Whoa, behavior change, molt/hormones?

[EnglishBudgMom]

Thank you all for your insight and opinions! I have also been offering more baths, but he seems to still prefer one a week. More than that and he just drinks the bath water ‍

I haven’t seen him scratching his face on things lately, and have never seen any blood-anywhere. Poor babies, so itchy. He’s been more interested in coming out to see us lately as well, maybe he’s more used to the molting sensations? He is also acting like he understands a firm “No Biting” verbal from me. Also, I’ve discovered some of his “biting” is that pre-regurgitate nibble stuff. Sometimes he starts with that, then full on bites. I’ve been leaving him alone a lot more lately. He hasn’t ran across the cage to bite me since that one day

 

[Lady Jane]

Have you given your budgie Herb Salad? My two love the stuff. Healthy Bird's Organic Herb Salad (4 oz): Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food

 

[Fergus Mom]

I used to have two big and tall flight cages with vertical bars. The budgies would actually fly to the side of the cage, then changing their grip, would slide down. If they got to a bar, they'd move their feet below and keep sliding down. Now, wasn't fast by any means, just short and quick sliding down by adjusting how tight they held onto the bars.

This is how Fergus and Fiona get down their vertical bars! They seem to navigate well in their cage, there are two panels (front and back) with vertical, and the end panels are both horizontal. I guess whatever mood they are in dictates whether they climb, or slide!

I am very fortunate that mine have not lunged to bite me at all. The only time I have ever been bitten is when both of them first got here, when transferring them from the box to the cage! Fiona will nibble on my finger occasionally when I am feeding them millet, but usually only if the millet falls to the floor, or gets eaten, and Fergus still has his clump!

 

[EnglishBudgMom]

Have you given your budgie Herb Salad? My two love the stuff. Healthy Bird's Organic Herb Salad (4 oz): Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food

I haven't tried this yet. I did fill a bowl with fresh parsley and water, a "parsley bath" and he LOVED it. He has been eating the bird bread that I made with the jiffy corn bread mix. I know that's not ideal, but it's what I had and I added a bunch of veggies, pellets, and people food spirulina to it. I poke a square into his "hanging food kabob" thing that I love and he pecks away at it at his leisure. The hanging kabob thing really keeps food up off the floor well, and it's easy for bird to get at. I spear all kinds of stuff on it. I have a seed sprouter and have given him a bird seed mix from the "sprout house" that he sort of enjoys. I think he picks out the quinoa.

 

[EnglishBudgMom]

Oh, and I feel so bad for him! Feathers EVERYWHERE, all the time!

 

[Lady Jane]

I know molt time is so harsh on budgies. You can get nice birdie bread mixes in Amazon. That is what i do. I put mostly red orange veggies in it. Used pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots and so forth.

 

[Lady Jane]

He has been eating the bird bread that I made with the jiffy corn bread mix.

The Jiffy mix has salt so I do not use it at all. There are birdie bread mixes sold on Amazon both US and UK you can use or you can get supplies and recipes for birdie bread here or on line.

 

[JaneLane]

@Gribouille I agree sometimes gloves are necessary, especially for health purposes, pet and companion birds in my opinion need to be use to gloves in case they ever end up at the vet for a painful emergency, very few vets I know would handle a stressed out parrot with their bare hands or latex. My local aquarium taught me that trick, they tickle their dolphins' fins to get them used to things touching them so it wont be such a big deal to get a shot from the vet. All of our birds have seen a glove and been on a glove's finger, none of them are afraid of gloves because I took the time to show them gloves are not scary and if they ever need to be handled with a glove at the vets they wont be under extra stress.

 

[Monica]

I've never seen a vet use gloves...... ever. They'll use a towel, but not gloves.

I've also never heard of vets using gloves to handle birds. Odd.


It's one thing to use gloves to avoid bites/tame the bird, it's another to teach birds to accept gloves.

 

[JaneLane]

@Monica, yes I know some people don't like gloves But I am not talking about thick electrical gloves simply thin gloves, nor do I advocate putting a glove near a scared bird. Plenty of exotic vets in my area use gloves on birds, foxes, minks (they've never used a towel on my larger animals, so perhaps its a location thing)and I'd actually rather them use gloves instead of a towel if my bird is experiencing a medical emergency because with a towel you have significantly limited mobility and visual field to access the situation, if Frost had an emergency I'd want the vet to be able to move as well as possible while not having the fear of a bite on their mind which would hinder their performance. My birds hate, hate towels so that would be a no go for them, their claws get stuck in the terry cloth and that could yank a nail clean off if they struggled. I don't see what's wrong with slowly allowing a bird to get accustomed to standing on a glove or being near it in case of an emergency at the vets, wouldn't a bird have to be used to a glove in order to use it for taming purposes? Otherwise it would defeat the purpose and the bird would be more terrified but that's just my take on it.

 

[Monica]

I don't see what's wrong with slowly allowing a bird to get accustomed to standing on a glove or being near it in case of an emergency at the vets, wouldn't a bird have to be used to a glove in order to use it for taming purposes? Otherwise it would defeat the purpose and the bird would be more terrified but that's just my take on it.

The same could be said for a towel! Barbara Heidenreich even has a video on training birds to accept towels!

And yes to the gloves... however, most people who use gloves would also use towels in the same way.... to restrain the bird and/or avoid getting bitten/to force the bird into doing something it doesn't want to do. The bird, however, would not be okay with either option. In this case, neither one would be ideal.


Here's a perfectly good example of how a towel was used incorrectly with a bird. (not by the person who has the bird, but in a previous home)

 

[JaneLane]

@Monica great video thanks for showing us I agree neither gloves or towels are ideal and I don't like it when anyone restrains my birds even if it's a vet for some reason I always feel like they might squeeze them too tightly, I've had someone pop one of my lizard's belly that way so I'm very wary. My birds are afraid of flowy things the terry cloth of towels makes it worse, I don't like to stress them out, I should have towel trained earlier but I did not think I'd need to

I don't need to use gloves for my birds and except select and brief reasons we don't use them, I didn't mean to make it sound like we make a habit of holding our birds with gloves, because it is not necessary and we don't. But since I've seen a lot of vets use gloves if they feel an animal is aggressive or in pain I wanted my birds to have at least stood on a glove especially for female budgie Amelia who likes to try to seek and destroy things that annoy her, including some people which is why very few people are actually willing to touch her, some people call her "The Bad Biter" but she's not that bad. I have been known to over prepare though and no doubt my birds will encounter something else that terrifies them at the vets, I can't protect them from everything I suppose.

 

[Gribouille]

It's one thing to use gloves to avoid bites/tame the bird, it's another to teach birds to accept gloves.

My bird doesn't seem to be afraid of gloves, she is just not happy to be handled at all but she is getting used to it now