armchairangel

wow.. and we thought Cupid's feet were blue! Such gorgeous birds!!

*(Laughing out loud)* I don't know why that picture made me think you went after them with a garden hose or dumped a bucket of water on them! *(Laughing out loud)*

you have some spinach between your teeth. Here, let me help you....

The only problem I could see with alfalfa sprouts is being able to wash them well enough. Just be sure to rinse them *really* well because they can harbor bacteria as well as any chemical that was used in growing them.

MILLET!!!! But seriously, if you give her something she thinks is fun to do out of her cage, she'll want to do it. What better thing than to eat? Give her a treat when she comes out - something she only gets when she's out.

Some people give their birds sweet peppers, but mine don't seem to like them. Another thing people will sometimes do is mix some baby food in with their seed. My guys like peas, both in the pod and shelled, as well as just about everything others have mentioned already. Some people say that veggies are more nutritious than fruits, so they (fruit) should be given sparingly. I give mine a thin slice of apple roughly once a week for instance, but they get different veggies pretty much daily. It was mentioned that corn is high in sugar and phosphorus, so it shouldn't be given daily either, but there are TONS of budgies that love it, mine included. There is a food and nutrition forum on here that has a lot of ideas - recipies for fun birdie bread and egg foods and directions for sprouting seeds as well as other good info.

I was trying to remember if I had read that lots of things can cause diarrhea, several of them not being something to worry about. All the birds have been quieter than normal today, but I've been napping all afternoon and haven't been able to directly monitor them. Baby seems pretty normal and her droppings still look a little soft and a slightly different color, but I think she's been eating more pellets (hence the color change) than usual. You would think that would make them more solid, but who knows. I'm just gonna continue to watch and see. They're not terribly different than normal, so I'm not really worried, just concerned.

Shell! Your doggy looks almost exactly like mine!! If you want to see a picture of him, I posted a few over in the "Just take the tablet Mickey!" thread. He's such a cutey!

that's what we've done with Baby, but she's never had another cage to go to. And now, several hours later, the pair still hasn't hardly moved! They've been taking a nap or something. *L* Funny little guys! I'm not sure if we're ready to let them have the same open door policy that Baby has, but we pretty much let them out when they want to. We're not 100% confident that everyone would be happy and safe if Baby was kept with one or both of the others while we're not right there too (like overnight or whatever). Maybe enough time has passed without major incident to warrant feeling okay about it, but we'd never forgive ourselves if something happened to Baby and she still seems a little flustered or put off by them from time to time. But letting them decide where they want to be is a fun idea that we'll probably explore more and more since today went so well.

Cupid and Psyche came out of their cage while I was changing their food and water this morning. We had someplace to go and as luck would have it, both of them ended up in Baby's cage. Rather than chase them around and try to get them to go back in their own cage, we just shut the door and put Baby in their cage for while we were gone. We were kind of wondering if we'd come home to annoyed birds or something, but we've been home for about a half hour now and none of them seem interested in coming back out and going to their usual homes. *(Laughing out loud)* Baby did step out into the doorway, but then turned around and went back in! *L* Maybe since they've all been in both cages before, a little bit of a change like this was fun for them or something. I would LOVE to know what goes on in their little bird brains!

A machine gun noise! How hilarious!!

Would it be cause to worry if the bird has recently had normal droppings, but you found some runny ones from before? I took Baby out this morning and she pooped rather normally on Jared's head. When I went to change her water, I noticed quite a bit of poop on the perch of the container - like the feces itself was looser than normal, it kind of spread out and ran down the side. Since she's not experiencing diarrhea at the moment, is she likely to be okay? I put brand new paper in her cage so I'll be able to monitor how she's doing.

Ahhh... So the feathers are longer and fluffed out more to give them that shape. They look so different from other budgies! I always wondered why.

The tops of their heads are so round! Is that a breed standard for show?

wow... no I haven't tried or even heard of it! But duh, I suppose millet has to come from SOMEwhere! *L* It sounds like fun!

Yeah, he looks super sweet in the last picture, but you can tell that he loves being naughty from the other ones! I love that he jumped onto the camera after the first picture!

