Homemade Toys

I read a blog post today about Homemade Bird toys. Its pretty cool! Check it out! http://bit.ly/birdtoys

I love her ideas! Here are a few of our birds favorite homemade toys.

Our Citrin Cockatoo loves popsicle sticks. She also loves the bottle tops off drink bottles. She holds them like a cup and dips them in her water then drinks from them.

Our parakeets love dice and small balls they can push around.

Our Cockatiels LOVE the plastic pull strips off of milk jugs. I have one tiel the likes to wear them like a necklace. I don't worry about him getting hung on it because its open at one end.

Other favorite toys are plastic slinkies, empty paper towel rolls, corn dog sticks and plain brown paper bags left open so they can go in and explore.

Our 1st budgie hatched!

I'm so excited! Our first baby budgie hatched today. Momma is green body with yellow wings, daddy is blue with a yellow head. There are 5 eggs total. The first baby is so tiny it would fit on a nickle lol. The picture in this post is not our baby. The momma bird is too nervous for pictures. I borrowed this picture off the net so you can get a idea of how small it is.

More Pictures

If you are interested in more pictures of our set up you can see them on "twitpic" http://twitpic.com/photos/TumbleweedBirds If you Twitter ( http://twitter.com/ ) please follow me @TumbleweedBirds

Our first fledged finch.

Poor little guy is trying to get away from me. I think he's camera shy

Sprouts Day 3

This is day 3 of my seed sprout experiment. They smell fresh and nutty. I started a new batch. This time I'm using more blackoil sunflower and some saflower in the mix. I must admit, some birds (mostly the finches) flocked to them right away. But the cockatiels wasn't as excited about breakfast as I had hoped. I'm a little disappointed in that because I have 3 nest boxes with babies right now. I might have to give out a 2nd breakfast of some bird bread to them.

My version of this soaked seed recipe. http://www.javafinch.co.uk/soak/soakndx.html

I'll post more pics tomorrow to show you how it turned out.
I used a basic premium cockatiel blend that did not contain pellets.

I did not have a small piece of muslin cloth, so I used a new dish rag. lol

Sweet Potato Mash

Today's bird treat is baked sweet potato mash.

I take 1 large sweet potato, (baked and cooled) then mixed with 2 hard boiled eggs that have been crushed and crumbled, (with the shell on).

Then I lightly sprinkled some hand feeding formula on top of that.

I serve with a chopped mixed salad with roman & iceberg lettuce, red cabbage and shredded carrots.

I normally don't feed iceberg lettuce but it came in the bagged salad. (left over from dinner last night)

You can see one of the trays ready to go to the bird room. Again, I use left over plastic tops to hand out daily treats, then remove them after a couple of hours. I use paper plates for the large outdoor aviary's.

I repeat treats in the evening when I have babies in the nest.

This is a great pair.

Dad is a heavy pied, Mom is a Lutino. This is a great pair.

White Face Pearl & Lutino Hen

This is a White Face Pearl Hen and a Lutino Hen in the early morning sunlight

Here are a few of my Lutino's and Albino's in our outside aviary.

Chicks from Lutino & Albino Pair

2 chicks so far from a Lutino & Albino White face pair. First egg hatched Sept 3rd. See the white fluffy downy feathers? That is a white face chick, The other chick has yellow down feathers and it has red eyes, that shows the chick will be Lutino. There should be a 3rd chick hatching today. There was 7 eggs in this box.

Lovely Ms Betty Update

Posting new pictures of Ms Betty. Formerly known as "Ugly" Betty. She now has turned into a beautiful swan.

Recap.......I bought Ugly Betty as a 4 week old chick. Ugly Betty was the 4
week old baby cockatiel who was severely plucked by her mother. I felt sorry for her so I bought her for $20 and hand fed her till she was weaned. She has turned into a beautiful young lady! All her feathers have grown back and she's a very pretty cinnamon pearl.

Morning Treats 2

In this 2nd picture you can see I chop the lettuce and pasta a little finer for the smaller birds.

I divide it up and place it in treat cups or the homemade treat cups made of plastic container lids.

I remove all uneaten soft foods and treat cups after a couple of hours.

Todays Early Morning Treat

I have finch and cockatiel baby's so I feed soft nesting foods each morning.

