fire bird

Do you have to be a member of a club to go?

I just get 2 tubs for seed, one plain seed and one with the F vite and E powder mixed in. Saves time. I follow the programs with it so plain seed days are easy and vitamin days are easy and I just add a drop or 2 of turbobooster to the dish after pouring the seed it, mix it up a bit with a fork and put it in cage. Simple, and it dosnt go off like oils or soaked seed so it can stay in all day. KD days (the water cleanser are also easy, as the KD auto washes the dish so I dont have to wash and scrub out on those days, the dishes are crystal clear afterwards. I use the KD to wash the veges, perches, dishes etc just mix in a spray bottle and clean the cage bars etc.

I feed the pumpkin raw usually, sweet potato lightly cooked, you could make a mash with both if you wanted. All my birds love pomegranite juice, I get it at coles/bi lo in the vege section, it is 100% juice not rubbish. I put some in finger drawers a few times a week. On Rob's stuff, if you do it right in about a month you should need sunglasses to look at your birds, mine now look glossy all over and the colours are much more vivid. Some of them almost look like they have been smeared with glitter when you see them in the sun. He said chamomile tea is also good for them, especially if they ever get any respiritory problems he recomended it for mine that had some strep throat rather than more antibiotics.

Some baby pics from last year Some of my other birds (sorry for fuzzy shots it was misty)

Yes, fortunately they do not appear to have any problems with megabac if anything most of my birds now are on the 'heavy side' and some are now on a diet lol. I pumped the food into them when they were ill and Dr Rob's turbobooster, what a difference that makes. The ringnecks were gutsing down the E powder. I think a bit too much lol. I spoke to him again, and the current problem is a combination of a little thrush, maybe some strep and just basically they could be feeling a bit irritated or raw in their sinus or throats after such a long course of antibiotics and from having the respiritory trouble, just one of those things that will take a while to go. He just said keep up the health program and good food. No breeding for 7 weeks. I still watch them like a hawk, it is amazing how tame a few of the previously 'wild' budgies have become with my constant fussing, they now sit on me, which helps I look at their faces everynight with a led torch for any stains or wet spots. My family think I am nuts for worrying this much about birds. If they understood the value of the ringneck parrots just for a start they would probably faint, and ANY bird here that gets ill is a risk to the others... to me it is simple to understand.

I look at it now like this, because I learned the hard way. Spend 4-6 weeks quarantining new bird, and all will probably go well. OR spend 4-6 weeks or longer treating the whole flock with all the stress, time, late nights, loss of sleep from worrying yourself sick and cost of vet bills because you didnt quarantine the new bird. I will be going an extra step in the future and also getting the new birds vet checked carefully.

Well it was too good to be true, 5 budgies have runny nose back, moved them downstairs into isolation. they will have to be re tested, it will be a week till I can afford it the vet bill on the weekend took almost my entire pay. It is all starting to get a bit much. To top it off my mother woke up really sick this morning. And do you think she will listen to anyone? NO. Mum... you 'might' have caught chlamidia just go to the doctor and get tested PLEASE! she just says... 'bah' its a cold. 2 vets have told her at the start of all this if you get sick,.. get tested, It might just be a cold... but we KNOW the birds have had psittacosis. I drove my doctor nuts at the start I went 3 times to be checked and mine turned out to be hayfever from the wattle trees comming in flower. But mum has the works... fever, stomach, headache chills. I have put the info sheet on her bed and said if she will not go I will call the hospital. It is another stress I dont need. I do feel for her but we dont get along well at all... she hates the birds and dosnt like me very much and I know if she does have it it will be my fault, the family will blame me and try to make me destroy or get rid of the lot. BUT if I got sick they probably would just scoff and say I had it comming. She works one day a week at a nursing home so she probably caught this there but she has to get checked. She is in the high risk category.

Thanks everyone! Droppings have improved a little today, seeing some smaller tighter ones again. Still a fair bit of dry sneezing but no mucous or wetness so I am not too worries about it, I will often sneeze after I have a cold for a while they look perfectly healthy otherwise, and I realised today a possible cause. I always used to give water in tube drinkers before and during and since treatment now give it in stainless steel bowls and they have been bathing in it a lot and they get theur whole heads in there. If it gets worse or I get worried I will ring Dr Rob again but he seemed very sure they are okay. He said it could be the humidity because we had a very wet winter, or possibly some dry mucous from when they were sick they are still trying to clear from the sinus. My alexandrine hen has always sneezed a lot since she was a baby, my friend hand raised her and she could have inhaled food she is a real pig. I never worried about it she is 3 now and still does it but her nose is always dry. My lorrikeet has sneezing fits when he gets really exited but Dr Rob saw him just this weekend and said he looked magnificent. I do get very paranoid about my birds I am not going to breed the budgies for a while yet, they are getting a nice rest and sunshine. Hopefully when they are ready I will have a good season.

