Budgie Foster Family

[Lady Jane]

Can you remove the male?

 

[Beasley]

Can you remove the male?

I could but I’d rather not separate them unless it’s really necessary. I don’t want to stress her out any more than I already have taking her chicks away

 

[Beasley]

These sweet little peepers are catching on to hand feeding like champs!

Yellow chick finally got a nice full crop!

Big Blue has this syringe thing all figured out!

look at all those feathers!
And the Wiggler doing what he does best

 

[Dorcas George]

Oh my! Just catching up--long hours at the office.I am so impressed with the job you are doing! Sorry about the tiny little guy. And poor mama! These chicks are SO adorable! I'm just full of happiness looking at these pics.

 

[JoJo&Loki]

I’m also just catching up on this thread. The babies are so sweet, thank you for sharing the pics and esp for caring for them all

Sorry about the little one

 

[Beasley]

The chicks are doing great! Another feeding and another three full crops! It is such a relief to have them all eating so well. I think Blue is going to look like the most of his siblings did, blue body yellow face. No one has nibbled at the millet yet but they’re all quite young still. They all cry as soon as they see me now haha, they’re definitely aware that I am the feeder of tiny birds

I’m sad to have lost the baby chick. Mom has never had her chicks taken from the nest before and I’m wondering if that may have upset her. I know realistically I’ll never have a reason for what happened, but I am glad that I needed to remove the chicks. If I hadn’t, I may not have noticed Yellow wasn’t able to eat until it was too late. Today he’s eaten very well and when I pick him up he no longer feels sickly thin. All yesterday he was lethargic and nearly unable to lift his head. After this morning’s proper feeding he turned a corner and now I’m amazed at how fast he’s perked up! Yesterday I didn’t think he’d make it. Today his future looks bright and promising! I left a message for the store about his beak but didn’t hear back. It’s a holiday week/weekend so they’re busy. I’ll try them again tomorrow.

 

[Begone]

Mom has never had her chicks taken from the nest before and I’m wondering if that may have upset her.

Yes probably upset her, but not so she wouldn't feed her baby.
Perhaps it was sick.

I wonder if they would know that the egg/baby wasn't theirs? And for that reason don't feed it. I don't think so, but you never know.

 

[Begone]

I was thinking about that baby with deformed beak.
You can't give it back to the store. They can't sell it and then you understand what they will do to it.
Can't you take all budgies and rehome them? Or could someone else here help with something?

 

[Beasley]

I was thinking about that baby with deformed beak.
You can't give it back to the store. They can't sell it and then you understand what they will do to it.
Can't you take all budgies and rehome them? Or could someone else here help with something?

I’m thinking the same thing about all of them. I’ve never rehomed any animal before so the idea is extremely intimidating for me, I hardly know if I have the emotional fortitude to give them back to the store, let alone to rehome them on my own. But to the store a sale is a sale, to me each is a soul and that difference alone makes me want to keep them and take charge of their futures. I don’t really know how keeping them would work, but worst case scenario I have to buy them all (which is asinine as they were given to the store) I will try to figure it out either way.

I also spoke with my AV today and sent her some photos of the chick. She is familiar with the store and is aware that they will not cover veterinary costs for a budgie, so she’s working with me to try and take care of him without incurring veterinary costs. She wants me to try to manually correct it by gently pulling the upper beak up and forward for 30 seconds 3x per day. I’m very nervous about hurting him, but prognathism (the underbite) can be caused by poorly done hand feeding so it makes sense that while the beak is still mailable and forming, it can be corrected.

Before I start yanking on the little ones beak, I wanted to post some photos I just took and see what you all think…because to me, it sure looks like his beak is correcting itself. There are a lot of them but I want to show as many angles as I could of the beak, pictures are taken with him inside the incubator so not perfect quality.



I can send additional photos to the vet tomorrow but with the holiday and her working with me over email, it could take her a while to respond.

 

[Monica]

Maybe it's actually correcting itself by you handfeeding? As odd as that may sound, you do have to keep the beak open somewhat to get food in...

 

[Beasley]

Maybe it's actually correcting itself by you handfeeding? As odd as that may sound, you do have to keep the beak open somewhat to get food in...

I was thinking the same thing! When I first pulled him the underbite was severe with his entire upper beak resting inside the lower beak, now it appears to sit almost level with the two tips touching. I’m wondering if maybe I should just leave it alone and see what happens?

 

[Monica]

The vets suggestion is still a good idea, if it may help. Hopefully it does correct itself though!

 

[Begone]

The vets suggestion is still a good idea, if it may help. Hopefully it does correct itself though!

Agree.
I would helped a little bit just to be sure it will be fine. If you do it before feeding baby will think it's normal/okey if it follows with food.

 

[Beasley]

Well today was a fun adventure! The chicks came with me to my parents house and charmed my decidedly not bird people family. My mom kept checking on them and telling me the baby was being crushed by the bigger chicks she did not believe me that he did that himself and was positive he needed assistance lol, she called him Guts and fretted over him all day. She was very impressed with his eating, the other two make a mess, but not Wiggle, he doesn’t miss a drop! They’re impossibly charming little angels. I’ll get some new pictures of them up soon!

 

[Beasley]

Blue says less pictures more food! Such a messy baby and officially the first to try out the millet!
Yellow chick is looking petite and pretty!
Wiggle is getting fluffy and starting to get some feathers in! Lookit that cute little butt

 

[Monica]

Little blue is starting to look violet! Great update!

 

[finchly]

 

[MommyBird]

I loved hearing how your Mom has fallen for Wiggles! Maybe they will change their minds about birds for good.

 

[Lori D Pert]

They are all so precious. I don't think I could let them go...lol

 

[Mybluebird]

Awwww, so cute!!! Great to see the older ones standing up, can't wait to see when they start to perch. Wiggles does seem to have quite the personality. Glad to hear they all had a great Thanksgiving, the first of many to come. Thanks for keeping us updated. No fear of the camera for those little ones.