Today I make some whole wheat pasta and brown rice for the birds. I added some chopped Romaine lettuce, and diced grapes to the mix. My recipe changes from day to day depending on what's available.

In the first picture you can see I leave the pasta whole, but chop the lettuce and grapes. Then I sprinkle on the brown rice. I feed this to the outside aviary in paper plates.

Ants

Do you have ants in your cages or nest boxes? Try this recipe:

Here is a GREAT recipe for ant problems and it is relatively safe and WORKS like a charm!

This is an easy one, but it's bait so you need to be patient and let it work. You will need a couple of margarine tubs (with lids), cotton balls, sugar and boric acid. Mix a cup of water with a quarter cup of sugar (you want this to be sweet!) and add 1 tablespoon of boric acid powder. Puncture holes in the margarine tubs, sides and lids. You want these to be decent size holes, as this is how the ants will come and go. Soak cotton balls with the water, sugar, boric acid solution and put them in the margarine tubs. Cover with the lid to help the solution from drying out. Place your ant traps where the ants trail. Since the solution is sweet, the ants will eat it and even take some of the cotton back to their mounds. The boric acid is what's lethal so it should take out the entire colony.

Does this work? You bet it does! It won't have an immediate effect but you will see the ants disappear within a couple of days.

Budgies First Egg

I can't believe after all the chicks I have raised, that I still get a thrill from that "first egg".

One of our budgie pairs laid their first egg yesterday. I was so excited I had my husband come look. I only set up 2 pairs of budgies this time. I want to get more of the fancy colors before I get too caried away. But I wanted a few babies to offer for sale with our cockatiels for Christmas.

Speaking of cockatiels. I have 5 pairs on eggs. There should be some hatching soon. I forgot to write down when the first egg was laid.

I'm still looking for a female lovebird.

Our first lovebird!

I finally found a lovebird to add to our breeders. He is a beautiful Dutch Blue peach face. His name is Verde which means "green" in Spanish. I will have him sexed to make sure he is a boy, then look for a mate. I'm excited to finally have found a lovebird. We don't have any breeders or even pet stores around us.

Baby Budgies 8 wks

Skittles, Jelly Bean, Lemon Drop and Twizzler (Twizzie) All doing fantastic!

A clutch of 6 orphaned budgies were given to me to hand raise when the oldest was 12 days old, the youngest only just hatched.

Now they are about 8 wks old, weaned and charming parakeets! I loved the experience of hand feeding again after a hiatus of 9 years. Read some of our older post to follow them from day 1.

Ugly Betty Update

Well I'm a little behind in my updates. Ugly Betty was the 4 week old baby cockatiel who was severely plucked by her mother. I felt sorry for her so I bought her for $20 and hand fed her till she was weaned. She has turned into a beautiful young lady! All her feathers have grown back and
she's a very pretty cinnamon pearl.

Bubba Takes A Bath

Here is Bubba taking a bath in our apple tree.
"He" is a girl Double Yellow Headed Amazon

Baby budgie names

The baby budgies are thriving! Some are starting to show colors. I can see a little yellow in one and blue in a another one. I named them, Skittles, Jelly Bean, Lemon Drop and Twizzler (Twizzie).

Ugly Betty

We have a very sweet new addition to our flock. She is a 4 week old cinnamon pearl cockatiel. The poor thing has been severely plucked by her mother. We bought her for $20. Her head is completely bear. No feathers on her back, belly or under her wings. The only feathers she has are her wing and tail feathers. Her nose was plugged up, and she had to breath through her mouth. We are hoping her feathers will regrow. I'm also hoping she don't become a plucker. I named her Ugly Betty.

Shes very scared of us but has taken small nibbles of hand feed formula. I give her millett and birdbread later today after her next handfeeding.

The Brooder

Here is a look at the brooder we made. Its made from a "rubber made" type of box. Its a bit large for these guys, but it will come in handy later on when we have our larger baby birds. We line the bottom with paper substrate and cover that with paper towels. I put a digital thermometer in there close to the babies. We cut the top of the plastic lid out and then secured hail screen in place. We cover the brooder with a towel and place the whole thing on a heating pad set on low. We try to keep the temperature at 85 for these guys. As they get older they will need less heat. (the temp in the picture shown is low because I had just placed it in the brooder) Then I put the babies in 1 corner and give then a snuggle buddy. If you have any questions how we set up the brooder, just email us at tumbleweedaviary@gmail.com and I'll be glad to explain in more detail.

