YEP thats is surely a COUPLE of those looks ya will get from a English Budgie alright giggle. You caught it good ...

how old is marley now anyway??? Im wondering cuz that cere looks like for all the world she is coming into breeding condition.

phoenix has such lovely jewels on his necklace too.

she sure is a gorgeous grey spangle English and he is such a great looking sky blue yellow face pied budgie.

and she is very lucky to still be alive and thriving now.

You know Illusive I was wondering the same thing with Marley's Cere today!! I never really noticed the crusty look until I was getting some of those close ups. It does look like she's coming into breeding doesn't it *eep* She's about 6 months old, give or take a few weeks (don't know her exact hatch date because of the situation in which I got her). I would have thought that would be too young to start this kind of thing? Now I have concerns about letting her and Pheonix out together to play...Would that still be ok? They are always supervised, and sleep in seperate cages...I haven't got any nesty type things in her cage to avoid her wanting to nest. Hmmmmm

and yes - very lucky indeed!! With so much owed to you for that

it is young but not impossible for her to come into breeding / laying mode...just ask pepperandrocky about THAT...AND her bird doesnt even have a male around to stimulate but yours does...and i suspect thats what is going on here bringing her into breeding mode is phoenix and the attention he gives her.

Its also your summer down there now too and the increase in daylight time will do that too...so she would need to be put to bed earlier and uncovered later giving her much less daylight time...are you getting any rain because thats another trigger...all that helps females to start thinking ...hmmm this looks like a good time to have babies...so id reduce the daylight time for sure...really cut back drastically on any veggies etc .. and yep not let those two out together and keep them away from each other as much as possible...then PRAY,...

IF she has a mirror remove it and i think you know no shreddie toys of anytype.

does she seem to be at her cuttlebone or mineral block more YET??? Some will start to pay more attention to those and some wont, so im just wondering.

could also be why she maybe getting a bit more nippy ????? possibly?????

you didnt say...but...is that a different camera thats taking those lovely pics then what you used months ago??? Or did you figure out the settings to improve the pics...

ok just got up in the middle of the nite YOU know me and how i am about that giggle...cant seem to break the habit.

just watch her poops for any changes and her moods as well...with peppers bird she not only just was coming out of a major moult but then decided she wanted to lay a egg which from all that protein being absorbed from both thank gawd she laid only one egg but even at that it was a bit soft pepper said so she got really lucky that the bird didnt become eggbound as a result...and trust me when i tell you peppers bird was already on a LOT of protein but the two incidents back to back obviously took a lot from that bird ...who btw she almost lost too due to breeders mishandling during hand feeding...sighhhhhh dont know what to do with you guys...giggle

i suspect your guys must be about ready for a major moult as well...so protein levels for about three weeks into MID major moult should get a bump in their diets when they do...

like i said PRAYYYYY LOL...seems the girls in the keet world are being a little over the top out there lately in behaviour issues.

EDIT back to edit again here ...what else is new...lol

also, i know marley being handfed and raised maybe letting you touch her or hold or grab her more than your avg. bird and any stimulation from YOU needs to be watched too lol...dont go stroking that bird now GIGGLE...so MAMA best watch her actions too...and WE know how MAMA is LOL in fact it maybe YOU more than phoenix ...im cracking up here...is bringing her into this insane state of mind.

LOL Ty hun.

No mirrors, never used those.
Same camera, just takes a lot better pics in natural sunlight...and their cages are buy the windows.
Will reduce the light, although she hates bedtime now - always gets vocal when she's fist covered lol.
I had started to slowly add the hulled hemp into their mix, as they are starting to moult, I see quite a few feathers at the end of the day.
She's always been nippy lol.

I'll take all your advice Thanks

well normally lol i dont think these birds know what that means but...normally its only for about midway thru a major moult you would need to up the protein for three weeks but marley being a lil feather duster needs more anyway...

so she got nippy eh...well it may just increase or become a harder nip than normal...she is probably really confused too tween you and phoenix giving her all that attention and yet NOTHING happening she maybe bound to become jes a weeee bit frustrated...if you catch my drift...ok good luck its time for me to try to grab a few more winks...

tc...waves to the kids ...

Oh I spotted that cere right away and thought "oh-oh". Birdie's cere didn't begin to look anything like that when she surprised me with her egg! No crustiness at all, just barely a bit darker on the sides, not enough to really notice until 'after' the egg.

Marley, Birdie has always been a bit nippy too, but she got a lot more protective of her cage before laying the egg. Also more protective of anything she was playing with (or destroying) outside of her cage. She didn't want my hand to come near anything "she" had. Plus her poops had gotten gigantic!! About the size of a quarter.

