Phoebes

No wonder my birds hate banana. Other forums suggested they liked it. My birds will have nothing to do with it.

I'm glad I checked this thread. I thought nobody answered. I think you are right she is destructive. I just tried to feed her nutriberries. She tears them apart just spitting out what she tears off. I have been trying to find stuff she likes. I did refill the bowl this morning before I read this. Of course like you said she dove in head first and emptied it with her feet. The worst part is Noah now is trying to get in on the act and climbs on top causing her to make those angry bird sounds. Today I was watching her and I wondered if she didn't think the big bowl could be used as a nest. Although she does try to lift if off, the next step is usually to throw it on the floor but these bowls have security latches. I put a big block of Alphalfa in there. She can't lift it so she is getting her money's worth in destruction. I think I will buy the smaller size of this bowl. She won't be able to think it could be useful as a nest. They have a grill so they can't access what falls on the floor. Although the whole nutriberries don't fall through. I think Allie is a year and a half, but I got her from the adult cage. Usually all the birds over a few months go in there. I've had her around a year and a half.

Since my stroke I have not ventured into vulgarization of science. I speak both French and English so I did at one point do many scientific translations. I am not going to go into the pesticides used today as I have not been in the field for a very long time. I used systemic and also non systemic pesticides during my career. One of these pesticides was diazinon which is non systemic. http://npic.orst.edu...iazinontech.pdf http://www.motherear...x#axzz2jDPIsD8Q Read for a definition of systemic pesticides. When working with these (systemic) it is dangerous because they can be absorbed through the skin. When I was studying in pesticides I actually sat on a large drum of systemic pesticides to eat my sandwich and was promptly warned by a teacher. Diazinon which is a brand name was widely used back in my time. It effects the bodies neurotransmitters system. In the synapse between the nerve ending and a muscle, a neurotransmitter does it's job (transmitting a signal) then is destroyed by another chemical. When this process is hindered by the inability to destroy the neurotransmitter it can lead to many problems from twitching to death. Here is an explanation by a scientist of how the neurotransmitters work. It is this very process that poisons like diazinon (brand name) disrupt. There is also a second video for the more adventurous among you. http://en.wikipedia....i/Acetylcholine This is an article on the neurotransmitter. I know many criticize the use of Wikipedia but the articles are good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazinon You will see that a dangerous dose gets smaller and smaller with tiny animals. This is why pesticides are dangerous for your bird. "Diazinon functions as an acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor. This enzyme breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) into [choline] and an acetate group. (1) The inhibition of the AChE causes an abnormal accumulation of ACh in the synaptic cleft. " Acetylcholine (ACh) accumulates in the synaptic cleft.

She isn't throwing her head back or arching her back. My other hens have done this. I'm starting to think she is reacting to me feeding nutri berries to the other birds in another cage. I noticed it once after I had my back to her and I was talking in a high pitched voice to one of my other birds. I am wondering if a hand this close to a bird is what scares her. I watched her all yesterday, while avoiding the high pitched voice, and haven't seen her wings out. Hopefully this will pass. Also she had gone to the vet because of what she had on her beak and now most of it has fallen off. I believe this means she is out of breeding condition. I will keep an eye on her and avoid causing her undo stress.

Yours is a great picture, the colors are so vibrant and the picture is so clear. It's a really nice picture so I wouldn't apologize Budgie_Mad. I went back and forth on it quite a bit.

I think the key to success is to just keep putting it in. I buy canned whole corn (otherwise I cook corn on the cob and wait till it cools) with no additives, especially no salt, they love it. You can try putting a piece of carrot or other stuff like apples through the bars. It makes a bit of a mess but often the bird will taste it accidentally because he wants to remove it from the cage, they love housekeeping. One of my birds is crazy about home grown cherry tomatoes cut in two. I found that they also love lemongrass, you can grow different types of grass under a grow light and clip a piece for your bird. I grew a small eucalyptus tree but my birds devoured it, I am presently growing another. They don't sell them here because it's too cold for most varieties to grow. The lettuce can also be stuffed through the bars. When your bird has tasted different things and you see he likes them then you can put it in a bowl. I am going to make blueberry muffins for my birds today with whole wheat flour. The last time I did this they had so much fun tearing them apart. I am sure they taste and it keeps them happy. Sugar is not good for birds either. Although they do like fresh cane, not the sugar but branches of it. I think broccoli is my birds favorite but I only give with no pesticides (true biological). Broccoli sold for humans is not good for birds. I studied and worked with pesticides (horticulture) and even I don't like ordinary broccoli. I find it smells like diazinon a pesticide (brand name) widely used a while back. I used to grow my own and soak it in salty water to remove the pests.

Thanks I will ask my daughter about this program.

I'm kind of torn because the shot in the nest is so clear and Birdlove's is so cute! Well it's really not an easy job to judge such lovely photo's. I'll have to vote for Birdlove because I think it would make a nice calender shot. I guess it's number 150.

