SL26

The vet didn't say but I'm going to talk to him next week about it. I have to find him a home asap before I can really disinfect the room he's been in. I've done a bit of research and it appears to be quite a difficult virus to kill as it stays in the environment for a long time. I've ordered some F10 disinfectant which apparently helps kill the virus. I'll have some major spring cleaning to do !!!!

Well I've just received the results from the vet and it's PBFD. Apparently budgies can cope quite well with it, unlike other parrots. I'm going to have to try and rehome him to a budgie only house because I can't have this disease in my flock as I'm planning to get other parrots in the future.

I agree, it makes them lopsided, so I'm going to clip the other wing and then let them grow back. He's too young to start moulting as he's about 6 weeks old. The vet had a good look at him and is concerned that the feather shafts are abnormal. He thinks it could be either polyomavirus or PBFD. If it's the latter, I'm really worried. The vet said that budgies recover well from PBFD but its not good if you have other parrots around. I only have budgies now, but would like larger parrots in the future. It'll take about 10 days for the results of the blood test the vet took to come back. He's name can't be 'baby' because that's what I call all my birds! He'll get a name but it usually takes us awhile to come up with one.

Yes Finnie, this is the one I'm worried about. The breeder clipped one of his wings but it had a full complement of feathers until yesterday. He's lost a feather from each wing yesterday and one of them bled a bit. The feathers appear to have broken and the shaft at the top doesn't look normal. As a result I'm taking him to the vet today to get him checked out. The rest of his feathers look fine and not deformed or stunted. He's hard to photograph as he's always on the go!!

I got a new baby budgie on the weekend and I thought I'd show him to you. He doesn't have a name yet as we're waiting to see what sort of personality he has, so for now he's being called 'baby'.

Thanks Finnie that's really helpful. When he's settled in, I'll take him to the vet for a wellness check and to get his tail feathers checked out. He's certainly lively and appears quite well, it's just his tail. It's not the end of the world if he does have French moult as I'm not breeding my birds. I'll post a picture of him in the budgie pics section.

I got baby budgie number 9 yesterday and I'm now concerned that he has french moult and possibly red mite :-( His tail is slightly shorter, with the two primary tail feathers missing. Before I bought him I had a good look and thought I could see stubs of new feathers. I also looked over his body and wings for mites etc and he was clean. I previously got a budgie in the similar condition, as tail feathers can get pulled out by other youngsters. The tail feathers in this case regrew quickly. Now I've had a look at him again with much better light and what I thought were stubs appears to be broken feather shafts and there is some red/brown discolouration along the shafts of the remaining tail feathers. This could be dried blood from broken feathers, but I'm not sure as I haven't had mites on any of my birds before. With french moult, do the feathers break off or fall out completely? Also do mites congregate along the feather shafts only? I'm going to treat him with S76 anyway as part of my usual new bird routine. He's also in quarantine so if he has something, the other birds are okay.

Damn internet access, only been able to reply now... Thanks L__J, I'm looking a a 10m2 size aviary, but haven't found a suitable size shed that doesn't cost the earth. I've thought through it some more and think I've got a suitable plan to build one at a reasonable cost. I just need to make sure the frame is strong enough.

I'm looking at building an outdoor aviary for my budgies and need some advice. I've got a number of ideas for a design which incorporates my list of mandatory features (ie. double security door, vermin/snake proofing, partially covered roof, concrete floor), but I'm looking at what materials I can use for the frame. I've looked at buying an existing metal aviary or shed and modifying it, but they are quite flimsy and probably wouldn't stand up to the strong winds we can get. Basically I need to have a really strong frame which I can easily attach wire mesh and colorbond sheeting to. I've found suitable galvanised steel tubing which can be connected with plastic joiners (so no welding required), but this limits the design options and is also probably more $$$. I'm looking at timber frames as well, but not sure what sort of untreated timber to use. Some of my budgies love to chew so I'd expect them to try and chew the frame even I provide other things to chew. Has anyone used untreated timber for their aviary frame, and if so what sort of timber was it? Thanks!

The cage looks good and it's a good brand so you shouldn't have any problems with it. I'm not sure where you'd get it online though.

Is there any discharge from the nostrils and/or anything being coughed up? If so, a visit to the vet would be in order. If not, it could be to do with dust in the environment. A thorough wipe down of all the surfaces/floors and of the cage etc. should be done and see if the sneezing/coughing improves. Sometimes it's also possible for them to pick up bugs from the dust in the environment and this irritates their throat and lungs. If this has happened a trip to the vet to rule any bugs in or out would be a good idea.

By what you say, it sounds like he's seeking your attention. Given he stops squawking once you take him out of the cage or cover the cage, he has succeeded in getting you to come over to him. If you don't like the sound, you MUST ignore him until the squawking stops, otherwise you are just reinforcing the behaviour and he'll keep squawking for longer and longer until you pay him attention. Have you heard of positive reinforcement? This is a great tool for managing animal behaviour. Basically what you want to do is reward the behaviour you like and ignore the behaviour you don't like. It can take quite a bit of time to improve things, especially when squawking is involved, but persistence will pay off in the end. If you want to learn more about positive reinforcement, I'd highly recommend Barbara Heidenreich's website Good Bird Inc (http://www.goodbirdinc.com/). She has some really useful giudes to help treating problem behaviour.

I have to agree, this is one of the better (if not the best) pet shops in the Canberra region. I haven't bought any birds from them, but they have a clean store and I've bought a number of toys and accessories from them. When I upgraded my budgie cage to 'grand palace' size, I ended up getting one from this store. They were really helpful and even carried the huge box out to the car for me. Unfortunately the box wouldn't fit in my car so I had to ge them to take it back into the store and put it aside until hubby could pick it up with his car. This didn't bother them at all as they certainly know how to provide great customer service!

In my random searching of the web (can't remember what for now!), I found the perfect t-shirt for us budgie owners!! http://www.cafepress...shirt,398814362 This site also has lots of other cool parrot stuff (for humans!)

It's best to have an even number of budgies if possible. This way there is always someone to talk to. If they were fighting over the third budgie, it was probably because one of them didn't want be alone. If your two boys are happy, then I wouldn't change anything. If you're worried about them being inactive, try some different toys and hide food or hang food in places where they have to work to get at it.