Tunnel update

Since 2017, one of the cages has the ‘Tunnel’ in place on top as a play area.  This was repurposed from the old ‘Manor’ cage (click here to read that post).

The perches on it are rarely changed – there is usually one wooden, branched perch on the top & a rope perch across the front side edge.  Toys inside are changed & at the moment there are some balls (vine & plastic) with crinkle paper stuffed inside & also stringed beads hanging from the bars.

In 7 years the Tunnel has proved to be a popular feature with all residents.

Here are some recent photos of the current gang inside the Tunnel:

Moriarty & Frediano

Moriarty & Frediano

Moriarty & Frediano playing with the string of beads (out of sight!)

Moriarty & Frediano

Moriarty & Frediano

Moriarty & Finkleberry

Moriarty & Finkleberry

Frediano & Finkleberry

 

Pea Shoot Bath

Finkleberry is a regular bather.  Moriarty is a blue moon bather & also takes on the task of Bathing Monitor.  Frediano is indifferent but does suffer from ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ so will investigate if someone looks like they are having too much fun.

Sometimes I give them pea shoots that initially they ignored but now enjoy chewing.  However, last week I changed things by putting some in the bath.  Naturally, this aberration was not immediately embraced.  There was some circling of the bath but eventually, Finkleberry threw himself in.

Finkleberry having a pea shoot bath

 

Moriarty was soon on the job to monitor events. The excitement of a bath being had with greens in it, also brought Frediano out to inspect.  Predictably, all the monitoring, inspecting & fluffing themselves up, did not result in a bath, though there might have been some splashes from Finkleberry, who just got on with the task of having a good dunk, pea shoots or not.

Frediano, Moriarty & Finkleberry

Fluffy Moriarty & Frediano

Moriarty & fluffed up Frediano

Moriarty inspecting the bath. Frediano watching.

 

Here is a video of the event:

 

Photo of a wet Finkleberry:

Wet Finkleberry

 

New DIY budgie toys

Every so often I like to make up some new toys for my boys to chew.  They are usually made from ”munch” balls (usually vine), balsa blocks, paper rope, leather strips, woven palm & crinkle paper.  Parts from old toys are saved & recycled, so that is where colourful wooden & acrylic beads come from.

I like to have some colour coordination going on but I think that is more for my own needs than the boys!

Shown below are a couple of recent toys I made.  Balsa wood was a must as I have discovered Frediano really likes to chew that!  One thing I have learnt when making a toy for chewing, is to have a hanging loop at both ends so it can be turned around when one end has been heavily chewed!

DIY toy

DIY toy

DIY purple toy

DIY purple toy

 

Whilst I was at it, I tied some millet stalks together in a star shape as I noticed Finkleberry likes to chew those.  That simple toy has been living on top of Moriarty’s old cage & was quickly accepted.

DIY millet stalk toy

DIY millet stalk toy

 

The other two toys were a bit big & possibly intimidating so I introduced them more gradually by hanging them on the outside of the cages.  Once inside, it did not take long for the boys to take to them & I would say Frediano likes them most – he can be very focused when chewing on that balsa wood!  I swap around their locations for added interest.

Moriarty encounters the new purple toy

Moriarty & Frediano chew the new toy

Moriarty & the new toy

Frediano chewing the new purple toy

Frediano likes the purple toy

Frediano chewing the balsa wood

Frediano likes his new chewy toy

 

Here is Frediano in action, chewing the purple toy:

 

A New Year

The new year is upon us & it prompts me to reflect on that just gone.

It was a turbulent year with the loss of both Perry & Lennie.  Perry had a multitude of health issues but his calm navigation of them & his constant ability to overcome them, resulted in my experiencing his loss as sudden & unexpected.  Equally, I was not expecting to lose Lennie so soon either, though on reflection, it made sense that he chose to be with Perry, rather than fight to stay here.  Some comfort can be gained from knowing they were not apart for long & are surely happy being together, even in another realm.

Perry. Moriarty & Lennie

Lennie, Perry & Moriarty

Lennie, Perry & Moriarty

Lennie, Moriarty & Perry

Perry, Lennie & Moriarty

 

Of course life goes on.  Fortunately for a lonesome Moriarty, I had Frediano & Finkleberry waiting in the wings.  Moriarty has proved to be friendly, welcoming & sociable with his new friends, which is, I confess, not really a surprise to me!

Over the months, similarities with Perry & Lennie have developed in the relationships.  Moriarty appears to favour Frediano in the more romantic sense, as he did Perry.  Frediano, like Perry, is pretty laid back & not much into flying or playing with toys.  Equally, Finkleberry has taken on the Lennie role with Moriarty by filling those playing & flying gaps. Finkleberry is also an avid bather, just like Lennie was.  That is where the similarities end.

Moriarty, Finkleberry & Frediano

Finkleberry, Moriarty & Frediano

Frediano, Moriarty & Finkleberry

Moriarty, Finkleberry & Frediano

Moriarty, Finkleberry & Frediano

 

Naturally, every budgie has a unique personality.  Frediano, unlike Perry, has, dare I say it, a mean streak!  He is not big on sharing & also suffers from FOMO (fear of missing out) that leads him to barge his way into situations that he is not even interested in!  He also has the hen-like tendency to shred his vegetables.

Finkleberry, unlike Lennie, does not appear to suffer from anxiety, though I believe their previous home left both him & Frediano with some trust issues.  Though Frediano & Finkleberry lived together for at least a year, they do not appear to have a particularly strong bond (unlike Perry & Lennie).  The two of them do still sleep overnight in the same cage (without any prompting) so are clearly friends, but I do sense they enjoy the freedom here to have space between each other when they choose.