They don't seem to get into trouble at all when they're out. They've learned about the walls and stuff and mainly stay on their cage or Baby's with the exception of a circle around the room now and then. It does take a while to get them back in their cage, but we don't go places often enough for it to be a problem - yet. *L* They go back inside when they're ready and it has worked for us well enough so far. I think continuing to work with them but still letting them out will be the way to go - take them out if we can, but not deprive them if we can't. Maybe Psyche will make the connection of the hand comes in and Cupid gets to go out and be more open to it too. But maybe she's not quite that bright. *L* We'll have to see. *L*

I love the angry dolphin noise.... it really IS a cute sound. I have no idea why I didn't think of it like a dog growling - of COURSE they do it when they play! Too funny!!

Baby makes the angry dolphin noise at her toys fairly often. She chitters at them and then hacks at them or pulls on them. I can understand why she does this when I'm trying to take her out - she'll chitter and then run to her toy and play with it (hello! can't you see I want to stay in my cage?!). Ever since we first had her, Jared would tell me she does that because she doesn't like what I'm doing. Then I read that its the noise they make when they're irritated. So why would she do this out of the blue while playing?

Is just letting your birds out actually detrimental to them? Or is physically taking them out for their out of cage time only beneficial if you want tamer birds? Cupid and Psyche have been much quieter since we've been letting them out of the cage on a daily basis. I think the extra stimulation and exercise really has helped. Cupid readily steps up, but its really difficult to move him while he's on your finger, particularly when he's in the cage. When he's out of the cage, Jared has been able to give him kisses a couple of times and we can move around the room with him on our finger. Psyche still is hesitant to even eat millet from our hand. Before they learned how to get back to their cage, she has allowed me to take her back to her cage with company from Cupid. I have read suggestions to others to only allow them out if you take them out. I'm afraid that if we didn't let Psyche out unless we handled her, she'd become a nuisance again. I also know that it is important to accept how your birds are going to be; some just won't be very tame at all. If what we're doing right now seems to be working, do we really need to keep working on getting them tamer? I did manage to actually take Cupid out today, with the help from some millet. He doesn't mind moving if he's eating. *L* After he was out, I worked with Psyche and was only able to get her to eat from my hand. I closed the door so she wouldn't fly out on her own, but then Cupid wanted back in and when we opened the door for him she came out too.*L* Perhaps if we make it a point to keep working on taking him out and getting her to eat from our hand that will be good enough. Like letting her out is a reward for eating from our hand and it will eventually progress to taking her out. I just don't want to cut back her out of the cage time because it really helps with her obnoxious behavior.

I knew you could do it!! We mostly 'let' our birds out rather than 'take' them out. I'm gonna have to work on this too. Way to go!!

Ohhh that's so sad!! I'm so sorry to hear of your loss, Bea. Losing animals can be so tough. I hope you can find some peace and comfort knowing that they had such a great home while they were here. They were beautiful!

Oh wow...! I really hope she'll pull through the night so you can get her to the vet. Blood is collected as Terri said through a nail clip, or if they need a larger amount, through a vein in their wing. Perhaps the vet thought it would kill her because birds have such a small volume of blood, but as Terri said, a good vet will know how much can be taken safely. In order for an x-ray to be diagnostic, it needs to be clear with good contrast of the structures. If an animal is moving while the picture is taken, of course, that messes it up. When we had our 15 year old budgie to the vet a month ago, he had thought about taking an x-ray, but in order to get a good quality one, they usually need to sedate a bird and he didn't want to do that to her because she was so old. Maybe that's what your vet had in mind, but didn't tell you the whole process she took to come to that conclusion. I wish I had something more to help you out with. I think giving her something that will give her quick easy energy would be good and keeping her warm is important. Good luck!!

Ohhh that's so sad!! It sounds like you and your daughters are birdie angels who take care of little ones who need it. Be sure to remind them how the birds really appreciate their care, and while its a very sad thing when one goes, it was a very good thing to have them in your lives. I've had several special needs animals over the years and while it breaks my heart when their time is up, I do get satisfaction for having helped them while I could. Good luck in finding a new little guy!

Lucky is beautiful, pinfeathers and all. In no time he'll be in top condition with a little TLC.