Sorry again for the double post, can't work out how to edit the previous. But I have the results and it is good news. All the tests came back clean as a whistle, he was most impressed. What a relief. They are still a little tired, and a few are still a bit sneezy but he said it will just take some time and TLC and they should make a full recovery. We will continue with his budgie health programe and they will get a nice rest from breeding and plenty of good food. And if the weather will co operate lots of nice spring sunshine out in the garden. I have started re-building all my aviaries from the ground up I cant wait to get everyone back in there!

I can tell you what my avian vet recomends to be fed to budgies daily. Top of his list are carrot, pumpkin especially butternut, soft sweet potato, grapefruit. You dont have to give all those everyday, mix them up and feed different things so they dont get bored. Next are broccoli, brussel sprouts, peas, beans. I also feed boiled rice, soaked and boiled pulse (soup) mix, soft oatmeal, and other fruits and veges, tomato, other citrus, apple, pear, chilli/capsicum, celery, basil, lemon balm, gotu kola, seeding grasses, eucalypt branches with leaves on, lemon verbena, choko, peppino, pomegranet and pomergranet juice (100%) himalayan goji juice when I have it ( I also drink it myself) plus I add Dr Rob Marshalls health products now and cannot recomend them highly enough. The health and appearance, and happniess of my birds has dramatically improved.

Sorry I didn't get on here to update. Been very very busy, very tired. The birds finished their treatment, we have a lot of thrush so they have nilstat. I went back to see Dr Rob yesterday and took my 2 pet lorrikeets and he was very impressed with them. I took droppings from every bird for him to do follow up tests. I get the results tomorrow afternoon, maybe tuesday as he has a lot there to do lol. He seemed confident from photos I sent, descriptions and looking quickly that we have won fingers crossed. It was a massive job. He has every sample in a seperate dish and labeled with who it is from, so if anything does show up I will go to treating individually with injections rather than repeat full flock, they wouldnt stand another course. I have his protector disinfectant to spray everything down with so hopefully all will be okay. We have had some nice warm sunny days I have been putting the cages out on the grass in the sun in the morning and the birds are loving it and their colours are so bright now, so shiny. Overall they look really good. They seem happier and more active than I have ever seen them and they are getting very frisky lol. I did loose some budgies some younger ones and some of my older hens. But most of them came through it well. I lost some silkie chickens, but I have to focus on what lived and keep them on the mend. I will update tomorrow when I get the results.

I had a website link to a small company that makes longer lasting full specs and has a type for birdrooms. Come in edison screw, bayonet and tubes. prices were pretty good. Now do you think I can find the link? I looked and looked, I'll post it when I find it again.

I have them on Dr Rob's Doxy + megamix and he said I can add all his products to the food the mineral powders E powder, F vite the turbo booster. Ive been up at 4 am doing it all, put the fresh meds in at sun up, and replace it again around 2 in the afternoon so its always in there fresh, he said I only have to do it in the morning but I figured re freshing it in the afternoon I bought about 400 grams of doxy and 1 litre megamix so there is tonnes of it. I'm paranoid Ive been loosing sleep over tiny white spots of urates on cage bars that no amount of scraping and soaking seems to get off. I always find those little spots after the cages dry off. I have Virkon, about 8 litres of bleach, dettol, several other varieties of disinfectant, a hand held steam gun and saturday will be getting a seperate vaccume cleaner just for the bird cages and aviaries. There is plastic up everywhere... my mother just looks at me and shakes her head... she thought it might be funny to put bio-hazard stickers up. I didn't laugh...

So if I pop in here and say I am almost 30, single female... reasonable okay looking and given up on finding a soft hearted bloke who loves birds as much as I do... am I going to get dive bombed? LOL I have been single for 6 years... ex hated animals he had to go.... now I am fussy. Although looking after my birds for me if Im sick is a good starting point.

Wow great ideas for cages! Thanks for the pics gives me ideas. I love the converted cupboard! Mind if I ask where you got the cages on the far wall? Ive been looking for some breeding cages for some ringneck pairs, big and long. I can make my own but i like having pull out trays for inside. There is a company I emailed who specialise in full spec lights they have some that can go into regular fittings and take timers. But I wont be using lamps, just the regular ceiling lights and would have to get the timer on the ight switch.

