I guess it's time for an update. I keep trying for a cute picture of the two of them so I can change my avatar, but no luck so far.
I had mentioned that I'm going to be traveling for a week and don't have anyone I trust to care for birds. Usual bird sitter will be with me in RV! So I need to get both birds into the smaller cage so we can put them inside the RV. Well...wow! Maybe I'll come back to that.
Good things: Jewel is happily eating pellets, has Frost now eating both LeFebre and Roundybush (used to turn up his beak at the RB ones) because she does. She prefers the little Roundybush ones. She LOVES greens. I had a bunch of carrots with the green tops--not always easy to find here. I hung a large, wet bunch on the side of the cage and she went berserk--in a happy way. She climbed into the middle. Got wet. Flung water drops. Peeked out (oh, so funny--all I could see was her little yellow face--I tried so hard to get a pic!) and climbed all over them, hung upside down, flapped wings....chomping greens all the while! Recently I didn't have anything but a few wilted celery leaves, but I put them in a dish and she headed right for them. Plopped her whole self into the dish while Frost hollered at her. Then ate a little and carried some around in her beak for a while, then flung some on the cage floor. Hopped down and nibbled those, so Frost decided to join her. She was having none of that. She grabbed the little bunch of leaves and ran madly around the cage floor with it, Frost chasing her and squawking. Hilarious!
As for their relationship, its good. They do what happy budgie pairs do, but they do squabble several times a day. Packer and Frost never did. Baby bird Jewel is already the boss, mostly.
I have two coconuts in the cage that I'll take out one of these days when she's older, and she eventually started exploring. She loves jumping in and swinging them. She tried out all the perches (something Frost has NEVER done--such a chicken!) so then he did too. She plays, chomps chewy toys, rips apart cotton things, and so on. So now Frost is becoming less of a perch potato and he's chomping and exploring more too.
Odd things: She was pretty friendly in the little cage. No stepping up, but quickly hopped on my hand for seed, pecked me gently, etc. Then in the big cage it all reversed. She got timid. And FROST started being more willing to hop on my hand for seed (about time after being here a year!) and will usually go first. It's like he suddenly decided that at least for this one thing he was going to show the baby bird how it's done. HA!
Challenging things: Jewel is pretty awesome. She is brave and feisty and adventuresome and she wants to fly so badly! Like when she flung herself out and on to Frost's big cage, and when SHE went to him (first trying to fly and then madly running across a the big living room floor) instead of the other way around when I was trying to get him to come to the small cage to meet her up close and personal.
I really do need to get them into the small cage for the trip of course, but also I can take them into a small room (big cage is kinda impossible) because she does get out. She's one determined little thing. I've followed her around on the floor more than once, kind of steering her away from where she shouldn't go. The ways she gets back up and inside of the big cage kind of amaze me. It will be interesting to see what happens she she gets those flight feathers.
Right now, Jewel is quietly sitting inside the big cage recuperating from a run around the floor and a few attempts to get up and back inside the cage, and Frost is on a window top, chirping happily. The small cage is nearby with the food, water and some millet. Empty for now. Cage doors are open. I am trying to be patient.
Oh, just as I was posting they both ended up on TOP of the little cage. They are both eating millet from the top. Sigh. Close though. I know you can't see the angle, but there is some space between the two cages. And a rope perch and a ladder....