Orion

[Degar247]

Meet Orion!
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/P6020175.jpg

Orion is a female budgie, who I believe is about 6-7 months old. when I got her I posted this photo (below) and was told that she was probably about 4 months old, and I've had her for about a month now, and noticed her irises are becoming much more defined:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/may181.jpg (photo from May 18)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/P6180132.jpg
(photo from June 18)

I think she might look a little bigger now then before.


Unfortunately, I got much busier at work and my boyfriend got a full time job shortly after we purchased Orion, so we haven't had as much time for her as we had originally hoped. She is still getting tons of attention, but training and taming with her has been a feat.

Also shortly after purchasing her and joining this site, I discovered that the people at the pet store know next to nothing about birds. When I bought her they told me there was no way to determine her sex, because she was a juvenile. I was also told that the cage they sold me would be plenty of room for her, 16.5x11.5x22, and when I asked what they were feeding them, they handed me some zupreem pellets.

Turns out Orion hated the Zupreem pellets. My couple days with her I thought I was making progress with her training when she landed on my hand to eat millet from it. But I soon realized she wasn't eating the pellets at all, and was willing to land on my hand to eat because the poor little bird was so hungry. I switched to seeds and she has been happy with that and a mix of pellets. She also gets a dish with fresh fruit every day, which she has so far completely ignored.

Anyhow, I've been scouring the internet for a few weeks now in search of a reasonably priced cage, and praise the lord Petco is having a 72 hour sale this weekend, and I've got my 30x18x18 cage ordered and in the mail :D
This size cage means I can also get Orion a friend! So she won't be as lonely when we're at work.

Orion hasn't shown much interest in any of her toys. She likes to bite the beads on her mirror toy and chat with her friend, Mirror Bird. She also enjoys hanging upside down from the top of the cage. I recently bought her one of these guys from PetSmart:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11147805
I thought the natural look of it would get her interested, and I was right! She's been pecking at that thing. I think it will be a good intro-toy for her.

When the new cage arrives, I plan on getting her situated in there, cleaning out the small cage and letting her new friend have the small cage for quarantine. When I find her a new friend, I'm going to look for one who knows how to play with toys so he can teach her :)

Finally, Orion got to go on a two day visit to my parents house. They live about an hours drive from me, and I did not want to leave her alone for two whole days. She did NOT enjoy the city driving, but was very happy on the highway. She got to bird watch from my parents window and see some really pretty birds including an attractive male cardinal, and some neat yellow and blue birds I couldn't identify. While she did not enjoy the driving, she seemed happy in their home, but was very relieved to be back home. Since the trip, she has seemed much happier then usual.

Anyhow, that's Orion! I will keep you updated on her adventures and hopefully I'll be introducing a new little one soon!

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/P6180137.jpg
Orion checking out her reflection. If you view the large version of this image, you can sort of see the grey of the iris, which makes me think shes about 6 months old

[Degar247]

So Orion moved into her new cage on Thursday. She really surprised me by just flying right in. And she seems much happier in this cage, I think she feels safer since she has more room and doesn't seem as trapped as she did in the small cage.

Anyhow, since shes been in the cage she's let us get very close to her, even letting me touch her foot and her belly, but she did not like it, she threatened to bite me but I left her alone after that.

She has been making very angry noises when playing with her mirror toy. She never did this in her old cage, but since she's been in the new cage, every time she plays with the mirror she squawks angrily, then chirps sweetly after a few minutes. I decided to take the mirror away today to see if she'd calm down, and she definitely has. She's been flying back and forth just chirping about, no more angry squawks.

We brought home her friend last night, who is still nameless. She didn't know he was here until this morning when he made a few loud chirps, and Orion went nuts. Running back and forth chirping like mad. She's excited, and I can't wait for them to meet :)

[AlyseBos]

Aww! I think it's so funny! Was she getting territorial over her new cage? She wanted her reflection OUT!? Hahah! I think it's really sweet that she's excited to hear another budgie in the house. She must have been getting lonely. :) I'm so happy that you got a nice cage for her.

It's the same cage I'm going to be getting for my birdie!

Is Orion showing any more interest in her toys than she was before?

[FaeryBee]

Orion is a very adorable little girl. She obviously didn't want the "competition" from that other female (in the mirror) in HER brand new cage!! ;) Looking forward to hearing/seeing how she and her new friend do when you have completed quarantine. :)

[Degar247]

Is Orion showing any more interest in her toys than she was before?


