Rainbow

It doesn't sound like an odd relationship to me. Especially if the female is the one who is becoming more aggressive. If the female is becoming remotely interested in starting a family, there isn't much in the beginning that the male can do right, lol. If he preens her the wrong way, she will hack at him. If he doesn't preen her when she wants it, she will hack at him. If he doesn't sing to her in the right way, she will hack at him. LOL he can't win in the beginning. :dbb1: This phase can last a while. Eventually, the male will really start his wooing, despite the fact that to all outward appearances he is just an incompetent pest. Then all the singing, head bobbing, and feeding will begin in earnest. If they are not old enough you would need to seperate them at this point. But in the beginning, the above behavior will be shown by pairs (no matter what sex), you can tell by how receptive one of the birds is (or is not) to help you decide if you have two males or a true pair. More pictures would be nice. :bluebudgie:

Welcome to the new addition!!!! :bluebudgie:

The best thing to do is keep her warm. The hospital cage is a good idea. I had to make one recently and my instructions were to put the heating pad under the cage, set on medium. I sandwiched the heating pad between hand towels so the table and the plastic part of the cage would not be exposed directly to the heat. Cover the cage on three sides. The internal temp of the cage should be at least 85 degrees F. If you don't think the cage is warm enough, use a lamp that you can position the arm on to shine on one side of the cage. If she gets too warm she will move to the cooler side. If she wants to snuggle with you, I would let her. :bluebudgie: She sounds like she is a very resilient little girl, and hopefully she can hang on a while longer. Is there any chance she might actually have something stuck? Is she still trying to eat today? Please let us know how the visit to the vet goes.

Have you had him long? When you say he gets skinny when your hand is in the cage and fluffs up when you take it out, it sounds to me like he is afraid of your hand. When budgies get "skinny" or stand up tall and thin and very still they are afraid. If he fluffs up afterwards, he could be releasing tension and relaxing a little.

Oh nerwen....you really do live too far away.....

I am glad you feel this way. Remember that at the end of the day, they are YOUR budgies to rehome as YOU think is best, and if this person does not fit that category, then they do not get the bird. And you do not have to feel bad about not giving that baby bird up to that particular household, no matter what anyone says. If you do not think they are capable of taking care of that baby bird the way you think they should, then judgemental or not, too bad. You have to be judgemental in this case. And that is not a bad thing.

Thanks I will try that. Booboo's droppings are normal today and I haven't seen any water in them. I am trying to avoid another trip to the vet if possible as her appearance, energy and noise levels are good. I'd skip the oral antibiotics if I were you. Having worked in a veterinary surgery, I can tell you that it is best not to give OTC antibiotics, and none especially that were not prescribed by an avian vet. You do not know what interactions they may have with the medications BooBoo has already been on. I do agree with restricting veggies until everything normalizes. Seed and millet will be fine for a short while. After all meds are finished and you are sure BooBoo is healthy again you can start to re-introduce other foods. That is my opinion.

Ah I see. I agree with you about that, but I must differ with you on the purpose of the primaries and secondaries. Lift is height. If the bird gets lift, it flys up. The secondaries are what provides the ability to glide and brake. If you watch a bird land, as he tilts his body down and thrusts his feet forward the secondaries and internal primaries provide the majority of the stopping power. If those center feathers were missing there would be no air resistance at the wings. Air is normally shifted around those feathers to provide a controlled stop, similar to an airplane shifting the wings flaps down to slow descent. If those feathers were missing, the air would flow straight through and no slowdown would occur. Then you have a crash landing. The outer primaries have little to do with that part of flight, as a bird should still be able to brake and steer with the outer few primaries missing. A bird with properly clipped wings should still be able to glide, steer, and brake - just not gain much lift.

LOL, maybe he was kicked off! The other bird doesn't look so innocent.... I can just hear him whistling now....hmmm, hmmm, I didn't do anything.....

She may just be feeling better and has her appetite back. Normally seeds will firm up the feces. If you have to give the drops in the water, do not give any veggies or cooked food that she could get moisture from, as she may not be drinking the water if she is getting liquid elsewhere in the diet. Also, depending upon the side effects of the meds, increased appetite and water intake may be normal. I know steroidal drugs will cause excessive thirst and food intake, so its possible the Baycox may do the same. Call the vet and ask them if there are any side effects to the meds. While you have them on the phone, let them know about the stools changing again. I would guess the excess water is from the spinach, as most veggies have a high water content. More water in equals more water out. And if BooBoo is not an English budgie, 38 grams is more than enough for her to weigh. She does not look thin in your signature at all. Can you easily feel her keel bone?

