Poorly feathered friend!

[bmccasland]

It's always hard when our pets get to ailing. I just want to know how they manage to do it on a friday afternoon or a holiday?

How come Bluey won't eat other things? Silly boy, he's supposed to!

Hope he gets to feeling better.

[andtckrtoo]

Hope he's on the mend now!! He's a cutie!!

[Zen]

Poor little Bluey.

I've had a few birds through the years, even one who laid eggs! Of course nothing came of it.
It doesn't matter whether they're furred, feathered, or scaled, they all bring us comfort and calm just to be with them.

[bambu101]

Keep trying to offer him greens and veggies. Sometimes they can take a few months to try something new. Most budgies don't care for fruit, but like greens such as spinach, chunks of corn on the cob, celery, carrots, etc. Mine like cooked cous-cous and quinoa, and crumbled up corn muffin or bread.

Bless you for taking Bluey into your home, and hopefully he will be feeling better soon.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

This may seem like a silly question, but- is your bird getting any GRIT (bird gravel) and calcium in his diet?
If your bird does not have access to bird grit (sized correctly for parakeets and canaries) then he will not be able to properly digest his food in order to extract all the nutrients from it. Eventually, with no grit at all to help seed eating birds grind up the seeds in their gizzard, they will die of malnutrition despite having plenty of birdseed. Putting a cuttlefish bone in the cage will also give him calcium and other minerals he might need. But I trust you have been providing grit on the floor of his cage?
http://freespace.virgin.net/dr.joine...ments.htm#Grit
http://www.allsands.com/pets/parakeetcarepe_raz_gn.htm

[Blueberry]

((((Clockwork and Bluey)))))))

All pets share in our lives, bring us joy, and, yes, finally sadness. But they're ALL worth it!

Here's hoping Bluey is feeling much better soon!!

[OakLeaf]

(((((Clock & Bluey)))))

Hoping he feels much better soon.

[TsPoet]

This may seem like a silly question, but- is your bird getting any GRIT (bird gravel) and calcium in his diet?

http://freespace.virgin.net/dr.joine...ments.htm#Grit
http://www.allsands.com/pets/parakeetcarepe_raz_gn.htm

I've had budgies for more than 30 years. Got my first one when I was about 9. This was true back then, but not now
Actually, I think they now say that no bird should have grit. Budgies especially don't need it and shouldn't be given it.
http://www.upatsix.com/fyi/doesyour.htm
a cuttlefish bone, on the other hand, is still recommended.

http://www.upatsix.com/faq/budgie.htm#12

up at six is a terrific site for bird info.
If Bluey is 9, than you've been doing great with him. 30 years ago, budgies lived to be in their teens, now they live to, on average, 8 years! Budgies are the most tumor-prone creatures on the planet. Their small size and perception of them as easy to maintain along with their proclivity to breed have made them inexpensive and the aviculture on them has not been kept up like it should have been.
I now only have rescue budgies that aren't really pets, I have a big flight cage for them and people seem to find me when they no longer are interested in their caged companion. I wish more folks would take the time to tame them, they are wonderful little clowns with huge hearts and make great friends.
Good luck with Bluey. Another thing you might try offering him is parsley (not cilantro), parsley doesn't have a whole lot in it, but budgies seem to really love it and it might get him used to other greens. There's nothing wrong with cilantro as far as I know, but I've never known a budgie who liked it

[ClockworkOrange]

Thanks everybody, who has offered all the good advice and the well wishers.

Bluey has all the usual items in his cage, iodine block, cuttle fish, grit in a separate container plus toys. His only treat is an occasional sprig of millet and even that, he will only eat the type bought lose from the pet shop, if it is pre-packed in a box, he won't touch it, neither will he go near any of the seed bells etc. I can only imagine somebody previously must have beaten him with a sprig of millet, hence he is nervous of it............no, only joking.

I have never heard of cilantro, just checked it out on the internet and discovered it is coriander leaves. I will persevere with parsley, if nothing else it will give him fresh smelling breath.....

Digressing. Many years ago, I had a beautiful Beagle b1tch, Snoopy and she was the runt of the litter. Consequently, when we had her mated, we had to have her mated with an American Beagle, called Washington Post aka Smartie. The poor little love needed a caesarian and only produced two puppies. We kept the b1tch and the pair of them became inseparable. When Snoopy died, Bimbo pined, in fact I thought she was going to die. It was awful, she would not eat, if I went to pick her up, she would cry. Suffice to say, she got over it. I broke my heart when she died, it was also at the time I was going through my divorce and I use to tell her everything.

I then had to work full time and also move house, so it was not fair to have another dog. That was when I adopted the first orphaned budgie and back to the beginning of my little story.

So far so good, his eye looks much better than yesterday. Tomorrow is Monday and I will take him back to the vet just for a check over.

Clock

............giggles, the site won't allow me to use the word b1tch