|
Post by frankensteinsmother on Jan 3, 2021 23:42:21 GMT
Does anyone else's budgie(s) eat non-food items? I had a soft wood toy hanging in Frankie's cage and noticed him gagging on it the other day. Like it was a thing. Chew, gag. Chew, gag. I was in disbelief for a moment before I took it out of the cage and threw it out the window. He was obviously trying to eat the soft wood instead of just splintering it--I think.
So now I'm thinking there's another toy, not wood but some kind of wirey natural fiber, that's going to come out of his cage. Too bad, 'cos the toys he seems to be trying to eat are evidently his favorite. There's no choking on this one, as there's nothing big to chunk out and eat, but I'm just today noticing a discrepancy between how much fiber is left on the toy and how little there is on the bottom of his cage.
I already watch him like a hawk to make sure he's definitely recovered and not relapsing from his respiratory issues, and he seems fine. Still, I'm going from a nicely toyed-up cage to a sorta bare lookin' one all over again. I honestly don't know where to buy more toys for him that would be appropriate. I don't drive and even if I could, I'm not sure where I would buy toys from. Amazon seems scary and unregulated, and besides the fact that I'm just tired of buying from Petco, they've sold me the two toys he's been trying to eat.
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Jan 4, 2021 5:45:52 GMT
frankensteinsmother - Is there a safe place you can gather natural wood from, that you know will not have been sprayed with chemicals? A city park for example would probably be sprayed, but a small nature preserve or something would probably be ok. Where I used to live in LA my mom has a small nature preserve a mile up the road and there are old orange trees there, so I took a few of those branches once. Where I live now I’m surrounded by budgie safe trees so it’s much less effort. My buds also particularly like grapevine, which I’m thinking of weaving into rope, because even the sisal rope I ordered specifically for them I am very suspicious of... the fibers are short and tough, which is supposed to be why it is safer, but to me personally look easier to pull out of the rope and harder to digest if eaten... I’ve started making my own toys for my buds for similar safety reasons, and I started with just stainless steel wire, pear links, pony beads, finger traps, clean cardboard, brown paper to make tassels, grapevine that I’ve learned to make fun shapes with, and gathered wood that was scrubbed clean and left in the sun to dry, or sprayed with a disinfecting enzyme I have. F10 would probably be best for that if you were really concerned.
|
|
|
Post by frankensteinsmother on Jan 4, 2021 17:42:19 GMT
Morgan -- lemme tell you, at this point, everything really concerns me lol. I asked the vet I saw if there was a safe way to clean budgie safe branches and she said to just buy them from a retailer to be safe. She also told me to use no chemicals on my cage, or to ever get anything that required chemicals to clean (i.e. used or from outside). So that's what I've been going off of so far. Something that requires sun drying isn't an option right now as everything outside my window is a constant drizzle, but at this point, I'm reconsidering what the professional told me in favor of a veterinary disinfectant like rescue/accel or F10 for outside and potentially used items. I totally get that I don't have to bleach everything once a week, but to have to buy everything new and from a store is both expensive and wildly inconvenient (potentially impossible, if I don't find a good retailer to eventually replace the perches I have now). I got a big ol' tree we used to just rip branches from and stick in my childhood budgies' cage, and I don't think it ever harmed any of the birds. I know I looked it up and it was bird safe (I think it's a fir? I googled images of needles and pine cones for half a day, ripped off branches for my little cage, and then threw them out and forgot all the details of why it was verifiably bird safe after the vet's).
|
|
|
Post by mona on Jan 4, 2021 18:51:29 GMT
I had come across a lot of ways to disinfect the budgie safe branches, but ended up following the advice from this forum.. according to which, just scrub the branches with hot soapy solution.. rinse them with Vinegar (one part vinegar in 10 parts water) and let it sun dry or fan dry. It has worked for me so far. I don't get sunlight too.. fan drying works mostly for me..
