Michelle

My trick is that when I put my finger into the cage and they would bite it, I would let them bite away and not move. After all, it's just a tiny pinch, it's easy to cope with and they never draw blood. After a short while they gave up biting me since they realized it was useless. I figured that if I removed my finger after a bite they would understand that it's a good way to get rid of me.

...You guys wanna see something totally gross? Click! Put is as a link just so you don't wanna see something you don't want to, cuz I took really good closeup pictures. ;P I'm surprised how good my cheap camera is! I was brewing myself a good gyokuro tea while watching TV... Mom was watching Bud and Blue chatting some birdtalk together. Then suddenly she goes "hey, his toe's gone!" Sure enough, we looked around the bottom of the cage and there it was! That was fast!!! Now there's just a tiny spike of bone left where it was (I'm gonna desinfect his foot now, you know... Just to be sure.) ...I kept it in a pillbottle. I like keeping oddities like that.

Blue isn't that much of a baby. He's a big boy now. He's just 8 days younger than Godzilla. Godzilla was born June 12th 2007, Blue was born June 20th 2007. He's certainly the youngest but hey, he's got 5 babies and all. But he'S certainly a new bird... Godzilla doesn't trust me (he's my mom's bird.) so I can't help introduce him and Pat was always a bit of a coward. All I could do was introduce Bud, she's the only one that sorta trusts me. Guess I'll have to wait for them to get used to him. I just figured it would be faster.

Blue came out of his cage all by himself today! I was so proud of him right there! It was such a relief to see him do that, he NEVER did that in his whole life! (because well, he never came out of his cage in a year.) It opens on the playgym, so he trotted out of there and into the playgym to eat some seeds at the bottom and try to chat with the other birds... He's still having problems there... I have to keep a paranoid eye on him (I usually just let them do their business around the living room by paying minimal attention, but I'm really careful with Blue... he's still wounded after all.) because the others don't accept him yet... I'm having a problem there (well, HE is.) Sometimes Bud sings to him and gives him kissies and the next second she gets nasty. But she's always been that way with all the others so I just remove her when she gets annoyed so she won't hurt him. It's pretty much expected from her. She already counts up his cage as part of her possession, like she does with Godzilla's cage. They're all used to it, the world is hers and she's the boss. Blue's learning to cope with her big temper. But Pat and Godzilla... They're afraid of him. I dunno why and I don't get it... I'm not quite sure what to do. Blue sings to them, tries to get to them, and then they back away and just fly off where he can't reach them.

That's why I keep my birds's wings clipped. Yea, it restricts them but let's face it: a house's designed for humans walking around in it, not a bird flight. It's full of small places and traps where they can get stuck. Glad she's okay.

Oh, but I do have some with 2 connectors. See? He even has one in there. He's sitting on it in the first picture. I even have another one, a thicker and longer one. I thought it would fit inside but I guess I overestimated that cage. Godzilla has one in his cage. I'll probably find SOMEPLACE to fit that new one. I dunno where yet.

Got news from the vet finally! She said that if I have so much trouble holding him that using a crop needle would just make it worse and I might hurt him. So what I'm doing now is giving it to him really tiny wee bit by wee bit... It worked for tonight, he only sneezed a tiny bit! It's still a mess when he decides to block the hole with his darned tongue...

So it's normal then? Well alright! ...I guess the others are more skilled at it or something <_<

Ever since I've had that Blue kid I've been wondering some things about his behavior (He's a grown boy afterall so I basically don't know much about him.)... For instance, when he eats he tends to roll and roll and roll a seed in his mouth until finally he seems to swallow it. He can do that for about 15 seconds to maybe even a minute! Is that normal? I've never see a budgie do that before.

Yea, I noticed it flops around a lot. They lack stability... Maybe I oughta fix it up like you did too. Thanks guys.

It's just stressing me so much. He's been shaking his head and sneezing for about 10 minutes now... He did that yesterday too... EDIT: the vet uh... I'll give their emergency line a call and see what they think I should do right now.

The vet told me to put the medicine with a seringe under his "tongue"... which is what I do. But he struggles so much it seems that he always gets some OVER the "tongue" thing. And then he starts sneezing and such.... Is that normal that it happens? It's always such a struggle, he moves around so much it's hard to get the meds where they belong!!!

Finally found my camera to get you pictures of my new boy in his new cage. Sorry for the quality, the sun's down and everything so they're done with the flash... And I was a distance good away to not startle him too much. In the last one you can see how his claw's doing. That's his new cage! Not the best thng ever, s'got a bit of a weird shape, but for 30 bucks it's fine. Especially compared to his old one...which was fine for a while, of course you had to restrict his movements a bit. But now I think he's okay enough for a bit more space for more fun and get him to exercise. And while I'm at it I snapped one of Godzilla and Pat. (Pat's in the background, his tail's grown back and has been unbroken for a long time! I think the vitamins are doing a good job!)

