Merlin was fine to medicate when he was on antibiotics last time. Not a trouble in the world. This time however, he has decided that instead of biting on your hand and holding on so you can squeeze the medicine into his beak, he will nip with the tip of his beak and then clam it shut. You cannot open his beak and his feathers around his beak are all sticky cos it's such a hard thing to do. He's going to be on medicine for a few more weeks we presume so we really need a way of getting him to open his beak. We'll be asking the vets on Tuesday but I can guarantee he'll be good while he's there :fear Is there any special trick or we just have to persevre? It now takes 10-15 minutes to medicate him from the 2mins it took at the start of the week He also will not touch his seed still cos he knows he'll get millet if he chucks a sook :redalbino: So today he's well enough to be left with just seed for the day, so we shall see...

Well I was told to gently run the side of their beak and they would open up.

Dont know if it really works though.

I did manage to get one of mine done that way, but the other, no way, he'd spit it out everywhere.

Good luck with it

Cindy

I tried that by accident this evening, it seemed to work.

Could you offer him a pencil to bite on?

Nope, hes happy to bite on whatever, but the second he sees the syringe he spits whatever he's biting out! He's not stupid! He can be sitting out of the cage chattering away, you go to the fridge and he hears the slight crinkle of the ziplock bag, and he's back in the cage in the corner you can't get him out of :(Laughing out loud): He's too clever.... Somehow I think we're going to need a new tactic. His face is yellow and sticky, it looks awfully funny.

When I had to give my bird medicine from a syringe, like yours he grew to know what was coming. I found that if I covered his eyes with a small piece of cloth he relaxed a little and swollowed the medication without too many problems.

So really all you need now TeGz is some more hands! I can't imagine how difficult this could turn out to be. Touch wood I've never had to medicate a budgie,but I sure would dread it now,

Julie

oh isnt it so cute when you get the medicine out and they borrow their beaks down into the teatowel your holding them in, so you cant get at them! all you can see is a little beedy eye and a little fluffy feather looking at you!

 

i cover the top of their heads with a teatowel - almost wrapped them like a baby, it stops them wriggling out. and then i gently push on the side of their beak and let them hold my thumb in their beak and drip the meds in that way