Rainbow

I'm sorry I missed this over the weekend. How is Kiwi today? I've only had one experience with a broken blood feather. I pulled it with needle-nosed pliers (had some help - it's a two person job if you've never done it before, which I hadn't) and then took her to the vet. I found out since I had gotten the bleeding to stop they may or may not have pulled the feather. From what I remember, and from what I've read, the first thing you should do is apply pressure to stop the bleeding before you pull the blood feather. If the bird is not struggling, it should clot fine on it's own, which I'm guessing is what happened to Kiwi since you didn't notice it until the next day. If it stops fine, and the bird doesn't seem to be in shock, as long as the bird doesn't keep knocking it, it may not even need to be pulled. I know the wound can keep re-opening, but most birds will be careful not to touch it against anything as it probably hurts (similar to us and a paper cut, I bet - but that is just my own idea and nothing else.) They will tend to preen the feathers around the broken one more often, and if it really bothers them they can pull the feather themselves. I've had birds pull out bent feathers before just because they couldn't preen them back the way they wanted them. As long as Kiwi can get to the broken part if it is really bothersome it can be pulled out without human help. I would be less worried about pulling it if it is one of the interior feathers - they have several feathers on each side to cushion. And end feather might be different. For your own peace of mind I think I would take Kiwi to the vet and let them look for the feather that broke, and if they think it needs to come out at this point they will pull it.

How is that lovely little baby budgie today?

I use newspaper because it is very sanitary, shows any changes in droppings very easily, safe if they shred it (or ingest it), easily attainable, and allows me to recycle. It is also very easy to change, and doesn't harbor molds like other bedding types might. I have a grill at the bottom of the cage too. Best of luck on your paper!

I have that same wood toy! My birds love it - they quickly shred all the bark off, like little buzzsaws... My birds bred in my living room, so the box just hung on the top part of the cage - maybe 2 1/2 feet from the bottom. I kept several perches at different levels around the hole to the nest box and as far as I remember, none of them ever fell all the way to the bottom. They ended up on a rope perch about a foot down. How high are the boxes in your aviary? I think since they do quite a bit of wing flapping before they actually leave the box, they should be able to manage to find a close perch without hurting themselves if the box isn't too high. I'd guess 4 or 5 feet max in case they go all the way to the ground, but someone with an aviary would be better able to tell you.

Boomery, all the fresh foods you offer have a high water content. I give mine veggies twice a day too, every day and have since I've had them. Veggies don't usually cause diarrhea, just an increase in the urine part of the stool. Some veggies have a higher water content than others, and that will in part determine how much water they excrete. More in = more out. People think that is diarrhea, but it is not. When your bird has diarrhea, the vent will be stained and there is no formed part of the stool at all, it is just a big splat of yuck. If the droppings look normal but have a watery ring around them, it is not diarrhea. As far as the green color, mine do that too sometimes. Sometimes they will just excrete urine with no other part, if they really go to town on the more watery veggies. They range from light green to a brownish-rust color if they have recently eaten pellets. As long as the inside part are formed, I don't pay much attention to them.

Awww, Bev...... (((hugs)))

Hommer, I am sorry about your hen.

I'm glad to hear he made it through the night. Poor thing, must be pretty traumatized by the whole ordeal if you think about it. Sweetcorn would be fine to feed, it just has a lot of starch so not too much. Hopefully you will keep him, and please do keep us updated! If I had to guess on the color, I would say type 2 yellowface blue spangle. Maybe even a dilute, as the colors on the chest and around the legs look pastel. But that could just be the flash.

