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Rainbow

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Everything posted by Rainbow

  1. The closest I can think of when reading your description of 'pastel' and 'rainbow' is this: He was a pet store bird, so what his parents really looked like is unknown. However, he was a dilute (which translates to your 'pastel' description) and also a yellowface type 2 whitewing blue (which is a 'rainbow'). He was also dominant pied, and opaline, and I suspect violet or slate, as his rump was a teal-slate color. Most of him was a seafoam green due to the type 2 mutation, with pastel blue on his abdomen and his shell markings and spots were a very light grey. Is this what you had in mind? From my limited reading experience, they do not tend to win at shows., but are certainly a most beautiful bird.
  2. One thing you have to keep in mind is this: a bag of seed that may have been on the shelf for a year is nowhere near as nutritionally complete as a grass on the plains that is seeding. Unless you are able to grow your own variety of grasses and allow them to seed, then give them to your budgies while still on the plant.....you cannot duplicate the diet your bird would receive in the wild. You cannot duplicate all of the different foods your budgie might find in an average day in the wild. The best you can hope for is to offer enough of a variety that the available vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that your bird needs to thrive will be consumed in an average day in your home or aviary. Even a large aviary is nowhere near the real estate a wild budgie lives in. Wild birds fly for miles and miles daily in their search for food. Even if you provide many foraging opportunities for your bird (indoors or out) you still cannot conceivably duplicate the effort involved that wild birds experience or the foods they may find to make up their diet. Pellets can provide some of what they are missing, but science even now does not know exactly what that is. If you can get your bird to eat some pellets, great. No, pellets are not found in the wild, but then again, brooders, constant indoor temps, air conditioning, indoor heating, antibiotics or antifungals given to sick birds, and the fencing that makes up your aviary or cage is not found in their natural habitat either. These birds are designed to thrive in a hostile environment, and how many of us deliberately give our birds this type of environment? If they are sick, we treat and treat to give them another chance where nature would not be so kind. Wild budgies live on seeds, yes they do, they also fly many many miles every day in search of these seeds and so expend many calories in their search for food. Birds in our homes and aviaries do not do this. The seeds we offer not only are not as nutritionally complete as wild seeds 'on the vine' so to speak, but the birds in our homes and aviaries do not expend the calories on a day to day basis that their wild counterparts do. An all-seed diet is no good for a bird in our care. It may do in the wild, but not for a bird in the cage so to speak. Since packaged seed is nutritionally inferior to fresh seed the birds would normally eat, we as their caretakers must supplement as best we are able. If pellets are part of that supplementation, then they are part of that supplementation. If they are not, they are not, simple as that. I have a larger parrot that refuses to eat the pellets I want him to have. He will eat pellets I will not feed (he was weaned onto them) because for whatever reason I do not like them. So he does not eat his pellets until I find one he and I can both agree on, LOL. I have been through many, many pellets.....On the other hand, my budgies absolutely love Harrison's Mash, and eat that as a portion of their diet. I can't feed them as mother nature can, them being in my home pretty much precludes that happening, but I offer them a wide variety of foods. They don't find cooked foods in nature either (unless lightening has struck and caused a fire) but they love them nonetheless. They also love sprouts, and fresh vegetables. The ones they like they probably woudn't get in the wild either, but they are a source of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids and the best I can do under the circumstances, as I do not live in Australia or Africa. If you can get your bird to accept pellets as part of his diet, great. If not you will have to go the extra mile to add as much variety as you are able, because no matter what you do, you will not be able to come close to what a wild budgerigar experiences in a single day in his search for food.
  3. If you are able to, see if your vet can give you a sample of Harrison's Mash. My budgies won't touch the SuperFine or Fine size, but they eat up the Mash like crazy. It is not so much a pellet rather than a powder. It will probably take a while for the conversion to eating pellets, but don't give up. I think pellets have a place in a well-rounded diet, just not the whole diet, or even the majority of it. Here is a link to the website for you. They have distributors world-wide, check the 'where to buy' section, Australia is listed.
  4. fo' shizzle dis crib is da bomb wid da slang isn't it!! :hap: Sorry guys I just saw those terms and had a juvi moment... Back on topic, hopefully it will all end soon neat and your birds will learn the rules... healthy and happy and not before 1! :yes: :hap: :rofl: :rofl:
  5. Sorry what do you mean by beaking? Since birds examine everything with the beak, your arm, fingers, a mole, earrings, etc. are fair game to be explored by it. It is a learning curve for them to figure out that the same pressure they exert trying to chew the bark off of a natural branch is not the same pressure they can apply to your skin. It's normal for a bird to want to 'taste' your fingers or hand or cheek as a way of learning about that part of their environment. This behavior can be confused with biting, especially if your bird hasn't realized yet it hurts you if they bear down hard.
  6. Biting in wild birds is not a usual behavior, it is a learned behavior in cage birds. Birds do not bite 'just because', there is always a payoff for the bird or they wouldn't do it. The best thing to do about the bite is to avoid any situation where the bird feels that is the last option he or she has to get their message across. If biting is escalating, look to what happens immediately before the bite, and what the consequence is immediately after for clues as to why the bird is doing it. Biting is not to be confused with beaking, which is normal and until your bird learns what is acceptable pressure to apply to your skin it sometimes can feel like a bite. Don't take a bite personally. I think you have stated the reason already that Cosmo is biting when you said "but if he doesn't want it, he has started to grunt a little, and open his beak or bite air." Those are his ways of trying to communicate to you that he does not want interaction at that time. That choice should be respected. If you push it and he bites, it is because you missed what he was trying to tell you non-violently. In this instance if Cosmo bites you because he does not want to interact right then, the immediate consequence is you withdraw your hand. This is what he wanted, so you are setting a pattern that if he wants to be left alone all he has to do is bite and that is what will happen. He can be unhappy or cranky but we cannot really know if that is the case since we can't get into his head and know what is going on with him. But if he were, that in itself wouldn't be why he would bite. I doubt he is trying to establish dominance over you, birds do not have dominance issues like a dog might. Dominance is pack mentality, and birds have a different social structure. I think you are spot on that Cosmo is trying to tell you something! You seem to be pretty observant of your birds' behavior, kudos to you for that. It will make developing an ongoing relationship with your bird far easier.
  7. Rainbow

