Elly

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I forgot we had this in our FAQ...I hope this helps a bit. Euthanasia : The Difficult Decision Although no-one wants to be faced with this situation, as bird/animal owners, chances are that one day, you WILL be faced with dealing with this. The word euthanasia comes from Greek terms. ‘’eu’’ meaning ‘good’, and ‘’thanatos’’ meaning ‘death’. This is my view on what is a ‘good death’. The death should be as humane, as painless, and as trauma free as possible. The animal should experience little, or any if possible, anxiety pre-death. Loss of conciousness should be quick, and as pain free as possible. Usually, a well handled euthanasia is totally pain free. Here is how the proceedings went with my recent encounter with euthanasia with my cockatiel, Chip. 1) Extensive tests were run to evaluate the seriousness of his condition (it was already clear at this point that his condition was quite serious.) 2) I asked my vet to be totally honest with regarding the outcome of the tests, if Chips condition was to prove incurable, and his life quality was going to be poor and degenerative, to advise me if euthanasia was advisable. I knew deep down that I would probably recognise this situation myself, but allowing for emotion to blind me slightly over my pets welfare, I needed to be sure I would not let my pet down. 3) Agreeing/coming to terms with such a decision should it arise, is not easy. However, it is vital at this point that you put your pets welfare before your own emotional needs. HERE IS HOW TAKING MY BELOVED PET BIRD ON HIS FINAL JOURNEY WAS HANDLED: None of it was easy, it was extremely difficult and painful emotionally, to the point of being physically painful. BUT deep within my heart, I knew I was doing right by my pet. (this is simply the decision to let a beloved friend go, not the actual act of euthanasia that I speak of above) 1) I prepared his travel cage and made it as comfortable as I could, as I did with any trip to the vet.. 2) I kept my own emotions under strict control, and quietly and calmly removed him from his cage and placed him in his travel cage. 3) I was not kept waiting at the vets. They knew the reason I was there, and I was called in to the consulting room within minutes. 4) My vet quickly went over Chips condition, his prognosis, and reassured me that I was doing the right thing. I was asked if I wanted to be present during proceedings, which I did. There was NO pressure whatsoever put on me over this, 5) Chip was first of all given a whiff of general anaesthetic, and he very quickly and painlessly fell asleep, deeply asleep. It was calm, struggle free, and humane. Once he was fully anaesthetised, he was injected directly into his liver, via his stomach. This is the injection that actually causes the death of the animal. 6) All through the procedure, the vet chatted gently and calmly to me, explaining step by step what was happening. This kept me calm, which in turn will have reflected on my pets final emotions before he fell asleep under the anaesthesia. 7) I was then left in total peace and quiet (although the vet did not leave the room, he simply stayed silent) while I held my bird in my hands close to my heart as the final steps of his beautifully peaceful journey were completed. 8) After about a minute and a half, the vet gently suggested that he was going to check for breathing and heartbeat. Chip was not removed from my hands, and the vet was gentle and calm as he very carefully checked Chip for any signs of life. He acknowledged gently that Chip was now at peace. 9) A little bit of panic started to grow inside of me at this point, I needed to be sure that his euthanasia WAS successful. My vet patiently gave me another minute nursing Chip, and then quietly and calmly checked for signs of life again. He reassured me that Chips journey was, indeed, over. Chips passing was extremely calm, painless, and peaceful. I am sharing and reliving these moments for those of you who think I could never cope. It will be traumatic and disturbing and horrible. My pet will suffer. For those of you who may be facing this now, or may at sometime during the future face this difficult decision, I hope my experience has helped, or will help you feel more prepared should the time arise, The personal loss and grief can still be extreme, but I do have to say that the beautiful peacefulness of your pets passing becomes a great comfort. If your vet does not use anaesthesia as a prelude to euthanasia as a matter of course, you CAN insist upon it. This way, things are much easier on both your pet, and on you, especially with a small animal. Euthanasia is seen as a dark subject, and from my experience, rarely discussed openly in public forums. It is even quite difficult to find heartfelt personal experiences on the web. I hope my very recent experience of it has helped remove some of the darkness and horror that often seems to surround this subject. I hope it shows that those final steps in that final journey, can, indeed, have a peaceful beauty about them. Even as I am writing this, I am grieving the loss of my much loved friend. But, I am NOT grieving how he passed. I will be eternally grateful for that beautiful, painfree, fear free passing. AKA BBC Member Chirpy

I know this is going OFF TOPIC here but I do believe maesie that animals wait...either to you go or come, my first dog Skippy waited till I got home from work and he died in my arms 15 mins later...that was the most painful loss I ever had being my first dog and my first loss and he was only 10y.

