Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Unflip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 10 11

Original poster

the kids have named the baby budgie....

261 replies

gussiegrips · 15/10/2013 20:38

For reasons which have passed me by, we seem to be having to hand rear a baby budgie.

It is very small and wasn't responding well yesterday. It appears to have grey feathers, like it's dad.

I warned the kids that it was likely to die, and they were not, under any circumstances to give it a name not after the rabbit debacle.

Naturally, I overheard "well, he's grey. We should name him after something to do with grey".

uh oh

"Graeme"

Graeme the budgie. So named, because he's grey. Hope the fecker lives now. Cheered me up no end.

Graeme.

OP posts:

Mysa74 · 05/07/2018 07:20

He could still be nibbling the OPs feet and playing connect 4 Binky, my parents rescue budgies lived with them for t leaver 8 or 9 years and they weren't freshly hatched when they arrived. Not sure about a budgie discribed by the vet as a runt though... Hopefully they last longer :-)

BinkyTheBlinky · 04/07/2018 22:38

Lovely thread.

I’d ask how Graeme is these days...but I have no idea how long budgies live and I want to avoid a foot-in-mouth situation

Aridane · 03/07/2018 22:01

UterusUterusGhali · 29/01/2014 15:59

Oh what a wonderful thread! And little Graeme's all grown up!

I am also doing my pfe's regularly, and I've just instructed my 11yo dd on doing hers, much to her mortification.

Original poster

gussiegrips · 27/01/2014 12:39

Kids are weird, Dizzy, that's for sure.

Our wee Graeme's ticking along. He's an adult now, and I'm glad to say that his floppy foot has regained strength. He still flies squint, but, is doing absolutely fine.

I've decided that he was worth the effort.

So, once the better weather comes in I'm hoping he'll make it out to the aviary. We'll miss him inside, but, he'll be a lot happier with some budgie pals.

Meanwhile:
skateboarding: disaster
connect 4: will lift the pieces
Flying to finger: only if you bribe him with millet
being kind to the tortoise: nope, he's for nibbling.

We're supposed to be getting a praying mantis. DD is bug mad, and has worked it all out. Including how to "cultivate" fruit flies. Breedign flies in my house? This isn't how I saw my family going.

I don't know how this keeps happening to me.

OP posts:

DizzyZebra · 23/01/2014 17:22

The rabbit story at the beginning has made me very happy, as it appears my daughter is not alone in her strangeness.

My mums dog died recently. Upon telling my brothers daughter, Brothers daughter promptly burst into tears and started wailing 'But i don't want percy to be dead' (The dogs name was not percy) and went hysterical as you expect a 3 year old to.

My daughter on the other hand, Didn't show so much as a flicker of sadness. My mum told her that she had gone, and my daughter asked what my mum had done with her now that she is dead. My mum said she is buried in the garden. My daughters response;
"Well, Can we dig it up then, I'd like to see what it looks like" (IT, Not she, IT).

OohAahBird · 19/01/2014 16:39

Thank you gussie, also very much enjoyed all that, with timely reminders to do my physio exercises thrown in
Am seeing a specialist women's health physio at the moment. Apparently I have good technique, but not really a skill you can brag about down the pub as such!
Am so glad I am having this now after 3 DC cause having a convo with someone whose hand is up your bits while they assess damage has to be the most surreal thing I have ever done...

Toomuch2young · 07/01/2014 19:12

This is my first hearings of Graeme and the cannibal rabbits and have to say your story telling is brilliant!

Can you write a book? Fifty shades of Graeme I think was a suggested title! What a handsome wee chap he is as well!

Best entertainment all day and so glad he's doing well.

Original poster

gussiegrips · 07/01/2014 19:00

Ha ha, he's a stupid bird, but, I'm delighted that you've all got to share in his cheery effect.

Am hugely amused at the notion of him emerging from the bathroom with a Beiber flick and a cloud of Brut over his head, like Linus.

Graeme was nonplussed by the Festivities, mainly because he was confined to barracks a lot. Too many wee people with a whole lot of love to give him - the tortoise was nearly squished flat by enthusiastic cuddles!

I am toying with the idea of breeding the budgies again - there's a bunch of folk at the school gate who'd like a pet bird for their kids, so, we'd be able to offload them. Wouldn't use Graeme though, I'm awfully fond of him, but, I doubt that he's a gene pool that should be continued. Mind, even the vet said he was a runt...

He's like the token sad bachelor on MatchDotCom. Destined to be forever unpartnered because of his unkempt appearance, scraggy physique, baldy bits and floppy, erm, foot.

OP posts:

DameDeepRedBetty · 07/01/2014 16:12

How did I miss this first time round???

Is Graeme going to stud gussie? Will the world have the joy of tiny Graemelets?

