Murphy, English Budgie

[Lady Jane]

Day 3 and still no signs of eating or drinking. Its been 48 hours now. He is being a hard head today. The seed mix is the one he has been eating prior to coming here. I gave him small amount of chop and all he did was look at it. I hold his golden millet in my hand and not interested today. He has been out of the cage a few times to get a tour of his new home. Not much else to report. I guess he is having wt. loss and possible dehydration. He looks and acts OK.

 

[Monica]

Have you seen any droppings at all? If yes, how do they look?

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Dianne, unless you are sitting in front of his cage, constantly observing him and not sleeping, you cannot say whether he is absolutely not eating anything. Most birds eat their heaviest meal at dawn when the sun comes up. And he is just a little budgie, so you wouldn't see much disturbance of his seed bowl. If it really is important to you, you could use a gram scale to weigh the food you put in his bowl and then weigh his food once or twice a day to see how much he is actually eating when you are not observing him. Most birds resident in a new place would be caught dead (joke, ha ha) at their food bowl just in case a predator would find them there and kill them! It is a sign of trust for a bird or even any predator pet to eat in front of their owner. Obviously, you are not yet a trusted owner on an instinctual level. Even when you weigh the food and find the missing hidden eating being done, it isn't going to be more than a few grams because he is a little budgie. As far as taking in water, you would have to also do it be weight on a gram scale or use a very sensitive container graded in one cubic centimeter scale. I would be surprised if he took in more than three or four ccs per day....

So I do not believe your Murphy is going to starve himself or dehydrate himself. He is just following his instincts and not allowing a potential predator to catch him at the food or water bowl. Smart birdie.

The other evidence that he is covertly eating is whether he is producing any poop... is the poop dry and dehydrated? No? Then he is taking care of himself, but just when you are not looking! He is going to be ok, Dianne. Really. Just keep on keeping on and handling him, etc, and eventually he will trust you to eat in front of you and eventually from your hand as well. It is so cute of you to obsess over his behavior, or lack of behavior. Murphy is going to be your wonderful, trusting bird friend, he is just not there yet.....

 

[Lady Jane]

Droppings look normal. This morning he was in the same place as he was when he slept because I got up late to see if he was ok. There is no seed mix on the bottom of the cage. I am here all day with him except for going downstairs to get the mail. I realize birds take a while to eat when they are in a new place so I am being your typical worried Mom to a baby bird. He does not get around the cage well yet because he was never in one and has no way to fly. I did get him out for a while today and with help I filed the nail tips to be less sharp. Everyone tell me he wont starve himself. So I will go with your advise and try to relax about this.

 

[Tim]

He won't stave himself! If he has droppings, he's eating! Nothing in = nothing out!
He really is lovely, and I love your new Signature

 

[Monica]

Birds who aren't eating will have black poop.... If he's poo'ing green, then he ought to be fine.

How is he otherwise?

 

[Lady Jane]

Poop has been green & black since I have had him. He just tucked his head in the food bowl for about 6 minutes and ate. Happy Days! I had just taken him for a walk and did the step up routine which he learned in a matter of a few minutes. How is he? He is quiet unless he hears the birds chirping outside or recorded. He has ignored the toys so far because he may not have had any before. Not sure about that. The fruit and nut mix the breeder makes himself has very good ingredients so I think I will order them from him in the future. He gave me 2 3 pound bags to start. Here are the ingredients: All organic

banana, papaya, pineapple, raisins, date pieces, carrots, green peas, white millet, canary seed, red millet, oats, cashews, peanuts, apple, apricots, hulled pumpkin seeds, soy nuts, walnuts, filberts, brazil nuts, pistachio and macadamia nuts and pellets. He only feeds the birds organic golden millet from California. Says the millet in the pet stores is no good.

 

[Aubrey]

Murphy is gorgeous I'm happy he's eating and that he's finally home with you

 

[Lady Jane]

Thanks. He will eventually learn what toys are for and how to navigate inside his cage. He falls once in a while. I think he was kept in a fish tank. I keep the grate padded with newspaper on top. Flight feathers being cut just compounds navigation problems.

 

[CeciliaZ]

Congrats - he is beautiful.

 

[Aubrey]

Any more Murphy updates or pics

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Congrats, he has decided you are a flock mate, not a predator, Dianne!

 

[Lady Jane]

I took him out of cage about 4 times today. I have a ladder on cage top that is about 18 inches tall so I decided to teach him to climb for the exercise and to enhance his climbing ability. He made to the ladder top X3 and I did that again on cage outings. Murphy does not understand or know how to play yet but I will keep on trying. He ate better today but ignored the veggies which I expected. He fell to cage bottom one time today and that is better than yesterday. He still is grasping onto the side bars and sleeping the night there. I moved the platform perch to where he does that so I hope tonight he will be on that instead. I think the thing he likes to do best is to sing with the birds be it recorded from outside. He has not taken to the mirror. No new photos.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Great idea to exercise him. As he learns how to climb he will learn that all the perch areas you have provided are safe to sit upon. He will not climb onto the platform perch until he is convinced it is safe to do so. Great idea to allow him to sing along with other birds. Have you found budgie voices for him? If he responds to any singing, you could try some canary recordings. Some of those wonderful teach your canary to sing recordings are amazing.

 

[Lady Jane]

He responds to all the birds so I will look for canary. Thanks for suggestion. I moved the small round platform perch to where he has been sleeping and he got on it at 7 pm and he is still there. I think I tried him out today. Murphy is such a fun little guy. First time I have had a hand fed bird who was taken away from parents so early. It really makes a difference.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

The only negative of taking a baby at two weeks is they often don't know they are birds and pick their human as their mate and guard them from all other creatures. My Gracie Tiel was one, but eventually learned to accept Chip Tiel as her mate. Sunshine Senegal was incubator hatched and hard fed from minute one. She hates all COCK birds regardless of species. I am her mate and no other animal is permitted on or even near me when she is free. Both methods make instant pets, but cause psychological problems later.

But I would never want Gracie or Sunny different than themselves. Does Murphy insist on being on you as much as possible?

 

[Tyrion]

What a lovely lil bird

 

[Lady Jane]

So far he is comfortable with the visitors both male and female that have come to see him. Sometimes I think he was not allowed to be a bird for the first part of his life. But now he is except for the flight feather clip. Actually he can fly horizontal for about 1.5 feet and then lands. I got him to pose for a lovely photo today. He looks sort of regal.

 

[Lwalker]

He really is beautiful

 

[WeasleyLover]

Murphy is stunning!!!