Sailorwolf

I turn my computer on. Stick it on my bed. While I wait for it to start up, I go get a snack, eat that, then let the little brats (budgies) out for a fly. Sit down, snuggle into my bed. Open up the BBC (it's my homepage), crank up the windows media player, stick it to shuffle and listen to my favourite tunes, while little feathered monsters fly over my head (because they are too scared to land on the bed, but want to come and see me). I usually have another window open, like Homestarrunner.com or youtube or games or my university page which has all our lecture slides up on the net or photobucket. Then I spend about 2 hours of budgie foruming. However Uni started back this week so I am going to be busier.

Doesn't work though, if they've left altogether.

What a saga to go through. You poor thing. Lets hope it will only get better.

I see you are interested in a watch... ...And in here is the diamond collection. Shady business deals on the street.

Wow he sound like a great animal carer in the making. It's awesome when you meet someone so interested. And when he's older he will pass on his passion.

Careful about tying to fences and stuff as you may accidentally catch unintended animals. Like what I did: caught a sparrow (it didn't die, was very lucky) or get someone's cat, then you might get neighbour complaints.

urrgh. I hate that parasite. Candles turn into plasma in the microwave (apparently) and soap froths up into a big solid ball. Flying in a jet plane for your whole life would actually shorten it, because 1 flight from New Zealand to America is equivalent to 3 chest X-rays. This is because you are more exposed to cosmic Xradiation because you are closer to space. Thus the more you fly the more likely you are to develop cancer. People exposed to Xrays the most: Pilots, astronauts, doctors, veterinarians and dentists, .

Awesome throwback. Keep breeding those dudes.

Number 6. : Not further in relation to you, but further in relation to the point of where it was thrown from, seeing as you move with the earth. Sailorwolf's fact: Time goes slower the higher up you are. You won't notice it though, because your brain is also going slower. I don't know how the physics of it work, but apparently it is true. They compare watches are something I guess. Number 4. I wonder if it depends on which way force is applied. It would. Horizontal as opposed to vertical. Tee hee

King parrots yes and the other one that I always get confused with them.Red belly green back (or is that a king parrot?) Princess parrots are cute too. I've heard eclectus are neurotic.

...or a barraband, or an alexandrine... or an indian ringneck... or a plumheaded parakeet... or a 'Too....

yes, I was a little confused too

Thanks guys

I personally like Rosellas. They are not too loud and are kinda like big budgies and have cute chubby cheeks./ I was looking after a wild one for awhile and his chirps (well calls) weren't that loud. I would love to have a crimson or eastern rosella myself. Kakarikis I have heard are very quiet and like to forage on the ground they are cute and are just a little bigger than a budgie maybe cockateil size. I think major mitchells are pretty, but that is all I know about them.

It's probably a dilute of some sorts, seeing as mum looks like a dilute spangle clearflight pied thing. It looks like a dilute opaline spangle.

I'm a vet student. And there are many ways diseases can be spread. Diseases can be spread via direct contact with a sick animal. Diseases can be spread via aerosols. Diseases can be spread by parasites which can be picked up by having a new bird in the same proximity as your existing one i.e. poo being eaten or mites walking over. Diseases can be spread by your birds feeding each other eg trichomoniosis (a protozoan disease). Viruses can only survive in the environment for a limited time, because they need living cells to reproduce in. The further your bird is away from the other the longer a virus will have to be in the air to get to the other bird and the less likely it is for it to actually survive the journey. By keeping your bird in another room it is in a separate air space and thus the bacteria and viruses that it breathes out are less likely to come into contact with your other bird, if proper hygiene measures are taken. Viruses and bacteria don't have a direction when they are airbourne, they don't purposefully seek out other animals, they just float where the air takes them. A wall is very hard for a virus or bacteria to penetrate. When you go to the hospital you don't come home with every single illness that was in the hospital do you? No you don't because they follow strict quarantine procedures. In each hospital there is bound to be one person with MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) but other people very rarely contract it when they go to a hospital, this is because quarantine procedures are put into effective control as soon as the infected patient enters the hospital. Also not all animals are as resistant to bugs as others. An animal that has been slowly exposed to a bug over time in small amounts can cope with it much better than a naive animal because they have built up an immunity to it. If a naive animal (one that has never been exposed to a pathogen (bacteria, virus, protozoa)) is exposed to a huge amount that an infected but immune animal is shedding then they can succumb very quickly. This has nothing to do with whether the animal was weak or strong or not, just how often it has been exposed to a particular pathogen. Quarantine is also good for your own health. If a new bird comes in and you have quarantined it and it becomes sick during quarantine you are able to treat it easily and quickley. If it was exposed to other birds, you will have to treat those birds as well as a responsible pet owner should and to stop the pathogen load getting so high that it could affect or infect you and your family. Which will end up costing several times more. The flu is not spread mainly via aerosols it is mainly spread by contact. Such as hugging and kissing infected people, door handles taps etc. The fact that Chirp didn't get sick from Miss Lacey means nothing. You don't know what Miss Lacey had that caused her to get sick and die. She might not have had a pathogen. She may have had a genetic disease, some sort of neoplasm etc etc. And if she did have a pathogenic disease, Chirp may have not come into contact with it enough, he may not have been susceptible to it or he may have just been plain lucky. Or her disease may have been picked up from the environment she was previously in but is not a contagious one. Some species of Staphylococcus are like that. By not quarantining you are running a huge risk to your birds and your family. Also a bird's acquired immune system is not passed on to its offspring, so has nothing to do with making weaker offspring because it was not exposed to enough diseases. This only happens in mammals and only while the baby is drinking the mother's milk. Once the animal is weaned it has to develop its own immune system. You can't just make assumptions. Why do hospitals quarantine, why do airports quarantine, why do zoo's quarantine? Because they have found that when they don't quarantine it all turns to custard.

