r/petbudgies

My brother gave me these boys as a gift, and I'd love some help naming them.🐦

Here's bobo the world cup champion. He is now a little over 3 months old and already is the best player 😎

(plz ignore the mess lol)

I don’t have them yet but I wanna buy a cage for when I get some

I have a very happy 8 budgie flock. I JUST brought home a pair of pigeons a few weeks ago. I'm good on birds (so long as nothing particularly interesting that's sired by a particular DF Anthracite hatches, but I digress...). And yet here we are. It's been a week now since my store manager said one of the most dreaded sentences a manager can say: "I need to talk to you."

Full disclosure--I work for one of the big box pet stores as a pet stylist. They offer health insurance and, after 14 years, a damned good amount of PTO 🤷‍♀️ It's the USA. Both of those things are important luxuries.

So the GM, who I get along with well, tells me he needs to talk to me. Me, being me, immediately ask him, "The f@*% I do THIS time?" (He's ex-Marine... swearing at him is a love language or something.) Evidently what I did was own birds, because he wanted me to have a look at a budgie back in Wellness which he thought might be injured after getting something caught up on his leg band that shouldn't have been in there and whoever did the birds that day was definitely Getting Talked To.

I go in, do a quick visual assessment, and determine that yeah, I definitely needed a closer look. I open the cage door and, as I'm grabbing a small towel, my favorite jarhead very helpfully says, "Be careful, he bites."

No shit, Sherlock; why do you think I grabbed the towel?

I get the little guy scooped up and turned over so I can see the leg. Could immediately tell that, at bare minimum, he needed the band removed. The swelling was enough, the band was cutting into his skin. Gave the budgie some head and face scritches and told my GM that he definitely needed to go to the vet. At minimum, he was just swollen and needed the band removed. At maximum, he'd injured it badly enough it would have to be amputated. Since GM was the only manager at the store at the time, he was like, great.... okay, we'll handle that once the asst manager gets in. I put budgie back and go back to the salon and my full schedule, but before I get moving on my dogs, I shoot a message to the expert, FrozenBr33ze, with a few questions since I was already pretty certain I was bringing home a new budgie that day.

Within 2 hours, my entire afternoon emptied, for various reasons. Realized I hadn't heard anything about the bird, so I wander out onto the floor to find the GM and ask about him. No, he hadn't had a chance. So I offered. We call our usual exotic vet and they're not taking birds anymore. Considering I'd been hearing about some serious turnaround over there, I wasn't shocked. Started Googling vets because my vet didn't answer the phone when we tried. Call #3 had no appts available that afternoon. Finally get an appointment at the 4th one we called. I grab a quick lunch then take the bird, cage and all, and head up front to get the card from my grumbling GM. Get to the vet, get checked in, they ask me his name...? Ma'am, he doesn't have one. He's a Petco bird.

Tech comes out a little while later: "The bird?" 😂😂

We get in the back, I run through what happened, pull out The Bird so she can do a visual, then she heads back to talk to the doctor. Little dude is perfectly content to chill in my hand, so I let him. Tech comes back to tell me the vet wants to do an X-ray. Yeah, he needs one, please do... Tech brings him back to me and is like, the band really should come off. Um... was that even a question??? Tech goes, sit tight, the vet will be in shortly.

Vet comes in and confirms that the little guy has a spiral fracture in the upper leg, above the band. Made a comment about the band not causing the problem and then tapered off long enough that my AuDHD a$$ filled in with "but it's definitely exacerbating it."

My use of exacerbating thrilled the vet lol. And she agreed. Asked if I had an issue with it coming off and, of course, the answer is no. At this point, I've been messaging with FrozenBr33ze pretty much the entire time I've been there when not talking to someone, so when the vet asked about aftercare, I told her I was taking him home, was already talking with the breeder my budgies came from, he had recommended X, Y, and Z, and maybe A, B, and possibly C? She was like, perfect, except the C-- she didn't feel a splint was necessary. They get an estimate with the x-ray, the sedation to remove the band, and the medications going home with him on it, I call to update my GM and confirm the cost was approved. It was-- it was only a little higher than he'd already guessed it would be, and lower than what I had figured it would be based on one of my boys needing an X-ray at my usual avian vet. I confirm we are go, and the tech comes back with a friend to waterboard--I mean, sedate, via nasal drops-- the poor guy. He was displeased. They left him with me until it took effect. It didn't take long. Didn't take long to remove the band and, when they brought him back, get a good look at the damage the swelling under the band had done, poor guy. We finished up, I put him back in the cage for the drive, aaaand he immediately faceplanted into the bedding... he got a towel to prop him up some for the drive.

So now I have an injured budgie. He was sent home with Baytril (antibiotic), Meloxicam (anti-inflammatory), and gabapentin (pain killer) for the next 7 days. Oddly enough, pretty much exactly what FrozenBr33ze had advised. Me and The Bird made a pit stop to Lowe's to get what was needed to set up a hospital enclosure, as advised (photo included if you haven't already scrolled through). As of this writing, this morning was his last dose of everything. This week has been a bit of a ride. It's been a while since I've had to dose a budgie via syringe, and these syringes did NOT make it easy with how tight the rubber is in the plunger. The doses of the Baytril and gabapentin were small enough, it wasn't an issue, but he's been wearing grape flavored Meloxicam all week 🤦‍♀️ I finally started splitting that dose into 2 an hour or so apart because there was no feeding it to him drop by drop. There was "no movement of the plunger" or "shoot everything into his mouth, his nostrils, and his eyeball". Somehow, I avoided giving him an eye infection or aspiration pneumonia. I know, I'm kind of shocked myself lmao.