    Blueberry

    My dearest Blueberry made her way to the Rainbow Bridge tonight. I will truly miss her.
  8. I am very, very sorry for your loss.
  9. Sorry to hear you are under the weather Dave, hoping you wil recover very soon!
  10. You can check the feathers under the bend of the wing, if your bird is blue they should show blue there even if the rest of the bird seems 'green'. If they are green I think the bird is green-base and not blue-base.
  11. Rainbow

    I am new

    Hello navim, welcome! You have some lovely birds.
  12. Rainbow

    New Dave

    Not all baby budgies will have black on their beaks, I have had some that did not. There looks to be a small spot of it towards the point though, doesn't it?
  13. We have some very talented people here! When I was much younger I used to draw quite a bit - horses, dogs, and birds. Never could draw people for squat. I think if I had kept up with it I could have been fairly good, I don't know why I ever stopped. I found it therapeutic in a way, and very relaxing. Life gets in the way sometimes I guess. Reading this thread got me to thinking about it (danger, danger......) as I still have tons of different pencils, paper, smudgers, and stuff from when I used to draw hidden away in a closet. Anyway, a while ago I drew one of my budgies (after about a 20 year hiatus) and thought I'd post it up since the idea is in my head now to start drawing again.
  14. I agree a vet visit is in order. The flakey look has extended to the bottom of the cere, and that should not flake.
  15. I understand. Hopefully you get some answers soon.
  16. Rainbow

