Apollo and Isis

[Banksie]

Hello All,

First, some quick background information! I arrived home from work last night as usual, only to find my partner had randomly bought me 2 budgies. One male, Apollo and one female Isis - both said to be 8 weeks old. She picked them out from a local pet shop because they looked younger than the others and were clearly a couple. Anyway, I have ZERO experience in keeping birds and it's clear that I have made a few mistakes already so I joined these forums to make sure I'm caring for them as best as I possibly can. Any advice, however trivial, is very much appreciated! That said, I hope my first diary entry doesn't horrify you but rest assured, I was not trying to be cruel to them - if I was it was out of ignorance. Anyway, meet Apollo and Isis:

http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad199/Banksie1978/Apollo%20and%20Isis/Image018.jpg

http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad199/Banksie1978/Apollo%20and%20Isis/Image020.jpg

Apollo is the mostly yellow one, Isis has a beautiful turquoise and black-streaked back.

My first diary entry begins below....

[Beena81]

Welcome to Talk Budgies! Lots of great information and people here on this forum - I'm looking forward to reading your training journal!
:D

[Banksie]

11th March 2010

The First Hour.
My partner got the birds out of their box and into their new home, a small cage with a mirror and a bell, 2 perches and 2 feeding trays in which she had put the seed that the shop gave her. Apparently they were very subdued and just stayed on their perch shaking. She left them for an hour and then returned to check on them - when she did they were happily chirping away and eating some seed she'd left on the sandy floor of the cage. Our computer is in the same room as the cage so she settled down and started browsing the web.

Lady bloody Gaga!
During the course of her internet-browzing, my partner started playing some classical music which perked the Budgies up no end. This prompted her into playing a varied playlist of different musical genres in order to see if Apollo and Isis had any aversion to or affinty with any particular artist/song. Most of what she played they chirped along to, but the biggest reaction came in the surprising form of Lady Gaga’s hit “Poker Face”. Apparently they went NUTS, singing and chirping like nobody’s business especially to the chorus. Further experiments revealed that Lady Gaga’s music in general really strikes a chord with them. Great! *** birds!!!

Return of the Banksie
Anyway, I arrived back home about an hour after the Gaga revelation. As I mentioned in the intro above, I know almost nothing about Budgies, so I steamed in, opening the cage and attempting to hand-feed them with some seed. They flapped a bit but generally just avoided my hand by climbing around the cage. I worked out very quickly that if I didn’t make quick movements, they didn’t seem that bothered by the presence of my hand but didn’t want in particularly close to them either. I tried holding out my finger for them to perch on but again, they just moved away from it. Apollo was much braver than Isis and even let me touch him a couple of times but it was clear neither of them was happy so I stopped.

Perching.
I decided that if they didn’t like the idea of my finger, then they might not mind an inanimate object. I chose a drumstick and put it into their cage next to the perch they were on....hoping that at least one of them would step forward on to it. After a bit of gentle coaxing, it was the more timid Isis that stepped up (having given myself a crash course in Budgie-keeping today, quite literally) by nibbling the drumstick and eventually putting one, then both feet onto it. I played with her for a while like that, transferring her from one perch to another and occasionally Apollo got on for a few seconds at a time. Then, after about 30 minutes, she simply wouldn’t get off! Not realising that you shouldn’t really take them out of their cage for a week or so, I moved the drumstick out of the cage with her perched on it. She sat their happily for a few minutes then took flight.

Free as...well, a bird
Birds, in my eyes, always seem so graceful in flight. Not so with Isis! She tore around the flat, bumping into things like a demented moth and eventually fell down back behind the fishtank I have in the room. This put the fear of Zeus into me and I was petrified that she had hurt herself. Luckily, she was fine and was just sat on the floor apparently unaware that her mental antics had caused me worry. I fetched the drumstick, put it in front of her and she hopped on. My intention was to put her back in the cage because flight was clearly a bridge to far at this stage. Of course, as soon as she was out from behind the fishtank she took off again. Apparently she enjoyed her first flight and wanted more. A slightly more stable whizz around the flat occured and she eventually settled on the top of my kitchen cabinet (the front room and kitchen are one room in my flat). All of the time she had been squeaking and Apollo, still in his cage, squeaked back. It was like Running Bear and Little White Dove in avian form.