Vinegar solution has been a multi purpose solution for me.. I have a bottle ready with the vinegar water mix.. for even the cage and perch cleaning and even the birdie room cleaning, since I don't use any disinfectant or phenyl in birdie room. At my place, there's just one bird toys vendor I found reliable who publishes the details of the tree wood used in creating the toy or perch.. i don't rely on anyone not disclosing those information..
However, others may add to this info.. 🧡
|
|
|
Post by Hezz on Jan 4, 2021 22:26:27 GMT
Most bird toys are there for entertainment and entertainment to a budgie is chewing, so chewing toys is all the fun. Get him some balsa wood pieces if you are concerned that he is going to choke himself on the bits. If the fibre on the rope is natural and untreated - hemp, sisal, sea grass for examples - they are fine for him to chew on as well. Not cotton - the fibres are too long and can cause impaction of the crop. The other natural fibres are much shorter and don’t cause the same problem.
The vet obvious has money to spare or couldn’t be bothered giving you a decent answer to your question. I advised Mona to do as she has suggested to you. It doesn’t need to be complicated, and it doesn’t need to cost a lot. I suggest, though, that you use fresh living branches rather than dead ones, easier to work with and will still have the bark on, which Frankie will most likely delight in pulling of himself!
|
|
|
Post by frankensteinsmother on Jan 4, 2021 23:08:34 GMT
Hezz - Chewing, I was prepared for. He seemed to be choking on what I think was balsa (it was definitely a similarly soft wood). I definitely don't want to deprive him of a natural past time! He still has a couple of toys that he seems uninterested in trying to ingest, but still loves to chew. As for the vet thing, yar. Based off of the overall care I received (between vet, reception staff, and technician), my overall opinion of their office is that they couldn't be bothered. It's frustrating because they're as good as it gets for the next few months I'll be living in this location.
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2021 5:15:39 GMT
frankensteinsmother - assuming that Frankie loves chewing enough to try out some harder woods, maybe those (and bark is great!) might be harder for him to try and actually eat. If you can identify safe wood it would definitely be more cost effective to gather your own perches and wood pieces to make chew toys for him! I don’t know why I often forget about suggesting vinegar these days to clean (I use it for other cleaning, mainly the bathroom, all the time). I think the enzyme cleaner I just happen to have works faster and so I use it more and forget about good ol’ vinegar. Just don’t heat it up! Hot vinegar fumes are dangerous since they become more volatile.
|
|
|
Post by frankensteinsmother on Jan 5, 2021 5:54:02 GMT
Morgan, what enzyme cleaner do you use? And bark is wonderful. A few of his perches have a good layer of bark on them, and they're his favorite though they seem a bit thick overall. I do have vinegar for maintenance. I guess I've just been so hyped up on reading over and over that ya gotta bleach the outside perches and then sun dry them for a day or bake 'em in the oven or all of these other methods that just don't seem super available to me at the moment.
|
|
|
Post by Morgan on Jan 5, 2021 6:20:00 GMT
frankensteinsmother - I don’t think bleach is ever safe to use around birds... but I did the whole soak in vinegar water solution and bake the branches in the oven for an hour at 200deg thing the first time around. But then I found out that heating vinegar is also not safe. I don’t think the enzyme cleaner is absolutely necessary, but this is what I use for weekly cleaning/disinfecting inside the cages and bird room: allbirdproducts.com/products/enviroclens I bought the smallest bottle of concentrated solution for $5 to dilute myself into a spray bottle and it’s lasted me many months! It takes poop right off of even porous surfaces like wood really easily. Diluted vinegar should be just fine though.
|
|
|
Post by Hezz on Jan 6, 2021 1:26:25 GMT
Just watching my guys having a chew on things ... kiln dried pine is fine, such as birds ladders are made from, same as dolly pegs and paddlepop sticks. Natural things like bark and grasses are their favourites, but even things like egg cartons can be used for foraging fun.
|
|