Smallest 1 week

Here is a look at the smallest baby at 1 week.

1 week today!

My oh my how the babies have grown! They are doing so well! They know me when they see me and start begging to be fed.

Then There Were 4

I came into the kitchen to feed the baby budgies. They were crying as usual. The oldest baby had been trying to escape the make shift brooder for a couple of days. Today he made it from under the towel and glided to the floor. I turned around just in time to see my Yorkshire terrier kill it.

I can not believe how heart broken I am. I'm so angry and so sad at the same time. My little Yorkie don't even know he did a bad thing. To him the baby was a squeaky toy. He was looking at me to play with him, wagging his tail.

If only I had a proper brooder this might not have happened. I want to scream and cry at the same time.

Budgie Video

My first budgie video. I wanted to get one of me hand feeding but I had nobody to hold the camera. So just a short clip of the baby's, day 2.

Bonnie and Clyde

Update on the little rescue budgies Bonnie and Clyde.....

Clyde is not out of the woods yet, but is feeling much better. He has stopped tail bobbing. Hes chattering a little bit now. I'm still worried about him because he still spends too much time with his head tucked under a wing sleeping.

Bonnie is much better after she settled in to her new home. There is something not right with her legs though. She still does not sit properly. Its hard to tell from this photo but when shes resting, she lays more that sits on her perch. I'm not sure what happened. She may have had a deformity since she hatched.....who knows?

Baby Budgies Day 2

The babies all made it through their 2nd night. The last feeding was about 10:00 pm and first feeding was at 6:00 am. I thickened the formula just a bit and all crops were empty this morning. I'm resting easier now. I wish I had some plastic pipettes. The eye dropper is working but I'm fearful of the plastic bulb at the end. I'm afraid I'm not getting it sterile.

Late yesterday when I checked on them, they were panting just a little. I nudged the heating pad down a bit and pulled the towel back just a bit to let fresh air in.

I'm going to try to get a short video on here later today.

Baby Budgies Day 1

While we were touring Mr. Taylors Aviary. He told me he had a problem. He had lost a momma parakeet and had 6 orphaned baby's that were 2 days to 2 weeks old. He asked me if I was a experienced hand feeder. I kind of giggled...Yes I was experienced. I had about 7 or 8 years and countless baby's under my belt. Of course I'd love to have them.

Problem was, I had no equipment to do it with. He loaned me a heating padand gave me a eye dropper and some formula. I didn't hold out much hope forthe smallest chick. It was cold and weak. Poor little guy didn't survive the trip home. When we got home, I set up a make shift brooder. I cut a milk jugin half and lined it with paper towels I placed it on the heating pad set on low and covered it with a hand towel. I put the cold clutch of 5 in there to warm up. I checked then every few minutes to make sure they were warming up but not getting to hot.

While they were warming up I set up the nursery and feeding station. Which is my kitchen counter and table. I sterilized the glass eye dropper and readied everything for the first feeding. I checked the babies, they were warming up and hungry, but not warm enough to feed yet. Never feed a cold chick. They need to be nice and warm so their digestive track will work properly.

While I was letting them warm up I introduced the cockatiels to their new home. Its a big cage about 5 ft square. Its hanging on my back deck. They have a beautiful thick honey suckle on the right and a nice grape vine infront.

Next I checked the budgies and they were ready to feed. It has been 9 years since I last hand feed anything. I read over the mixing instructions and I remembered everything like it was yesterday. They were all hungry and feeding them was easy. The last feeding before I went to bed was at 11:00 pm. I woke up at 2 am to feed again. Next feeding was 6:00 am. Their crops are emptying between feeding very nicely. I fed again about 9:00 am. I'll check them again about 2 1/2 hours. They are doing great so far.