Today I bought Blue a new cage, and when he got inside it he freaked out and broke a blood feather... That happened like 15 minutes ago. There was some bleeding, not even close to being a drop though. I put cornstarch on it and mom called the vet's emergency line. All they said was to continue what I was doing, and hold the wound firmly for 5 minutes (right like that's evident). Right now he's in the new cage, he seems to have relaxed and he's eating. The bleeding seems to have stopped... I think. There was so much cornstarch and not enough blood! I plan on rechecking when I give him his meds. I'm not sure he "broke" it, and it if broke the remaining stem is too small for me to reach. I took a picture of the feather (since I saw it all I knew that was it, there's still blood on the tip)... I'm not sure that whatever remains in the wing is pickable, but I'd like your advice. I know I couldn't see anything there... You guys think he'll be okay like that? Should I clean the wing with desinfectant when I give him his meds or should I wait?

Considering the tree is in their back yard... I'm not sure they'd approve of my trespassing. I'll keep my eyes out for a more accessible one!

We don't. The only willow I know in the area is on the lawn of a guy that is on my bus route, but I don't think he would like me stripping bark off his willows. And... putting honey there? Won't he just eat it?

Really? Well I did read here that it was an antiseptic in that first aide FAQ, but pain killer? Do I give it to him as a snack??? Cuz I have PLENTY honey, and I'm willing to share SOME of my gold with him. Some. I'm a honey addict. :budgiedance:

Well I'm giving him anti inflamatories. I'm not gonna start hunting down trees and plants...

Oh poor thing. Glad she got used to it! Blue seems to start getting around well with a painful foot, but it's still tough for him. Does anyone knows how long it usually takes for necrosed stuff to fall off completely?

Blue returned to the vet today, and I just returned. if you guys remember that other thread... I was having worries about one of Blue's back toes last week. It looked half-cut off and still had colors... Well, in the meantime it changed colors a bit. It was yellowish now, with some dark in it. The necrosis is settling in all around the toe. The end of the toe was still colored because, well, she didn't chew the whole skin off like she did with the other one. Blue will lose that full toe, necrosis is working around the toe like shears. Nothing to do beyond resuming whatever I have left in antibiotics and anti-inflamatories for his safety and comfort. She told me that ideally we should amputate it, but she told me that it's 150 bucks and that with the medicine, cleaning and time, it will just fall off by itself so it's not worth it. Sure it's painful for him, it'll take a while but afterwards it'll be okay. It's not as if he's totally depressed or anything. His swelling should go away when all the necrosed toes are down. The front one is about half gone (He's PEELING it!) and is starting to drop at the root. Phew! Poor guy,I hope the toes will fall off soon so he can start enjoying life a bit!

Won't you see that little face! You just KNOW it's planning to take over the world.

Don't be tempted to do it yourself as it will be cut though the correct part of the bone/joint and it needs to be done by a vet. I wouldn't do that... Come on.

S'what I was talking about with my workmate. I mean, it's so small that you just have to numb up the leg then... I dunno, take a nail clipper!

Amputate it... Ow, that sounds costly (But then again it's so small, it must not be THAT costly!)... But that's what came to my mind too when I checked it out. I'll give the vet a call and speak with her. If he needs amputation I can probably afford it next week.

Hey, I thought I'd drop and give you news about Blue. I wanna take pictures of him later on, he's doing just so well. His leg still worries me, but it's healing. That black toe is ...I dunno, peeling away. He fiddles after it sometimes but I'm not sure what I could do about it. There's a back toe that worries me too. It's not black, but there's a huge gash in there still. I wanna try to take a picture of that but it's not easy, he would never hold still to let me do that. It's as if the toe was half cut off, but it still lives. I stopped giving him his meds yesterday, I think he seems to have had enough. I skipped a few doses in there... Personal, extremely bad things happened and I have just not been home. But the vet had said 5 days was enough if things were going well. I clipped his wings this weekend, and that nearly automatically tamed him up. He won't throw himself around in panic anymore. He climbs on my finger when prompted (Sometimes he needs help to get on). Sometimes he jumps off and tries to flap to wherever else but I just have to grab him back. His wounded claw won't close, so to hold on a perch he just uses his good foot. To get more comfortable he edges towards your thumb so he can lay his wounded claw flat and have better balance. He chirps at the others when he's lonely. Sometimes he'll chirp when I'm around but he's still scared so he usually shuts up. We started introducing him to the others, but there's no way I'll EVER let them close to Blue until he's 100% healed. Bud showed up some bad temper, she might hurt him. Pat did too but it looked more like he was scared. Bud's another thing. She always shows agressivity to the others but it's not the same, he's wounded and he won't be able to defend himself (aka RUN AWAY) properly. As for Godzilla, he won't even get close to his cage. Probably why Pat feels uneasy, but Pat runs around in circles about Blue's cage. So we bring his cage to the living room, it makes him less bored and allows my mom to keep an eye on him directly. But we don't allow contact. When they're out of the cage he's in his, and when we want to take him out we lock up the others and let him enjoy the playgym. He won't play yet, he's scared, but he's very curious. It's okay, he can take his time. I'll try to take pictures if I can find time tonight!