This past week, Oscar has been acting differently from his normal chirpy/playfully self. He always used to play with his toys and ring his hanging bell, but lately he's just been sitting in his favorite spot, all puffed out. He does chirp occasionally, and from what I can tell, he's eating and drinking fine. He sleeps often during the day, and he isn't very active, and it's starting to worry me. Could he be greiving after Sunny's death? He is currently moulting, and I'm thinking that may be contributing to it.

 

What are some other signs I should look for, and should I be concerned about this? :glare:

Edited October 30, 200519 yr by BudgieLover14

well i wouldnt be worried about him not playing with his toys after his friend died :glare: casper didnt play with his after his friend peanut died.

 

however, those signs in general do seem to suggest that he is feeling under the weather at the moment. it may well be a combination of grief and moulting but then again it might not be so to put your mind at ease a vets visit would be a good idea.

 

generally the second lot of signs of illness after sleepiness and lack of energy/playfulness are a change in the consistency or colour of the droppings and/or going off their food.

 

i hope he is okay, let us know how you get on.

He sounds to me like he needs a check up-don't wait too long because budgies can go downhill pretty quickly.

He sounds to me like he needs a check up-don't wait too long because budgies can go downhill pretty quickly.

 

Yes, which is why I was concerned. He seems to be acting normal though, and he doesn't look sick. He was playing with his favorite toy today, and he was singing alot. I think I was overeacting a bit, and I believe I mislead you. Its normal for them to take occasional naps, and I think it only scared me because when Sunny was sick he was always puffed out. (Which isn't quite the case with Oscar.) Im keeping my eyes on him, and If he gets the least bit worse, or if I notice a behavior change or change in droppings, etc. then I will be sure to get him to the vet to asap to see whats going on.

Be sure to keep a very close eye on the little fellow. Personally, Id take him to the vet anyway, just to be on the safe side. Even just a combination of grief and moulting could cause depression, and that in itself could weaken his immune system slightly. That sometimes can be all it takes for a bird to become poorly. He may just need a slight vitamin and mineral boost to give him a gentle nudge in the right direction. My favourite pick-me-up for birds is one I often recommend, its a powder suppliment called ACEhigh, as far as I know it is only available from your vet. I find it absolutely a God-send in times of moult, or just general times of being slightly under the weather. It may be worth asking your vet about it. Its not particularly cheap, I pay ?20. per tub (and its a small tub) BUT you only need the tiniest pinch a day, and there is easilly 12 months supply for quite a few birds when used corectly. So looking at it that way, its tremendous value for money. Sometimes, these day to day occurences like moulting, even house moving/new cage/death can really take it out of out little budgies and birds, and I must say Id never be without my tub of ACEhigh in the cupboard.

I do hope all is well with your little one,

Anne

Be sure to keep a very close eye on the little fellow. Personally, Id take him to the vet anyway, just to be on the safe side. Even just a combination of grief and moulting could cause depression, and that in itself could weaken his immune system slightly. That sometimes can be all it takes for a bird to become poorly. He may just need a slight vitamin and mineral boost to give him a gentle nudge in the right direction. My favourite pick-me-up for birds is one I often recommend, its a powder suppliment called ACEhigh, as far as I know it is only available from your vet. I find it absolutely a God-send in times of moult, or just general times of being slightly under the weather. It may be worth asking your vet about it. Its not particularly cheap, I pay ?20. per tub (and its a small tub) BUT you only need the tiniest pinch a day, and there is easilly 12 months supply for quite a few birds when used corectly. So looking at it that way, its tremendous value for money. Sometimes, these day to day occurences like moulting, even house moving/new cage/death can really take it out of out little budgies and birds, and I must say Id never be without my tub of ACEhigh in the cupboard.

I do hope all is well with your little one,

Anne

 

Actually, we just started to use Nektons vitamin supplement for birds, which we purchased through a vet. It was originally for Sunny when he was sick, but they said its a good idea to give Oscar some as well. We give him a tiny pinch of it each day. Oscar refuses to eat anything other than his pellets and an occasional bit of millet spray. We try offering it directly to him, in our hand, but he is hardly tame at all, and is quick to back away. He's such a sweet bird, but he was always so stubborn about letting us touch him, and the most I can get him to do is get him on my hand with a little bit of millet. Could the lack of fresh food/veggies be causing a problem? I was told by a vet that pellets should be 50% of the diet, and the other 50% should be fresh vegetables/fruits and healthy table foods. He, however, gets none, and this concerns me.

