lil_fuzzy

found him dead this morning. But he was fine last night, he's had a little bit of messiness around his vent, but he's been interacting normally with the female and eating and not fluffed up or anything. But today I found him lying at the bottom of the cage, and he had liquid or something around his beak. It was so sudden..

What marketing? I only looked at the ingredients. Everything I know about diet and nutrition suggests that a diet consisting of 5 seed types and 2 types of veggies will be better than a diet consisting of 3 different seed types. More variety = better health.

I've cleaned him up, and he seems fine. He's not fluffed up and acts normal. His poo is a bit greenish, but not runny. They went straight to the new food and are eating normally, but I've left the old food in there as well. (Not that they show any interest in it.) We're going away for a week tomorrow, but I'll tell our friend who's petsitting to keep an eye on him.

I think I've figured it out. I've been getting seeds called 'budgie seed mix' and figured they'd all be the same. But I was getting some more seeds today, and decided to check the content of the one I've been getting. And it turns out it only has 3 different types of seeds in it, and that's it. So I got a Trill seed mix which has 5 different types of seeds + vegetables in it. Maybe it's just taken a while for it to manifest.

All the poo at the bottom of the cage looks completely normal, nothing runny as far as I can tell.

Dunno, maybe some of it came off when he was kicking at it?

I quickly realised me trying to catch him would be stupid, and totally stress them out etc, so I decided to wait until it got dark and use the 'grab them in the dark' method. But when it got dark I checked him again, and he's actually looking a bit better. Not perfect, but better. And if it's getting better on its own there's no point me stressing them out. I'll keep an eye on it, and clean it if necessary.

Nope, no changes, their cage and conditions have been the same for the last 3-4 weeks. I will attempt to catch him and clean him. This should be fun..

I've noticed my male bird repeatedly putting oneof his legs back to his vent the last couple of days, so I decided to have a look just now. And the whole area around his vent is completely covered in poo, a circle of about 2 cm diameter I know it's only happened in the last few days, because I see that area regularly when he climbs around the age. So what could be causing that, and what should I do? Is there any point cleaning it off before I know the cause? I know they have scaly face (still waiting for ivermectin for arrive, Kaz sent it a couple weeks ago) and I got a dewormer from the pet store, just to be on the safe side. They eat nothing but seeds, they occasionally try veggies, but don't make a meal of it. I would assume it has something to do with their diet? The female doesn't have the same prob, I just checked.

The cats usually disappear as soon as they hear me getting the vaccuum cleaner ready, so I thought most animals would be scared of it, but good to know the budgies shouldn't be:)

Excellent, I'll just let them get used to it then. That makes things easier:)

Maybe a silly question, but do you vaccuum in the same room as a bird cage, or do you move the cage to a different room before vaccuuming? I've been moving it so far, didn't want them to freak out and end up traumatised... but the cage isn't very mobile and there are 5 cats in the house which I can't keep an eye on while vaccuuming in a different room...

Congrats:) Hope you're not buying from a pet store tho (puppy farms and all that). But I guess more and more pet stores are now getting their animals from pet rescue shelters, but then they'll usually put up a sign advertising it...

Mine don't care about bathing either. I figure if they don't want to then why try to pressure them to. Mine only like seed to, but someone in here suggested celery leaves to get them started on veggies, so I cut up a leaf and mixed it in with a small amount of seed, and when they went to get the seed they discovered that the celery leaf was pretty good:)

Looks like it'd be easy enough to make. Might find something similar in Aus anyway. I like to buy things to, but when I suggested buying an aviary because it's probably cheaper than making one, he just gave me a funny look and said 'but you'd be depriving yourself of the joy of making one!'