He is definitely a boy. He is lutino. It is a good idea to do short training sessions but many times a day. So you can do 10 minute sessions 2-5 times a day. That makes it a little easier for him. When he bites just ignore it, because if you react, he will think it's a game and your reaction is a reward for biting. They may also bite out of fear too which means that if you react a)you are taking your hand away like they want you too or b)you scare them even more.

Thank you for sharing that experience Chryso. It was very insightful. Being the anaesthetist is very time consuming. By the time you have finished all your checks the next 5 minutes has come round and you have to check again. Being a vet can be very taxing at times, especially when dealing with life and death. You want to cry at the time, but you know you have to hold it together in order to function properly and be strong for clients, so you have to forget about emotions for a bit. I usually think to myself "I'll think about it later".

Frozen peas are yum! I give mine a frozen stirfry mix (has broccoli, green beans, butter beans, carrot and courgette) and make sure to take out all the onion first. Then I soak it in warm or cold (doesn't really matter) water for a bit to get the edge off the chill and give it to them like that. It thaws out pretty quickly.

Yes I have the same issue with that. What happened to quarantine?

I'll just pull up my notes on Gapeworm and others for you, just for interest's sake. Pretty much direct quotes from my notes: Gapeworm It's latin name is Syngamus trachea, is a nematode (roundworm) and inhabits the trachea of many birds, particularly fowl and game birds with wild birds acting as reservoir hosts for domesticated ones. Large numbers of nematodes partially occlude the trachea causing respiratory distress "gaping". Morphology and biology: Male and female are permanently in copula. The female is usually about 20mm long with the male being 5mm long. Have a large mouth armed with teeth. Eggs are coughed up and swallowed by the host then passed out in the faeces. The larvae develops up to its third stage in the egg and birds can become infected by ingesting [L3] (ensheathed larval stage 3) in the egg, the [L3] after it hatched or [L3] encysted in earthworms, slugs or snails. Larvae migrate to lung via the blood stream from the gut. (Once ingested the break through the intestinal lining into the blood stream supplying the intestines and travel in the blood stream to the liver and then to the lungs where they break through the lung tissue and crawl up the trachea and find a mate). Trichomonas is something completely different: It is a protozoan parasite. Trichomonas gallinae inhabits the upper alimentary tract (gut, so mouth, oesophagus, crop and stomach). is most commonly a cause of disease in pigeons and doves with ulcerative lesions (cuts that have turned to ulcers) in many organs especially th emouth, pharynx, oesophagus and crop. The organism multiplies by binary fission and is transmitted when parent birds feed their young). Another species of Trichomonas has been found to be a common cause of vomiting in budgerigars. (hmmm interesting) And Air sac mites: Sternostoma tracheacolum live in the airsacs and trachea of birds. can be a serious problem in aviary birds which can cause asphyxiation in finches. Cytodites nudus lives in the airsacs and surface of internal organs of birds but are probably non pathogenic.

It kinda makes it less fun doesn't it. Well at least you know you can take pictures of the wall, the floor and the ceiling with out getting in trouble. Not quite so interesting though.

okay, well just as I was viewing my topic, the vet rang back. They took some radiographs and they couldn't see any renal tumours at all. But he has some arthritis or osteopathy going on in his right leg, poor wee fellow. So he is getting treated for that. They are thinking of putting him on pain meds as well to see whether that picks him up. He is also being a picky eater too the little brat. They are definitely using him as a teaching case which means that I don't have to pay for any more than the bill they already sent me. I am feeling so lucky and loved and shaking with happiness right now, because that means they can go all out on him and I don't have to worry about money issues. This was such a lucky chance. Arkady you better get better so I can take you home and smooch you.

Well if you have the money, you could always try A.I.

Like Google, i notice it down the bottom of the page. Just tried to google it and came up with limited results. What is it?