I have a thread in the Vet section, of my trip to Dr Rob Marshall. however I want to talk about the illness itself the cleanup follow up testing and how to go about getting things back to normal after treatment. I breed mostly for pets, I handraise budgies, ringnecks and other birds and also breed silkie chickens. Most people that contact me for baby hand raised budgies a lot have young kids, I am one who is paranoid about ever selling a bird that could be a carrier of something that could cause a new owner a problem. Thats why I went to Dr Rob, I have them on his Doxy/megamix and strict diet programe. I will do everything in my power to make sure I clear this disease from every bird and the premises. But how sure can you ever be that you really got it all? Obviously I can't test every single bird. For those who have been through it and are comefortable talking about it, I would like to know what outcomes you have had from treatment. I did think at one stage should I get rid of the lot and re stock later on. I really couldnt bring myself to do that, can't afford it and honestly how would I know a carrier won't slip in with new birds later anyway. This has scared the poop out of me my best friend has an immune disorder as does her daughter I have told them not to come here until I get the all clear.

I know this is old but I have been looking into these. I have been considering the downstairs garage as my breeding room, but its terribly dark, it has fluro lights the long tubes in the ceiling but I was wondering if I can get full specs in there and is there a way to install some kind of timer/dimmer on them I spose a sparky could do it so they turn on and off at dusk and dawn?

I grow choko's funny mine don't look like that one, most of mine don't have spikes. Ive been feeding them to everything from the budgies, ringnecks and chickens for long time. Budgies prefer nibbling the skin off, ringencks will eat the lot the chickens eat every last bit. I also love them, its a love or hate thing with choko's my neighbour calls them balls of green snot. For myself I boil them with potato and beef or chicken stock with chilli and make a mash. Delicious. I also cut them up and add to soups. For the birds I sometimes put them in a blender with capsicum, pumpkin and some broccoli or sprouts and make a mash up for them.

Thanks I realised we are almost to the halfway point now, so we made it this far, not giving up now The key thing is getting a routine with it each day that helps. The budgies are doing well, most of the feather stains and wetness has gone from above the nostrils and seeing nice clean feathers. Still a bit of sneezing going on but nothing severe. Most people probably wouldn't notice it. Our lorrkeet peppi however has started sneezing again after comming off the doxy early due to thrush so he will be going back to the vet to see what we do now. I am going to ask about the weekly injections for some of the birds, and if it is possible for me to give them the shots at home. I have given a lot of injections to chickens over the year, but parrakeets are a lot smaller, I'll see what the vet suggests. I could probably afford to do injections at home on quite a few once a week, but if I have to take them in for the vet to do it probably only 1 or 2 of our pets who are having trouble with the drinking meds. The baby chics in the brooder downstairs (silkie chickens) are all fine, they have been on doxy since they hatched as a precaution due to end the same time as the other birds. The chooks in the pens outside are harder. impossible to disinfect the old coops and dirt floors. So I will probably have to build a new coop towards the end of their treatment, keep them as clean as possible and check them carefully before moving them in. We might be able to do some tests, but not for a while, the bills have cleaned me out already. Dogs are getting better. I am fortunate this was a 'low grade' infection with only mild symptoms in most of the birds. Had it been a worse strain it would have been shocking, Ive seen what can happen with severe strains, we have been lucky.

sorry for the double post, I am probably dumb or too tired to find the edit post button I look and don't see it. Also sorry no photos yet camera - computer- internet dropping out slow, just not getting there + brain frazzled by the time I get on here at night. In short, I am stuffed. My complete sympathy to anyone who has to go through this has gone through it or might some day. I lost 2 older budgie hens, and the rest of all the birds various mixed reactions and progress. Almost lost my pet rainbow lorrikeet, some birds have thrush already and Dr Rob advised me to stop treatment and start nilstat and isolate, however a couple recovered from that and have become reinfected or weren't clear of infection and have gone back on antibiotics again. Overall most of the birds are comming along well. The budgies you wouldn't know they were ill. Well average observer wouldn't. In the middle of it all both my dogs got the flu, and it is canine flu kennel cough, vet confirmed NOT psittacosis thank god. I'm broke... Ive spent all the money I had on the birds and the dogs, but have Rob Marshalls full health program now. He has been helping me via email and phone throughout. The baby budgie pulled through and has made a great comeback and has put a lot of weight on, has weaned just about now and has started trying to talk. Still a long way to go till the time I pray the tests come back negative... and I have my healthy flock back again. I wish I had help, I'll be honest I have nearly had a breakdown over it all a few times, but I cant do that the birds need me to keep it together.

