Baby Birds Eating My Life

[thagirion]

So I have been extremely busy with birds and plants. These baby budgies have had medical issues and they have been way harder than any other baby birds I have raised. They got slow crop and gas in the crop. I have had to burp them and alternate between normal food, runny food or just water and pedialite. I had to get antibiotics from a bird medical store. I can't afford a vet at the moment. Also I know the treatment requires pumping out the crop with a tube. I can do that myself except the problem is these are tiny babies. An adult budgie would be hard enough and I'm not even sure my vet would have such a tiny tube. So I've been burping and emptying them and doing everything I can. The youngest is majorly under developed. The oldest finally is getting feathers. And on top of everything turns out she's a crested budgie. Actipton80 and I were surprised because I nave never had crested in my line, Emma doesn't show it and Crested is dominant. It's also lethal at times if you breed two crested together. It is in canaries. I'm not a fan of the feather mutations because I know they have complications. These are not natural and a budgie in the wild would not survive with these bad traits. I don't like harmful mutation that people continue to breed because it's "cute". I hate duster budgies. Poor things. The budgies are 22 and 20 days old. They should be way bigger and more feathered by now.

And I have been very busy with plants and enjoying my cactus hobby. I got some seeds from a guy in Russia last winter. I let them sit around. Just been too busy. Luckily cactus seeds can wait years to germinate. I finally potted them up and am thrilled most of them have come up. Very cool. I also got some rare Copiapoa cactus seeds which are really cool looking South American cactus. As for the poly tunnel so far nothing has happened since last time. We just can't. I don't have the money to hire someone to install the foundation for us but that's what we're going to have to do. I'm starting to think I should put it somewhere else, that might be easier.
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Comments

[actipton80.livejournal.com]

I've been praying for the little one especially. There is one mutation similar to crested that I thought was cute at first, but now I don't like them. It would be those Japanese budgies that have a big messy tuft of feathers in the middle of their backs. After Rudy had a bad reaction to some antibiotics he started ripping at his feathers, and because he looked like one of those budgies as a result, I will always associate the messy feather look with stress and illness. Don't get me started on how exhibition budgies look now. I look at the pictures in my old book and the ones in there still look like budgies, and so did our English budgies. The ones that win championships now look like mutant birds.

[thagirion.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Oh yes I hate those windmill budgies. I saw some when I looked up crested budgies on images. I never liked English budgies when I first joined those shows and it's one reason I would enter the pet division because normal budgies were allowed.