It Begins Again

Yesterday was cool and rainy. We left early in the morning to make the 70 mile trip to buy cockatiels and finches. I had spoken to the breeder a few times on the phone but never met him in person. When we arrived at his house I thought we were at the wrong place because I couldn't hear any birds. Thinking back to when I raised birds, you could hear my place long before you could see it. We were at the right place but the birds were not noisy as mine used to be at all. It might have been because it was raining, or maybe it was because I had over 600 breeding pairs. He had more larger parrots than I had, but less of the smaller ones.

He was very sweet and took us on a mini tour (because we were rushed for time) that lasted over an hour. The first building housed parakeet's love birds and finches. There was also a pair of African greys and a single, very sweet African grey. In the yard he had a pair of Amazons. Next building house several different pairs of amazons.

The next building had the cockatiels for sale, and other birds, which I can't remember now because I was focused on the cockatiels.

He had 5 for sale, I picked out four to bring home. I bought a pied male, a pied hen, a whiteface pearl hen, and a latino that I hope is a male. Its hard to tell because its tail feathers are missing. In fact two of the birds were missing tail feathers and the whiteface pearl hen looked plucked a little around her head. I'll post pictures today sometime. I paid $40 each for them.

These were the only cockatiels I have found close by. The others I found were about 300 miles away.


We also bought 7 little zebra finches. Two white ones and the rest are normal's, I think. I don't know the sex of the white ones, but I have at least 2 males and 3 females. Pictures later today.

We finished the tour in a hurry, but we seen conures of all kinds, quakers and cockatiels. He had more to see but we ran out of time. I could spend hours and hours there, looking at his birds and talking with him.

Need a Website?

Do you need a website?

I am a web designer and I will trade my talent as a web designer for birds and cages. It could be for a small business or maybe a online scrapbook. Take a look at my site, most of the pages there are for a gaming site called myleague.com but as you can see I do other business sites as well.

Check my site here http://www.mysticaldreamdesigns.com/

Email me here if you are interested
mysticaldreamdesign@gmail.com

Bubba

Here is my dear friend Bubba. Bubba is a female Double Yellow-Headed Amazon parrot. When we first bought her, she had the name Bubba but since then she has laid 2 eggs so we know now she's a girl.

Bubba is an excellent talker! She can say lots of things like ......Ask her this ......."Where's the chicken".
She will say ....bawk bawk bawk bawwwwwwk
Ask her ..... "Where's the rooster". She will say....Cock-a-doodle doooooooo!
Ask her ..... "Where's the crow". She will say....CAW CAW CAW
She will also ask herself "Where's the chicken". and answer herself ...bawk bawk bawk bawwwwwwk and then laugh.
She says ......."What's the matter"
She says ......."Come here"She says .......:Come on"
She says ......."up bubba"
She says ......."hi bubba"
She says ......."byeeee bubba"She says........"Hellooooooooooooo"
She says ......."baddddd bub-ba"
She says ......."bye bye"
She says .......JESS-I-CAAA .......G-E-T... U-P!!
She says .......letsssssssss go!
She cries like a small child and says I'm telling momma .......
She says ......."Bubba want a cracker"
She says ......."Prettttty Bubba"
She says ......."Bubba pretty bubba"
She says ......."pretty bird"
She says ......."Whoaaaaa!!"
Happy Birthday Bubba
She has several whistles and will meow.
If the phone rings she says hello.
She laughs several different laughs. example....like kids giggling and like a wicked witch among other laughs. You can tell her ....."Give me a kiss" and she will making kissing sounds. I'm sure there is more that I can't think of right now.

Her favorite food treats .....(I break her off a small piece)French fries, mash potatoes, roasted potatoes, potatoes of any kind, macaroni of any kind, bread of any kind, bread with butter or peanut butter, toast with butter or peanut butter, potatoes chips, pizza crust, cereal out of your bowl while sitting on the kitchen table. Peanuts, burritos, soft or hard tortillas, all kinds of cheese, crackers of any kind, pecan shortbread cookies, apples, bannanas
She loves to share your food and likes just about anything except green veggies. If you are eating something and she screams....she wants a bite. You can see her here with Tieko our Citron Cookatoo. http://www.mysticaldreamdesigns.com/bird_video.asf

Little Bit & Buddy

Little Buddy (on the left) was given to my daughter a few months ago. I don't know how old he is. Hes not tame. He sings so sweetly. We decided to get him a friend. We bought a sweet little green girl budgie and named her Little Bit (on the right). She was just a couple of months old when we got her. She was shy st first, but now she rules the roost. They both love green veggies and birdie bread. The come right up to the cage bars to get it. This morning I gave them a couple of curds of cottage cheese. They both enjoyed it.

