Janette

You could try an old double bedsheet to cover them with. Or what about just working with a lamp focussed on your desk or wherever you work - the rest of the room would probably be quite dark then.

They are beautiful. Random question... how do you tell an ino is a baby when they don't have the head bars to show it? Is there another way to tell?

Hi, welcome! Your bird is beautiful! So unusual (at least compared to what I usually see around where I live). As for the mutation... I have no idea I'm sure someone will enlighten us both before too long.

She looks like she's really enjoying that. My two will only eat carrot. I can't get them to touch anything green, not even the carrot tops I leave attached. I'm growing some grass for them at the minute that I got off featheredpet's website, so I'll have to see if they go for it. I hope they do. I know having carrot is better than no veg at all, but I'd love it if they could have more variety in their diet.

Are they making any noises, or spitting anything up when they shake their heads like that?

And that is why I will never emigrate to Australia! Aah... lovely safe England. I'm in agreement with Lin, I'd have been in the running and screaming brigade. :glare: I guess an aviary must luck like a veritable lunch-box to a snake! That must have been such a shock. Did you figure out how it got in there? I guess you'll have to do some further snake-proofing now?

Well, i have no idea... but he's very beautiful. A very handsome boy.

Mine eat carrot. That's it. As much as I try, they will not eat anything else. They're very naughty!

Ah... works now. I wish my two loved their greens that much!

Congratulations! Hope all goes well!

I think that site might be a little out of date. I was looking for an avian vet around Norwich, and most of the ones the site said were bird specialists weren't at all when I rang to ask. A couple of them said they never had been, and a couple said they used to have an avian specialist, but no longer. I agree though, it's a handy starting point, as there were a few vets surgeries that I didn't realise existed and weren't listed in the yellow pages. Also, I found one of the most useful things to do was just phone an ordinary vet - they're usually more than happy to help, and can usually point you in the right direction. p.s. I don't suppose anyone is, but if anyone is looking in the Norfolk area for an avian vet, you want to try the vets in North Walsham (Nr. Norwich). It appears to be the only one for at least 20 miles around Norwich. They have an avian and exotics specialist.

How about a calcium/mineral perch. Mine love them. They work as a mineral block as well as sharpening their beaks and claws. They're usually tapered or of variable thickness to exercise their feet as well. Try http://www.featheredpets.com to see if you can see what I mean. I'm sure I've seen them there before.

That's very sad. At least you still have your other beautiful babies. :dbb1:

The link doesn't seem to work.

Really? I didn't realise that. I'll see if I can get hold of some then. Thanks, Lin.

Well, it turns out the avian vet I found is no longer at that surgery. He's moved away somewhere. They did recommend a surgery to me, though, and as I was ringing around other surgeries to find out if there was anywhere else to go, the same vet kept being mentioned as a good avian and exotics vet. The only trouble is, he seems to be the only one around for miles, it's a nightmare to get an appointment (not for almost three weeks, he must be good!). I've decided to get some over-the-counter ointment (Johnson's Scaly) for now. I thought I'd give her a head-start as she's got to wait so long for the vet. I thought it might at least ease the irritation a bit until she gets properly treated. Has anybody had any luck with home treatments before?

Thanks Una. I'm totally in love with her; she's a beautiful girl.

I'm not sure when yet. The other vets was closed by the time I brought them home from the first vet trip, but they open in a few minutes. I'm going to call to make an appointment. I'll hopefully be able to take them tomorrow, although that does mean they'll have to come to work with me afterwards. I don't think they'll mind sitting in the nice warm staff room for the day, though. They'll probably like the attention.

Your guess is as good as mine Bea. If they did it purely for the money from the consultation, there would at least be some logic in it. Without that, it just seems like a collossal waste of everyone's time. Plus, I hate to think of the added stress my girl would have been under if i did take her back to that vet for a beak scraping from someone so obviously inexperienced with birds. If she didn't know how to hold her properly, all sorts of things could go wrong. It doesn't even bear thinking about. I feel like I'm being a bit over-dramatic, but it does worry me that other people might not know to question the vet in these kinds of situations, or seek a more expert opinion. There aren't many people (apart from my fiance) who realise how important my birds are to me and how attached I am to them, so they don't understand why I got so angry over this. It's always good to have a rant to people who are interested. I'm glad I found these forums. Thanks everyone.

Well Nerwen and Bea, that's another reason I was annoyed. She didn't even take Custard out of her carry cage to look at her. I was going to ask her to do a quick nail trim, and possibly clip her wings if it would make her easier to catch and treat at home, but she didn't even want to touch her to examine her. As you can imagine, I decided against asking her. Grrr... Thankfully, she seemed to realise her own inadequacies and decided to make the consultation free of charge.

Well, I came back from taking Custard and Jimmi to the vets a little while ago, but I might as well not have bothered going! I've been trying to find an avian vet for about a week as I think Custard's got scaley face (see my post with pictures in the Health Q and T section), and finally today, I thought I'd found one. I rang this particular surgery up and asked them if any of the vets dealt with budgies and they said yes, I was really pleased so I made an appointment. I got there, waited about 45 minutes to see the vet and when I finally went in, she said, 'Budgies, how lovely, we don't see many of them!' She had a look at Custard through the bars of the carry cage. The converation then went along the lines of, Vet: 'I'm not really a bird person, but I'd say it was just hormonal,' Me: 'What makes you say that?' She doesn't answer. The vet disappears from the room for ten minutes and reappears with a very large book, which she's obviously been looking through. Vet: 'If it was mites, she'd have little holes in her beak as well as the flakiness.' Me: 'But she has.' Vet: 'Has she? Right. Oh, well I suppose we should take some scrapings from her then. You'll have to bring her back tomorrow though, she's taken up too much time now.' She also thought my birds looked like they were going to mate soon, even though she admitted she didn't really know how to sex a bird very well. When I looked surpised, she looked at her book again. Vet : 'Well that bit there is a cere. That's blueish, so that means he's a boy.' Both Jimmi and Custard have light blue ceres with almost white bits around the nares. I had to explain to her that not all girls have brown ceres. I didn't realise this until recently, but I'm pretty sure now that I have two girls, especially since that's the conclusion everyone came to on this site (Check out my posts in My flock and the genetics and mutations what am I section to see pictures). She told me to take Custard back tomorrow for a beak scraping, but I don't think I'll be taking my little girl anywhere near that surgery again. Why on earth did they tell me she knew about birds, when she clearly knew sweet ***** adams about anything vaguely feathery? I was mightily annoyed. I think I've found a 'proper' avian vet though, so i'll phone them first thing in the morning to get somebody a little better informed look at her.

She looks just like my custard! You could call her Flower/Petal. How about Poppet, seeing as she looks like such a cutie? *edit* Oops, I was looking at the wrong bird. Star looks like my birdie, not the other one. I'll stick with these names for my suggestions though.

Not really a term of endearment. It's more a name used by an older person to talk down to a young scallywag e.g. 'Don't you talk to me like that, Sunshine.' I'd go for Sugar-plum. Or how about Tinkerbell as she looks such a delicate colour (but only if she's a girl).

You can see they're descended from dinosaurs when they're so teeny tiny, can't you? They're the cutest little monsters ever! I'm so very, very jealous. Congratulations on the new family! (Laughing out loud)... If only two girl birdies could have babies - I'd be so happy.

Thanks for all the help. Now I can pretend I know what I'm talking about if somebody asks me about my birds!