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Vonn

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Hello everyone, I have just registered. I have a 5 month old budgie, my first! I have noticed that his beak seems to be growing longer and wondered if I should take him to the vet. I don't know how long too long is and don't want to waste the vet's time making an appointment for nothing. I have noticed that when I give him apple or broccilli he seems to struggle to bite off a bit to eat. I may be worrying about nothing as he is eating his seed (about two tablespoons a day and two sprigs of parsely as well.

 

Another question. Is it normal for a budgie to stretch it's neck and open it's mouth wide a few times in quick succession? Also I notice that my budgie opens and closes his mouth almost like panting but I don't think it is panting. He does it in the evenings after I have cleaned his cage. I take care not to frighten him as I clean his cage. I talk to him all the time and afterwards I sit close to his cage and talk to him quietly. I then notice that his beak is opening and closing. He does not open his beak wide, just a little.

 

Yet another question! My budgie spends virtually all of the day out of his cage and sits at the top of a tall house plant. He loves being right at the top and looking out of the window. He sings and chats away all day and when we are in the room he will fly at us. Why is he doing this? My husband feels he is looking for attention. He does seem to do it when we look away from him and stop chatting to him. I wondered if it was a dominance thing, though. He is not tame and won't sit on a finger/hand.

 

I could go on and on with questions but I think I have already overdone it!! Hope someone can help me.

 

Luv

 

Vonn

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Guest pixie25

Hi and welcome to the forums :bluebudgie:

 

about the beak - it sounds fine from your description but it would be extremely helpful if you could post a picture of it in the health forum and have some of our members give you an opinion. :oliveb: just to give you an idea this was a similar topic started recently with a picture to help you try and decide for yourself if you cant get a picture. click here

 

how long have you had your budgie for? a lot of people find that a new budgie will do this if he is scared. if you have only had him for a few weeks he will still be quite scared of you, especially when you invade his safe place by putting your hands in the cage - its nothing to worry about and as he gets tamer he will stop doing this. you only need to see a vet about it if you notice very heavy tail bobbing with it or mucus or sneezing.

 

you should check that the house plant he perches on is safe for budgies. your budgie is flying up high because he isnt tame and thats where he naturally feels safest. budgies are loud and squawky by nature - as they are a member of the parrot family. hes probably having a mad half hour. if he is alone he will need more interaction as budgies are extremely social.

 

if he wont sit on your finger yet. get a spare dowel perch and lightly press it into his tummy when he has calmed down and get him to step up on it several times. once he starts doing it and does it more and more it will be much easier for him to accept your finger as a safe perch in the same way. if you search the forums for taming you should get loads come up too :D

 

hope that answers some of your questions, looking forward to hearing more about your budgie.

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Hi and welcome! Please don't worry about asking questions, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask! A lot of my knowledge has come from reading answers to questions that people have asked, so each question serves to educate us all.

We love pictures, so please post some!

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Welcome Aboard, I just joined recently. We have 1 budgie, named Pretty, and I have learned so much here :bluebudgie:. Enjoy reading and interacting.

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Welcome to the forums! :bluebudgie:

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Thanks so much for all the welcoming posts and info. I tried to take a photo of Luke but he panics at the sight of the camera (or anything new to him ) I tried to take it in his cage but he flapped about so I thought I would wait till he was calm and in his favourite spot on the houseplant. As soon as he saw the camera he flew about the room in a panic. He is such a nervous little bird. By the way, the house plant is a Swiss Cheese plant (Monsteria deliciousa). Is this plant safe for him?

 

I have had him for about 10 weeks now and at first I kept him in his cage and tried to tame him. I put my hand in his cage for a few minutes each day for a couple of weeks. He never got used to it and as it upset him, I stopped doing it. He was frightened by toys ( have a whole bag of exciting toys for him!!) so I only put one toy in his cage and that's after leaving the toy outside his cage for a few days before so that he could look at it. He does answer us if we whistle to him and gets excited when we are in the room with him. He really is sweet and when I put my face close to his cage and talk quietly to him, he will listen attentively and then answer back in a quiet chirrup - adorable! My vet wanted him to eat organic pellets but Luke would not even try them. I mixed them with his Trill and he would throw them out. I took his Trill away after his breakfast and just offered him the pellets but he just starved himself all day and could hardly wait to get to his Trill at the end of the day. My vet wanted me to perservere but I got upset that he was going hungry all day and stopped doing this. Luckily I found that if I put vegetables on the leaves of the Swiss cheese plant, then he will eat them. He won't eat them anywhere else.

 

I wish I could tame him as I would love to have him sit on my finger or just be on the same level as us. It would probably take a very long time to tame him as he is so nervous. I follow a strict routine with him so that he always knows what is coming next. I even clean his cage in a set order which he has come to recognise and makes him less nervous.