Not much interest, shes not afraid of them like she used to be. But she is shredding her kabob and loved playing with the beads on the mirror before the move to the new cage. I keep buying her more toys even though she doesn't touch them, hoping she'll take an interest in something :)

[Degar247]

Today I tried once again to let Orion out of her cage. Last time I tried I had the cage open for something like 6 hours with some tempting millet outside, and she stayed put. Today I put on some happy budgie sounds, and after she flew into her new cage, I thought she might actually come out.

She did! She made a quick C shape flight and landed on the bed. Looked around a bit, then made the reverse C shape right back into the cage. She wouldn't come out again, but it's a start!

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/P6250135.jpg
Here she is by my stuffed sheep on the bed

[Degar247]

This is Charlie Bird! (...or Dr. Charles Wuzzlebuff Pepper, we had a hard time coming up with a name for him)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/P7070139.jpg

Charlie came home with me from Petsmart on June 24th. From the start I could tell this birdie had a much different personality than Orion. Orion didn't touch her food or move much for the first day or so that we had her. Charlie, after just a few hours, was digging right in for some seed and hopping about exploring his new cage. He is also still just a baby bird, he is still moulting a bit and only has cheek and throat spots on one side :D He just very recently got a blue cheek spot on the other side of his face! It is too cute!


Unfortunately, Orion and Charlies meeting each other went nothing like I had planned. Charlie had been in quarantine only a little over a week, when we found out our cooler was broken, and that our landlord would not be able to fix it for a week. It was 110 degrees out with no chance of rain in site. It was torture. So Orion, along with myself and my boyfriend, all moved into my roommates (who is out of town for the summer) air conditioned room with Charlie bird. The same day we moved into the room, I had to go to work. When I got home, I found that my boyfriend had put the birds in the same cage. I was pretty angry, but he said the birds were both clutching to the sides of their cages trying to get to each other and he felt bad for them and put them together. So that was that. Quarantine broken and the birds thrown together in less than a day. I was really irritated with my boyfriend and myself when we broke quarantine. I was going to be a responsible bird owner. I was going to quarantine, and introduce the birds slowly and supervise them the whole time. But I feel it was necessary to at least put both birds in the air conditioned room, it wasn't fair to have Orion in the heat.

Luckily it seems no harm was done. Both birds appear healthy, and they are already the best of friends. All I can really say is thank goodness for Charlie Bird. Charlie is one curious little guy, and anything new added to the cage, he sneaks up to investigate it. This really irritates Orion, who is cynical and doesn't trust anything new. today I added a ball toy to their cage, and Charlie was on the floor of the cage playing with it, and it was driving Orion nuts, she was jumping back and forth screeching at him, she'd stop when he came and calmed her down, but then he'd go back to play and she'd just go crazy again. But after a while, Orion will give in and go check out whatever it is that Charlie was doing. Orion wants to do everything Charlie does, so I think this will really help with training. Charlie will also copy Orion. Charlie had been sitting in his food dish to eat, but when he saw Orion sitting outside the dish, he imitated her. Hopefully he won't take up Orions habit of digging in her dish and throwing out all the stuff she doesn't like.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/pippin247/P7070171.jpg

Finally, I'd just like to say that having 2 birds is so much better than having 1. If you own just 1 bird, I strongly recommend getting another one. I'd say you truly haven't gotten to know your birds until you see the way they interact with another of their species. It is simply amazing to see them together.





(If its possible could a mod change the thread title to 'Orion & Charlie'? I'd like to keep posting stories about them in the same thread. Thanks!)

[Degar247]

Today I made a piece of toast to go with my dinner, but forgot about it in the toaster and didn't want it after eating, so I decided to give it to the birds.

I ripped it up and put a few treat seeds in with it, then left for a couple hours and came home to find the toast shredded and bits of toast throughout the cage! Silly birds must've been running around with it :)

Anyhow, this is the first thing they've eaten other then seed and an occasional pellet, so I am very proud of them. Tomorrow I think I'll give them some toast and maybe try some banana again, and hopefully I'll have better luck...

[RiverSong]

They sound adorable! Could you possiblyget some video up? It would be awesome to see their interaction!