What do you mean by "even the first two"? You should always start from the outside and work your way in. The long feathers are what supplies the lift. The interior ones supply gliding and braking ability. If you leave the outer feathers and cut the inner ones too much pressure is exerted on the outer feathers. They are more prone to injury and any steering and braking ability the bird might have is gone as those long feathers (if left long) will create drag when the bird tries to land. But there are no supporting feathers next to them - just an open space between them and the secondaries. Imagine trying to land with a big hole there. I believe leaving those feathers is called a "cosmetic clip" because when the wing is folded the appearance of feathers is still there. It is really not a safe clip.

Wonderful! It was funny to see Arctic turn around to go back in the cage. They always turned themselves around to hop in on their own. All the birds look wonderful. I'm glad you have them again. And the feeding video....eeeeeewwwwwwww!

Breeding two dominant pieds will give you 75% pied babies and 25% normal babies (no pied genes whatsoever). Out of the 75% that are pied, 50% will be single factor dominant pieds, 25% will be doublefactor dominant pieds. Since your male is opaline, all female babies will be opaline if your hen is not opaline. You won't even have to wait for the ceres to change to know that.

That's better than good news, that's great news! Don't worry if you still have to medicate her at home, I'm sure you will do just fine. :hap: Keep us posted on her progress. Did the vet tell you what caused her illness?

Great pictures and videos! I'm glad Teapot is still doing well. :hap: And I wish I could find a clothes hanger like that!

Yes. Depending upon the vet, blood samples are either gotten from clipping a toenail too short or from a vein in the neck. Since budgies are so small, I think the toenail method is probably most common. My bird did not seem any worse for the wear after giving blood, but they are used to being handled. Injections are the quickest way to get meds into sick birds. As long as you are careful giving them, they can make the difference between whether a bird gets the meds it needs or not. Many times an injection will be the first course of action, followed by oral medications. Meds you put in the water are least effective, but a big reason for that is because birds will not always drink water that tastes, looks, or smells funny. If you know your bird is drinking them, they can be effective. I'm sorry your bird has been ill, and hope that she pulls through.

Please let us know what happens at the vets tomorrow. Poor BooBoo. Forgive me, but what is silver beet? Is it greens, or a beet?

okay, don't freak. I think your bird will be okay since he is not bleeding. When you spread the wing out, the long feathers at the end are the ones that should be trimmed. There are 10 primaries (long ones) and 10 secondaries (shorter ones between the birds body and the bend in the wing). Usually no more than 6-7 (maximum) individual feathers need to be trimmed for strong fliers. As Daz said, start with 4 and see how things are. Your bird should be able to fly, just not gain much lift. Clip primaries ONLY - do not clip secondaries. Always start from the longest outside feather and work your way in. Do not clip more than one feather at at time, and NEVER clip a blood feather. A blood feather is a feather that is still growing out. It is enclosed in a sheath and contains the blood supply to that feather. Birds can bleed to death if those feathers are cut and the bleeding isn't stopped. That being said as a reference, how many feathers did you clip, how far down did you clip them, and which ones did you clip? Did you know it is not always necessary to trim the feathers at all? There are compelling reasons both for and against it. Being 12 is not an excuse for not researching what you are doing before doing it, but everyone makes mistakes. That is how we learn. You are not dumb. Maybe what happened occurred because you did not exercise your best judgement, but I'm sure you are not dumb. You are here looking for information - that is not a dumb move at all. I'm glad you found our site. Welcome, and feel free to ask whatever questions you might have about caring for your budgie. Tell us a little about your bird, we'd love to hear. If you have any pictures you'd like to share, post them in the budgie pictures section.

Has the rainfall been far below normal??

I'm so sorry to hear that.

Would you maybe, just MAYBE, have any new pictures of those babies you could put up??????

Please keep us updated.

What happened at the vet's last night? Is BooBoo okay?

Congratulations! They look wonderful. I can see where you are very pleased.

The vet was probably ruling out kidney disease, because if the droppings are consistently watery or loose without a dietary reason, the kidneys usually have an issue. The biopsy would have been if the bloodwork came back with abnormally low or elevated levels of certain things. A very good move on your vet's part to check the kidney function, I think. Hopefully the blood tests all come back within normal range. Checking the urine part of the feces was a good idea too. Excessive water intake can also cause watery stools, and excessive thirst denotes a medical issue. A bird's system just doesn't go "off" without a reason. But that reason doesn't have to be medical, so by ruling out a medical issue you can look elsewhere. I think your vet was right in ordering all those tests. And if you only had to pay $120 for the office visit, blood tests, urine and fecal tests, you got a great deal! Count your blessings on that one. I would have thought it would have been more than that. If she is still in breeding mode (presenting herself to you and so forth) I would first start with rearranging her cage (toys and perches). Then I would monitor her daylight hours. It sounds simple, but lessened daylight hours really does curb the impulse to breed. If she is around a constant running water source (fishtank, washer, dishwasher, etc) try to either move her to where she can not constantly hear the water, or if it's appliances run those things more so at night when she will be sleeping and most likely tune it out at that time. Keep us updated, please!