Emerald has been holding out her wings shaking them like an overheated bird quite often each day, but it's 22 C degrees in the room. In my opinion it's impossible that she is overheated. I have seen a bird with a blood feather broken do this so it may be associated with pain too. I looked at her and there is no trace of blood on her or anywhere in the cage. At the vets she kind of screamed when the vet was palpating her lower abdomen. The vet was asking if she had ever laid eggs so I suppose she was palpating for eggs. Do you think she is just nervous or could she be hurt? She went to the the vets the 30th of September. It's been a few weeks. I used a computer translator to switch the 22 C to F it's 71.6 F.

So far I have tried every kind of seed at our pet shop plus Harrison pellets and now nutriberries and Allie keeps emptying out all the food bowls. I even tried a new thing they called budgie fruit with many kinds of millet in there and cinnamon oil. Got these new food dishes that she can't remove and that are too deep to empty. She emptied it. She dove right in head first and used her feet to dig it all out. There are three or four seeds left in the bottom.

It all sounds normal and boy is he cute!

Hi, welcome to the forum. I know nothing about the mutations. Your two birds look like a couple of mine. except my white and blue is a boy and the green I have is a girl.

I think its a good idea!

You might want to try "Happy Budgies". You can sample it on you tube. I bought the album and downloaded it online. My birds love listening to it.

He's very cute and tame to boot, you're lucky.

I'd have to agree with Finnie. Mine were very angry when the babies wanted to come out. Eventually the first born did and the parents chased him around a few days. He held his own and the others came out.

http://www.prettybird.com/researcharticles/waterqualityarticle.htm This is a good article to read about water quality. Water is such an important thing for any form of life. Many systems as you can see from the article are contaminated. I had a problem with my water and I found it before my birds got sick. Bacteria make biofilms, that's the slimy stuff that is inside water pipes or even water machines. This slimy biofilm loves to grow on rubber. I would boil the water if it's rain water. Even if it has absolutely nothing to do with what happened to your bird, at least if it happens again you can rule out the water source. Budgies can be silent carriers of disease, some zoonosis like chlamidia psyttasi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis Then for some reason they can start to shed it. There are also parasites, virus and bacteria that can harm your bird. Some times the diet gives the bird weird fatty deposits that I have heard a bit about and also then there is cancer. One of our birds had cancer when I was a child. He was pretty old and had an eye removed by the vet and then later the cancer spread and he died. Some people who have been raising budgies for a very long time have a good intuition of what is going on just by the symptoms. I am relatively new at this.

I was hoping to get a good shot but I got a bunch of blurry budgies flying around today except this picture. So I guess it's my November picture.

I recently got a phone and I am probably one of the last to get one of these fancy new gadgets. I am discovering the pleasure of programs like instagram. Recently my daughter posted this. It was taken in the car as they were leaving here. I just thought it was so pretty I wanted to share. I think they are on their sixth year still looking so in love. I mostly instagram my budgies and cats.

Now that is one bird sitting pretty robyn, talk about a birds eye view.

It's really hard to know what happened as a child we had a female budgie who killed off other budgies. She never showed any aggression when in the presence of humans so it was hard to detect. There were no obvious signs like blood or anything on the birds she killed. It didn't even look like they had suffered physical trauma but the vet apparently told my dad otherwise. There must have been some internal trauma we could not see. I'm really sorry you lost Charlie. It sounds like they are eating well so I doubt it is their diet. I guess the only thing you can do is try to watch for signs of illness that are subtle like birds staying puffed up too much and also signs of aggression. Some more experienced members would suggest you look at husbandry. I guess that means like the water source ect. I'm kind of a newbie at this. My avian vet says vitamins in the water cause bacterial growth, just a side note. I use drops from time to time in their food. I like the booster my vet sells and I have other vitamins I bought online. However my vet said the concentrations of vitamins is high and told me not to use them more than once a month. Too much can calcify certain organs. This is the booster my vet sells.

Sorry she didn't make it. She might have had some kind of cyste or obstruction too. There is a limit to what even a vet can do in these cases and you kept her comfortable that is the best we can do in these situations. Sometimes bringing them to the vet means they still die but having had many interventions. It's not better.

Hi, sorry you lost Charlie. I have a budgie named Charlie. Welcome to the forum. Sometimes it takes a while for me to name them too and other times I'm just delightfully inspired. I love seeing the photos of peoples budgies. They are always like a bouquet of flowers to me, I hope to see yours soon.

So basically Allie is saying she hates egg. She is my female that had a clutch, they are good for her. It's so funny today I fed her carrots through the bars. Well she actually just comes over and tears it apart and spits it to the floor. It almost looks like she enjoys doing this. I really love her though. I put my fingers into the cage and say "come and bite" and she comes over and gently tastes my fingers. She doesn't tire of this and is pretty gentle. I always wash with soap first because I know humans can have staph and stuff on their skin. My daughter was a microbiologist for GSK before getting a math degree and switching branches of work. I have a film of her tearing apart a cuttlebone. It takes her about five minutes to totally destroy it. I am going to try some new food I found out my vet sells nutriberries.