couldn't tell if the same was for the the yellow/green one, but I could imagine how scary it is for both of them.

I left the light on in the bedroom (where they will be staying for quarantine) for them as I left to do some errands outside of the house.

At 8:30pm (when all of my other birds go to bed), I turned off the light in the bedroom and in the darkness, I slowly covered them up with a blanket that is dark enough to keep light out but not of heavy material.

At one point during the night i heard some clinking of feet on the cage, but nothing else.