 

Any suggestions on what to do? :glare:

Just to confuse things even more, he also needs a good share of seeds in his diet. I'd say around 30% pellets, 30% seed, and 30% healthy fresh veggies/legumes and a little fruit as well as treats. So yeah, he definitely needs more fresh veggies (kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots) and perhaps a good seed mix occasionally.

Just to confuse things even more, he also needs a good share of seeds in his diet. I'd say around 30% pellets, 30% seed, and 30% healthy fresh veggies/legumes and a little fruit as well as treats. So yeah, he definitely needs more fresh veggies (kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots) and perhaps a good seed mix occasionally.

 

okay thanks. I'll be sure to take that into account. What seed brand do you recommend, and how much/how often do you suggest I offer him seeds? Is millet spray okay? :glare:

 

My big problem is getting him to eat veggies/fruits. I also have a young 3 month old budgie who is in quarantine, and both of them need to get used to eating fresh foods, but nothing seems to be working.. :hap:

Millet should only be offered as a treat since it's very high in fat. It's pretty much budgie junk food. :glare:

 

Someone has recommended the seed mixes from this site: http://www.birdsafestore.com/SearchResult~...goryID~136.aspx

 

I have yet to try it but it is definitely better than what you're find in the store, especially with it being organic.

 

Once you have your birds converted to eating pellets and fresh foods, you can offer seeds for a limited time every day (maybe an hour or so). Leave pellets out all day and night and clip fresh foods to the cage for a couple of hours (no more than that or they'll go off) a day.

 

As far as getting your birds to eat better foods, that's really difficult (as you already know). Be sure to offer them plenty of seeds when you start out because they won't recognize anything else as food. You wouldn't want them to go hungry or starve during the process of converting them to other foods.

 

Click here for the Food & Nutrition topic in the FAQ. It might help answer your questions a little more in-depth. If you need more help, just ask! :hap:

Millet should only be offered as a treat since it's very high in fat. It's pretty much budgie junk food. :hap:

 

Someone has recommended the seed mixes from this site: http://www.birdsafestore.com/SearchResult~...goryID~136.aspx

 

I have yet to try it but it is definitely better than what you're find in the store, especially with it being organic.

 

Once you have your birds converted to eating pellets and fresh foods, you can offer seeds for a limited time every day (maybe an hour or so). Leave pellets out all day and night and clip fresh foods to the cage for a couple of hours (no more than that or they'll go off) a day.

 

As far as getting your birds to eat better foods, that's really difficult (as you already know). Be sure to offer them plenty of seeds when you start out because they won't recognize anything else as food. You wouldn't want them to go hungry or starve during the process of converting them to other foods.

 

Click here for the Food & Nutrition topic in the FAQ. It might help answer your questions a little more in-depth. If you need more help, just ask!

 

Actually, he's already been converted to pellets for a long time, but that is all he will eat. I've been trying for months to get him to eat fresh foods, but he wont even nibble on a single piece, which is getting me a bit aggrivated.:glare: I was sure millet was junk food, but I didn't think other seeds were much healthier. I was always told that there is no need for them. (My birds eat harrisons pellets, a vet recomended brand.) I never realized that seeds were important as well.

 

Thank you very much for the information. I'll try to find a good brand of seeds, and I'll be sure to convert the little one to pellets as soon as she's settled in. As for the fresh food part, im going to have quite a bit of trouble, but I'll keep trying. If anyone has any links to sites that may help me get my budgies to eat fresh foods, I would really appriciate it.

Ah, that's right. :glare: It's great that he'll eat pellets already. Yeah, an all seed diet is definitely bad but all pellet diets have been linked to renal failure. So they really need a bit of everything.

 

The only way to really get them to eat fresh foods is to be stubborn. Clip them to the top and/or side of the cage every day and eventually they'll have a nibble. You can also mix pellets or seeds with a veggie baby food to get some of those vitamins into him sooner. Mine love this. :hap: Have you tried making birdie bread? You can hide all sorts of good healthy things in it that your birds might not touch otherwise.

 

I'll see if I can dig up sites about getting budgies to eat fresh foods.