Clyde

Here is the little blue budgie that bobs his tail up and down. We named him Clyde. My heart is sad for these two.

I hope they both recover with heat and antibiotics.

Poor sweet Bonnie

Here is a closer look at Bonnie.

Sick or injured?

I'm a little down today. Nothing seams to be working out as we had hoped. The 2 little rescue budgies are not healthy. I'm glad I quarantined them. The blue one is fluffed up and his tail bobs up and down. The white one has something wrong with her. She sits low on the perch. I'm keeping them warm and have started a course of Baytril. This is a picture of her. We named her Bonnie

Touching email

I received a very touching email from a sweet lady who just found out her son has a immune deficiency, and should not be around birds. I pray he overcomes his illness and is restored to good health. Everyone please keep her family and her son in your hearts and prayers.

She is looking for a good home for her birds. I am very excited and hopeful that we can help each other out. She has 2 American Fancy Parakeets, 6 English Budgies, 1 Pair Zebra Finch with clutch/hatchlings as well as cages, nest boxes and supplies.

I'm still looking for wholesale cages. A few years ago we bought cages from http://www.presidentpet.com/. We could buy cases of parakeet, cockatiel and finch cages at very reasonable prices. I have not been able to contact them. Their websites still up, but no answer to my email and no answer when I phone them. If anyone knows of a good place to buy wholesale cages, please email me mailto:tumbleweedaviary@gmail.com?subject=Wholesale .

We received 2 little rescue budgies on Mothers day. Beautiful blue/white birds. One has a over grown beak then needs trimming once in awhile. She also sits on the perch rather than stands like normal. I'm doing some research to see if I can find out why.

I go to sleep thinking about birds, I dream about birds, I wake up and have my morning coffee with my double yellow head on my shoulder, while searching the Internet for birds, cages and just about anything else to do with birds. I think I might be obsessed. But it wouldn't be the first time.

Birdie Bread

Birdie Bread

2 small boxes Jiffy Corn bread mix.

2 egg including crushed shell. Some people like to add a few crushed fruit flavored Tums for extra calcuim.

1/2 cup of milk

Then comes the fun part. Ad as many of the extra ingredients below as you wish. None of my birdie bread batches are ever alike. Just toss in a bit of shredded coconut, thawed corn kernels, chopped nuts, grated carrot, crushed pellets, chopped pieces of bell pepper,yellow squash, peas, baby food sweet potatoes, cooked white or brown rice, 4 tbs peanut butter, 2 cups seed or pellets or toss in a few cheereos.

Let your imagination go wild.

Bake in glass, aluminum or tinfoil disposable pan 8 X 8 at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Bread is done when it pulls away from the side of the pan slightly.

Cut into 1 inch squares and put in Ziploc bags. Freeze all except the one you are using. This is an easy and fast recipe to make and only your imagination is needed here to add your birds favorite things to it. And they never seem to tire of it as it is different each batch.

Looking for birds

I spent the morning on the Internet and on the phone looking for birds to add to our flock. I used to know just about everyone in a 300 mile radius who raised birds. So many years have passed that everyone has either moved, died or just sold out because of the economy.

We don't even have a bird club here anymore. I've left a message with one local man who I was told sells cockatiels, parakeets, finch and love birds. I don't know if hes a breeder or a broker. I guess I'll find out when he calls.

I offered my 2 little budgies green salad mix a couple of days ago. They loved it! Now when I approch the cage they come to the side begging for it. I'll have to dig out my old reciepe for birdie bread and make it for them. I'll try and post it here tomorrow. Back in the day......when I used to feed it to our aviary birds, I would enter the flight cages and birds would land on my head and sholders wanting their treat! Oh how I miss thoughs days. I'll post tomorrow with the reciepe and let you know if the budgies liked it.

