sootie

Your aviary looks so beautiful, like something from a magazine! I love the attention to detail, and your careful choice of materials.

Last night he actually ate a bit of millet before he started to throw up (seed everywhere!). Never says no to millet. He was bright and chirpy this morning, and there were dead worms on the floor of the cage. His cage has been disinfected thoroughly. Looking forward to see more dead worms in the next few days.

Bogie is a sweetheart. You'll see lots of progress before you realise it.

Django pooped out a worm yesterday. : We brought him to the vet today and he was crop needled the de-worming treatment. He was fine on the way home, but once he reached the comfort of his cage, started throwing up every 5 seconds. I was told it's normal for them to experience nausea after being crop needled, but it was such a terrible experience watching my little friend throw up uncontrollably and feel weak like that. If I could I would've cuddled him up. So I sat next to his cage and spoke softly to him while he rubbed his head against the perch and shuddered. He's calm now, with a warm lamp over his cage. If it was terrible for me, I can't imagine a tenth of what he went through!

*** UPDATE *** Got an email from the RSPCA Inspector and it said: I guess it's a no-go from here on.

The Department of Fair Trading NSW rang me yesterday, asked for more details about whether they have marketed these budgies as being "naturally pink" and had their prices marked up as a result -- to specify that they had been bred pink would be fraudulent. If the pet shop said that the budgies had been sprayed or had calcium rubbed on them, then it would NOT be illegal for them to sell a pink budgie based on this claim. I rang the shop up, they were selling "pink" ones for $80, normal $60. I will have to ring them back to follow up on whether the birds have been delivered as pink to the shop. The salesgirl I spoke with on the phone yesterday had a bit more sense, she said they could've been that colour from rubbing themselves on the perches, but she wasn't sure about these ones as she'd just returned from holiday. In any case, I'll keep following up.

Just reported to RSPCA NSW website, under "Report a Cruelty" -- is that the right place to go? Did you also tell them that we will put them out of business by word of mouth or else.... oops, that would be blackmail.

Pets Paradise Level 1, Westfield Shopping Town Bondi Junction, NSW I have just reported them to the Department of Fair Trading online under making fraudulent claims to unsuspecting customers.

I was at a major shopping centre in the trendy eastern suburbs of Sydney today, and thought to pop into one of the pet shops in the basement as I usually do, just to see what's going on. I saw young recessive pied (sky blue) budgies that had some sort of reddish pink dye sprayed on their feathers. The pet shop salesgirl was selling them to an obviously ignorant couple, saying that pink budgies were an extremely rare mutation and the birds in the shop were on a "colour enhancing diet" (her exact words). I jutted in several times by saying innocently, "but there are NO pink budgies", to which she responded, "Yes, I know! That's why these are so rare!" I further pointed out that the birds looked like they had been sprayed pink as their feet were an unusual shade of reddish pink. She ignored me, and proceeded to catch a budgie and show them its pink feathers. At that point I walked out to meet my boyfriend, I was so angry and nearly in tears. Don't know if the breeder or the pet shop had them sprayed pink, a normal green budgie that was in the same cage had a bit of pink tinge to its feathers as well.

He sounds like such a sweetheart... am so happy that he is loving and a pleasure to be around!

He looks lovely!

They look so cute, thanks for the update!

Qwerty (that felt strange to type as a word!) is a cutie, he looks like an active budgie and will provide you with so much fun in the years to come! It's great when they are so curious when young. When I bought Django his birdie playground, I left it sitting about a metre away from his cage for a week before introducing him to it. It gave him some time to observe and realise that it didn't move and was not going to eat him! Now budgie and playground are inseparable.

He's definitely more of a chewer than a nibbler :hug:

Back from the vet. It was my first visit to the local and the avian vet in residence was very kind. He did a microscopic exam of Django's poo, checked his eyes, keel bone, feet, wings ... the works. Django's been given a clean bill of health :hug: He just needs to be put on a dry food diet for a few days and the vet said to monitor his poo over the next 24 hours. Apparently dark green poo is not good, as I've read in many threads here, as it is made up mostly of bile, which means that hardly anything is passing through the bird's system. Also, he didn't eat much because he was stressed out and angry about being grabbed yesterday morning. Can't believe I spent $55 talking to someone about bird poo, the BF is going to scold me for being paranoid, but hey... I'd rather spend the money and have peace of mind than to constantly worry about having to find Django lying on the cage floor one morning!

Two days ago, we fed Django a small sliver of nectarine as we usually do every few days. The next morning both his back claws were green and he was noticeable kicking at his vent and trying his best to pick at his bum. I checked his vent, found the feathers around it green-stained and poopy (dark green), grabbed him and cleaned it off. His vent looked clean, just the feathers were stained and stuck with random bits of poo. From experience we've known that nectarine gives him wet green poo the next morning but they've always dropped completely, never stuck to his feathers. He squawked angrily and was very sulky at me even after I came home from my first day at work. At night he still had a few bits of poo stuck to his feathers but he picked all of it off. Last night I also noticed that he had eaten very little during the day as seen by the small amount of husks in the seed bowl, he seems ravenous every time the BF or I feed him seed, but doesn't want to touch his seed bowl. Seed has not changed. If anything I have added stray seeds from the millet spray pack as an incentive. This morning -- bum stuck with dark green poo but the more solid kind. I picked them off, fed him a bit of seed and now they look more normal. He is his usual active and loud self, flying around, chattering to his toys, chirping to birds outside. I don't know if my not being home yesterday had anything to do with him not eating. I've worked from home for the past few months and started a new part-time position yesterday. When I'm home he's relaxed, snoozes occasionally throughout the day and eats normally. So I've made a decision to take today off (only my second day) and get him to the vet in the late morning to check it out. Thankfully we have an established avian vet up the road as I wouldn't know what to do if I had to take him on public transport to the vet! I'll keep you updated on what happens!

His spots are so adorable!

Thanks for posting pictures... he is a darling! :rofl:

He sounds like a darling! Love your graphic with the santa hat on him. We clipped Django's wings the first time he came home, they took ages (about 3-4 months) to grow back, and by that time he had grown accustomed to our space and knew where to go (and not to go!). He is an awesome flier now, speedy and elegant.

Congrats Naomi!

I'm so happy to hear that Cosmo is feeling better ... here's to a speedy recovery little one.

I've just read through this whole thread... what a huge shock! I am so glad that Cosmo is feeling better, and hopefully the blood test will tell you why his health has been so rocky this past month. *big hugs*

It's so adorable and I'm glad you caught him on camera, krosp! Piccolo looks so different now, the baby's grown up.

*update* Glad to hear from all of you that it's not something to be worried about! He hasn't climbed in the dark since, and I'm guessing he only does this when he gets spooked.

Just moving around, I guess. It's hard to tell. When I check on him (without turning on the lights) he looks all hunched up. Sometimes I find him hanging from the ceiling! Charley is soooo cute, he's got such a great personality. Gives me the fuzzie-wuzzies when you describe what he does. It's weird, we do put him on his top perch just before 'lights out', he usually jumps off quickly, then starts climbing once we have left the room and it's completely dark. When we are in the room after he has been covered, he's still quite alert and chirps to sounds from our computers. I am worried, I guess, because he doesn't stop climbing until a lamp has been switched on overnight for him. The first time it happened, I sat in the living room in the dark listening to him. He would climb very awkwardly and loudly, stop for a few minutes, then start again. It went on for a whole hour until I switched the lamp on. Thanks everyone for your answers, I'm glad it's not a serious thing to be worried about, I do like Django to be comfortable in the dark, he's the panicky sort.