Winnie and Wendy: ongoing thread

Its officially week 2 of Winston and Wendy coming home. I've managed to read some of the info and threads on this site, which i feel has really helped! Today I coaxed Wendy down to the bottom of the cage with Winston to forage for some fresh greens, which she proceeded to drag up her ladder - zoomies style. This will eventually also act as their bird bath, and they seem comfy with it so thats great!




Winston has learnt to jump on my hand for millet, woot! He even managed a few step ups. They are crazy for millet, not so much for fruit and veg yet but slowly they will find other things they like.

It was also the first time out of their cage, Wendy flew to the top of the shelf, and must have liked the sound it made because she did a few playfull little jumps! tik tik tik. it was so funny. Getting her back was easy with millet. Time to find a new spot for some of my houseplants.

It's now week 3 and Winston and Wendy have settled into a little routine. Winston likes to sleep in, whilst Wendy is generally up early wrestling with her loofah toy. They always eat together.



I don't know why I was worried about them taking to their veggies - they officially adore them! Winston's favourites are corn and yellow capsicum (anything yellow like himself?) and Wendy loves herbs, mostly basil and parsley. They seem to just throw the lettuce around, which is fine. Here they are with their new shallow coop cup they love to hop into:



They had their first bath, in their Ikea Parsley embellished side plate of course 😆:



They currently prefer the comfort of their cage, now decked out with natural perches and a few more toys (who knew buying budgie toys is so addictive!) - I assume this indicates they approve of their space? I've placed some perches outside the door to give them the hint they have a choice, but the days are short (Winter here), so 'open door' time has been limited. Any deas on getting them interested in free time?... perhaps just time will tell. Here is Wendy, Inquisitive but tentative at the same time:



And over the weekend enjoying some millet on my desk:



I better stop 😄, too many photos. They are just so adorable.

My bird Luxie was a “cage-body” for several months, and still sometimes has days of just preferring the cage. But she did start exploring perches I put outside, especially one I put on door that would swing open when I opened the door. She could sit on it and sort of be in and out of the cage at the same time—I called it her “porch perch” because it was like she would go out on to the porch to just sit and people/bird/watch.

Let’s see, what else for encouraging outside-cage free time? I would put toys on top of the cage, and I got one of the natural grass woven mats I’ve seen that I think is supposed to be used as a kind of hammock-swing-type thing? I clipped that to the outside side of the cage with one end a little bit on the cage top to initially make it easier for her to get up to the top of the cage while she figured out how to get around. She climbs up and down if I’m sitting and working on that side of the cage. I also have a little play gym that I put in front of the cage when the door is open, so that there are immediate things-to-play-and-explore there. Early on I thought for a while she was just going to be forever inside the cage even with the door open, but gradualy over the course of months, almost without me noticing, she will now be playing on top of the cage, sitting outside on one of the perches, doing bird-zoomies around the room, or checking out the “office” (that’s my desk) veggie dish

I also do food foraging enrichment, where I put a portion of the day’s seeds at the bottom of the cage, and so sometimes I put a few scattered seeds in places I would like her to explore. I did this when I first got the little playground to help teach her it was her space, That has also seemed to encourage out-of-cage exploration—though grain of salt, Luxie did just discover the magic of floor crumbs (I don’t put her on the floor as I don’t want to inadvertently step on her, but sometimes she finds her way there regardless), so I’ll be vacuuming a bit more often…

It's now around week 5 since Wendy and Winston joined the family. Its been a busy few weeks at work, but they are doing great. Winston is going through a moult, and has little blobs of bright yellow coming through. He is a bit moody so I've given them lots of space.



There has been a bit of mild squabbling between the two, ever since I noticed Winston's moult, so not sure if that what it is?...but I'm watching them closely and neither seem to bully, and still preen each other and allow each other to eat and drink etc so will see how it goes.

They are also getting more comfy coming out, they usually have a few laps and then head back to the cage, but Wendy fell asleep outside today so a good sign.



Also note the porch perch, great idea 😆



So cute!

So I think this may be one of my final posts on this ongoing thread. The biggest update is Winnie and Wendy are both females! Phew.

It's amazing how quickly their ceres have turned brown, almost overnight. They are also still going through a moult and Winnie is a much brighter yellow now, so cute.




Winnie prefers the cage still, but Wendy loves to explore:



They were squabbling a bit, but I bought a bigger cage which easily divides, put double feeders/waters in, similar toys on each end, and rotate things around which definitely helps! They tend to stay on opposite ends, which works fine.

I hope they can continue to live in harmony!

All the best everyone!