EllenD
New member
- Aug 20, 2016
- 3,979
- 69
- Parrots
- Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
I need opinions on this as in the 31 years of budgie owning experience I have, along with the 21 years of budgie breeding and hand-raising experience I have, I have never seen this. And it's all 7 of my pet budgies so that's why I'm a bit alarmed.
I just noticed that all 7 of them have "stuff" in their nostrils. Not "stuff" like boogers or mucous indicating an URI, but what looks to just be white flakes or chunks of stuff. It's dry, there's no wetness in their nares or coming from them, just this white stuff. And it's in both nostrils of each of the 7 budgies. They aren't sneezing, wheezing, coughing, or acting sick at all, but we all know that this doesn't necessarily mean anything. I checked my other 4 larger birds as they all have their cages in my living room/dining room areas that are connected and open to each other, and their nares are clear with nothing in them. They are all very tame and will fly to me when I call them, so I've been trying since last night to see if I can get a piece of this stuff out to see what it is, but I can't seem to get any of it to come out. I tried a Q-Tip, both dry and then wet, but their nares are so small that I can't get enough inside to latch on to the stuff. And I certainly don't want to push it back in their sinuses (none of the 7 of them were very happy with me last night or this morning when I was trying to do this, I let them all out and they were flying around having fun, so I called them to me one-by-one and tried to get the Q-Tip to attract this white junk; they all looked at me like "WTH are you doing Mama? Sorry but I'm outta here!" and flew off of my finger and up on top of either the ceiling fan or the cupboards where I can't get them. Took an hour and a bunch of millet sprays to get them to come back down). I hate to towel one of them to try to get this stuff out, first because I don't know how or what to use to get it out, and also because I have been their parent since they were 2 weeks old and they're very well trained, big babies. The vet scared them to death. I love my avian vet, but his assistant or vet tech or whatever she is is an airhead. She didn't know they were tame the first time I brought them in (she was new and didn't know I was a breeder), but she didn't ask either. She wanted to weigh them each which would be no problem at all, so I opened their carrier and had the first one on my finger. I went to pass him to her, assuming that she would stick her finger out so that he could step up onto it, but instead she just grabbed him off of my finger with a HUGE bath towel! Not gently either, she smothered him! He had never been toweled before so he was just traumatized for hours. She told me she doesn't like birds, she was bitten by a Macaw once and ever since she hates birds....It's a little American/English budgie hybrid lady, that is as tame as any dog. Anyway, I hate to do that, I really wouldn't need a towel anyway, they don't bite at all, only beak a little if they are annoyed by something you're doing, but I don't know what to use inside their nares without hurting them or pushing the junk back into their sinuses. I just want to see what this stuff is...
Any idea on what it might be or suggestions on how I might get some of it out so I can look at it is appreciated. What a weird problem to have! Oye, I swear there is always something...At least it's not anything urgent, I don't think so anyway...
Here's their background and environment, diet, etc. Nothing unusual here, but I thought I'd list it since I don't talk about them much. I'll see if I can get a photo of this stuff, I'll have to get a close-up so this will be fun!...
First off, I have 7 pet budgies that were hatched between July and August of last year. I bred them and pulled and hand-raised them from the age of 2 weeks each. I decided to stop breeding last spring, so this was my last ever clutch. Since it was the last clutch I was going to hand-raise and I had not had a pet budgie in years I decided to keep them all. They all have lived together since hatching, first in the brooder, then a weaning cage, and finally in the large Hendryx-Prevue flight cage they live in, which is in my living room with my other larger birds (my 10 breeders are enjoying retirement upstairs in their homemade aviary that takes up an entire spare bedroom. They are very happy to not have any interaction with anyone else in the house, lol). So they've all been awesome little birds (6 boys, 1 girl) and have had no health problems. They had 2 well-birdy checkups last year with my avian vet, first one right before they each fledged and then again in November at 3-4 months old. I weaned them all onto Zupreem Natural pellets (slightly crushed for size, it's a pain), a small amount of KayTee Fruit pellets as a treat, a high quality, high protein Higgins seed mix for budgies (about a tablespoon a day per bird mixed with their pellets), and fresh greens daily (collards, mustards, kale, romaine, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, squash, peas) with apples, bananas, strawberries, etc. added as a treat daily before bed. They all have their wings just about grown completely in finally (I clipped them about a month after they fledged to help with training them, showing them their T-stands and where they can go, tricks, etc. then I started to let them grow back in). They all come out of their cage for at least 2-3 hours a day and have the run of the house while my larger birds are eating/napping in their cages. They have all been acting perfectly normal, happy, healthy, eating well, drinking, playing, flying, etc. No signs of illness or distress at all in any of them.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