Looks great:) I have 5 aquariums and a garden pond myself:) But from what I can tell, the tank hasn't been up and running for very long.. Are you familiar with cycling filters? Cycling a filter means to give it time to build up the benficial bacteria it needs to process the toxin the fish produce when they breathe and poop - ammonia. A lack of these bacteria in the filter will make the toxins build up in the water and make the fish sick or kill them. The tank needs to be set up with plants and everything and the filter running for 4-5 weeks with no water changes to build up these bacteria. After 4-5 weeks do a 50% water change and then introduce fish slowly, max 5 at a time every two weeks, to give the filter time to adjust to the new bioload. If you introduce fish before the filter is cycled you could possibly get away with it, but then you'll need to change some water every day for at least 6 weeks (lower concentration of toxins makes the cycle take longer) Don't mean to ruin your joy, I just thought it would suck if you get all these fish and they all end up dying on ya:( And if you knew all this, just ignore me

I disagree. If you watch someone abusing an animal and do nothing, you're just as guilty of abuse as they are. I don't know what you would do, but I wouldn't just sit back and say 'they're abusing their animal, but it's not MY animal so I just won't care'.It was a few months ago that we saw a guy hit and kick his dog in public. Of course my partner and I went over and told him you don't treat animals that way, and the guy tried to blame the dog for not behaving properly. Then other people came over and backed us up.If you had your way we shoulda just ignored him, because apparently people's right to do whatever they want outweighs any animal's right to have a good life and not be abused. Sounds like a good idea:)

No, I only had a quick look, but it was tiny, no toys, and 2 birds in, which can't be good. And because it's outside the obviously never let the birds out either... I just figured with the way they talk to each other and treat their kids, I can't imagine they would treat any animal any better. (Might be prejudiced of me, I dunno...) I don't have any old cages to offer them, otherwise I would. Maybe I should just print some info for them, I dunno. They're aborigines, not polynesian:)

HAHA that's adorable

Yep, my partner wrote a lengthy complaint to the housing commission a few weeks ago, which has been ignored. One of the people who used to live next to them came by a couple months ago wanting us to sign the letter of complaint he was writing, but then managed to sell his house and move before he'd finished it (he said he was moving because he couldn't stand living next to them anymore, he lived there less than a year). The next step is to get everyone in the area to sign a petition to have them kicked out. No one wants them here, they are a pain. I don't usually use the term 'normal' either, that's why I used the '' around normal. What I meant by it is that there is a standard which people are expected to follow to get along with other people, such as not scream and swear at kids for hours, not doing it at 6-7 am on weekends, and not throw rubbish and dead animals on your neighbours.

Will try that:)

Well if they kept their stuff on their side of the fence, then it wouldn't be a prob. But as I mentioned, they throw it over on our property regularly, and also onto our roof making a huge noise, and at our cats. The screaming is not just the occasional scream, it's several times a week, and once they get started they are at it for hours, with the father screaming how stupid and usless the kids are and threatening to kill them while the mother is yelling at them to run for their lives. This of course usually starts around 7 am on Saturday and Sundays. I'd have no prob if they were 'normal' people, but they're not. They don't belong in a nice, peaceful area, which is what the rest of neighbourhood is. Yeah we have other neighbours with noisy kids and barking dogs, but their noise leve is normal. The family over the back is not.

It was funny, the male would grab a piece and sit there chewing it happily, then the female came over and grabbed it from his beak and they would have a tug of war over it I don't remember ever seeing dandelion around here, but will keep my eyes open:)

.. eating celery leaves! Yay:) I've only been offering it to them for a couple days. I put a tiny amount of seed in a food bowl to make it interesting, then cut up a celery leaf and mixed it all together, and now they are sitting there picking out the pieces of leaf and ignoring the seeds! And not only are they eating it, they are fighting over the pieces!

Went to another vet today and they had nothing, so we checked a couple of pet stores and they only had stuff that works the same as cooking oil. And this is just getting too difficult.. didn't someone say that 'any vet will have it' about ivermectin? I tried to find somewhere online to buy it, but the only ones I could find were for horses and they wanted 100s of dollars for them. So does anyone know where I can buy it online without getting ripped off, or do any budgie owners in my area have any and can spare a couple of drops? I'm in Murrumba Downs, north of Brisbane...