Together Again
At this point, Apollo could take no more and he replicated (albeit more competently) Isis’ initial flight, whizzing around before settling down next to her high above my kitchen cabinet. I felt decidedly nervous now that there were 2 birds to worry about so opted to get them back into their cages. Without any problem at all (apart from a bit of hesitancy) both birds stepped up onto the drumstick and allowed themselves to be transported back, one at a time, to their cage. Reading about Budgies in hindsight, this appears to have been close to miraculous?!

A bit of worry
I started looking at clips of Budgies on youtube and the chirping got A and I pretty excited and out of their cage once more (I’d left the door open). Again, after a bit of exploring I easily managed to get them back in by using the drumstick. Everything seemed fine until Apollo stopped chirping and sat on his perch, fluffed up his feathers, appeared to wink like he was trying to get to sleep and vibrated his tail quite quickly. This worried me and I immediately looked at the internet to see what it could mean (yes, yes, NOW I decide to look at the internet!). Apparently this means they are either sick or very, very frightened? On internet-gleaned advice, I placed a cover over the cage and left them to rest overnight. This morning, they both were doing the fluffed-up feathers and winking thing, minus the tail quivering. Both stopped the fluffing when I put my hand near them (although remained stationary on their perch) but resumed when I took my hand away. This seems very odd behaviour and I can’t find anything about it on the web...can anyone help?

[Banksie]

PS. I am going to leave them to settle for a few days before I attempt any more training!

[Banksie]

12th March 2010

Newsflash
Just a quick update before I go to bed. I left them alone for most of the evening but couldn't resist and tried feeding them through the bars. Apollo is a brave little thing and after some gentle coaxing (and the aid of some Budgie noises I recorded on my phone) he gladly came up to the bars and ate the broccoli I was holding. This felt AMAZING! I tempted fate and opened the cage. Isis moved away but strangely, Apollo held firm...he allowed me to put the broccoli up to his beak and then, as if it wasn't any big deal at all, he fed directly from my hands. How cool is that?!!! Isis wasn't going to be outdone and she stole in infront of him and also ate the broccoli. I was completely made up...in only 2 days I feel I've made a bit of a connection. Silly I know, but I'm falling in love with the mites!

The main event.
I fed Apollo for a while longer and then thought "what the hell" and followed the stepping up instructions from this site. He actually put one foot on my finger a couple of times and put all of his weight on me before hopping off quickly. Then, this happened:

http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad199/Banksie1978/Apollo%20and%20Isis/2010-03-122312206.jpg

He stepped up! Long enough for me to pick up my phone, set it to camera mode and take a picture. He even let me move him about to get a decent shot. YEAH! He's my special brave boy!!!

Anyway, I'm off to sleep a very happy bunny...

[Leel]

I'm not sure if sand if all that great for birds :s
Ahh The tail flick, I'm not sure what you mean but if it looks to be sort of clicking up and down that can be bad if it continues on for awhile.
For now I'd just let them settle in and learn how the new home works, the stepping up sounds like it's coming along well!
So good luck with your two new family members this site will have plenty of great things to read up on if you browse around :D
(Btw) What is your usuername in reference too?)

[Banksie]

Hey Leel.

Really? The pet shop gave us bird sand specifically! What should I use instead?

It doesn't click, it vibrates/shakes really quickly. He seems to have stopped this now and they both (as we speak) are sat on their perch fluffed up.

Thanks, yes I have to resist the urge to play with them so much.

My username is simply my nickname...from the surname Banks.

Steve.

