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Post by criswell on Nov 29, 2023 13:30:23 GMT
Now Dexter has friends he doesn't mind what I watch on TV. I'm currently watching the news without him shouting for me to turn it over. It's a good job because Now70s, his favourite channel, has temporarily become Now Christmas and it's too early for me to listen to Christmas music.
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Post by Hezz on Nov 30, 2023 0:54:08 GMT
Does he still need Mum’s phone calls?
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Post by criswell on Nov 30, 2023 10:14:38 GMT
No, he's got over that now too. He does still call sometimes when I'm out of the room, and the other 2 join in too, but I don't feel guilty now as I know he's not lonely.
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Oct 6, 2011 7:41:27 GMT
Marianne Marlow
Administrator
George, Daisy, Iris, Billy, Peter, Chipper, Dinku, Barney, Ayla and Rocky
Posts: 28,855
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Post by Marianne Marlow on Nov 30, 2023 11:34:16 GMT
There's always absolute 70's :-)
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Post by criswell on Nov 30, 2023 23:00:01 GMT
We could try that
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Post by criswell on Feb 10, 2024 22:31:22 GMT
I keep taking pictures of my boys but don't get round to posting them. I'll try to add some tomorrow.
We accidentally upset Aster this evening by watching a 1966 black and white Alice in Wonderland which is full of people talking in odd ways, including Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and John Gielgud, and there's no soundtrack. Dexter and Rito were out playing and when I looked for Aster was he was sitting in the cage looking stressed,holding up his wings and sitting motionless and silent, with very stressed, watery droppings. I offered him a bobble of millet which he ate so it didn't seem like he was unwell, so I turned the film off in case that was the problem. We went back to Now 70s and within a few minutes he snapped out of it and he's been flying about with the other 2 and he's now having his super. Poor little budgie. I think the lack of colour as well as the strange voices might have weirder him out. He's certainly a special little budgie.
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Post by Loz on Feb 10, 2024 22:42:45 GMT
I find it strange to think that a budgie will pay any attention to the TV. My guys ignore it completely unless you count occasionally perching on it.
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Post by criswell on Feb 10, 2024 23:27:33 GMT
loz They like the extra sounds more than anything. The TV was part of Dexter's flock when he was on his own and they are still good friends. They like most things that come out of the TV as long as it's noisy. They're not spoked by gunfire or explosions, but they do sometimes get freaked out by a strange voice. I was listening to a recorded message on speaker phone the other day and they all took off from their meeting on the air purifier and flew straight back into the cage and sat there looking scared. They are such funny little people.
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Post by criswell on Feb 11, 2024 18:00:43 GMT
We just finished off the film without any stress to Mr. Aster
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Post by Ira on Feb 11, 2024 21:53:41 GMT
Munchy used to love the Holby City theme. ... Or hated it. Kinda hard to tell from the screaming. loz A friend of mine had a mantis that used to like watching the tv.
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Post by Loz on Feb 11, 2024 22:22:18 GMT
Mantises are well known to be fans of TV and cinema
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Post by criswell on Feb 14, 2024 21:26:19 GMT
Dexter had a trip to the vets yesterday. When I woke them up Dexter's droppings were just urates and urine and there were no poops stuck on his butt, so I figured he was a bit constipated. This has happened on occasion before but it's usually sorted itself out but as the morning went on he was looking more uncomfortable and was sitting quietly by himself looking a bit fluffy so I called the vets. Our usual vet didn't have any appointments free so Dexter met their avian resisdent. She's treated Ira's budgies so I knew that she was good and I was happy to see her.
We weren't there for his examination as the nurse took him behind the scenes after asking us what the trouble was, and then the vet called us in to the consulting room to discuss him. She's really lovely. The first thing she commented on was that Dexter didn't like being held - he screeched throughout the examination. He must have remembered his last visit for his blood test. The vet wasn't too worried about him. She couldn't feel any distension anywhere and she said he was bright too. I'd already mentioned to the nurse that I thought he might be a bit 'bunged up' and the vet thought that was likely, but did suggest he could have a bit of enteritis. She discussed taking x-rays and blood but we didn't want to do that so her other recommendation was a liquid feed of emeraid and a metoclopramide (emeprid) injection to get things moving. She did warn us that if it was an impaction this treatment could make it worse. Then she went out the back to give him his feed and David and I tested our eyesight reading all the posters in the consulting room without getting out of our seats. The nurse brought him back to us 5 or 10 minutes later with a sample pot for some droppings to be tested, and the instrution to bring him back today if he didn't produce any faeces overnight. He screeched through his treatment too, the poor poppet.
