Sailorwolf

That is awesome

her and 2 boys should be good! Boys are silly, as long as they are not beating each other up hard out they should be fine.

To test kidney function, you can take blood tests, but you can also look at the urine and urates. That can be difficult though as glucose from the faeces can move into the urates, giving a false reading, as they are mixed up together all the time. I wonder if maybe she has parasites? I don't know. Blood tests test a lot of stuff, they can also test liver function, whether or not muscle and/or bone is being broken down, thyroid problems, pituitary gland problems, adrenal gland problems, any gland problems!, if they are deficient in something or in excess of some thing. Some tips for reading the tests: If a word as "aemia" at the end of it like hypocalcaemia for instance, it means it is in the blood. Aemia = blood (Americans shorten it to emia, they like to forget the base and origins of the word ). Hypo = low, Hyper = high. Therefore: Hypocalcaemia = low blood calcium Hypercalcaemia = high blood calcium Hypoglycaemia = low blood sugar Anaemia = low red blood cell count (an = absence, aemia = blood) Myoglobinaemia = myoglobin in the blood (this happens when muscle breaks down, for the horsey lovers out there, when horses "tie up") etc etc The same goes for urine, except aemia is replaced with uria eg: myoglobinuria This is why I find it weird/funny when people say their kids have been hypo all morning lol! I know what they mean, but it is the complete opposite to the word they are using. lol

Loving everybody's stuff!

Hi Rachael and Welcome. Most budgies when you first get them are a little too scared to eat or drink. Somtime it may take them up to a week before you see any evidence of feeding. Budgies don't drink often anyway s they are desert animal, so it may be a long time before you see that happen. He won't eat in front of you for awhile, because he will consider you a predator. When you talk to him, try not to stare at him. Blink and close your eyes often. This is because predators stare at their prey before they eat them! Another tip to help him settle down is to cover 4 sides of his cage with a blanket, the top, 2 sides and the back and each day slowly pull it back so that more of his cage is exposed, until he doesn't need it anymore. I would do this for the first week. This will just make him feel a little more secure and not so exposed. Try just doing lots of activities around his cage too, like reading etc. You can move his cage to take with you wherever you go in the house, but not the kitchen, as it has some noxious fumes for budgies!. I think the cage size is okay for 1 budgie, even 2. Bigger is always better. I started out with a smaller cage. Regarding the nails. They won't shorten on their own, they'll need clipping. If you need help with that we can help you.

Oh wow MB, how awesome! YAY!!!!

haha, what you should do is, buy his non-breeder and breed it!! Then tell him how isn't it amazing how you got all these babies from his "sterile" ones. Make sure too, if he sells you a hen as a cock, tell him you paired that "cock" up with another cock and it made babies.

Maybe you should ask him how he sexes his birds. Tell him a vet told you that boys are blue and girls are brown.

Well you guys have seen some of my handiwork, but I thought I would re post it here: I really want to get back in to drawing again, I was doodling during lectures this morning and started something that would look quite good, so I think I will try to replicate it on some good paper that is not lined! My sketches These are done from my head. Most of my dtrawings are done from my head with no picture for reference. This is my budgie play gym I made: And when it's finished and with budgies on it:

Love the last one!. I think one of our male commentators commented on how amazing it was watching one woman athlete. We also had one guy say NZ came third in the rowing, when we clearly were not 3rd (we won GOLD!). he got the order all wrong And int he other rowing, it was like: "And he's moving up and NOW HE'S IN THE LEAD, NOW HE'S IN THE LEAD!!!!" (was clearly forth) Other commentator "Calm down mate, I don't think we are there just yet"

Unfortunately I have no budgies of the NZ colours (no blacks or greys or whites!!!) I just have Aussies and Ukrainians and Greeks (is there a purple country?)

you guys are silly

The white stuff is the urates, the liquid us the urine and the brown/green stuff is the faeces (poo). She is producing a lot of urates and urine (although to be honest it doesn't look as bad as I imagined , I think I've had a budgie poop like that before and then it went away after awhile), this means she probably has an issue in her kidneys, or she could just be stressed. I can't recall any useful information off hand though, unfortunately. I'll be way more useful in 2 years time, or after I've worked in the wildlife ward for a bit.

I did Ju jitsu up until recently. I quit because I did my neck in and had way too many injuries. Including a badly sprained ankle, elbow, rotator cuff injury and neck injury. It is a very good sport and kept me very fit and gives you heaps of confidence. I can flip full grown men over my back and I'm only little. The reason why I got injured is I probably went too hard for my size. I do miss it.

They prefer oily skin

Ooooh Like duraseal??? :budgiedance: Different countries and their different product names.

Yeah I was going off of what my notes said and it directly said that calcium deficiency does not cause ricketts, however I think it is mainly meaning mammals, but I would assume birds would be the same, seeing as they have the same (or very similar) process. I guess because Vit D and Calcium are so intimately involved, it can be tricky. So I guess supplementing with calcium AND Vit D3 is a good idea to prevent both Ricketts and fibrous osteodystrophy. The first reference you quoted says the beak and skeleton becomes pliable. Does that happen in ricketts? I thought only in FOD. haha I just realised I've been spelling Rickets with two 'T's like Rickettsia. lol

What on earth is contact?

Big Hugs. Sorry to hear about Alex

Welcome. I hope you enjoy our community. :budgiedance:

Well almost every mammal has demodex mites living in their follicles. Even us!!! They live on us as commensals and don't affect us and most animals. But some dogs can have a few porblems with them and develop demodicosis. We don't get that. The way to find out if you have demodex is to pull out an eyelash and have a look on the microscope. If you have some, they might be there looking up at you waving with their little legs. I think they are kinda cute little mites. They aren't ugly buggers. People with oily skin are more likely to have them.

Burns are good at developing infections. YOu can still dip his feet in cool water as I'm sure that would give some relief. Give him a little jar lid of water to stand in, then he can choose whether or not he wants to stand in it

I do what Kaz suggested. If there is no wind I will blow it while it is falling from one container to another. This blows it AWAY from you as it has no walls of the container to ricoshet back at you. So basically I act as the wind when there is none.

Hey some of us aren't domestic goddesses yet, we can afford to spend time learning random stuff. You guys have 3 different jobs to manage: child care, home cleaning and paid job. So there!

Yes and vitamin D is involved in the regulation of Calcium. Calcium deficiency can result in fibrous osteodystrophy, which is when bone is destroyed because of the increased demand by the body for calcium and is replaced by fibrous tissue. This causes the bone to become soft and pliable. Dogs with this problem get what is known as "rubber jaw" and the description fits the name. You can physically bend the jaw. This can happen to any dog or horse (probably all animals) if they are deficient in calcium for a long time. I'm trying to find a picture but Google doesn't have any. Can't use any of our lecture pictures due to copyrights. Come on Google ad people, read this and put up an awesome link with a picture of fibrous osteodystrophy aka "rubber jaw"