I'll try later, I'm having issues with photobucket. Rodents there are unlikely the cages are off the ground and there is a cat and 2 dogs around them at night (cat is good cat dosnt bother the birds but he is a good ratter/mouser) The veranda is a good 4 meters from ground level down that end so air flow is good and it faces north to north west. Wild parrots really only hang around in the spring to early summer, same with the finches and the marema chases them on site, and they have no access to the birds food or water. Can a human carry this disease and spread it? I wash my hands constantly but I am sure to screw up somewhere. My mother hates the birds and has nothing to do with them. So they only have contact with me. The trays only have newspaper from the newsagent changed daily. That goes into a plastic bag and into the bin. I wash the feed dishes and water containers with anti bac morning fresh each night. Ive been mopping and wet vacuming the deck every night. The germ count has to be much lower by now after all this. If I think of anything else I will tell you, and I will work on these photos, I'll try and get some up by tomorrow night.

Update on inspection today most droppings are returning to a more normal appearance, still a few large grey ones but the majority returning to tight dry black, white urates on top and some down feathers attatched which is a very good sign. The birds themselves all seem to be improving. Most of them... and this is scary look 100% healthier than most birds I see in the local pet stores, makes you wonder? The bachelor pad is full of playing, flying noise and activity. Cere's and feathers all dry, stains are mostly gone. Females are a little slower but better than a few days ago, I think the boys are more into everything and drinking and eating more of their medicated moist food (I mixed some doxy into some baby food in dishes and soaked some bread in honey and doxy and they have been eating it) The 3 downstairs that were weezing were not weezing last night and had started eating again. I may have to give them some drops by beak at night direct for a week or so just to give them a heloing hand. But none have got any worse. It is a lot of work, I am exhausted I am a germophobe I was up till midnight cleaning last night. Those feathers just get into everything.

Nope noones been to a hospital. Stumped on where it came from. They are up in a ventilated area with wire floors, cages cleaned often. Any soft food I take out after a few hours, I clean the water containers every day. The neighbours have a septic system leaking but it is nowhere near the birds. I wash my hands so often I have dry skin and splits, we get the blankets from the op shop. The bug must have been in one of the birds and I think what the vet means is one bird got sick the bug spread and because the cages are covered in material at night it made it so much easier to spread. Everything here is damp at the moment. I havn't brought a new bird in ages. It started during the heavy rain, it has been raining every day, for a week, we had a couple of dine weeks but before that it rained every day for weeks, the place flooded twice, downstairs we had flooded out, germ paradise.

Results are in, not good. primary cause of infection is golden staph underlying low grade psittacosis. Baby has yeast. I cannot imagine where they got golden staph! So I have to go to my local vet today and he will phone dr Rob and we will sort it out. Back on Doxy the psittavet is too weak, and they didn't drink enough. Apparanty doxy also does golden staph. God that scares me more than psittacosis... its hard to kill with disinfectants. Edit, spoke to my local bird vet again, he is calling Dr Rob to get the details. It looks like we have worked out how all this broke out now. It's my fault.... and I will share it in case others make the same mistake. Well first is the bad weather which is out of my control unfortunately constant low barametric pressure and moist air very bad. Plus its is cold. So because it was cold I have been covering the cages/flights at night with blankets. The bug bred on the blankets which were damp from the moist air and basically the dust etc all caught up under them over night... they just breathed in too much. So instructions are no covers max air flow and just hang some plastic like a painters drop sheet on the open side of the deck at night to block the wind or a bit of newspaper if it gets really windy or cold and throw it in the morning but only on the side facing out. I had always used blankets, because its what my grandma did, and other breeders I know do so I just did it and didn't even think... They havn't been drinking enough, Dr Rob is going to send me his double strength doxy next week so I will have to use psittavet till I can that from him and get creative about getting it into them. They are a fussy bunch. What about mixing it into the seed with some oil or soaking some apple in the doxy solution? Too many to crop feed them all.

little baby is in a weaning cage in the kitchen where its warm and I can watch him. More good and bad news. Bad news first, they were looking good this morning and by tonight had the sniffles back again + some new birds with it, so tomorrow I pray the results are in and he has the right meds for it cos so far doxy and the moxyT don't seem to be kicking it. It isn't a real bad sickness, they look fine apart from drippy nostrils my chickens used to get this sort of thing in fact it presents exactly the same. One vet told me virus... because antibiotics never worked, it would hang around and go through the flock bit by bit over a couple of months and eventually go again. But he already found streptococis and he thinks that is the main problem and thats what the MoxyT is for, the strep needed a major stress to get in though and none have been breeding I can only look at the terrible weather as the stresser and the neighbours fire obsession. By the time they get back from holiday though the fire season will be almost over. the good news is I finished a new cage today, it's big, it is the size of 6 of the large size long breeding cages stacked 2 high and 3 long I am changing to cabnets in spring and recyling my old cages into a few BIG ones. It is like a suspended type aviary on the back deck. Boys have a bachelor pad and the hens getting theres soon, I like to give them a break from the boys out of breeding season. Its chock full of eucalyptus branches, wattle and seeding grass and the boys are in heaven.