Now I'm feeling kinda inspired... after all, they make it look so much FUN.

I'll be back later to let you all know how my experiment worked out.

Ok, so the Waffles/Coyote pairing didn't work out as intended. The budgies just kept calling to one another endlessly, driving us all insane. My house is too small to separate them far enough so they can't hear one another, unless I put the budgies in the Arizona room, which isn't a great option.

So now, I put their entire cage out next to Coyote's cage every day and bring him out to his day cage every morning and while I'm home, I let them all out to play.

As time goes on, it's fun and interesting to see how their relationships evolve. At first, Cloud (budgie and my lone female), who hates everyone (including Waffles and Ninja, my other two budgies) was entranced by Coyote which made me laugh and laugh. She hates EVERYTHING but it was like her eyes turned into little hearts when she first met Coyote. She's still interested in him and follows him around a bit but she's gotten the hint that he's just not into her like that and she's more or less back to her hating everything normal self.

It's interesting, because before I got Waffles, Cloud and Ninja were pretty closely bonded and would preen each other and feed each other... but once they stopped ostracizing Waffles, for whatever reason, Cloud decided she disliked both of them and now Waffles and Ninja preen and court each other while she just rubs her vent on the side of the cage all day, ignoring them. Haha, so weird.

Coyote is interested in the budgies. At first, he didn't like them, but now he actively enters their cage and sings IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT BANG YOUR BEAK ON THINGS LIKE THIS right to their little faces to the point that the budgie he's singing to is pulling his face back because Coyote is totally invading the other bird's personal space. That's funny to watch and makes us all laugh.

When they're all out, the budgies like to mainly hop back and forth from the outside of their cage to the top of Coyote's cage and so I set up a bunch of toys and stuff for them to play with and they all love it. That's fun to watch.

I use the bath tub (it's that clear, light blue one that you hook up to the side of the cage, can't remember name of it but it's a popular one) as a bath sometimes but now mainly I use it to pour Coyote's food into when he's out of the cage since he rarely re-enters his cage to eat. The budgies loooooove eating his food, so I make a little extra now. They eat very similar diets (I mix stuff up and the main difference is that the budgies' food mix has smaller pellets and budgie seed as opposed to Coyote's larger pellets and his fancy cockatiel seed mix), so I don't think it matters much that they eat his food. He also has his separate bowls of Nutriberries which he loves and they ignore, so I don't worry about the budgies keeping him from his food. He's also gotten more confident with telling them where to stick it when he's eating and they try to join in.

The only hard part is that the budgies aren't tame (and frankly, I've given up on trying, they're fine with this arrangement) and once they all ended up inside Coyote's cage and it was a little bit of drama getting them all back into their own cage because they are STUPID AND DUMB and/or they are just PAINS IN THE BUTT. I ended up having to catch each of them by hand and putting them directly back into their own cage and Cloud bites hard!

Cloud is a stinker, but I think she's an interesting little thing because she actually sings more than Waffles does. This seems like it may be unique, since she's a girl. I understand that lots of girl budgies sing, but she actually sings more and more intricately than another male budgie... that just seems unique to me. Plus, I sort of love how she hates everything and is so rude. I guess I can relate.

Anywho, that's my big, boring bird update!

I'm just happy they're all together now and Coyote has someone to yell at while I'm at work. Plus, I'm glad that the budgies are back in the living room so I can enjoy watching their antics again and the Coyote/budgie interactions are so often so truly funny, it's better than TV.

Oh, as for Coyote, he's now got the whistle part to "Sitting on the dock of the bay" pretty much down (and also sings that loudly right into the budgies' faces, because I guess he thinks they'll be impressed. They're not.) He's clearly the most talented cockatiel on the face of the planet, hands down.

I didn't realize it was possible for a cockatiel to invade a budgie's personal space lol. I always think of budgies as the ultimate "in your face" bird. The males at least are always getting in other birds' faces to do their song and dance routine.

I know! They're so funny, I love when Waffles or Ninja do that, sing at one another like 5 millimeters from the other's face while the other one stretches their head back as far as it can go.

I think Coyote is handling them well when they try to invade his food bowl while he's eating. He used to be intimidated by them and unsure of how to deal with them. Now, he will hiss and lunge a bit and if it's just one budgie, particularly Ninja, he may even allow one to eat along with him. If they gang up on him though, he eventually loses because they come at him from all sides. Not aggressive towards him, just coming at the food bowl from 3 different sides so he can't fend them all off.

It's like a gentle version of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom around here some evenings.

OH GOD. Ninja is inside Coyote's cage. This is how it started last time. Stupid Ninja found his way inside Coyote's cage and then stupid Ninja couldn't find his way back out despite three large openings, so now it's just a matter of time until the other two stupid budgies (who are stressed out about him being inside and them being outside) figure out how to get inside and then also find themselves stuck, unable to figure out how to get back out. GOOD GOD WHY MUST THEY BE SO SMART AND STUPID AT THE SAME TIME.

Carolyn, you've seen my cage, you know how it has the sorta pointy, swoopy edges at the top? They all end up there with their heads crammed in the corner thinking that if they just cram it in hard enough, they'll somehow transport themselves out of the cage. SO DUMB

Edit: Coyote, on the other hand, is a frickin' Einstein. Even though I only leave one little door open on the budgie's cage and he can barely fit through it, he knows exactly how to get in and out. HE never gets stuck. HE understands that if he crams his head somewhere, it's just a stupid thing to do. HE understands the concept of "inside" the cage vs "outside" the cage.

Maybe you should just let the budgies sleep inside Coyote's cage and he can sleep in their cage. My birds always seem to think that somebody else's cage is more desirable anyway.

Ninja magically figured his way out. Miracles apparently do happen.

If he did it once he'll probably be able to do it again in the future, and he can show the other budgies how it's done.

Aren't birds clever, on times....
My budgie has yet to find his way into the tiels cage... he cant cos' the bar spacing is to tight... but he still tries!