Hi All,

 

Im really hoping someone can help me.

 

I took on two budgies from someone who could no longer care for them a little over a month ago. They had a nest box in their cage so of course when i looked there were eight little eggs.

 

I jumped straight on this forum and have been reading and reading every day and every night. All has been going wonderfully. Until today.

 

I heard a lot of noise coming from the cage and i found mum budige pinning the newly fledged baby on the floor and attacking him. I pulled him out of the cage quickly and have been keeping an eye on him all afternoon.

 

I cleaned him up as much as i could and have noticed he is missing a good chunk of his bottom beak. I have fed and watered him and will be keeping this up until we go to work tomorrow (im a studying vet nurse) but would really like everyones opinions on this boys future.

 

I am very new to budgies so i am not sure how they cope with this sort of disability.

 

Do you think he has a future?

If so what can i do to help?

 

Im concerned that the vet will ask me whether i want him put down, truthfully i would prefer not to (wouldnt we all) but i want to do whats best for him.

 

Thanks in advance.

Wow, how unfortunate. Lucky you saved him in time. If he has survived up to now, i think he has a chance. however, yoou may need to feed him soft food for the rest of his life because he wont be able to crack seed. Some ideas are: polenta(corn pasta)that has been stirred with water and heated up i apaste( i once had to take care of a babby as well as it was hurt with this stuuff) also some sort of budgie starter from a petshop.

Hope it helps.

 

Would you PLEASE send pictures when the baby has fledged

I'm sorry to hear what happen... ... Glad you got to the baby in time, great work and a pat on the back...

 

Defiantly keep doing what your doing while you can... Like budgiehero said if your budgie is still alive now, than you are defiantly doing something right... Soft foods may defiantly be the way this little guy has to go, but it depends on how much of his beak is missing too... I have seen birds adapt to missing part of their beak and continue to eat seed... Some can't eat the normal size seed they get, but will eat smaller seed just fine... I guess it all just depends on the birds itself...

 

Good luck and like I said well done for everything you have done so far for this little guy...

I had a budgie called artemis who was attacked by his mum, she removed his top beak when he was a fledgeling chick.

Top beaks don't really grow back, even though in this case, there was a little stump left, and it did grow a little bit, but not much.

 

Anyhow, artemis survived the attack and lived on soft foods for a little over two years. He only died because of coccidiosis outbreak in the aviary, when I also lost several other birds.

 

For artemis, I was thinking of constructing a prosthetic beak for him. Take a plasticine impression, pour up a little model, then construct a prosthetic beak put of resin and use some sort of safe non-toxic adhesive to secure it in place. Fidly work for a budgie and difficult to get the occlusion of the beaks correct, and difficult to get it to stick and stay in place. Might work for a larger bird though. It was just an idea. In the end I thought that was too difficult, costly, might cause him more stress, and might not work, and he was fairly happy living on soft food anyhow.

 

Bottom beaks are a bit different. If the germinal layer is still present, it may grow back with time, but depends on how bad the damage is.

im so sorry about this but well done for seperating them! how old is the chick? how much damage is done ? a photo may beable to indicate the damage to us so that could help.i really hope all goes well , keep us updated when you can .

xx Elise xx

Thanks all for the comments. I havent had a chance to jump back on here due to a family situation but the little man is doing really well.

 

Gave him a range of soft foods to choose from as well as seed, he seems to be grazing on all at the moment which i think is a good sign.

 

Mum and the rest of the babies are doing really well and i now have four (including little half beak) out of the box with another four getting ready.

 

I also have a gorgeous little Albino baby which is just gorgeous.

 

I still cant manage to pin point what went wrong with this poor boy as mum is fine with all the rest of them.

 

Will keep everyone posted

im glad it has all worked out for you so far big hugs. xx Elise xx

Great to hear he is still alive and doing well... Mum might have thought something was/is wrong with the baby and thought it best to pass him on to budgie heaven... That could be why she has only attacked him... But you never know...

 

Hope all they other continue on their way too... Can't wait for pictures...

 

Oh and sorry to hear about the family problems...

Well i have had the worst day.

 

I went to check on the halfed beaked baby this morning and im afraid sometime during the night he passed. He was eating and drinking so not sure what happened. I took him to work and asked the vet to have a look. He couldnt find any main reasons (from the look he had) and suggested maybe mama bird did more damaged than we originally thought.

 

Then to top it off i came home this afternoon to find mama bird had killed another baby. The same sort of attack, he was missing his beak completely.

 

I feel so sick that i wasnt there to help the little man. Mum has now been moved into a seperate cage as i just do not trust her. Dad is caring for the babies, but i really dont think they need it that much.

 

I have taken some advice on here and put some millet into the box but they are all poking their heads out so im guessing only a day or so to go.

 

RIP to the two boys i lost!

Awww... biggest hugs on your losses xoxo I personally would not breed with her again. I hope the other bubs fledge soon and grow up happy and healthy.

Oh dont you worry she wont be being bred again.

 

I have now removed the nest box and created a hidey for the babies using an ice cream container. They are all moving around the cage now though which is great.

 

Now to find homes for them