[Degar247]

Thanks Racheal! I'll try to get some videos of them soon :)

So we've been working on trying to get the birds out of the cage so they could get some exercise. So my boyfriend got them a new rope perch that we attached on the inside of their cage and then leading out to the roof of their cage. So I didn't work until 3 today, so I tried letting them out in the morning. They hung out on the perch curiously, and Orion actually came out and climbed around the outside of the cage a bit, but Charlie was scared and kept calling to her, and she went back in.

So when my boyfriend got home from work around 6 he tried again, and he says Orion approached the perch, and then they both just flew out at the same time. I got back home at 8 and found them hanging out on the floor. It was cute, I layed down on the floor and Orion would run up close to my face and chirp, I don't know what she was doing but it seemed she was just saying Hello. So they were just hanging out on the floor they'd fly up occasionally. When one got too far from the other, they'd chirp loudly and find eachother. Finally, it was getting late, and I hadn't eaten, and neither had they since they hadn't returned to their cage to eat so I thought I'd try to get them back in.

I got a perch and put it near Orion, and she jumped right on, and I put her into the cage. I tried the same with Charlie but he was a little more reluctant. But after I talked to him sweetly for a bit he got on and I was able to put him back in the cage.

It was really surprising that they got on that perch, because they won't step up for me at all yet, or let us put our hands near them. But they were so cute when they were out! Especially Orion, she kept coming really close to both me and my boyfriend and chirping at us. My boyfriend says he was laying on the floor looking at them for a bit and he pretended to be asleep and Orion went up to him and barked at him to wake up :p

I'm very proud of my birdies :D they had a big day and they were both very brave stepping up on that perch for me and coming so close to us. I think they may be starting to trust us :)

:budge: :budge:

[Degar247]

((If a mod sees this thread, could you please change the name of it to "Orion & Charlie" I would very much appreciate it :) ))

So it seems the honeymoon period is over, and the two birds tend to bicker a lot now. When it first started I was really worried, because Orion never wanted to be anywhere near Charlie and would screech like mad if he got remotely close, but reassurances from everyone here that this was normal calmed me down, and I now think that Orion was trying to establish dominance over Charlie. Now Orion will just tell Charlie off occasionally, but its no where near as bad as it was in the beginning. Now its just a quick scolding, and on with life.

Other then that the birds have been doing really great. Just yesterday I decided to try a mash diet based off of Acudogmama (Christine)'s thread found here: http://www.talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?t=28282

I don't have any sprouted seeds yet, so I just mixed together my legumes and veggies in with some of their regular seeds, and put them in a bowl. To my great surprise, both birds went for it right away and started digging in! They've never even touched any other veggies before so I'm ecstatic that they'd just go for this :D So now I've got my sprouts going and can't wait for them to finish so I can give them all the nutritional values of the mash.

Finally, they have been coming out of the cage regularly to fly around. I was especially worried about Orion, because she seemed incapable of flying the distance from the floor to the cage, and I had to assist her by holding a perch midway for her to land on. But tonight both birds came out before bed and did a few laps, then Charlie went back in all on his own when he was tired, and Orion did the same a few minutes later. She's never done this before, she usually waits for my help, or all together refused to return to the cage, so I'm very proud of her :)

And last but probably most significant, they stood on my hand today to get millet. While the birds were hanging out on the top of the cage, I put a bit of millet in my hand and held it steady for them. Charlie (who'll do anything for millet) came up first and nibbled at my hand curiously, and then after a bit just went for it and stood on my hand to eat millet. Orion followed his lead and nibbled my hand, but then just sat on the cage craning her neck to get at the millet. After a bit I moved my hand to clear away some of the millet shells building up, and when I returned my hand, Orion was the brave one this time who stepped up for a few seconds only, then Charlie returned nibbling at my fingers. They seemed tired after that so I let them be.


I'm very happy with my birds and feel like I'm finally making some real progress :)

[Erika]

Wow you are making great progress!
I am so glad you got Orion a friend... :hug: very selfless of you :) plus two budgies are double the fun, i have to agree!!
I am pleased they are brave enough to come onto your hand for millet :) they sound like they have a lot of fun when they are out of the cage, having a fly (hint hint video or photos please hint hint ;) ).
Orion and charlie are sooo pretty :loveeyes:
dont beat yourself up about quarrantine, yes it is important but mistakes do happen! I know what it is like to have to keep a new bird seperate, they pace up and down frantically if they can see the other birds, its awful! Its harder as you can't make them understand that its for their own good :S