Closed for Summer Holidays

Photo © Geoffrey on Redbubble

It's that time of the year again! We're taking a week off to visit Erlend's parents in Norway, which is nice. When we come back, we have to move into a different apartment so right now everything is in bags and boxes. The budgies don't seem to mind, they're just happy and chirping as usual. My brother is looking after them while we're gone, so they're in good hands.

The blog won't go offline, but I will be until August 15. I hope you all have a nice Summer, make sure to spend some time in the sunlight with your little birds, they love Summer too!

Sunny greetings from Bika, Erlend, Frodo and Isla :-)

BirdChannel Budgie Quiz

Photo © parkietenfun.nl

If you feel like taking a budgie quiz, you can do it here:

http://www.birdchannel.com/quiz/quizpage-6287.aspx?cm_mmc=5264083

This one's still easy... I'm planning on making one myself sometime ;-)

Cat and Budgie (video)

My husband sent me another video, this one is about a playful budgie and a very patient cat... Luckily the budgie is fast enough!

The first yellow budgerigar

Photo © Hoobly

The first budgerigar variety to appear in the wild among the regular green budgerigars, was the yellow budgerigar. Yellow budgies were reported to be seen in a large flock of green budgerigars as early as 1872. More yellow budgies began to make their appearance in Belgium around the same time. A few years later they were discovered in Germany as well. Yellow budgies became the first common variety next to the grass green budgies that we know from the wild, and they remained the most popular variety for years, until the first sky blue budgerigar was discovered.

Budgie of the Month: Togs the budgie chick

He might not be much bigger than a pile of loose change, but Togs the budgie chick is making a big impression at the zoo where he was recently born.

The adorable Togs the budgerigar is lapping up the attention he is getting at the Wild Life Sydney centre in Australia.

He might be tiny but he certainly has a big personality, say his keepers, who are often convinced they are helping to raise a newborn child.

They describe Togs as 'very needy' who cries when he is hungry - just like a baby.

Picture © Newspix/ Rex Features on The Daily Mail

 Togs is not bigger than a pile of coins, isn't that amazingly cute? But he sure made a big impression at the zoo, where he was born. This was about a month ago, so I'm a bit late with my story. Maybe we'll have some baby budgies too, one day... :)

Photo © Science Illustrated Australia

Read the full article here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2144169/Togs-budgie-chick-Tiny-bush-budgerigar-Wild-Life-Sydney-zoo.html

Jinx (Budgie Photography)

This goregous picture was taken by inlovewithyourshadow on Deviantart:

Baby budgie loves being pampered (video)

Erlend showed me this video the other day, it's so adorable :-)

Budgies and paper shredding

Photo © the Talk Budgie forum

Shredding of newspaper is actually very normal behaviour for any parrot. Budgies need to shred things in order to be happy. You can even buy your budgie shredding toys. Actually eating the paper would not be good. However, newspaper ink is non toxic and budgies don't usually eat the paper; they only shred it to little pieces. If you're in doubt or if you want to have this confirmed, you can always contact your local newspaper agency.

Paper shredding can be seen as nesting behaviour and would indicate that your budgie is no longer a baby. Budgies are considered adults by the age of 9 months. The behaviour of shredding paper means that your budgie is sexually mature or close to adult age.

Why am I writing about this? Our budgies, Frodo and Isla (both young adults), are often sitting on top of the book case. It's one of their favourite hangout spots in the house ... which means they poop a lot there, too. So we decided to put newspaper on top of the book case. They were curious about the paper at first, then Isla started nibbling the paper, which was the start of some crazy kind of shredding marathon. We found at least one thousand pieces of shredded paper on the floor!!!

UV lamp for budgies (Avian Sun)

Photo © LafeberVet.com

Budgies are often housed indoors and never see the sunlight. Even if you put the cage next to a window, they will not benefit from it, because the window acts as a filter that blocks the benefits of the sun, such as Vitamin D3. I have written a post on this topic before, because it's really important for budgies.

Vitamin D3 is crucial for an overall good health, but it helps in particular to make your budgies resistant against the following problems:

• Breeding/reproduction-related problems, such as egg binding and soft shell eggs, or chick death.
•  Physical abnormalities, such as poor bone health, overgrown beak, splayed legs, seizures, stargazing or feather plucking.

Dr. William Grant, Ph.D. lead a study that found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths in birds could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D.  

"Vitamin D protects against cancer in several ways: it increases the self-destruction of mutated cells; it reduces the spread and reproduction of cancer cells; it reduces the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous."

Photo © LMP Loyd on flickr

Budgies enjoy real sunlight and if you can provide that on a daily basis, that would be the best and least expensive way to go! Many owners relocate their birds in an outdoor aviary, or they put the cage outside for half an hour per day or so. This is what we also do, but the weather conditions in Belgium haven't been so favourable lately. In this case, full-spectrum lighting is a good alternative.

How do I get an avian sun and how much does it cost?

I ordered mine through my avian vet and the light bulb cost me about 50 EUR or 40 GBP. The UVB and UVA emissions last 6 months. I still need to get the floor lamp, although I think you can get some models that you can attach to the cage itself. The important thing is that you always provide both sun and shadow for your birds, so that they have a choice. Remember that your birds need approximately 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness at night. Some models will simulate dawn and dusk with a slow brightening and dimming and can be placed on a timer for daily consistency.

The instructions about correct lamp/light distance and so on, can all be found in the manual to the Avian Sun.

Photo © Zoo med

If you want to read more, here's a couple of links to the UV lamp that we've got:

http://www.zoomed.eu/Engels/Light/Avian%20Sun.htm
http://www.zoomed.eu/PDF/Birds%20and%20UVB.pdf