 

Thanks once again for the replies and the welcome.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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Hello Vonn and welcome,

If you want him to be a bit tamer you really need to start from square one with him in his cage. Look back at the topics on this. Use millet only as a bribe for when you want him to be near you. If you want to let him out for exercise then do it in a small room-the bathroom? where you are the only familiar thing to him and you can easily reach him wherever he perches.Close all windows and doors and the toilet lid too.

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Hello Vonn and welcome,

If you want him to be a bit tamer you really need to start from square one with him in his cage. Look back at the topics on this. Use millet only as a bribe for when you want him to be near you. If you want to let him out for exercise then do it in a small room-the bathroom? where you are the only familiar thing to him and you can easily reach him wherever he perches.Close all windows and doors and the toilet lid too.

 

 

 

Hello Julie

 

Thanks so much for the welcome and the advice. I will have a look at the topics on taming. Won't he get very depressed if I no longer allow him out of the cage to perch in his favourite position? He gets so excited when we get him up and open his cage. He seldom sings when in his cage and sits quietly doing virtually nothing, all day which is why I decided to let him out. He comes to life once he is out of his cage. He sings and chats away, plays with the string toy and tries acrobatics by hanging upside down etc. He loves watching the other birds in the garden. He squawks loudly at the pidgeons,magpies and blackbirds as he finds then too big and scary. He is very obedient about going back into his cage, which I find surprising. I hold out a perch (long bamboo cane) and at first he used to get on it but now when he sees me pick it up and show it to him, he realises what I want and goes to his cage immediately. I feel so torn as I love seeing him so happy but I really want him to be tame too.

 

Thanks again

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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Always a difficult one this Vonn!

Some people are not bothered about having a truly and fully tame bird,they feel just as much pleasure out of seeing the bird happy in it's own natural way which yours seems to be right now!

The final choice is yours though.If you want him to be a bit tamer (and I quite understand this) then I'm sure the only way is as I said before. He won't get depressed and actually you can still let him out for his favourite fly and perch but also spend a lot of time on the taming in a smaller room.

 

He sounds to be a lovely happy little thing either way!

 

I'm afraid you are the only one who can decide which way to go but I don't see why you can't have the best of both worlds if you have the time to try and start from square one again. Little and often is far better than one or two long boring sessions.

He can still have his free time out too!

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Welcome to the forum Vonn. Sounds like you have a wonderful little budgie. If possible leave the camera in the room so he starts to get use to it as a picture of his beak would help greatly. Has he access to cuttlefish or something similar which would help him grind/sharpen his beak.

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Thanks for the quick reply, Julie. Perhaps I could take him into the bathroom each morning for about 20 minutes or so? Won't he just sit as far away from me as possible and just look at me accusingly! Will it make him distrust me? Should I try and get a little closer to him each day or wait for him to come closer to me? I think I would like to give it a try for a while, but if he gets very upset I will just accept that he won't be a tame budgie. We love him to bits and so enjoy having him around - we hate it when it is time for him to go to sleep!!

 

Hello Featheredpets - thanks very much for the welcome. That's such a good idea about leaving the camera in the room for him to get used to. I never thought of it for some reason. I do that with his toys. It takes weeks for him to get used to them, though. I will start putting the camera in the room with him tomorrow and hopefully I will soon be able to take pics.of him. I really do think his beak is a bit long and feel very tempted to take him to the vet. It is hard to see if it really is overgrown because the end of the beak seems to be amongst his feathers. It curves down into his feathers. He seems to manage to eat okay. Today he ate the whole broccilli sprig, stem and all!! Hope he won't have an upset tummy tomorrow. He has got a cuttlefish and a calcium block but he has never gone near either of them. His beak looks longer than the budgies pictured on this forum. He has always used his beak very delicately. When he plays with the string toy he likes, he seems to preen the string gently. He also eats his fresh food very gently and carefully. Perhaps he is just a gentle soul?

 

Thanks again for the replies.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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Just thought I would let you know - Luke opened his little mouth wide today, just for a second, and I was able to see his beak in profile and it is definitely too long. I am making an appointment with the avian vet next week to get him to clip it.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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:P Hi Vonn, it does sound that his beak length is too much, he could have an endocrine disorder so get him off to the vet to check it out, most likely the vet will clip it. Patience is what it takes, not all my budgies are tame but they are rescue birds. Sounds like you are doing the right things so he will come along. Had some beautiful tame budgies before but even he doesn't get tame, he will provide with you lovely singing and companionship, perservere!! :)
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Hello Vonn

Welcome

About the panting. When he pants, does he open his beak each time he pants or does he hold it open to whole time? Because I have a budgie that looks as if she is panting, when she does it she sort of opens and closes her beak for each pant, but she has been doing it for years.