A lot of people say to wait until the hens are at least 12 months old before breeding them, but I think closer to 18 months would be better. I can see where 12 months would be a safe age, but in retrospect while I watch my budgies (all offspring were kept) the hens are now about 14-16 months old, and they still seem like babies in some ways. I wouldn't breed any of my hens yet. They would probably be okay, but having so many birds in my house gives me a very unique perspective of their emotional as well as physical development and I still think mine are a little young to handle the rigors of parenthood. Birds kept in an aviary may mature faster, and maybe I have slowed my birds development by being such a part of their everyday lives - they are all still pretty tame for having so many - but as I watch the males sad attempts at wooing the hens and the hens bored responses I think they really are not ready for that yet. If you really don't know how old they are, err on the side of caution and wait a bit before you try to breed them again. It's possible they were all very young when you got them and could only be 7 months old right now. The hens can lay eggs then, but as nerwen said are really not ready to be parents at that age. Did all the birds come from the same pet store? If so, it is possible they could be related, which would mean they really shouldn't be bred together at all. As far as the bars go, a baby bird will have bars going all the way down to the cere. For the next several molts, the bars will recede a little bit. If they still had bars, they hadn't been through their first molt yet, and were under 4 months old. Here are some barheads and some more babies. The second link doesn't show the forheads very well, but the one on the far right you can see, and two more of them still have black spots on their beaks, which is also another sign they are young. The black beak spots disappear at about 6 weeks. Hope this helps.

You can look in on the babies everyday to make sure everything is okay in the box. Make sure you talk to them before you open it, and talk to them while the top is open so they get used to your voice. I handled mine at about 3 weeks, when I started to help clean out the nest box. The male used to kick the dried feces out through the front hole in the box, and kept it pretty clean all by himself. After about three weeks though, there was just more poop than he could handle. LOL The baby poop should not be wet, it should dry quickly and be sort of powdery if the hen is not a 'wet' feeder so having the poop stick to their feet shouldn't be an issue. It is so easy to clean the box, you can just pick up handfuls of dry poop and throw it in the trash. Your hands will just get powdery, not icky. If the poop is wet however, take a q-tip and get the end wet with warm water and gently wipe the feet clean. If there is a problem with the poop sticking to their feet, clean out the box at least every other day. You don't have to remove the chicks to do this, although many people do. I left mine in the box for cleanings, and they got used to my hands that way. I would either gently pick them up and move them to another part of the box, or they would crawl through the loop I made with my hands and nibble on them. So cute. I never added any bedding, the pair would just kick it out anyway. Please, don't clip your baby bird's wings at 4 weeks of age. They haven't even fledged by then, and they need lots of practice to strengthen their muscles. If you work with them in the nest box, they should remain tame enough for a month or so after they fledge that you will not need them clipped. They will step up and let you walk around with them because they don't know to be afraid of you. At about 4 months, if you keep them all they will get attittude (they are then pre-teens - LOL) and may need a slight trim for your sanity, but try not to clip them before then. I don't think it is good for baby birds to be trimmed before they've had a chance to learn to fly properly, but that's just me. There are instructions on posting pictures in the picture forum, at the top of the page. I look forward to your pictures!

Wow. A baby budgie in a box on your doorstep. Wow. Maybe you got it because someone knows you keep birds? Anyway, s/he is feathered, so that is good. The short tail tells me probably no older than 3 1/2 to 4 weeks old. She should still be fed by mom and dad, but is old enough to learn to eat soft seeds. Try millet, or soft grain cereal like Cheerios, or very small pellets (soften it with water if necessary). If you feed sprouted seeds to your cockatiels try that too, or soft veggies. Maybe s/he would eat cookable diets like Beak Appetit or Crazy Corn if you feed those to your cockatiels. Poor little budgie, at least s/he was lucky enough to have been left with someone who already loves birds. If you don't have any luck with that, please handfeed, but I think you shouldn't have to do that for more than a few days - week at the most - before s/he figures out about seeds. S/he certainly is beautiful. I can't tell how hungry it may be, but the crop doesn't look flat. Baby birds are always hungry anyway... :dbb1: Do you think you will keep it? The picture was too big, so I made it into a link.

That's a new one for me too. I'm very sorry he didn't make it, but am glad the rest show no problems.