[Speedy]

Banksie the tail movement you have described is nothing to be worried about :D Budgies will do this quite often to shake their feathers back into place - it's very cute :XD:

Well done on getting Apollo to eat brocolli & step up! :XD: With time & patience I am sure you will develop a fantastic bond!

[Banksie]

Thanks Speedy. He was doing it for a good 30 minutes or so...is that right?

[Speedy]

hmmmmm, continuously no, but my little fellas do it quite frequently especially when they are preening.. :) If they keep doing it post a video we can try help from that :D

[SpickyDavies]

i must ask you to slow right down with the birds!
you seem to have packed there first days to the brim when she be allowing them to settle and become comfortable in their environment

we have stickies to help you out...
http://talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?t=33305



remove the sandpaper sheets- imagine if your carpet was sandpaper- ouch ouch

and replace with newspaper :)

you need to look over your cage set up also- it's boring to a bird
this will help you improve it...
http://talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?t=31719


if you like buying online, i know just about every UK shopping site :P

[Banksie]

@Speedy - the quivering tail has stopped now but I'll post a video if it ever happens again.

@Spicky - ok, I'll slow things down with them. It's not sandpaper, it's a fine-grained sand they gave us. Is this ok for them or should I just replace with newspaper? As for the toys, I am well aware that the cage is way too bare and I'm off to the pet shop tomorrow to sort it out. I would have gone today but I have been up in Coventry all day. I'm also going to get some of this millet everyone talks about.

Thanks very much for your advice and help.

[Leel]

I've never heard of sand being used and it isn't overly important for them, newspaper is tidy, cheap and just as good :)

[Banksie]

I've invested in a mirror/perch thing with coloured balls (which they seem to LOVE) and a swing which they've not seemed interested in. There's also a bell/mirror which they have completely ignored since day 1 (it came with the cage).

I've largely left them alone for the last few days, except for feeding them millet through the bars. I will leave it a bit longer so they get used to their surroundings and then start their training in earnest.

[Beena81]

Don't worry about them not interested in the toys just yet - I've had Charlie since Feb 15 and I've never actually seen him play at all....sometimes at night when I put him to bed I can hear his bells and toys moving around - but that may just be him getting settled.

Give them time - when they realize that the toys are fun, then I'm sure they will love to explore further.

[Banksie]

13th March 2010

I left them alone today as I was away anyway. Both seem a lot 'chirpier'.


14th March 2010

As I mentioned above I've added a few things to their cage and the response is positive, even if they were slow on the uptake initally. Again, I've left them alone apart from the odd bit of millet through the bars.

15th March 2010.

I've been off work ill so I took most of the day training Apollo (Isis is still too timid to even try). He now will come to the bars if I say "what's this", expecting millet. I have been holding a small length of millet inbetween my middle and ring fingers just out of range of his beak so he has to put his feet on my hand. Throughout the day he got a lot more confident in doing so but is still generally nervous of the hand unless it's got millet in it. I've been reinforcing the stepping on my hand behaviour with the command "up" and saying "good boy" when he does get on.

16th March 2010

I feel like I've made a proper breakthrough with Apollo. By holding a stalk of millet as described above and pushing my finger into his belly, he's now quite happy to step up to get to the millet. He's not even cautious anymore, it's like it's automatic. While he's sat on my finger, Isis gets involved in eating it but won't come onto my hand yet. She's pecked at it to test it but is still too nervous to take the plunge. Towards the end of the day, Apollo will step up on command without the millet but not every time. I'll keep you updated but for the next few days I'll just be repeating the stepping up with millet/stepping up without millet routine until he's nailed it and then I'll work on Isis to see if I can get her to that stage too. I have some pics to post which I'll put on tomorrow. Night all!

[Datura]

Nice job! Heh, our last two days sound rather identical... I was home sick from work, too, so took the time to train Venkman with millet! What would we do without that stuff? (Get bitten a lot, I suspect.)

[Banksie]

I've put photos up here:

http://talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?p=604278#post604278