Her egg wasn't soft at all, but it did have a dent in it. I think she had probably played with it or picked it up and dropped it cause the dent was as if it had landed hard. In fact, I was pressing on it to see if there 'were' any soft spots when I pressed to close to the dent and it exploded in my hand.

I was lucky in that she just had the one egg, she was seven and a half months old when she laid it.

Even though supervised, your two could ummmm, *connect* quicker than you could get to them to disconnect them so I sure wouldn't let them have any out time together if I were you as long as her cere is even the least bit crusty/dark.

Hope she doesn't make you a Gramma before your time.

lol thanks guys.

Yeah I've not let them out together since, although neither of them like it at ALL. They screech all the time now if one is out then the other just doesn't shut up. Even if I do put a cover on them or move them into a different room, if I do move them then the one that is out starts screeching. When I let one out, it simply flys to the other's cage and sits there and they "kiss" through the bars....*sighs. Although yesterday when I looked over Pheonix was on the side of the Marley's cage (outside) and Marley was pressed against him on the inside of her cage.....Tell me they can't...Errr, "you know" through the bars right? LOL.

Pepper, I definately notice Marley is possessive of her cage lately, but not with Pheonix? She's always been a bossy boots iwth him, but no more than usual? But if myself or my hubby goes itno the cage to change food/water/clean etc she is forever chasing our hand all over the chage to nip us....although on our fingers or shoulders or head (LOL) she's fine....

The joys of horny teenagers hehehehh

and NO...I'm too young to be a grandma!

LOL at thru the bars...its unlikely they would try but NOT impossible for the deed to be done if the connection is made. What needs to be really the consideration here is they are still in a stimulation mode and thats enough for marley to decide to want to lay eggs fertile or not.

and of course screeching will be a jealous issue where one is out and being able to be or get into mischief while the other has to be a onlooker...and a cover wouldnt make any difference as they can still call their frustrations out to each other...and MAY make them all the more determined to screech lol...its gonna be one of those times when you will have to figure out a solution but at least they are now separated...so there wont be any babies however,,,as long as visiting continues with each other the stimulation is stilll going onnnn giggle.

you may have to put them in completely different rooms and let the one that is in a different room get adjusted for out time flying to keep them separated and not visit...

and btw it can take a few months for them to come back to normal and not be in a breeding state of mind...you will know this when you see her cere go back to normal...the males cere can even become much deeper and brighter when in that frame of mind...

Cappys got realllly deep in color when he did and he doesnt have a female so you see ...its not just a female thing here and WOW just ask pepper or kk what i went thru on that being territorial of his cage geeeeeeeeeeesh...

once i figured out what the heck was his issue i realized i missed all the signs leading up to it...for him being a single male bird he got rather amorous overly so with a couple of different toys he had...i couldnt even go near them OUTSIDE the cage never mind IN it...

and this bird was NEVER a lunging lunatic out for blood till he came into breeding status...so he and i had a little lesson on who was ALPA because i was gonna feed water clean or what ever in that cage without him ready to have me for lunch giggle...

i decided or rather we decided the only spot in that cage i would allow him to be in charge of was when he was on his swing...any other area was equal domain...lol...

and let me tell you these lil birds can be VERY determined as it took a entire afternoon NON STOP of proving just who was ALPA and re-establishing the pecking order in the right way.

thing is now...i know...he wont ever forget THAT afternoon because of how he STILL behaves now an has that look every time of respect when i mess with his errrrm favorite errrm toys etc....sort of not tormenting but keeping that afternoons lessons fresh in his mind sort of thing...there is a mutual respect now...he knows he has to share his toys but its usually a short time and he has total command of his swing when on it lol and his cage is not totally HIS domain...its MINE too.

note the difference in cere color in these pics...you will see what i mean





gawd i just lost power then couldnt log in geeeeeesh

Now Miss Marley's cere is completely different today, no flakiness whatsoever. Just the brown tinge colouring? Does that mean she's not looking to mate now? Gosh budgies are so complicated lol, for such a simply bird!

Could I possible let them out together now? As Pheonix is showing signs of fretting, which is starting to give me a bit of a concern. Marley has adapted well to life out of his sight, but poor Pheonix is just so upset on a daily basis now. I feel like the worse birdie mummy around lol.

your not the worst birdie mommy and no that doesnt mean they are not up to doing the nasty you need to keep separated now they will get use to being that way...better than going thru this like switching a light switch on and offf on and offf...they mostly for marley that would be disasterous...this is what folks go thru with different sexed birds and need to expect this...and start right from the very beginning to have birds separate till they are absolutely sure of what they are and are not guessing...once its found out if they are different sexes this means a life apart...and thats just how it is...sorry i cant give better report about this...

and me thinks its their mommy who frets to much and that should be whats of concern giggle ...even if you brought the cages to the same room you saw what happens with visitations so thats out of the picture as well...