Earthymama · 02/01/2014 10:55

Thank you so much for this thread. DP has complained that she can't tell if I am reading this or Terry Pratchett.

With both I snort and giggle and insist on reading things aloud, out of context and with tears of laughter too.

After all the recent nonsense, such a treat. Real humour, doesn't need to be explained or excused.

I hope all the Gussie family and menagerie are well and that 2014 is a great year for all of you, esp Graeme of course.

LadyIsabellasHollyWreath · 01/01/2014 09:45

Just found this thread thanks to the "threads of the year" link. You should definitely do a pet-related standup set Gussie, especially the bit where the DC's classmates go off eating eggs.

it's now Hogmanay. Does this mean Graeme is sexually mature? Is he spending too long in the bathroom and coming out smelling of Lynx?

ThePearShapedToad · 01/01/2014 09:22

Abso-flipping-fantastic

How was Graeme's new year?

fanjofarrow · 31/12/2013 01:28

This thread is bloody marvellous. Graeme sounds cool!

MrsMot · 24/12/2013 18:58

Graeme's the budgie who just keeps on giving! Foot scrapes? Who needs a JML Pedi whatsit.

Hope you, dh and the little gussies (hesitating to call them gussettes for the obvious reason) have a lovely lively Christmas, you've made many a day of mine much brighter x

Original poster

gussiegrips · 24/12/2013 11:58

He's a classic? Dammit. That'll go right to his head.

I think it's safe to say that Graeme's made it. Not for being promoted to a Classic, but, as in not dying off. Huzzah.

He's not right, the flappy foot is unreliable and he's got a definite veer to the right in flight. If I were overthinking things I'd suggest that he's almost got a cerebral palsy presentation - developmental delay and one sided weakness. But, he's a bird, evidently with very little cerebral anything.

He likes to perch on the Christmas tree and pull the baubles off. And to sit on your head and nibble your hair. But, his favourite is definitely chewing heel skin, the harder the better, which he'll do in return for a bit of cheek scratching.

Remember the Baruffa Fish pedicure? If I breed enough Graemes we could have a chain, one in every shopping centre throughout the land?

Merry Christmas.

OP posts:

MrsMot · 19/12/2013 21:49

Hooray!!

MNHQ

AMyrryChristmasToAllMumsnet · 19/12/2013 15:28

We're pleased to announce the thread has made it to classics!

Let the celebrations commence!

kelper · 05/12/2013 17:45

This is a fabulous thread! My mum and dad have a tortoise with three legs, he terrorises the whole house but can no longer climb fences :D

throckenholt · 05/12/2013 14:01

gussie - I like your style :) A most entertaining lunch hour reading.

But - I can't see your profile (waaahhh) - I can see other people's but yours just has a big white empty space under the MyMumsent line :(

Spacefrog35 · 05/12/2013 12:11

Loving the idea of Graeme the Beauty Therapist. If his burgeoning Hollywood career fails to take off (much like Graeme) then perhaps you could set him up with one of those little stalls in the local Shopping Mall?

ZombieBelle · 05/12/2013 11:47

haha I'm rooting for the wee guy, my DH is a Graeme

ISawStrattersKissingSantaClaus · 05/12/2013 11:00

How have I missed this awesome thread?

I am loving all the tales of Graeme the budgie.

Original poster

gussiegrips · 05/12/2013 10:57

Tammy, I have decided that your dad was Terry Nutkins? I totally want a pet seal now.

I loved those books as a kid, might need to find them again for our animal-geek daughter. I've got a copy of ring of bright water for her, cannae wait, she'll love it.

She's been caught researching praying mantises...which seem to be easy to look after...sucker Our house is turning into a whole eco-system.

OP posts:

Original poster

gussiegrips · 05/12/2013 10:48

Graeme's great!

He's flying really quite well, landing is an issue what with the stupid foot and all. He seems to have some power in it because he can perch, but, the toes flail around when he walks so he kind of skips instead.

We're still doing BLW (budgie led weaning) - he gets formula food, but, from a dish rather than hand feeding (thank goodness, the novelty of that wore off some time ago) and he's got the hang of millet...

Which means he's bribe-able.

Which means the entire house is coated in a thin veneer of millet husks as the kids keep taking him upstairs to teach him tricks. So far he can ..... eat millet. Amazing.

I'm struggling with what to do with him. The medics have been clear that it's probably a bad idea to keep a bird in the house given that MiddleyGrip has unstable asthma (though, he's not allergic to feathers) - he really should go out into the aviary. Only, he doesn't see himself as a budgie.

If you've never had the joy of having your eyebrows done by a budgie, feel free to come round here he'll have a go at your witchy chin stubble too

OP posts:

Unflip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 10 11