To everyone who raises birds or has a pet bird, please offer fresh foods green veggies to your feathered friends everyday. Pet Birds need and benefit from a wide variety of fresh foods. Mine like corn, carrots, cooked yams, broccoli, cucumbers, green beans, peas, pea pods, yellow squash, and zucchini. In addition, birds should be fed fresh greens daily, such as spinach, dandelion greens, turnip greens, beet tops and chard. Make sure that all fresh foods are washed thoroughly before serving

Some birds will eat the fresh food from a bowl, while other birds prefer the food hung on a kabob. Some birds prefer the fresh food chopped into small pieces and some prefer larger chunks. The fresh greens should be hung on the side with a clip. As a rule, the smaller bird species will eat more fresh food if it is hung on a kabob rather than in a bowl. Try experimenting with different ways of offering the food and your bird will let you know its preference.

How it all began

It all began with one tiny baby cockatiel named Squeakers and a love for all God's creatures.

Looking back as a child my family always had pet birds. The first ones I remember was a collection of about half a dozen parakeets my mother acquired. My dad made a beautiful cage of wooden dowel rods which they quickly chewed right through. Mom put up one nest box. I still carry the guilt, of when I was trying to look at the one and only egg they laid, I cracked it. I never told my mom it was me. After that we had various cockatiels, a nanday, a quaker, and a red lori. A few years passed. I grew up, married and had two kids.

Then one day I was introduced to a man who raised cockatiels in his back yard. He had a few normal grey cockatiels that were free flighted in a small homemade aviary. I ended up buying 1 yellow fuzzy baby cockatiel for $20. It must have been about 5 or 6 days old. I really don't know how the poor little guy survived! I had no experience, no hand feeding formula, or no brooder. I can't for the life of me remember when or how I met Tonya, but I do remember she taught me how to hand feed and gave me a bit of formula and a couple of pipettes. Tonya was a very experienced hand feeder. She raised Blue and Gold Macaws, Citron Cockatoo's, Congo Grays and Double Yellow Heads.

Somehow that sweet little cockatiel survived. I name him Squeakers because of the sounds he made as I was feeding him. After that I was hooked! I had caught a full blow case of "bird fever" that has lasted almost 20 years!

I became obsessed with learning everything I could about raising birds. This was the mid to late 80's before the internet was widely available. Tonya gave me a box full of very old magazines. I think it was the original Bird Talk magazine prier to 1982, called Caged Bird, if I remember correctly. I read every one cover to cover, over and over again.

As I began to learn more, I also began to acquire my flock. What started with one tiny baby cockatiel turned into a thriving aviary of 600 pairs of breeding birds. At the height of my career, I raised everything from tiny whimsical finches to majestic macaws. When I think about how many 100's and 100's baby birds I've hand feed I'm in awe.

Then July 10, 2000 that all changed. when my world turned upside down and my soul was ripped from my chest. My husband of 18 years unexpectantly walked out on me and two small children without warning, without even a goodbye. So I sold or gave away all our beautiful birds. I wanted to punish him for leaving. I wanted everything to be different when he came back. I wanted him to see he wasn't missed or needed.

But the joke was on me. After all the birds were gone, all the brooders and cages were sold, given away or thrown away.....he never returned to see. I was stuck in a dark, dull void for nine years with nothing but ghost and memories of how wonderful and happy my life had been. Rock bottom for me was probably 2005 to 2007. I stayed in my house, behind locked doors with the shades pulled down for well over two years. The ONLY time I left, was for a doctors appointment to get anti-depressants.

Things have slowly started to get better. I met a wonderful, caring man on the internet who has changed my life. After about one and a half years of talking on the internet and the phone, he packed up his belongings and moved from Nashville to Texas and in with me. That move, saved my life. I am living again. We go shopping, we have a garden and a grand daughter. And now we are going to rebuild my aviary.

I can't even tell you the deciding factor, to rebuild. It was a combination of things I think. I started having dreams of hand feeding babies. Also we had one single little green budgie that needed a friend, so we bought him one. Those happy chirps and seeing them kiss and feed each other, made my heart ache for the 100's of budgies I had. Then I ran across a youtube video of a baby blue and gold macaw being hand fed. Listening to the "honking" that baby made, made me burst into tears. I HAD to have my babies again! Not on the grand scale as before. But only as a small hobbyist breeder. Well maybe a little bigger than that lol...........we'll see (smiles).