Sailorwolf

I'd love to show ya some, but I don't have a scanner or camera yet, that will hopefully be solved sometime in the near future and you guys will all have to succumb to millions of pictures of my little fids

No matter which way you went, there will be good coming out of it, so good on you for looking after this little guy even from afar.

That is sooooo cool. I love it. Very nicely finished. You know, with the amount of talent on these boards we should make a topic just for that and see what everyone's talents or hobbies are.

Also too, if you buy him you will only be encouraging the shop to sell more sick budgies. They will profit from not looking after their birds. Call the spca on them or threaten to do it

That is some awesome work there Chryso. I used to do alot of art, mainly acrylic paints and pencil. I know what you mean. When I was at school I used to use up a sketch book a year, but ever since I started vet I have only used 15 pages of my newest sketchbook and I've had that book for 2 years!!! Yeah, vet limits your time alot.

I love it, it looks very professional. How did you make it? Dave: The little poops are easily vacuumed up once they've dried and I usually have paper under the areas that they tend to sit over the most. :sad: Dave, did you just change your username or did something happen to your old account?

I would try what dave has suggested first and use the pin as a last resort. I would think that holes in tissues around fermenting food, would get infected easily.

My firewall is blocking the picture, is there anyway to post a link to the picture and then I may be able to see it. It could possibly be something that a splint will fix. Especially if he is still young. But I can't really say much until I see a picture.

Did you know, that you should never use Ivermectin on collie dogs? They lack a certain something (i forget, they said it in lectures) that does not prevent it form entering the brain and they go into a deep coma for several weeks. There is also another animal that this happens to but i can't remember at this point. However i believe it is best not to use a chemical, because that is what all drugs are, willy nilly. A chemical is a chemical. Use when needed and sparingly. People have had animals die, from being defleaed too much. if you are worried, get a vet to take a faecal and a skin sample. Intestinal parasites will show up in the faeces (well their eggs will) and external parasites, will leave some evidence of their presence in the skin.

Poor thing, sounds like a real stinker of a day. I hope you had no expensive textbooks in your bag.

A hernia is when an organ or tissue protrudes through the structures that normally contain it. Many common ones in mammals are inguinal hernias, when the gut protrudes through the inguinal canal between the hind legs and the abdomen. It would happen in budgies, I would think that it just wouldn't be picked up as easily, as budgies are so small and ones that cause death may only be picked up if a necropsy is done. What kind of hernia is it?

Not all nerve damage heals and then not all nerve damage heals in 2 days, some takes longer. I still have nerve damage in my finger from where a rat bit me 6 years ago. Nerves are slow. You can rig up a series of platforms at different heights all over her cage and then she could just fly to each one. See how she copes with that. It may not even be nerve damage, it could be tendon or muscle. Just see how she copes with the platforms

With the eye contact thing, it is also recommended that you blink alot too as a predator is less ikely to do that, as they get more used to you, you won't need to worry about eye contact

It looks like houdini is just missing feathers from the tips of his wings

Can you think of anything that has changed in the last 2 months, anything that changed when or just before she started feather plucking??? Airophagia isn't a diagnosis, i would say that it is another symptom, which in most other animals, especially horses, is a behavioural disorder. In horses it is often related to diet. Horses that are fed highly concentrated grain tend to windsuck, because usually they spend 16 hours a day grazing on grass, when fed concentrate feeds, they eat for 1 hour and have 15 hours to fill up. Thus it could be that you bird is bored. However this is not the only reason why a bird could be feather plucking. She, as suggested before, could be stressed and in this case you need to identify and remove the stressor, which is why you need to think about what could possibly have changed around the time she started plucking. She could have a behavioural disorder such as obsessive compulsive disorder, which can only really be treated (not cured) by anti-anxiety medication (this can also help treat an over stressed bird). It could also be due to her diet too, like the horses. Even though horses spend less time eating when they are fed concentrates, their feed also affects their behaviour too to some extent. Have you changed Smarty's diet recently? She may have developed an allergy to something as well. You could try to see if it is a food allergy by eliminating things from her diet and see if that reduces the plucking. Start her on something basic like canary seed or something and see if her plucking goes away then try addinng a new ingredient every week or so and see if her plucking comes back. If it does then you should have identified a food allergy. I hope this helps.

What a cutey and at least now the name doesn't seem so strange

I would go for a runny mixture of either yoghurt or weetbix. The longer you leave him with out food the weaker he will become and the more likely he will aspirate when fed later. If he will aspirate he will aspirate I am thinking, so I would try to get food into him now because it doesn't sound like he will survive the night otherwise Yoghurt is probably better right now as it has sugar in it and this little guy will be low on glucose and needing that energy boost

You could use that big cage to house them all together and then when you want to breed to could separate them off into smaller breeding cages.

Yes i am dreading what my budgies will be like when I get them back. i have just recently done 6 weeks of work experience and during this time my mum has been looking after them. The only thing is is that she is sooo worried that she won't feed them enough that she will only feed them seed bells, so she doesn't make the mistake of seeing a bowl full of husks and thinking it is full. Arkady was already hugely overweight when I left him, so I am really not looking forward to finding out how fat and unhealthy he'll be when I get them back.

Oh Maesie you poor thing. What horrible news to have to hear and so close to each other. I'm sending over some strength to help you and your family get through this hard time.

My Saffy is now 6 years old and she is a grumpy little thing, but all the boys seem to like her. I liken her to Shirley Schmidt off of Boston legal. (Laughing out loud), She's older, stubborn, but all the boys want her. hehehe and she is also blonde. (Laughing out loud)

No haha I didn't mean that, I meant I knew she was a girl, because she was an opaline. Hehehe

Egg and biscuit mix is also very good. You can add the left over powder from feeding pellets to the mixture as well. It makes a lovely mash, that my fids just adore.

Yes it is a great effort that everyone puts in here. It is one of the most friendliest and correct forums that I have ver been on and with very active members.

But then you also get the hens that are the odd ones out. My Nikio who is definately a hen, due to her sex linked trait (opaline) bobs her head and sings a bit.