We talked to the vet about AGY and when I mentioned that Dexter's friends had lived with Ira's budgie Pippin she knew who I was talking about straight away and smiled and said "aww, Pippin". She didn't think Dexter's trouble was AGY related but suggested we get some droppings tested. We also talked about his diet. He's gained weight since his last visit to the vets, going from 46 to 50g. It was hard for her to know if his lipomas has got bigger as she hasn't seen him before but from the notes she thought it was about the same size.
I'm pleased that Dexter didn't need antibiotics. A couple of hours after he got home he did a few big mostly faeces droppings, some of which stuck to his butt which has frustrated him a little bit but he's cleaned most of it off himself. He continued to poop a lot for the rest of the day. He's back to his usual busy, cheerful self today, thank goodness. I'm pretty sure his trouble was caused by eating millet spray as it's bunged him up before. That was one of the reasons I stopped giving it to him. I thought he could get away with the occasional bobble but he must have got hold of a bit too much this week. Millet is going to be a rare treat now, limited to one or two seeds off a bobble at most, and they'll be moving to a mostly pellet based diet too, as they've still been having a bit too much seed. I can't have him gaining any more weight. I've ordered a weighing perch from Karen, and some new kitchen scales that have a longer time before auto swtich off and will register negative weights if I have to switch them on once a budgie has landed.
They all slept really badly last night as the result of an afternoon and evening of budgie mayhem caused by Dexter's separation from the flock and no one was on a swing when I uncovered them this morning. There were stressed dropping all over the cage paper so I've no idea which belong to Dexter, and he's been out playing for most of the day so I've not been able to collect any droppings for testing yet. Thankfully order had been restored to the flock, and no one has needed rescuing from behind any furniture today!!!
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Post by Ira on Feb 15, 2024 8:24:35 GMT
criswellShe's really lovely. I think I get on with her better, she feels less judgemental but that might just be my perception. Depending on what they're testing for, if it's AGY you're looking into, you can take a whole flock sample. First time around I just did Pippin so I had to change the paper, put paper on top of the cage, and then shut him in by himself. Second time around I was also having the others tested so Indie, Gwen and Yuki had a joint sample. I'll be doing a whole flock sample next time I get this bunch tested.
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Post by criswell on Feb 15, 2024 11:20:21 GMT
Ira I really liked her. It's good to have 2 vets at the practice that I'm happy with now. I'm not sure if she wants to test for anything other than AGY. I shall send an email to clarify and mention the difficulty I'm having with collection. Dexter's poops were stuck to his butt again last night, but much drier and more normal looking than the night before, and he easily shook them off. Dried up dropping are not very useful for testing though. I've learnt from Tuesdays experience that separating Dexter from the others is not a great option. We debated about whether to take all 3 with us on Tuesday but in the end decided just to take Dexter. Once he was in the carrier Aster and Rito protested and wouldn't stop calling. They were still calling when we left the house. Goodness knows what went on while we were out but there were pellets from the forage gym all over the floor. Dexter was shattered when he got home but Rito wanted to feed him and play with him and wouldn't let Dexter rest. Dexter didn't want to be fed as he'd already had a feed a the vets and poor Rito couldn't understand why so he kept stepping on him. When they were sitting on the air purifier Rito kept tapping Dexter with his foot to make him turn round to be fed and when that didn't work he jumped on him. I felt really bad for Rito as he only wanted to feed his buddy but Dexter was very sure that shouldn't happen. Dexter flew up to the top of the speaker and almost fell asleep up there and then there was some very chaotic flying about and Aster fell down behind the stereo and had to be rescued. When they were back in the cage Rito still kept stepping on Dexter so I caught him and Aster and put them in the spare cage in the hope that Dexter would settle for a nap but he was climbing the bars trying to get to them. So then I put them all back in the big cage and covered them up for bed, but it was only 6pm and they didn't like that idea and kept calling for me to come back. We finally reached a compromise with dim lights, no tv and a partially covered cage and they kept quiet for about an hour before calling me back. Then I let them have tv but still shut in and that kept them quiet for another hour before Rito needed to feed Dexter again and we repeatedly had to intervene as Dexter was too tired to free himself when Rito stepped on him. We then let Dexter out on his own for a half hour respite but we couldn't keep the others in for longer than that as they were getting frantic and then there was much crazy flying about and Dexter ended up falling in to the gap between the sofa and the wall. When I rescued Dexter I shut him in the cage by himself until bed time. Then we had the dilema of how to get the other two back in the cage without letting Dexter out. That problem was solved by popping Dexter back in the carrier until the other boys went in. Finally when Dexter was back in with them he let Rito feed him and calm was restored, approximately 6 hours after we got home!
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Post by Loz on Feb 15, 2024 11:26:25 GMT
criswell, that sounds exhausting! Whoever said budgies are like toddlers knew what they were talking about.
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