There's no place like home, sweet budgie home

I've been procastinating. Certainly nothing new. About two months ago, now, we purchased a larger bird house, to replace the two houses we've been using. Splitting the kids up during the day when we're at work, or out of the house for one reason or another. At night, occasionally, they pair up as well. Although, more often Miss Pixel has her own place, and the boys share a budgie bachelor pad.

It's a lot of upkeep, two houses. And, I thought it would be nicer for them to all be together in one house, albeit one with plenty of room for each to spread out. They really like their own little "space" at night time.

So, we bought the bigger house and I put it on my desk, and put the big playgym on it, so the birds would get used to it. They enjoyed the big playgym there, but had no interest in climbing down and inside the new house. Even after I'd filled it up with toys and food.

So, now, finally, I decided it was time to make the move. I would clean all of the houses, and rearrange things, so the new house took the place, literally, of the original two. I moved Tori's house over to the desk, so as not to traumatize them, and shifted the playgyms around a bit. They seemed okay with the playgym shift, but, once again, had no interest in checking out the new digs. I convinced Tori to go in for a minute or two. Long enough for a snack. Pumpkin sat on a perch for about 30 seconds, and that was it. I'm worried. This is going to be difficult. I can't get Miss Pixel or Texter to go near the door. They keep flying off.

So, last night, all four of them slept in Tori's house. It was a little crowded, since they all want to sleep in the same spot. So, there was a bit of a tussle once they were tucked in. Not for too long, though.

Today I worked, but Joe was home, so they were out all day. Joe said they didn't go inside the new house at all. They did go into Tori's house for snacks.

Tonight I tweaked the set up a little bit. Put fresh food and water in the new place, and when it was time to tuck them in, that's where I placed each one of them. To my surprise, little resistance. In fact, they all found a comfy spot, and within minutes were chirping at me to turn on the night-night music and turn out the lights. They are all now sound asleep.

I made this out to be such a big deal. I was so worried about traumatizing them. Parakeets are not the most comfortable with surprises. They like time to adapt to things. If you put a new toy on a playgym, they will stay away from it for a while. Won't go near it. So, I thought this would be a long drawn-out process.

Perhaps having the house sitting on my desk did help them acclimate a bit after all.

Of course, there's always tomorrow. They may revolt.