Rainbow

Hello and Welcome!

I'm sorry about the loss of the baby, but I'm glad you have some idea of what might have happened. Hopefully you don't have any more baby losses.

Fantastic photos, Nerwen! All your birds look fabulous! I love the photos with the grass too. :rip:

I've seen that list of preservatives before. Thanks for posting it up. Everyone should know about them. The three most common - ethoxyquin, BHA, and BHT - are in most pellets you buy at the store. That is the reason I switched to Harrison's. If you do a google search about those preservatives, it will be a real eye-opener. I checked the ingredient labels on my Harrison's, and sea salt is pretty far down the list so the amount used would be very small. It is a naturally occurring salt, not artificial. There are much worse things they could eat besides trace amounts of salt. I think whatever they would get from the pellets is negligible, and since our birds are supposed to eat as much variety as we can get them to accept it is not something I think about. I don't know if there are any pellets without any preservatives at all. I know it is very hard to find seeds without them too. I'll bet if you check the label you'll find more than a few seeds and maybe added vitamins on it unless you get organic. They are hard to find too. I wish feeding a well-rounded diet with a lot of variety were easier. As far as them being unnatural, so is a good deal of what you find in the grocery store for people. We eat it anyway. :rip: I for one love things that end in "itos/eetos" ...like Doritos, Cheetos...LOL. Hmmm, Maybe I would be better off to eat the pellets!

Is it like a quick flick of the wings? Budgies will do that when they have excess energy or are nervous. Have there been any changes lately, either in the household or the room where he is kept? If the excess preening also involves the flight feathers he may have a wing feather slightly out of place that is irritating him. He will then preen and flick, preen and flick, until the feather is fixed. If one is bent or broken he may eventually pull it out.

He is a lovely budgie. :rip: He sounds like he is a bit hormonal. Like Lovey said, if you are consistent with him and don't react to the bites he will get over this phase.

Oh my gosh, what a horrible thing to wake up to. I am so sorry. I think I would call the vet back and ask to discuss it, although I imagine you are very distraught right now. Was there any reason to think he was sick before? Are bird mites common where you are?

I haven't tried it, but what a nice idea to add some variety! Sweet potato is supposed to be very good to feed your birds. I think I will try it myself.

The Harrison's site has an area that lists where you can buy from all over the globe. Maybe there is somewhere near you - I know there is a link to Australia. Or it might be possible to order directly from the manufacturer.

Thanks! They do like to chew the string that holds the blinds in place. So far no damage though. They are entertaining little birds.

Since it came on suddenly, it does not seem as likely to be a tumor. I don't really know, but if it is a sprain, I would guess a week to 10 days to show improvement?

What I ended up doing is feeding the "good stuff" in the morning (Beak Appetit) and only leaving pellets in the cage all day. The sprouts, fresh foods, and seeds are then given when I come home. Maybe something like that would work for you as well.

I would never suggest you starve any animal! :fear

If you really want to add another budgie, you should quarantine him or her away from Bobby for at least 30 days - different cage, different room, different toys, everything. They should have no contact except via hearing. This is to protect both birds should one or the other be coming down with something not apparent yet. It is easier to treat one bird than multiple birds. During quarantine, play with and change food/water/cage liner of Bobby first. Wash your hands after any contact with the new bird. Once the quarantine is up I would bring the new birds cage into the same room as Bobby and let them get to know each other through cage bars for a few days. When they start sitting as close to each other as the cage bars allow, you know they want to be together. Once you let them out together, keep an eye out for any serious bickering. They may "test" each other to see at what point they back down, but this is normal. Once they seem comfortable with each other out of the cage, I would leave both cages open so they can explore each others cage, and let them decide whether they want to share a cage or not. If they both retreat to seperate cages to eat and sleep, let them. Budgies are very social as a rule, and you probably will not have any problems, but there are always exceptions and they might always keep seperate cages, even if they play well together. *edit* Welcome! I just noticed this was your first post. :fear Do you have any pictures of Bobby you can post? What's he like?

The hen will usually not be in the box anymore, probably on a perch or on the floor of the cage with signs of obvious straining. She may whip her tail from side to side in an effort to pass the egg. Breathing will be labored. She is in pain. Get her to a place of higher humidity, like the bathroom. Run the shower on hot with the door closed to fog it up good and keep her in there. The moisture and heat may help her to pass the egg. If no egg is passed within an hour get her to an avian vet ASAP. Hens have died from being egg-bound. Not only will the egg not come out, but nothing else will either so she will no longer be able to defacate. I hope you don't have an eggbound hen? That would be scary. Let us know.

Kirby, my hen never discarded infertile eggs. She took care of the hatched budgies, and sat on the infertiles until I took them away. I think most hens will sit on them for a good while before they give up, infertile or not. Where did you hear hens will discard infertile eggs? Hello Pass... what brings you back?

