Legsy girl was playing with her little brothers and sisters yesterday. <3 this is the last clutch I am going to allow her parents to raise this year(2nd clutch). Once they are fledged I'm going to take the nest box out and once weaned, I'll move the parents to same sex housing and give them a break of at least a few months. I may try to pair the ****(really, that gets censored on a bird forum? lol ok.) up with another hen in a few months, or I may just give him the rest of the year off. He is a lovely bird, yellowface type II sky blue with a dilution factor or two. I either want to pair him with my ino hen, or with the mother of the older clutch of 5 babies we have right now. That hen is yellow based, but split to white. Either pair would produce some nice babies I think. Not that these lovely pastel yellow-green birds aren't fabulous. I ordered a reference book for budgie genetics ("Gebetics for Budgerigar Breeders"), but so far my background in biology as well as the internet and very good record keeping is proving useful for predicting pairing outcomes.


I made a whooooooooole bunch of bird toys and will be sending each baby to their new home with their own toy. So far, parent raised is mostly working out, and we just play with the babies every day once they are old enough. I say mostly, because a few of them are ending up with a stress band or two on their feathers. I think we are going to start supplemental feedig with formula with future clutches. I wonder what is going on that they aren't always getting enough food? The cages ALWAYS have fresh food and clear clean water.


We are also going to move towards feeding milk ripe seeds and homemade bird bread and other cooked meals as we are able(seeds as soon as the ones we planted get to that stage, cooked foods as soon as I can hobble over to the hot plate, and bird bread once we have an oven). Hopefully that will make a big impact too. We also will begin building an outdoor aviary or two once I am able to limp around outside and help at least design them if not help with the actual building of them. We have reduced our farm animals considerably(sadly, they just were not getting the attention they deserve since I broke the foot. A whole farm is just too much for 1 person to run alone), so we plan to focus on ourselves(getting married and starting a family), the property(fixing up the farmhouse), the "exotic animals"(birds, reptiles, insects, etc), and building infrastructure. Once all that is done we do want to get goats and or sheep and or pigs, etc again, but for now we are cutting back to mostly just birds and rabbits as far as farm animals go. We still have our large flock of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and are still getting more poultry delivered from the hatchery in June. But poultry are a lot easier to manage than goats(who seem to make it their lifes work to be buttheads and to break things and escape haha. Love them, but they are too difficult for Mr. Bug to handle alone along with everything else).



Sent from phone, please forgive any typos or whatever.

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That crazy chick with a bird farm in the wilderness

So tiny....and soooo adorable!




Jim

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Amy my beautiful Blue Front. Who was four months old when she picked me to go home with to her "forever" home in 4/1990.. DNA'd MALE in 2015
Jonesy, a cute Goffin 'too
that had to be rehomed :-(

And a Grey 'teil, BB...a.k.a. The Beebs
that was 18 weeks old 5/20/2016,






Rest in peace,my precious Smokey..4/2015 at 28 years young

Hmm. I was coming here to ask if I should switch Legs to Harrison's(this is what I feed Alex, and at 17 years old you would think he was 7 years at the oldest by how he acts), but now that I'm here I wonder, is there a parrot pellet that would have joint support ingredients? That would probably be better for her than straight up high potentcy harrison's. Maybe I should come up with my own feed for her(shrimp broth/ground shrimp shells for the joint support they offer, can't remember the name of the compound in it right now, but this helped my 10 year old dog's stiff hips amazingly, and mux that into harrisons, or bird bread or something?)



Hmm. Any thoughts? There are no bird stores anywhere near here, and we can only have things delivered via usps to our PO box since we do not have a street mailing address.



From phone while distracted by a yellow flatbird trying to nibble on the phone and my hands.

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That crazy chick with a bird farm in the wilderness

I have no idea if something like that even exists for birbs Something home made I guess would be your best bet I guess. I'm don't even know what kind of vitamin/mineral supports bome/joint health other than calcium.
I'm sure others will chime in when they all recover from today's festivities
Sorry I can't be of any help, Buggies



Jim

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Amy my beautiful Blue Front. Who was four months old when she picked me to go home with to her "forever" home in 4/1990.. DNA'd MALE in 2015
Jonesy, a cute Goffin 'too
that had to be rehomed :-(

And a Grey 'teil, BB...a.k.a. The Beebs
that was 18 weeks old 5/20/2016,






Rest in peace,my precious Smokey..4/2015 at 28 years young

I just realized Amy is a year older than I am. O.O Off topic, but pretty cool.


I found a few posts and websites that have some information on different herbs and supplements that have anti inflammitory(I *know* I misspelled that) properties or joint support. The closest to a readymade diet I found was senior nutriberries, but I don't think a senior diet would be the way to go for a bird only a few months old. Going to finish reading the information I found when I get a moment, and see if I can't come up with something that will work for her and help her out. She doesn't act like her hips are in any discomfort, but I sort of feel like if we don't start taking joint health seriously now, it may become a serious issue in the future.

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That crazy chick with a bird farm in the wilderness

Oh my gosh. Looking up other splay leg birds I found one who had been euthanized for no reason other than the splay legs!!!! heartbreaking. Completely heartbreaking. Yeah, Legs is unique and higher maintenance than another budgie, but I would explore literally every single other option before putting her down! And that other bird hadn't been acting like it was in discomfort! Wow. No wonder when I first posted about her I got some somewhat forceful replies. I would *never* let anyone talk me into putting her down, I love her so much!!! She can't walk hardly at all, but so what! She is happy and not acting in pain! Wow.



I had to hug and kiss Ms. Legs after reading about that poor bird. Jeeze, I can't even imagine doing that. It would be one thing if the bird was in distress, but to put down a perfectly happy/healthy bird because of something like this? Wow.

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That crazy chick with a bird farm in the wilderness