So, after the upheaval of 2023, I am hoping 2024 will bring us calmness, peace & no drama at all!

Happy New Year to you all!

⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺

 

Napping Buddies

A sign of good friendship is being able to have a nap side by side.  You can see from these photos that Moriarty is comfortable with his new friends Frediano & Finkleberry.

Moriary & Frediano

Moriarty & Finkleberry

Staggered Moulting

It is October & moulting season again (although sometimes it feels like it is happening constantly!)

As usual, the moults are staggered.  Frediano kicked off the moulting in a dramatic way by losing his two tail feathers within a day.  He has also lost a range of other feathers.  I like to see the subtle markings on his white feathers (see photo below).

Frediano’s feather loss

Frediano’s remaining short tail

Frediano moulting but looking pretty

Frediano preening

Subtle markings on Frediano’s white feathers

 

Moriarty has since joined in by mostly changing out his head feathers, though the rest of him is looking a bit tatty too.

Moriarty’s feather loss

Moriarty with pin feathers on his head

Moriarty moulting

Moulty Moriarty

 

Just to confuse things, Frediano had a spiky head in August!

Frediano’s moulting head

Frediano having a stretch

Frediano with pin feathers on his head

 

Finkleberry is looking fine, but has started to lose the odd bigger feather.  Though Finkleberry & Moriarty are both yellow heads, the yellow is a different shade, as can be seen in the comparison photo below.

Finkleberry

Finkleberry’s feather loss

Left is Moriarty’s feather, Right is Finkleberry’s feather

 

Frediano & Moriarty on the see-saw swing, looking a bit fed up with their moult:

Frediano & Moriarty

 

Happy Adoption Day, Moriarty – 3 years!

It is three years since Moriarty came into our lives.  He has coped with some big changes in this last year.

Firstly he lost his friend Perry.  Then after 19 days of readjusting his friendship with Lennie, we lost Lennie too.  This left Moriarty alone.  He did not know he had friends in quarantine so coped as best he could, though I could tell he was flagging without feathery company.  When Frediano & Finkleberry were introduced, he was delighted to have friends again. He proved himself to be sociable & friendly to the new inmates & over the months has forged good relationships with both.

As I was looking for a suitable video to celebrate this occasion, I noticed there were very few with just Moriarty, but here’s one of him chatting with the ‘boing mirror’.

Happy Gotcha-Day, Moriarty!

We love you lots!

♥♥♥

Moriarty

 

Eating like a chick

We use long, white, narrow seed troughs here.

I noticed a few years back, when Perry & Lennie were in quarantine, that they ate from them sideways.  Instead of sitting on the built-in perch & leaning forward to reach the seed, they would straddle the pot sideways.  I assumed this anomaly was due to them being young & just approaching things in a novel way!  They grew out of that way of eating quite quickly & I soon forgot about it… Until Moriarty arrived.

When Moriarty first encountered the long, white seed pots, he tackled them the same way that Perry & Lennie did in those earlier years.  The only difference is that he still eats that way!

Moriarty eating sideways

Moriarty eating seed

 

Bathing Frenzy

Limited knowledge of Frediano & Finkleberry’s previous life means I can only speculate on their “bathing history”.  Certainly, for a year they had not had access to a bath.  I suspect that prior to that, they did not have any bathing opportunities.

On the 17th of April, a few days after they vacated their quarantine cage & had some time familiarising themselves with the room, I put the Thomas Bath out.

Frediano was the first to try it out. Followed closely by Finkleberry.  To say they were happy to finally have a bath would be an understatement. They both took to it immediately.  It felt like they were washing away all previous restrictions & what a lot they were washing away… it was all very intense!  Here are a few videos of the momentous occasion!

You can see that Moriarty joined in by observing the activity from close quarters.

About an hour after all the frenzied bathing, Frediano went back for more.

 

There was hardly any water left by this point so I topped it up, in time for Finkleberry to return for another major dunk.

Since then, Finkleberry has proved to be a keen & frequent bather. Frediano not so much, though will have a cursory bath, more to prove he is not missing out on anything!  Moriarty continues to be a “Blue Moon Bather“.

Finkleberry

Frediano

 

Flat Top

A few months back, in April, I came across a piece of a cage that I had clearly kept “just in case it will be useful”.  I believe it was the top grid section of a Ferplast Piano 6 cage, the more modern version, with the thick, plastic border, though I do not appear to have the border section!

Ferplast Piano 6 – top section used

I wondered if it would fit across the top of Moriarty’s Canto cage (that he was rehomed with).  After taking a few measurements, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a perfect match, possibly because the Canto is also made by Ferplast.  The same black colour too!

The Ferplast Canto cage has a few good points but I find that cages with a curved or domed top seem to be a bit wasteful (unless they are ones that open up).  I like to put things out like food or toys, & having a flat area gives more options.  So, on the 1st of April, I spent a little time rigging it up.  The left hand side is connected to Moriarty’s flight cage by two pegs (it lines up nicely with a horizontal bar). It then rests across the middle of the Canto but needed some support along the right hand side, by the wall.  I used an old, plastic ladder system (partly broken) to prop it up.  (Click here to see when the ladder system was last used).

New flat top to cage

It seemed secure… but the real test was whether it would be accepted by Moriarty, who at that time, was a lone bird in the lounge.  He did not seem fazed by it & went in the cage for his usual nap on the platform perch & his usual chat with the mirror.  It was a few days before he explored the top.

Moriarty

Nine days later, Moriarty was joined by Frediano & Finkleberry who, of course, treated the flat top like it was perfectly normal & not some mad add-on or weird structure!

Moriarty & Finkleberry

Moriarty & Finkleberry

Frediano, Moriarty & Finkleberry