How old is Buzby? My first thought unfortunately was he may have tumor. Did the lameness in the leg come on suddenly, or was it gradual, over a period of weeks? My namesake, Rainbow, had similar symptoms. It started off with a slight lameness in his right leg, then progressed to where he could no longer grip the perch. At first his toes stayed straight out, but then became curled and difficult for him to straighten. He began to stand on one foot only, then when that became tiring he would put some weight on the actual leg itself, but by laying it on the perch. Then the leg became drawn up into the feathers and he had to sit lopsided. Eventually the leg became straightened out behind him, as in a permanent stretch. The different stages of leg paralysis and stiffness was due to the growth of the tumor, and how mch and where it was pressing on the sciatic nerve. He was on steroids for the inflammation, and an antibiotic in case of infection. I don't type this to scare you, but to give you something to possibly watch for. There are things you can do to keep his quality of life high if in fact he does have a tumor. In Rainbow's case, he had a kidney tumor and lived 6 months AFTER diagnosis, which is outstanding. Who knows how long it was growing in him before outward symptoms began. I did have to modify the cage somewhat towards the end, and placed him in a cage alone for his safety, as many of the flock were trying to "off" him since he was obviously not in perfect health. A normal occurance in the wild, but if you have other birds something else to be aware of. He was still let out every day, still flew everywhere he normally did, and still sang his little heart out constantly. He was allowed out with the rest of the flock under supervision, and except for not being able to get around well seemed perfectly happy. I don't think he was in any pain. Birds accept their fate a lot easier than their people do. If I were you, I would not jump to euthanasia. It could also be a pulled muscle or a sprain, and he could have gotten it as easily as landing on a perch wrong or getting a bit tangled up in a toy before extricating himself on his own, without your knowledge.

Wonderful!!!! Now I just have to work on that plane ticket......

This is one of the favorite pastimes of my birds...and one of the few times more than one bird was allowed on at a time, LOL. Normally one bird claims the entire window as her territory and will chase off any other that dare encroach upon this prime piece of window real estate. I had to put a towel along the top because they try to eat whatever is behind that top strip. I'm not tall enough to see what it is, so I have no idea what is so enticing. Whatever it is, it's good enough for somebudgie to remove the towel. "...oh, okay, you can share this window, but you must stay on the lower level because I want to be top bird today..." "well, she can have the blinds, I found something better..." "...what is she doing up there??? ..." "...Like she thought she could have this spot....hmph!..."

I'd keep an eye on him. Regurgitation is a very controlled behavior, and the food will only go where he places it. They don't even have to bring it all the way up, or will sometimes chew on it before depositing it on the object of their affection, and will sometimes re-eat it (I know, ewwww) . The head bobbing is an up and down motion. When a bird vomits, what comes up is not controlled at all, and will be flung everywhere as the bird shakes his head to get rid of it. It is usually a quick motion, and the bird moves his head from side to side and not up and down as in regurgitation. If what you are finding is encased in a slightly opaque milky substance, it sounds like vomit to me. If you start to see sticky feathers around the face or head he almost certainly has been vomiting. I remember reading somewhere that birds usually vomit due to a bacterial infection or bad food sitting in the proventriculus (stomach) and not something in the crop, but I don't know where I read it so I can't give you a link to read.

Those pictures are adorable! If I ever get out your way I'd love to stop by and visit. You guys are lucky you live so close to each other.

It could be due to balance, but anytime mine have been like that it was because they did not feel well or were under stress. How long has it been since the clip? Was it an uneventful trim, or did your bird struggle? Did it take a few tries or was it quick? To me it looks like your bird is sitting way back on his feet so the dropped tail might be due to stress in this case. If he were sitting more forward and a bit higher like normal the body would be in a straighter line I think. As hath said, it is a fault in the shows, but if your bird normally always is in a straight line from the head to the tip of the tail having it become droopy may be a signal something is wrong. When my birds were clipped they did not have droopy tails. I don't notice a bump in your photo though, to me it looks like a normal angle where the tail drops. Can you post a better picture of the lump?

I was going to suggest removing the nest box also, as this should stop your hen from laying. When my birds were breeding I had to seperate the male from the female and remove the nest box as they were wanting to start a third clutch too. She laid one egg on the floor of the cage, but stopped after that. Thank goodness, since she laid 7 eggs the first, and 6 the second. 14 eggs is a lot for any hen, and this was her first breeding. I think she came out of it so well because she was in good health to begin with, and also was 2 years old. Related budgies will try to breed with each other if conditions are right. I kept all the babies for quite a long time before rehoming some of them, and it was sometimes a real treat to keep them from becoming too hormonal. You may have to go through a phase of keeping all males in the same cage and females in another.

I'm going to go against the flow and guess he is a she. Just in case, you might think of a gender-neutral name. Although I don't think s/he will mind what you call him/her.