I just noticed that all 7 of them have "stuff" in their nostrils. Not "stuff" like boogers or mucous indicating an URI, but what looks to just be white flakes or chunks of stuff. It's dry, there's no wetness in their nares or coming from them, just this white stuff. And it's in both nostrils of each of the 7 budgies. They aren't sneezing, wheezing, coughing, or acting sick at all, but we all know that this doesn't necessarily mean anything. I checked my other 4 larger birds as they all have their cages in my living room/dining room areas that are connected and open to each other, and their nares are clear with nothing in them. They are all very tame and will fly to me when I call them, so I've been trying since last night to see if I can get a piece of this stuff out to see what it is, but I can't seem to get any of it to come out. I tried a Q-Tip, both dry and then wet, but their nares are so small that I can't get enough inside to latch on to the stuff. And I certainly don't want to push it back in their sinuses (none of the 7 of them were very happy with me last night or this morning when I was trying to do this, I let them all out and they were flying around having fun, so I called them to me one-by-one and tried to get the Q-Tip to attract this white junk; they all looked at me like "WTH are you doing Mama? Sorry but I'm outta here!" and flew off of my finger and up on top of either the ceiling fan or the cupboards where I can't get them. Took an hour and a bunch of millet sprays to get them to come back down). I hate to towel one of them to try to get this stuff out, first because I don't know how or what to use to get it out, and also because I have been their parent since they were 2 weeks old and they're very well trained, big babies. The vet scared them to death. I love my avian vet, but his assistant or vet tech or whatever she is is an airhead. She didn't know they were tame the first time I brought them in (she was new and didn't know I was a breeder), but she didn't ask either. She wanted to weigh them each which would be no problem at all, so I opened their carrier and had the first one on my finger. I went to pass him to her, assuming that she would stick her finger out so that he could step up onto it, but instead she just grabbed him off of my finger with a HUGE bath towel! Not gently either, she smothered him! He had never been toweled before so he was just traumatized for hours. She told me she doesn't like birds, she was bitten by a Macaw once and ever since she hates birds....It's a little American/English budgie hybrid lady, that is as tame as any dog. Anyway, I hate to do that, I really wouldn't need a towel anyway, they don't bite at all, only beak a little if they are annoyed by something you're doing, but I don't know what to use inside their nares without hurting them or pushing the junk back into their sinuses. I just want to see what this stuff is...
Any idea on what it might be or suggestions on how I might get some of it out so I can look at it is appreciated. What a weird problem to have! Oye, I swear there is always something...At least it's not anything urgent, I don't think so anyway...
Here's their background and environment, diet, etc. Nothing unusual here, but I thought I'd list it since I don't talk about them much. I'll see if I can get a photo of this stuff, I'll have to get a close-up so this will be fun!...
First off, I have 7 pet budgies that were hatched between July and August of last year. I bred them and pulled and hand-raised them from the age of 2 weeks each. I decided to stop breeding last spring, so this was my last ever clutch. Since it was the last clutch I was going to hand-raise and I had not had a pet budgie in years I decided to keep them all. They all have lived together since hatching, first in the brooder, then a weaning cage, and finally in the large Hendryx-Prevue flight cage they live in, which is in my living room with my other larger birds (my 10 breeders are enjoying retirement upstairs in their homemade aviary that takes up an entire spare bedroom. They are very happy to not have any interaction with anyone else in the house, lol). So they've all been awesome little birds (6 boys, 1 girl) and have had no health problems. They had 2 well-birdy checkups last year with my avian vet, first one right before they each fledged and then again in November at 3-4 months old. I weaned them all onto Zupreem Natural pellets (slightly crushed for size, it's a pain), a small amount of KayTee Fruit pellets as a treat, a high quality, high protein Higgins seed mix for budgies (about a tablespoon a day per bird mixed with their pellets), and fresh greens daily (collards, mustards, kale, romaine, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, squash, peas) with apples, bananas, strawberries, etc. added as a treat daily before bed. They all have their wings just about grown completely in finally (I clipped them about a month after they fledged to help with training them, showing them their T-stands and where they can go, tricks, etc. then I started to let them grow back in). They all come out of their cage for at least 2-3 hours a day and have the run of the house while my larger birds are eating/napping in their cages. They have all been acting perfectly normal, happy, healthy, eating well, drinking, playing, flying, etc. No signs of illness or distress at all in any of them.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
...I'm sorry.