Ah, that's right. :glare: It's great that he'll eat pellets already. Yeah, an all seed diet is definitely bad but all pellet diets have been linked to renal failure. So they really need a bit of everything.

 

The only way to really get them to eat fresh foods is to be stubborn. Clip them to the top and/or side of the cage every day and eventually they'll have a nibble. You can also mix pellets or seeds with a veggie baby food to get some of those vitamins into him sooner. Mine love this. Have you tried making birdie bread? You can hide all sorts of good healthy things in it that your birds might not touch otherwise.

 

I'll see if I can dig up sites about getting budgies to eat fresh foods.

 

Ah I see. Sounds like some great ideas you have- I'll be sure to try all of these things. What exactly is birdie bread and veggie baby food though? (If you dont mind me asking all of these questions.. :(Laughing out loud):hap: Once again, I really appriciate your help.

It's no problem. :hap: Birdie bread is just a bread you make especially for birds. You can sort of experiment and throw in whatever you want. I have a recipe and a link to more recipes here.

 

As far as baby food, I just mean the jars that you would buy for a human baby. But I wouldn't get the fruity types, just the veggies. (Fruit is very sugary, veggies are better.) :glare:

Really? I never thought of that. :glare: I'll take a look at the recipe and the rest of the FAQ's and I'll be sure to try it out. Thanks for the ideas and the tips, they really helped! :hap:

You're welcome! Glad to be of help.

Here one to throw in... Some so called experts....(Vets and Major Breeders) are say that if you have the budgies on pellets, it's the closest to a full diet. Fruit and Vegtables are good to add to suppliment any fibre requirements but you don't need to give them any seed.

 

Pioneers of Nutrition

 

In spite of these limiting factors, we now have more information from which to build a nutritionally complete diet than at any other time since the domestication of the Budgerigars. Pioneers in the field of nutrition such as Roudybush, Ziegler Bros., Lafeber and Purina have contributed immensely to the establishment of adequate and safe nutrient levels in the process of developing pelleted diets for psittacines. Commercial enterprises such as Vydex Ltd. and in addition, individually funded research projects conducted by veterinarians and college researchers have begun to define the optimal parameters of a nutritionally complete diet.

 

While not all of this work has been specific to Budgerigars, a great deal has been. What has not been specific to Budgerigars has been directed toward parrots in general. For the first time we have a body of knowledge concerning nutritional requirements of a closely related family of birds (psittacines) and we are less reliant on figures extrapolated from poultry research in developing a Budgerigar diet.

 

And yet, even as we speak of these enormous strides, there remains a poor availability of good diets in the Budgerigar hobby. Exotic birds, to include the Budgerigar, are the only group of domesticated animal or commercial livestock that are not fed commercially prepared diets based on known dietary needs on a routine basis. Pelleted and crumbled diets, which have been developed for the Budgerigar in an attempt to improve "delivery" of a predetermined balance of nutrients lack acceptance by the majority in the hobby. Obviously some of this reluctance to accept commercially prepared Budgerigar diets has been a result of an acknowledged lack of specific research on Budgerigar nutrition and reliance on poultry requirements by many of the commercial manufacturers. But even this has not been the real deterrent as a large number of knowledgeable breeders have routinely included commercially prepared turkey, game bird, and chicken crumbs in their custom soft food mixes with excellent results. No, the real reasons for a lack of acceptance go beyond this, and the responsibility lies not only with the aviculturist, but with the manufacturers.

 

---Taken from The MasterBreeder.

BudgieLover, it might be hard to get your bird to eat any variety, but it really is well worth it. I found that once mine began to accept cooked foods, they will eat pretty much anything I stick in front of them now... On a daily basis, mine get Beak Appetit (cooked diet made of pastas and veggies) in the morning for breakfast. They have access to organic pellets 24/7, and I also add some dried eggfood in with that. They then get raw veggies/fruit in the afternoons (the Beak Appetit has cooked veggies in it also) which gives them veggies twice a day. They also eat sprouted seeds a few times a week (whenever I can grow a good batch). The raw veggies they eat consist of baby spinach leaves, red leaf lettuce, green or purple kale, carrot tops, baby carrots, broccoli, red and green pepper, apple, plums (no fruit from near the pit though), maybe banana and very occasionally a bit of parsley. I feed them seeds by hand in the evening. I have spent a lot of time getting them to eat better, but I firmly believe it was definitely worth it. They have much more energy.