 

When you go to the vet, mention this, because it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

But he probably pants just because he is just a little nervous. They all do it when they get a little excited. :dbb1:

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Thanks for the replies, Phoebe and Sailorwolf. I hope he hasn't got an endocrine disorder - is this serious? When I saw his beak in profile yesterday I realised it is much longer than other budgies I have seen. I will be taking him to the avian vet next week. Just wish he would use his cuttlefish. I bought him some balsa wood toys which he does chew but, obviously, they are not sufficient. Oh I do hope he doen't have anything seriously wrong with him!

 

Sailorwolf, he does open and shut his beak as you describe. What a relief to hear they all do this. Thanks so much for letting me know.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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:glare: Let us know what the avian vet says, hopefully it is just a onetime weird thing. :wub:

 

I will let you know once he has been to the vet.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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Guest pixie25

an overgrown beak is often a sign of liver problems, but can be treated and also nutrition can help a great deal.

 

hope its nothing serious, and all goes well.

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an overgrown beak is often a sign of liver problems, but can be treated and also nutrition can help a great deal.

 

hope its nothing serious, and all goes well.

 

 

Relieved to hear it can be treated should it be a liver problem. Thanks, too, for the good wishes.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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However do mention the panting to the vet when you go there, just in case, because it may be slightly different to my description etc. and it doesn't hurt to be safe and ask.

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However do mention the panting to the vet when you go there, just in case, because it may be slightly different to my description etc. and it doesn't hurt to be safe and ask.

 

I will do that, Sailorwolf, thanks. My vet is away at the moment but I will be seeing him as soon as he returns. Meanwhile Luke has been chewing away at his cuttlefish bone (after totally ignoring it all the time I have had him) and has already reduced his overgrown beak! He just suddenly started to nibble it and then he hardly left it alone. He seems fine and very happy, chirpy, active and eating well, so I am not too worried. Nevertheless, as you say it doesn't hurt to be safe and I will get him checked over.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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:) Hello Vonn,

Just reading your post about your Budgie panting, I had this with one of my birds a few years ago and it was infact mites in his air sacks, he was doing exactly as you are explaining and had to go on a course of antibiotics, if its left untreated it only gets worse.. the bird starts to pant as its not getting enough air into its sacks because the space is being taken up with the mites.. sounds yucky but antibiotics cleared it up.. Just thought id share

Cheers :beer:

Una

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:blush: Hello Vonn,

Just reading your post about your Budgie panting, I had this with one of my birds a few years ago and it was infact mites in his air sacks, he was doing exactly as you are explaining and had to go on a course of antibiotics, if its left untreated it only gets worse.. the bird starts to pant as its not getting enough air into its sacks because the space is being taken up with the mites.. sounds yucky but antibiotics cleared it up.. Just thought id share

Cheers :beer:

Una

 

Hi Una

 

Thanks so much for letting me know about this condition. I will get him checked over as soon as possible. Luke has been doing it far less of late so I was beginning not to worry about it any more. At the moment he seems very well. He is very active, chirpy and happy. Nevertheless you cannot take chances with these little birds. They can go downhill, healthwise, so quickly.

 

Thanks again, I am really grateful for this information.

 

Luv

 

Vonn xxx

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:) No Problem Vonn,

The only symptom my bird had was his gasping for air (like a little yawn over and over again) and he would almost be on his tippy toes while doing it, with neck stretched out as far as it could go.. Obviously after doing this for a little while he got lethargic, but otherwise seemed fine.. Do keep it in the back of your mind and ask the vet to check it out..

Make sure you let us know how your little fella is going and what the vet has said..

Cheers :beer:

Una

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:D No Problem Vonn,

The only symptom my bird had was his gasping for air (like a little yawn over and over again) and he would almost be on his tippy toes while doing it, with neck stretched out as far as it could go.. Obviously after doing this for a little while he got lethargic, but otherwise seemed fine.. Do keep it in the back of your mind and ask the vet to check it out..

Make sure you let us know how your little fella is going and what the vet has said..

Cheers :beer:

Una

 

Just what Luke does - although he isn't on his tippy toes really, just stretches his neck out forwards with his mouth wide open. He does it about 6 times (+-) and then he is fine again. It almost looks like something is stuck in his neck and he is trying to get it down. I wondered if it was anything to do with his crop. Anyway, as I said, he is doing it far less now.

 

 

I won't forget to let you know what the vet has to say. Thanks again, Una.

 

Love

 

Vonn xxx

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