    New Dave

    Oh my, what a baby! I would take him to the vet soon, as a bird that young should have a completely smooth beak still, that it looks to be peeling is a little worrisome. Definitely keep an eye out on his food intake (from those pics I guess male as the cere is a little bulbous and very evenly colored - don't hold me to it though, in better light that little sweetie might look different). He does look quite stressed, but definitely a sweetheart.
  17. I am very sorry to hear he did not make it through the surgery. Give your son a hug from me, it hurts very badly to lose a budgie.
  18. 2nd picture looks like polyuria - excessive urine output, what is water consumption like? It is not necessarily cause for concern if she has eaten foods with a high water content recently. The urates seem to have a yellowish tinge on my screen, in isolation maybe nothing, but if frequent is worth mentioning to your vet. What is the diet like - are you certain she is eating as much as you think? Could be important as the first picture shows very little stool, mostly urates, which can be a sign of insufficient food intake. Coupled with the second picture if that is not an isolated stool type, my first thoughts are liver issues or diabetes (but I am not a vet, I'm only offering a suggestion based on my experience). I would not recommend placing her with other birds until you have a definitive answer to what is going on inside this bird. Keep us posted.
  19. One of my budgies occasionally has cere hypertrophy. It can be scraped off with your fingernail, your vet should have known that. Don't scrape it yourself without being shown how first so you do not inadvertently hurt your bird. I would advise finding another vet though, it doesn't sound like Beaky saw an avian vet - a good avian vet is priceless. My hen is usually able to eventually remove the overgrowth herself by normal beak scraping on her perches. You do need to determine the cause, in Blossom's case it is hormonal. Sometimes she has it, then will go for a time with a normal-sized cere. It has never affected her breathing. She has some other health issues though, so not sure if in some way this is tied in, but I have been told not to worry about it in her case. But as has been suggested, there can be other causes. Norm, I'll take a look in my archives to see if I've a picture of it or not. **edit, thought I had one on Photobucket, but don't. It may take some searching now**
  20. Wow, that is much bigger than I anticipated it being! It has got to be uncomfortable, I'm sure he'll be glad to have it gone. Keep us posted on how the surgery goes.
  21. I have a budgie that underwent surgery to remove a lump from her wing, but it was not a cyst, it was a tumor. She has other health issues (lipomas elsewhere and liver disease also) but she came through the surgery wonderfully and has not had a recurrance yet. Her tumor also grew appeared quickly, and once I saw it she went to the vet. Thankfully I caught it almost immediately after it began to grow. They also were not in a hurry to remove it as she did not bother it. But shortly after the initial vet visit, it almost doubled in size in a short period of time and reached a point where she began to pick at it and made it bleed, (luckily this happened on a Saturday -when I could stay home over the weekend, catch her and stem the bleeding whenever it occurred). Then the possibilty of her bleeding out while I was at work was real and her surgery was moved up to Monday. I dropped her off at 7 am and she came home the same day. Thank goodness for caring avian vets! It is very admirable what your son is doing, kudos to you for encouraging it and also for being willing to take his budgie in for surgery. I hope your budgie comes through the surgery fine, and the cyst does not recur.
  22. Isn't that what you want, is for her to fly? You can use that to your advantage. At 4 months old, it shouldn't take long before she is hand tame, especially if she is already clipped. Training with food treats is one way to teach her good things happen when you are around. Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.
  23. Amuch kinder option is to stand at the foot of your bed, and gently let them glide onto it. Start only a few inches up at first until she has the hang of what you are trying to teach her. You do not want to just toss her, or worse yet, hold her toes while you swing her and then let go of her toes. That teaches her scary things (loss of safety, equilibrium) sometimes happen when she is on your hand. Place a favorite toy or small bit of treat about 2 feet in front of her on the bed and see if you can't entice her to jump off on her own at first. When she does and even opens her wings slightly for balance give her lots of praise and another treat. You want this to be a positive experience for her. You can eventually place the lure further out on the bed and raise her higher once she 'gets it'. Good luck.
  24. That is wonderful news! and you gotta love his reply! I for one think it fantastic that he would allow his articles to be published on our forum.
  25. Rainbow

    Hi All

    Hello JSAM, and welcome!
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