Rainbow

This is true. I also have some heavyweights, but they have never had a seed bell or honey treat or anything with sugar in their lives. I have never fed them "birdie junk food". They eat pellets, seeds, millet, canary grass on the stalk, sprouted wheatgrass, Beak Appetit (yes, they eat it a little now), and all manner of veggies. They eat better than me some days - LOL - yet they still weigh too much. It is a very common problem, and I'm glad Millimi brought it up. There are all sorts of other health issues involved when our birds carry too much weight. It is not only caused by eating the wrong foods, also by (apparently) too much of the right foods. Do you have a plan of action for Soda?

You can use a weak bleach solution to clean it, or a lot of people use vinegar to clean and disinfect. I'd add all new perches too.

There is a wide range of "normal" sizes in American budgies. One of my males is quite a bit larger than the rest too, but he came from the same parents and is not an English budgie. The English ones are quite a bit larger, is it possible your first one is an English budgie?

When the birds I have were babies, they were slightly larger than the parents when they fledged, and slimmed down after they learned to fly. I would think your bird should be normal weight, which for "pet" (American Shell parakeets) would be about 1 ounce (28-30 grams). Larger "English" (exhibition size) budgies would weigh more. I think you should take him to the vet since you are concerned about it.

The mite protectors that are sold in pet stores actually contain toxins that your budgie will breathe in. Absolutely harmful. Please don't use them.

I can't think how you were able to teach him to sound like a group of excited chimps......

Good vibes coming from me......keep us posted.

Good for you wanting a huge cage! I'm not sure about any brands being better than any other, but here are some things to look for: **Large entry doors. You want to easily be able to get your hands, your arm, whatever contortions you may need to get your bird out sometimes. Make sure you can reach all around the cage from the door. If you can't, you can bet your budgie will soon figure that out, should you ever need to catch him to medicate him. **Both vertical and horizontal bars. They can climb around on horizontal bars only, but it is easier to use vertical and having both types gives a different climbing workout. **Entry doors that open outward, either to the side or the bottom. Avoid guillotine style doors. Budgies quickly figure out how to open these when you are not around, and if they do not get out immediately, will have the door come down on them. That has the potential to hurt them, as well as allowing them unsupervised access to your house. Who knows what they would get into - I think it's impossible to birdproof an entire house. **Bar spacing should be 1/2" or less - any larger and little budgie heads can become stuck. It sometimes is hard to find cages large enough with narrow bar spacing. For some reason manufacturers tend to make the really good cages with wider spacing for larger parrots, but there are some out there. I'd never get any that were wider than 5/8". **Stainless steel or powder coated cages are best. If they are just painted, do your research with the manufacturer to make sure the paint is bird safe. Paint will chip off, and could expose the wire to rust. Avoid rust on a cage like the plague. **Outside access to food and water dishes. Not to say you can't add those dishes that hang on the side of the cage, but sometimes hormonal budgies will bite and outside access is nice to have then. Also it is less stressful when your budgie is new and doesn't know you are not after him when your hand goes in the cage to change food and water. **Seed and water dishes that are uncovered. Some budgies will eat from covered dishes, but most won't. If the cage you want comes with covered food dishes, make sure you can take the covers off and still have serviceable dishes. **A grate on the bottom, to keep them out of their feces and any fresh food that may get flung to the bottom while they are eating. **A tray that easily slides out to change the newspaper. eterri gave you a good dimension for several birds. Right now mine are in two 24" x 18" x 36" cages. They seem okay with that size but they are out for a good amount of time. I really want a larger cage. My dream cage for my ten birds is 64" long, with a partition in the middle that will make two seperate cages, should it be necessary to seperate them. Even at that, I'd have them out of the cage still whenever I was home. I'm sure other people will add to my list of things to look for in a cage, but those are the immediate ones that came to mind. Hope it helps some.

He's cute. The parents should not ignore him just because you took him out. I'm sorry to hear one of them didn't make it. I had to change your picture into a link as it was much too large.

Hello and welcome. I'm glad you've found the site - we've great people here. The feces shouldn't stick to his feathers. Have you called your vet's about it yet? If not, that would be my first course of action, to set up an appointment. They will probably do a gram stain to check for bacteria and yeast. Both conditions are easily (well, relatively - you'll get the hang of giving medicine ) treatable if that is the case. Baby budgies ARE so cute, aren't they? What color are yours?

It is common for budgies to become overweight. You will need to weigh him to get a base weight, then check with your vet about the best way to put him on a diet, and what a safe rate of weight loss would be. Regular weigh-ins are a must, as well as checking the condition of the feces. As the weight comes off, he hopefully will be more inclined to fly more. Mine are on one too.