Wonderful pictures! I love egg and baby pics. :dbb1:

If she is sitting tightly on them now, they may have been laid later than the usual 10 days after mating. I'd let her keep sitting on them if it were me. If you find there are more than 4 now, you can back count to find out when the first one was laid since you know there were only 4 eggs the last time you checked.

Hi Barnsey, and welcome to the site. Budgies will normally begin laying about 10 days after the first mating, although they will continue to mate even after the female begins to lay. The first one should hatch 18 days after it was laid. The eggs usually hatch on an every-other-day schedule, in the same order they were laid. Some birds will not begin to sit tightly on the eggs until after the second egg is laid, so to be safe give it 20 days for the first one to hatch, and count your every other day schedule from there before pulling out unhatched eggs. Some may not hatch, so give it a few extra days after the last egg should have hatched before removing eggs that are still there. You can guess the first egg was laid around 26 May, which would put the hatch date around June 13 -15, so the first 3 or so should have hatched already. Since you don't know exactly when they were laid, that may not be a good way to determine when to remove eggs. How many were there?

I don't know. I wonder how air is getting trapped there? Do you have a vet you could call and ask? It doesn't sound good.

The 10-12 hour rule is based upon the fact that most of the parrots we keep have their homes nearer the equator than we are in the states or Canada or in the UK. There the days/nights are roughly even all year 'round, so in the wild the birds are used to days and nights being roughly the same length.

I ordered it, but you might be able to find it in the bookstores. I've also seen it at bird fairs, if you ever go to any of those you might look there also.

Don't they smell wonderful????

Mine go out through the top, but I put them back in through the front door. I ask them if the "birdies wanna come out??" and open the top. Some of them are out before I have it all the way open sometimes.

I have found an absolutely wonderful book, that if you can get a copy of it is well worth adding to your birdie library. It is called "Holistic Care for Birds - A Manual of Wellness and Healing" by David McCluggage, DVM. It was copywritten in 1999 so is fairly recent and contains information about the emotional and physiological aspects of bird care as well as nutrition (even recipes you can cook and eat yourself as well as feed to your birds - makes it easier to justify cooking, doesn't it?) and homeopathic treatments. Even if you don't go for homeopathy or natural treatments, the information in the first part of the book alone is wonderful. I'd at least recommend trying to find it in your library and checking it out to see if you think it's worth the purchase. Has anyone else read it?

That's great! Just spend extra time with Sherbet every day and he should remain tame. It might even settle down the other two.

It is probably a little bruised and just hurts. If he is using it a little bit more as the day goes on, I'd say he'll be fine. Did Bobby draw blood? If he's not using it tomorrow and there was no blood, I'd give the vet a call.

I don't think it is caused by the seed, but I'm not a vet. Did you know that your bird will not eat as much in pellets as she eats in seed? You said you didn't feel she was eating enough - (and this is probably a dumb question) does she know pellets are food? Or did you just notice she eats less pellets than seed? If she normally eats pellets, I'd keep the seed away from her until you go back to the vet's. Did your vet ask you to not feed vegetables or fruit until the next visit too? He may want to rule out the obvious reasons for her increased urine output. As far as the weight issue, there is a wide range of normal. The average weight of a "pet" budgie is about an ounce, or 28-30 grams. I'd say most of mine are closer to 40 grams some are a little heavy, others are at a good weight for their build. If there is a little bulge of fat around her upper chest, she is overweight. If when she is winded or afraid (whenever she gets 'thin') and you don't notice any extra fat on her front, her weight is probably okay. I've got a heavy hen if you need a picture of the fat roll... :grbud:

Yeah, it looks like increased urine to me too. The vent area will also become very stained with diarrhea, and there is also no formed part to the stool at all. Other than the liquid stain those poos look pretty normal. Are they always like that, or does Zoe sometimes have regular droppings without the extra water? Did you call the vet and ask about what he would be looking for in bloodwork? Pixie, budgies can be diabetic.