Hello everyone. I decided to post this here. I thought about posting it in feeding, but it really relates to several things. My budgies name is Gandalf. A week ago tonight he had his lower beak torn off by a red lory. He has a little less than half the lower left side left and a tiny stub left on the right. The vet said it may growback it may not, but in the mean time, I am concerned about his eatng. We've been through quite a journey in the eating department. He appears to be healing well, but he has never been interested in pellets although for over a year I have kept a fresh supply of them in his cage. He will not eat anything that is inthe least bit damp or wet. He refuses fresh fruits, greens, etc. I have tried over and over and over but he won't eat anything but seed, so when the day came that he sustained the beak injury we were in dire straights.

 

I tried hand feeding formula the first day or so and he fought so hard and refused to eat it that he would tear open his wound and start bleeding again. He would continually go to the seed bowl and pick up seeds that he could not hull therefore spit them out and try another seed. It was heartbreaking to watch. I noticed that he could pick them up, he just couldn't hull them so I was able to roll millet with the rolling pin and blow away the husks and feed those to him, which by that time he gladly devoured. I special ordered organic hulled millet for him because the quality of the spray millet I was rolling with the rolling pin varied. Sometimes it would hull nicely and I'd have nice solid seeds, other times, it would just crumble to flour making it impossible to separate out the hulls.

 

I ground pellets and mixed them with the hulled millet and that's what we've been living on for several days. He however doesn't seem to be eating as much as before. I am a bad mom, I guess, because I just always kept his seed full and never really kept track of how much he would eat in a day. Now, I am measuring and he's barely eating a 1/2 teaspoon of millet a day and everything I read says that they should be eating at least 1 to 2 teaspoons. I rarely see him go to his seed. He will eat it off my hand, but has now even become finicky about having the ground pellet mixed in. He picks out the seed and eats it, but I'm lucky to get 1/2 teaspoon down him a day. It's not that he's not willing. He will sit on my hand and eat for a while, then when he's done he's done. I'm just concerned he's not getting enough.

 

Right now, particularly while he is trying to heal, I want to feed him the things he will take readily to help him keep weight on and to heal. I have ordered some superfine pellets from Harrisons thinking they may resemble seed more than the fruit pellets, but I am running out of options due to the beak injury.

 

He is acting pretty normal. Chattering and playing with his toys. I would say he is slightly less active than before. He is having quite a few poos per day, roughly the same amount as before, though they seem to be just the slightest bit smaller than they were before, but are plentiful. He is taking water.

 

I know he needs more than just millet, so I'm looking for ideas. I bought him his own coffee grinder for experimenting with grinding his pellets and seeds. I could find no other type of seed in his usual mix that I could purchase already hulled. I even went to far as to try to hull them myself with a pair of tweezers which really didn't get me very good results. I've tried different settings on the coffee grinder and it either doesn't really hull them, or else turns the whole mess to flour, hulls and all.

 

I am concerned about trying to feed him the ground seed mix since it's basically turned into a floury powder that has seeds and hulls all ground together. He certainly wouldn't be able to separate the ground hulls out now, but will they hurt him if they are ground that fine?

 

I'm just trying so hard to find a way to find a food he's going to be able to eat and likes to eat.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions, bearing in mind that he is absolutely positively against anything liquid or mushy like formulas, apple sauce, fruits, etc? Unless it's a seed he is adamant about refusing it. I want him to get his strength back and be in good health.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Lori

Hello and welcome

 

Gandalf is so lucky to have such a lovely and caring budgie mummy

 

He sounds like he is doing really well so far. the drop in eating may be from his wound causing pain (the vet may be able to give some pain meds)

He may also get stressed with too much attention.

 

The hulled millet sounds really good. Just be careful as a millet only diet can cause a stress moult. Try getting some pure canary seeds and some hulled oats as well. You can hull the canary seeds and millet, then grind up the hulled oats finely. This mix will give protein, fat and carbs and will keep his weight up.

 

Would love to see a photo if you have any

Edited February 5, 200916 yr by **Liv**

Here you go. Here's his first toddler photo after I brought him home. And Here he is about a week before the accident.

Edited February 5, 200916 yr by LoriBates

When a budgie of mine had his upper beak taken off I got him to eat hand rearing formula as it was impossible for him to eat his seed.

Don't worry about him not eating the ground up pellets, he'll know that they are not real (natural) food so he'll continue to ignore them.

Usually you can buy hulled oats & sunflower seeds - although not good as complete diet as too full of fat.

See if you can get him onto handrearing mix, then you can also mix in his veggies. He'll be able to eat that easier.

He refuses to eat the hand rearing mix and any fruits and vegetables. I've tried for a year to get him to eat vegetables, fruits, apple sauces, etc. He utterly refuses and he fights me so hard on the hand rearing mix or anything wet that it is too stressfull for him while he is healing to even attempt it again. I'm looking for the most peaceful solution for him right now. I won't risk him tearing his wound open again and bleeding out again. He's lost blood already. He will quietly eat seed, I'm just looking for a way to get a more sustaining mixture of seeds right now. They have to be pre-hulled because he cannot hull them himself.

 

He is very, very stubborn.

Can you get hulled oats and hulled sunflower seeds in the US?

Safflower seeds are fairly easy to hull - but with the amount of time you'd need to do it for it will be a long haul. Of course theses seeds are not a great vitamin source, you'd need to add vitamins to his water.

Did the vet offer the chance of a fibreglass beak being grafted onto the remainder of 'his' beak?

I wish you the best of luck with him

You can also crush up the pellets if you have him on a partial pellet diet and he ate them before. What a cutie, you should enter his picture in the budgie of the month contest.

Can you try some dry mix of egg and biscuit with some whole powdered egg in it as well ?

I received the Harrison's today. No go on the mash.... He did manage to swallow one or two of the pellets then gave me a solid refusal. Mixed them with millet.... picked through the millet and ignored the pellets then even refused to eat them mixed. I had to feed him millet out of my hand again to get him to eat at all. I'm only managing to get him to eat about 3/4 teaspoon of hulled seed per day. I just don't know if that's enough for him. I'm worried. He is active and plays and chatters but I just worry that he's not eating enough unless it's just going to take some time for him to get back his steam after the injury. It's been a week and two days since he was hurt.

 

I do have another question if anyone can answer it. I read about tail bobbing being a bad sign. How much of a "bob" are we talking about? He's always had just a slight movement of his tail with breathing. I cannot say "always" but often enough that I've noticed it over the last year. Does it mean an obvious strain and severe tail bobbing or should I be concerned about just a slight tail movement with breathing. Until recently I just had always assumed it was a balancing mechanism.

 

Last week the vet had said that he was in good overall health aside from the injury. Maybe I'm just so worried I'm looking for things that aren't really there?

Edited February 6, 200916 yr by LoriBates

Tail bobbing worth worrying about is a rapid movement associated with laboured breathing. You would notice it if he had that kind...anything else is usually okay.

Thank you. I feel better about that anyway.

Next time you make yourself some very hard boiled eggs, take a bit of the hard boiled yolk and white and put it in his seed dish or in your hand to see if he will eat that. It's not so mushy as formula or sauces. He might like that. Even if he doesn't like it the first time, he might have a nibble the second time. Give it a try.

 

Could also do scrambled eggs with a bit of milk, well cooked.

He's still refusing anything other than the hulled millet. I'm attempting to switch him to the Harrison's superfine, which are identical in size to the millet. Little bugger is stubborn.

 

I took some photos of him last night. Here is what the injury site looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the culprit.....