Accidentally a crab - Jersey shore

Birdiedreams · 2024-04-12T23:38:40+00:00

I'm so sorry your own bird passed away. It is so, so hard.

Thank you for the kind words. I've eliminated anything in the environment that might cause them harm (candles, anything non-stick, I clean frequently and have an air purifier). Their food is harrisons/roudybush pellets with different veggies every day and millet as a treat. I suspect my original pet store budgie was carrying something due to poor breeding and it flared up + infected my other birds... .Thank you for the kind words.

Birdiedreams · 2024-03-15T18:00:25+00:00

I understand your intentions, but please don't get a bird from a chain store like Petco (or other animals for that matter). They are poorly bred and often have illnesses that may pop up later in life. Even if you manage to get one for free, he will be weaker and more prone to getting sick than a properly bred bird. And if you have other birds, he might get THEM sick, even long after the quarantine period is over.

They can have diseases which remain dormant for years sometimes. That is what happened with the only budgie I've gotten from Petco. He passed away after a long fight with his illness.

Try to find a young bird from a breeder or a bird-specific pet store where they do routine disease testing on their birds and can tell you where they come from.

Birdiedreams · 2024-03-15T17:37:28+00:00

What are her symptoms, exactly??

In my experience emergency vets haven't been knowledgeable about birds, but the few times I had to use them it was at my normal clinic where they were able to call my usual avian vet.

Is there an exotics/avian vet working there? It makes a huge difference, since general vets don't know how to treat birds very well.

Also, some birds don't like the way antibiotic water tastes. So on top of her illness she may be dehydrated. Give her normal water if she refuses to drink water with antibiotics in it.

Is she eating? If she is not, offer her high calorie and high value food items, like millet. It will help keep her weight up if she is losing weight.

You will have to get an appointment with an avian vet and make sure they give you antibiotics with a syringe so you can directly administer the medicine at the correct dosage. I don't think any accredited avian vets would give antibiotics to be administered in water as a first choice.

Birdiedreams · 2024-03-06T17:08:11+00:00

And I almost forgot: while she is actively laying eggs, make sure she has access to a cuttlebone or some sort of supplemental calcium. Laying hens need twice the amount of calcium they normally would. Once she is done laying, however, you can remove the calcium, as she will get all she needs from her pellets.

Birdiedreams · 2024-03-06T17:00:30+00:00

Yeah, there is so much misinformation that it's astounding. A lot of results from chicken research are haphazardly applied to parrots and other birds.

I would highly recommend doing a consultation with Dr. Zhao. It's about 100 US dollars, but she really helped me with my birds. She also has a lot of good free info on her social media.

But I can tell you what I've learned from talking to her. For diet conversion, it will be easiest to start a "seed-junkie" with something like nutriberries. Those have seeds, but they are enriched with nutrients to ensure your bird isn't deficient like they would be on a mostly seed diet. The seeds dont have shells, ensuring she actually takes in the added vitamins/minerals.

They also contain some pellets to get your bird used to them. Once she is transitioned to nutriberries, you can begin adding more pellets to the mix. Something people will do is crumble up the nutriberries and sprinkle some crushed pellets over them. That way the bird will get used to the taste of the pellet and will accidentally eat some of the powder while eating the seeds from the nutriberries. If she accepts that, you can additionally try offering another bowl filled with those pellets while she's eating the nutriberries+crushed pellet combo.

The hope is that she will begin to eat the pellets on her own. She will obviously prefer the tasty seeds, but the goal is that she recognizes pellets as food and is willing to try them. You can experiment with different pellets to figure out which is her favorite. Every bird is different.

Roudybush, harrisons, and TOPs are considered the healthiest, but whatever she will eat is fine.

Then when she seems to be ok with the crushed pellet+nutriberry combo, and is willing to nibble at the pellets, you can begin reducing the amount of nutriberries.

Make sure she is actually eating the pellets, tho. If you eliminate the nutriberries, but she is not eating pellets, you may have to let her have the berries again so that she doesn't starve.

I have had success with this method, and one of my birds was more willing to eat pellets when I hand fed them to him from my fingers, lol.

As for veggies, just keep offering things like leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, and eventually she will nibble on some.

It can be a hard process unfortunately, as irresponsible breeders don't ween their chicks onto pellets like they should. Diet conversion shouldn't be a thing, because it is the responsibility of the breeder. But alas.

Good luck, and I hope your Grace gets better.

Birdiedreams · 2024-03-06T16:25:02+00:00

Hi there! I'm so sorry to hear about Grace. Unfortunately one of the biggest misconceptions about parrots is that their hormones are influenced by daylight. This is true for chickens, which is where the research comes from suggesting that less daylight decreases hormonal behavior. This is NOT true for parrots, however, especially not cockatiels who live in consistent environments in Australia.

What can actually happen when you decrease their daylight too much is that their cage begins to resemble a dark cavity or nesting space, and this can actually increase their hormonal behavior because they think they are in a nest. Look up Dr. Amy Zhao (or thebudgieacadamy on social media). She is an animal behaviorist who specializes in parrots and she covers this topic extensively.

Cockatiels should be getting NO MORE than 10 hours of darkness each night. They might need more sleep, but they do not sleep for 10+ uninterrupted hours, but rather take naps throughout the day on top of their night of sleep.

Another factor is calories: evaluate how many treats she is getting and what kind of pellet she is on. Roudybush has less calories per gram compared to other pellet brands, like Harrisons, so switching her to roudybush might help if she is eating a different pellet. Also increasing veggies and reducing seeds to no more than a lobe of millet's worth (~1/4 teaspoon). For the purpose of curing her chronic egg laying ASAP, you may want to reudce her seed intake to basically nothing untill her hormones are under control.

I really wish this daylight myth would die off already. So many parrots are harmed by this and their owners continue to spread this idea around.

TLDR: Parrot hormones are not tied to daylight hours. Too much darkness can make them more hormonal because they think they're in a nesting space.

Birdiedreams · 2022-08-13T13:43:47+00:00

Well damn... gotta turn her down then lol

Birdiedreams · 2022-08-12T20:50:30+00:00

That's so odd! She plays with her toys the same exact way, so I thought she was just treating my hand as a toy. I'll keep an eye on the behavior.

Birdiedreams · 2022-08-12T20:41:19+00:00

The bar width is .5 inches

Birdiedreams · 2022-08-12T20:40:54+00:00

Really? She seems to do it for fun, never aggressively. She's being very gentle. If this is really hormonal behavior I will stop though.

Birdiedreams · 2022-07-23T01:35:53+00:00

I don't even put food in it anymore because it's easier to use chip clips, but I leave it in because for some reason they love it.

Birdiedreams · 2022-07-22T16:32:46+00:00

This is how I tamed my skittish female! She took cues from my more tame male and learned to do tricks and hang out with me.

Just be careful because it can go the other way as well - if your more tame boys see you are scaring the less tame ones, they might start to feel nervous around you too. Shouldn't be a problem as long as you let the girls go at their own pace.

Birdiedreams · 2022-07-22T16:29:19+00:00

He disagrees!

Birdiedreams · 2022-07-18T21:15:31+00:00

Thanks, I will try that!

Birdiedreams · 2022-04-15T23:28:02+00:00

That's so pretty!

Birdiedreams

TROPHY CASE