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OMG what a beautiful landscaped yard, I love it. No flowers here just mums and I don't have any...first day of Fall was yesterday for us

OUr FAQ section in the Food and Nutrition Section is chocked full of information PLUS there is a sub-topic for recipes...run there and read you will find so many interesting things and it will clear up all your questions .

Karen, I know what you mean the purges on the board I remember that time really made our numbers go down

I think that is what those "type" of people do use generalizations, now I do believe there are people that have extraordinary powers like this but some are such fakes.

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You will have to give us a lesson Kaz , when you have time start a post and quiz us.

Biggest hugs, I know this is so difficult. I went through this with a couple of my dogs, they rebound you know and that puts that spark of hope and tinch of guilt but what if I just wait maybe he will turn around....I know those back and forth feeling they truly suck for a matter of nice words. I remember when my cat Pepper had gotten sick really quick and I was force feeding her, giving her IV liquid at home it was the mid point of the week and I swear when I was holding her she looked right into my eyes into my soul and said please enough is enough let me go. That night I made the hard decision, the next day I stopped the feeding, I only gave her small amount of IV fluids and had my husband make the appointment, the next day after I told her to go lat that night she curled in my pillow and died. I wish it was always that easy but it is not I did have to put my 18y old dog to sleep last year for him I held on too long I know it when I look back he suffered so much in his last years. The tears well up in my eyes as I write this because she went so fast, I can't believe she has been gone for 4 years, she was my first shelter cat where I started to volunteer at and I begged my husband to have her and he said no. That day I begged him he went out to PetsMart where they have the adoptions from the different shelters and brought her home. So as I babble on here I understand and I know you will do what you can and what you feel is right. Doing what is right is sometimes the most painful thing you can do in your life.

Me too Neat, Kaz needs to gives us some pointers lol and I can add to the FAQ, I remember Daz telling us once way back but I forgot.

He is a cutie , I agree with Kaz Type 2 Cobalt. If you get some more snapshots you must enter one for the Budgie of the Month .

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what a wonderful story, thank you so much for sharing that it made my evening.

That is amazing, you had an angel looking out for Blue, you and his little family. Glad he is safe and sound, did you find out how he may have gotten out?

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Skyblue - means that the bird is the lighest blue you can have (no dark factors) there is also Cobalt and Mauve (there is info in the FAQ about Dark Factor to read more about. Spangle - is the type of wing marking your bird has instead of the normal scallop black on the wing it is traced at the end of the wings like someone traced the edge of the wings. Recessive Pied - is the mutation the bird, like you have normal birds (which look like a regular budgie) you can learn more about the mutations in our FAQ section and read up. So putting it together your bird is a Skyblue Recessive Pied Spangle.

I don't know about not taming them I really don't see why not but in our FAQ section we have a very extensive section on Show Budgies. Here is what they say about training them for show. How do you teach the birds to stand in the position for the judges? Training for the show cage begins a few weeks after fledging. Most cockbirds will "show" as it is part of their nature to show off and blow their head feathers forward. Hens of a show type also know when to "show" as training in the show cage has prepared them for staying on the perch at least for a time. A judge will give a bird an amount of time to "show" and any bird that wont stay on the perch for showing purposes cannot be judged. However judges give the birds some encouragement to get back up on their perch for showing by use of a small baton like stick and various other tricks to encourage a restless bird to perch.

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added Kaz post to FAQ under sprouting seed, there are 2 Daz's and Kaz's information.

Added to FAQ, views of Neat and Kaz

Do it in the morning when they are hungry in fact just give them egg crumbled up with seed and mix it together and use that as their foraging just for the first 1/2 of eating and see if they go for it since they is when they are the hungriest then give them their regular stuff afterwards, you want to make sure you do it very gradually. You don't want a food strike or a quick switch that can cause stress and a molt.

Congratulation LIV!!! Didn't you just hit 3000....you are addicted ;P Thanks for being such an awesome moderator too...the paycheck is in the mail ...right Kaz!!!!

You really don't need native things to make a good diet for our budgies, again read through those FAQ's and you can make your own combinations too. Keep trying with the egg though that is very essential even the eggshells that provide calcium to your breeding birds.