Moulty Monty and the Fiends wish you all a Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone for tomorrow (depending on where you are in the world it might have already happened..)

Have a great 2012 may you all stay healthy and happy.

The fiends would like to show off..

Some photos to show..

Hector has been singing to Abbie while she sleeps. It's very cute to watch.

Dumpling has been flying to my feet a lot, he especially loves my Christmas socks.

Monty and Snowy have just been posing. Although Monty flew off as soon as I had taken the photo.

Fun frolics and drinking your meds

Blueboy likes me to know that he's drinking his calcivet. He shouts at me til I watch him then has a nip of water and flies off squawking!

Lilek is getting cheekier than ever. I put the budgies seed to one side while I had some egg out for them and Lilek found the seed and tucked in!

Here is a photo of the budgies relaxing in the evening for your enjoyment, aren't they colourful :)

And another of the cheeky Lilek..

The Blueboy Ultimatum

My little Blue fella Blueboy has been through the mill recently, ever since October he has been very poorly.

First of all I thought it might be Canker, so the flock got the treatment. Blueboy No better.

Then because of his being unable to eat on his own and constantly neck-stretching I thought maybe Air sac mites. Treated with Ivermectin. No Better.

So I took him to the PDSA and got some Baytril in case he had a respiratory infection. No Better.

I also bought iodine and added it to his water in case it was a goiter, he doesn't use the iodine block at all.

At one point he was not eating on his own and we had to syringe feed him crushed pellets, Guardian Angel and apple juice. Then he started to eat millet so I put some in his cage every night to make sure he ate (still am).

We took him to the Avian Vet and she said that he had Aspergilliosis so gave us fungizone meds to give him once a day for two weeks.  He had his last treatment yesterday. He hated being caught and syringe fed every evening but we got good at it and did it in less than 10 minutes.

He is still neck stretching and is very scared and nervous at nights and sleeps during the day. I have taken to leaving the cover on his cage at night slightly open and he's been better the past two nights. Less nervous and noisy.

I have been advised by the Birdcare Company (and have started him on Calcivet today) that it could be a calcium deficiency due to the following reasons:

Birdcare Company

"From what you have described it sounds like the bird is calcium deficient.  Calcium plays a huge role in the body.  

The first thing that you said, was that he wretches and stretches his neck a lot.  This can be a sign attributed to star gazing, which in turn is a sign of calcium deficiency.

The next thing that tipped the balance is that you said the bird is nervous, and excessive noise is being made.  Again this is a sign of calcium deficiency.

Another reason why I thought the problem is calcium deficiency is that your bird has a wheeze and a rattling breath.  There has been research done on some birds that have these sort of problems, and it has been found that it is due to calcium deficiency.  Birds do not make the mucous properly and also have a trouble coughing it out, this then gets infected and wheezing and rattling breath becomes apparent."

I asked What is Star Gazing?

I have noticed that he does this thing where he goes to the top of his cage and moves his head round one way and then the other, he has always done this.

Blueboy is one of our rehomed birds so we do not know of his history, we have had him for a year and two months.

Birdcare Company said

"From what you have asked, this sounds like star gazing.  It is a technical term for when birds look "over their shoulder".  It certainly sounds like a calcium deficiency that your bird has."

At the moment he's eating on his own and de-husking seed but could do with putting a little weight on.

I have high hopes for the Calcium restoring him to full health.

Special thanks to my friend for loaning me the money to take Blueboy to the vet. You know who you are and I will pay you back.  Slowy but steadily.

Also thank you to the Ebay seller that conned me out of £60 I paid for a netbook. I got a refund and it helped to buy more things for Blueboy. My Blueboy is worth more than a netbook.

------------------------------------------

Money spent on Blueboy so far:

Blueboys health: Priceless.

