Emmy and Felix finally moved into the big cage. Felix pals around with Gordie, but is a little standoffish with the others. I think Emmy wanted to be alpha female, but Lera shut that down pretty quickly. Both are doing well and seem to enjoy being with the flock. And I enjoy having only one cage to clean : ).
Felix and friends.
Felix and Lera – pastel parakeets.
Emmy and her beau, Ozzie.
Hanging out with Cooper.
What? No bloopers? Cooper has become such a super little model that we didn’t have any bloopers this month. So instead, here are some pics of the flock opening wide and saying, “Ahhh.” Or, “ACK!”
Ozzie
Lera
Gordie
Emmy
Alfie
Cooper
Dewey
Sunny
She looks sweet, doesn’t she? Who would have thought little Lera (and she is so tiny) would rule the roost? All the budgies make way for Lera. If she sees something she wants, it’s hers. I never see her pecking at the others, so I don’t know how she does it…
Gordie is up to speed with the other budgies now. He comes out on his own, eats his veggies, chatters (loudly), takes baths and pals around with Ozzie. His favorite spot to hang out is on the playgym on top of the bookshelf. And now, when we peer into the cage, he comes right up to the bars to visit. And very recently, he’s become close with Lera! I’ve caught him feeding her and they’ve been preening each other. They’re not inseparable/loveydovey, but I’m glad that he has a little sweetheart.
The budgies have a new play gym.
This is how it came. 
We changed it up a bit by adding a grapevine perch and some new toys.
Sunny went right into destructo mode.
Lera sitting pretty by the bell.
Cooper hanging out on the swing. The boys enjoyed the gym, too. But they were so active all their photos were blurry. Busy, busy budgies!
Lera recently moved into the big cage.
She loves to hang out on the grapevine perch.
She’s getting along well with the other budgies. Here she is checking out Ozzie (our little welcome wagon).
She even ventured out. Her flying needs work. But then, she only has two fully grown flight feathers.
Here she is with Cooper.
Until she can keep up with the others, she seems happy to spend time on the play gym.
Her first day with the flock was a busy one. It may have actually been too exciting. The next day she was fluffed up and slept a lot. I was worried she was sick (no more sick budgies!). But I think she was just stressed out from the move. We kept her warm and quiet and she rallied back the next day.
It’s been fun watching her coming out of her shell to interact with the flock and play with the toys. She even nibbled some broccoli after watching all the others chowing down on their florets. What a cutie she is!
Gordie moved into the big cage today.
He seems to be doing pretty well. He’s been keeping to himself, but has been chirping and investigated one of the toys. He sticks to one spot and avoids the other budgies, but I’m hoping they’ll all warm up to each other quickly.
Emmy came out of the cage and bonked into a wall. Eesh. She seems to be doing better flying around, though. It helps to have Ozzie show her how to navigate the room.
Emmy moved to the quarantine cage. Just until I finger tame her. It’s impossible to do in the big cage. Ozzie will visit and sleep there (and show her that stepping up is easy). As soon as Emmy moves back into the big cage, it will be Lera’s turn to meet the budgies. Jeez, we have a lot of budgies!
These three have been conspiring in the corner lately.
I wonder what they’re up to…?
A little update on how the new budgies are doing.
Emmy loves the new cage. She is all over everything. She’s quite the energetic acrobat. She’s definitely going to keep Ozzie on his toes. Today she came out of the cage and flew around the room. She bonked into a couple walls. Ack! She’s fine, though. Watching a budgie learn to fly for the first time in a room is awful. Emmy still isn’t finger tame. I need to work on that!
Poor Gordie! Look at those pinnies! He’s going through a rather bad moult. Gordie will be out of quarantine soon. I’m glad he’ll be with the other budgies. He just sits in his cage and doesn’t play with his toys. He’s so quiet. I’m hoping he’ll be happy when he’s part of a flock. Gordie is great at sitting on our shoulders, but does not like fingers. But we keep trying – I think he’ll get there eventually.
Little Lera (named after my niece Solera). She’s such a sweetie. Her quarantine will be up soon as well. She lets me pet her tummy, so I think stepping up is right around the corner. Three days after we brought Gordie home I saw an ad for a budgie in Craigslist. She was in our neighborhood, so I couldn’t resist. She’s just started playing with her toys. It seems that it takes the rehomed budgies a month to be comfortable (exploring their cage and playing with their toys).
It will be so nice to have all the budgies in one cage. Probably quieter, too!
The flock really misses Michelle. She went to AZ to visit family and had a freak accident while ice skating, breaking her leg in multiple spots just above the ankle. The budgies were hoping to see her tonight, but she’ll be out for another couple days. Here’s a video of the main flock because I know she would love to see them.
Michelle is gone for the weekend and I was left in charge. I forgot what I needed to do for a post and took a picture of Cooper and Sunny.
After talking to Michelle, I remembered (after being told) that I was supposed to take a photo of the new bird. Yay!
I didn’t like how that turned out, so I took the top off the cage and… spooked her with my camera. Eeks! She flew away and crawled under the couch. After much coaxing, I managed to get her here.
Welcome to the flock, Nuni! (That’s not her name, I just like to call her that).