Alfie turned one (ish) today!
Alfie’s presents were a rainbow footie toy and a toy with lots of bells (Alfie loves his bells).
The budgies celebrated with millet and Alfie’s favorite treat – romaine lettuce!
Happy Birthday Alfie!
8
Category Archives: Alfie
Emmy meets the flock
Even though Emmy isn’t finger tame (or even close to being so), we put her cage in the same room with the rest of the flock. We thought maybe Emmy’s presence would be a bit of a distraction for the budgies.
Cooper didn’t seem too curious about the new girl.
Alfie showed some initial interest, so I put him in the cage with her. But he just wanted to play with her toy.
I took all the budgies out to visit.
They promptly fell asleep.
Poor Emmy – she so wants to be with them, and goes nuts climbing all over the cage to get to them. But the budgies just don’t seem to be interested. Maybe it’s because she’s so young.
Thank goodness for Ozzie. He’s our little welcome wagon. He’ll fly over and visit occasionally with her. What a little sweetie.
The Day After
Leftovers.
And napping.
Bellboy
Here’s a video Harry took of Alfie showing the bells who’s boss.
Alfie’s first bath
Alfie has been spritzed with the spray bottle, but he took his first official bath the other day.
Not so sure about this…
His buddy Ozzie shows him what to do.
He took to it like a duck to water. Maybe they should change that to a “budgie to water”.
Squeaky clean!
Sir Alfie
A very distinguished budgie, indeed.
Alfie joins the flock
Alfie has finally joined the flock!
He met Cooper first – she flew into the room he was in when I left the door open. Oops.
We moved Alfie’s cage next to the budgies’ cage. Cooper made herself right at home (someone has to destroy Alfie’s toys)! Alfie hasn’t moved into the big cage, but gets outside time with the flock. They’re still establishing a pecking order and we’re not comfortable with leaving them alone yet.
Here they all are on the big cage (which does not seem so big anymore…).
Hanging out on the play gym. I’ll have to work on getting a better photo of them together. They’re not very good at staying still.
Alfie is fascinated with Sunny. Watch out Dewey!
Alfie and Ozzie have become buddies. They like to chase Dewey away from Sunny. Double trouble!
Big feather, little feather
A cockatoo feather I found on the ground at Free Flight, and one of Alfie’s feathers.
Alfie update
Alfie hasn’t moved in with the rest of flock yet. Since we brought him home he’s had a couple bouts with illness. And right when we were introducing him to the other budgies. The poor little guy was vomiting (not the typical regurgitation budgies will do) and listless. I took him to the vet and he gave Alfie a shot to help with the nausea. He also ran some labs. Alfie quickly recuperated and was his usual cheery self the next day.
A pic of Alfie not feeling well : (.
Everything seemed fine, but we kept him apart from the other budgies in case he had something contagious. Unfortunately, the vet lost Alfie’s labs, so we had no idea what the problem was. Although Alfie seemed completely fine, we decided to keep him quarantined a little longer. This also gave us some more time to work on bonding with him.
A month later, Alfie was sick again (more vomiting, listless, no poops). So back to the vet we went for another shot and more labs. Once again, Alfie was fine the next day. The labs came back normal – the vet thinks that Alfie just has occasional tummy trouble.
As of today, he’s doing great. He’s been more adventurous. He comes out of his cage to investigate and his flying (and landings) are much improved.
Like the other budgies, Alfie likes to hang out on the paper towel roll.
I’m not sure who enjoys lettuce more. Ozzie or Alfie…
Typical Alfie, with food on his face.
Hey! Where’s the millet?
Alfie gets very excited when he sees his yellow clip. It means he’ll be getting a treat. Maybe even lettuce or millet!
He didn’t have to wait long. Yum!