Item	Amount
Medicine and consult	£68.35
Aspergilliosis meds	£25.00
F10	£9.43
Humidifier	£9.99
Calcivet	£10.25
Probiotic	£7.75
Total	£130.77

We took him to the PDSA he escaped from the box, actually hatched his way out and sat on top of the box - don't worry he was also inside a Ferplast plastic pet carrier:

 Here he is from earlier today

We wish you a budgie christmas

The fiends wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

A very blustery day

Yesterday was so windy and scary for the budgies that they all clustered together in and on the smallest of the three cages.

Safety in numbers I guess!

You can't beat me I am a little minx

I am going to bite these pegs and try and find a nesting place in the curtains and no matter what you do you cannot stop me.

So far you have tried the toughest Rubbish bags, Lino, Paper and towels, pathetic!

I am better than a human, I am Queen Budgie Abbie!

New Bowls Please!

We realised that the budgies like to eat out of see-through bowls more than the coloured ones. So we had a brain wave and ordered them some glass ash-trays. We already had one which they used regularly so we got 4 more.

They are quite big and more than one budgie can eat from one at once so five is sufficient.

Plus they are hygienic because they are glass and it's easier to wash than plastic.

They love them!

Everyone can see the food that they are eating which seems to mean less seed waste for them.

Here are some budgies enjoying their new bowls!

Gourmet Treats for my budgies

I try and make the fiends evening meal as interesting looking as possible.

Of course they like to trample through it rather than discuss it's merits but that works for me :)

Naughty budgie photos from the day

Abbie has been driving me bonkers today. She will not stop nibbling on stuff. We thought we had stopped her from nibbling on the top of the curtain by putting some cartons on the pole and blu-taking them to the wall.

This worked for about five minutes so we put bags up there (really tough ones!) she nibbled them.

We put lino on top and even that got nibbled on.

What's next?

Who's up for a second course of party food?

Second course. Millet, Trill and Basil.

Monty decides he should get in first as he's the birthday Boy!

Look at the cake! Not much left and it's all messed up.

Gotta love 'em. If they're happy, I'm happy!

Monty has been with us for two years today!

I made Monty a lovely cake made from Egg, Broccoli and Carrot, with Corn and Dill Trimmings and two stalks of Dill as Candles!

[caption id="attachment_1861" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="MMMMMM Cake!"][/caption]

 

 

I then brought the cake in and sang the customary Happy Birthday song to the little Tyke while he stared at me mystified as to what I was doing.

But as soon as the cake was plonked down he made a wish!

[caption id="attachment_1862" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="I wish for more cake and more millet"][/caption]

 

 

 

Then the hoards of adoring guests arrived to greet Monty and wish him happy birthday - he is a King after all.

[caption id="attachment_1863" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Nom nom nom, compliments to the chef"][/caption]

 

 

[caption id="attachment_1865" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="I wonder if there's more?"][/caption]

What have the budgies been up to?

[caption id="attachment_1854" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Do you think those budgies in there would like to come out to play?"]
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[caption id="attachment_1855" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Roswell: Why would you take a photo of me from this angle, you loony?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1856" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Hector, Do you think I could lay eggs in that compartment below?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1857" align="alignleft" width="510" caption="I was dozing and you woke me just to take a photo?"][/caption]

 

T'was just before bedtime

..and the fiends were chilling out, waiting to be lifted to their cages.

Fly my pretty!

Got a great photo of little Lilek flying towards me yesterday.

It makes him look a little more chunky than he is cos his wings are behind him and it makes them look short.

Look at the eager expression on his little chops :)

[caption id="attachment_1848" align="alignleft" width="595" caption="Dumpling...coming through...make room!"][/caption]

 

Din Dins for the Fiends

The fiends are currently dining on a lovely nutritious meal of Sweetcorn niblets, Broccoli and Carrot enriched with sprinklings of Harrison's bird pellets, Avian seaweed and a tiny sprinkle of Guardian Angel.

I expect to find tiny sweetcorn husks all over the lino in about oooh five minutes!

Gotta love 'em, but they certainly do keep me busy.