What a great idea!

You are pretty close to me, do you think pet shops everywhere (in US) usually trim budgies when they get them in? Good luck with Sunshine - I'll bet in the two weeks or so she's caged you will be able to repair any damage from catching her today.

How old is Sunshine? If his flights were trimmed early, he probably didn't have a chance to learn to fly properly and that is why s/he is having trouble navigating. Even though they can fly at 5-6 weeks, it takes several weeks after that to really get good at it and build up the muscles. Most pet stores around here will clip the budgies when they get them in, so at 6 weeks they lose flight capability (they clip them too severely anyway) and the potential owner has no say in the matter. I think sometimes these birds haven't even fledged properly and are behind in the flying game from the get-go... As long as Sunshine has the outer three flights grown in on both sides it is probably safe to allow flight - if s/he's trying to navigate with few or no outer flights that is probably why they keep breaking when the crash landings occur. The outer flights provide lift on takeoff and drag upon landings, the inner one's stability throughout flight. Sunshine probably is judging distance correctly, but without enough feathers in a row on both sides cannot navigate the landing properly. (You really only need to trim the outer 3-4 to limit flight but most places trim all ten. ) If there are big gaps between feathers Sunshine will be off balance. Not that I am an expert by any means, but depending on which feathers have grown in, you might want to keep him/her caged until a few more come through.

Well, it depends. Hens can reach sexual maturity at 5-6 months, but it takes up to 18 months before they are physically and emotionally mature. They should not be bred as soon as they are able to, as they do not have sufficient vitamin, mineral, and calcium stores in their bodies for the demands placed upon them to create eggs, and their bones are still soft and not always able to withstand the rigors of egg production. Emotionally they often do not know what to do with the chicks, or even how to properly incubate the eggs at 6 months of age. Cockbirds reach sexual maturity a little later, maybe 7-9 months, but like the hens are not completely mature until much older. The males also should not breed just as soon as they are physically able, a little waiting until they are more emotionally mature is suggested, in my opinion. Added to FAQ

This might help. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cl...&articleid=3068 You can do a google search for knemidokoptes (pilae) for more information - that is the name of the mite that causes scaly face. I'm glad you took Lilly to the vet. Did your vet also recommend treating Clive as well? It would be a good idea, I think, otherwise they may continue to reinfect each other if Clive has the mite dormant.

At 4-5 weeks old, the baby will be learning to eat seed and "people food". The male should still be feeding him, maybe he still is but you haven't seen it. You can introduce whatever will be his normal diet to him. Millet is a softer seed that is easier for them to learn to hull, and broccoli, baby spinach, apple, or lightly cooked foods will be easy for him to learn to eat too. Are there other babies still in the nest box?

:bluebudgie: I am anxiously awaiting those pictures!

Molting budgie. Does that help?

How are the birdies?

How did the vet visit go?

It's called cere hypertrophy, and is usually caused by female hormones. Your vet will probably just remove the excess. Did you take her in yet?

Not related to what tina said, but if there is any fluid build up, laying them on their backs could potentially cause the fluid to flood back into the lungs and air sacs if it drains back towards the head. I learned that when I was taking Rainbow the vets for his kidney tumor - he had a little excess fluid build up in his abdomen as his kidneys failed and that is what I was told since he had to take an oral steroid. Since tina said her bird had some respiratory problems, it made me think of that - just one of those mental connections, you know? It seems a remote possibility and probably rarely happens and had nothing to do with what tina said but I just thought about that as I was typing my reply. I don't know why. But it is just as easy to keep them upright, isn't it? I think it would be easier to choke on the meds too if they were on their backs - that's a good point. But I've given oral meds that way before too. It just seems I have had more problems of it going down wrong when they are tilted back - like big wet sneezes right afterwards and you realize they've just sprayed you with whatever you just gave them because it went down the wrong way and then you get paranoid because you think you've done them in and you cry and apologize to them....oh sorry - ... Yes, that was probably a poor attempt to make light of it, but I'm sure at least one other person has had that happen...and it can be serious if you give it wrong. Anyway, that's also why I drizzle the medicine in now instead of a big squirt. I refuse to have that sick feeling when I think I've given medicine down the wrong pipe because they've moved or shook their heads when I squirted the medicine. I've had it go up their nose before. So I don't lay them back anymore. I hate the thought of that happening to anyone else.

YAY!! Was he good about it?

Supposedly by bracing the sides of the head your bird can't turn and bite, but I won't hold them that tightly...so prepare to be bitten. Let me know how it goes. **edit** I'm sorry he is sick.