While I don't like the fact the budgies come to us with wings already clipped (it was a nightmare for my eldest hen and only other Petco bird with how long it took for her to even start her first molt... took her over 18 months to learn to fly), it's made this ordeal a little easier. He was completely untamed last Thursday morning, and this week he's gotten very used to being handled. The first night, he was throwing himself at the side of his tub enough that I pulled him back out, whereupon he promptly fell asleep on my hand while I worked on my laptop. When I had to put him up for real, he fell back asleep as close to me as he could get. He has yet to bite me. Like, at all. The most he's done is use his beak on me to pull himself up. He's gone to work with me every day I worked, gotten to visit my partner's house several times, and has started discovering what music he likes during car rides. He likes my head, my shoulder, and behind my hair. He also likes trying to fling himself off me to go exploring, and if he wants out, he likes throwing himself around and climbing the ceiling of his tub like an ADHD kid hopped up on Red Bull and pixie sticks. I have scolded him several times to please at least ACT like he's injured, maybe? He doesn't listen. He'll be in the hospital tub for another 5 or 6 weeks, partially for quarantine purposes, partially to ensure his leg is fully healed before I start introducing him to the big cage. The injuries from the swelling around the band are, thankfully, almost completely healed, and his grip strength in the foot in the injured leg is almost equivalent to the good leg finally.

So. New budgie. Everyone meet Hopalong Cassidy. He goes by Hopalong for the most part, or HC in text. He's an 11 or 12 week old male, either Yellowface or Goldenface type 2 (waiting on his first molt to finish to see what the color does). The yellow is already bleeding into the blue in areas, turning them green. He's too dark to be a Skyblue-- maybe Cobalt? He's got something in there that's darkening him up some, at any rate. Not quite as dark as my single factor Anthracite. It'll be interesting to see how he develops, and how much bigger he gets. Right now he's even smaller than my tiny raptor of a hen from Petco-- she's 31 grams, and he's only 26 grams!

I don’t have an Avian vet near me so I thought I could ask on here. My female budgie is 7 years old and has always been extremely happy and social with a healthy feather coat and she’s never had problems with overgrown nails or beak.

In the last month however her behaviour has changed and she doesn’t leave her cage at all despite the door always being open. She doesn’t cuddle and has been practically silent compared to her usual loud self. I’ve also noticed that she’s getting bald spots over her cere and under the eyes. It’s growing out now but she’s not doing too well. Her nails are also overgrowing, something I’ve never seen before with her.

I live in northern Europe and all of these symptoms have happened at the same time as the heatwave so maybe she’s not used to the heat? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

9 birds, 1 cage, 0 personal space. They squabble all day but sleep like this every night.

No budgie has ever lived a full life as much as Chance ^((click the link for his story)). He's easily covered several thousand miles in vehicles and traversed through Texas like a cowboy, while singing along to country music. We've shamelessly smuggled him into hotel rooms at Dallas during our bar hopping nights away from home. He's gone to work with us at the office every day, and traveled with auntie Robyn during her product delivery days while we were out of town. He's defied all odds through his disability and won many hearts over with his sass and tolerance for manhandling.

Chance was just a month shy of being a year old when he'd finally moved on to the next chapter of whatever lies beyond Earth. We did not see it coming. There's an eerie and uncomfortable silence in my room now. His presence will be missed in body, mind and soul.

Goodbye, little buddy. You were very much loved by your dads, your aunties Robyn and u/caili_west, who have worked together to keep you around as long as we could. Thank you for all the good times, and for being the "perfect bird" who didn't shit all over us (because you couldn't, you silly boy). Daily commute to work won't be the same without you.

- Chance (22 July, 2025 to 28 June, 2026)

parayeet + preparing for yeet

I really don’t know which sex my bogie is.
It is about 2,5 months old

Wanna eat him🤣

Are you accept that?

UPDATES BELOW

(Sorry about the lighting, it's super early rn.)

I have two birds, a male named Pazu and a female named Sheeta, I think they're siblings due to their similar markings and birthdates.

Sheeta is a massive bully, often tormenting Pazu, and I sometimes even see her peck or pull his leg - it's not constant, but it's persistent.

Pazu is also really bad at flying, I think he has a very minor birth defect in the "elbow" of one wing, but I can't be certain as I only found it by touch and only had Sheeta's wings for comparison. But it does mean he often crash-lands when out and about, and can't gain altitude very easily.

Finally, he's been sitting on the bottom of the cage like this more often, rather than on the swing that he used to like. Even during the day, I'll sometimes find him curled up with his head under his wing, trying to sleep.

Can someone give any advice or information about what could be causing his problems? My mother suggested putting them in separatr cages, which is becoming more likely...

Update: I've booked a vet appointment for tomorrow morning, at a clinic which isn't exactly close, but they're the only place with a bird specialist available. I hope my transport service is ok with the cage.

Update 2: Looks like he has a respiyory infection - Thr vet gave him an injection, and he might need up to six injections in the coming weeks, but he's home and settled now.

I also asked about his wing, and it's a congentital issue, so his flying won't improve. That's ok though, he's my special boy.

P.S. I'm getting a second cage tomorrow, but I had to bring Sheeta today, and DAMN she can bite XD

You can't see them super clearly, but in the light of my lamp you can see they do stick out and cast a tiny shadow when she moves her head.

She seems to have had more blue spots appear since I got them before christmas, which is definitely a thing I didn't know birds could do.

I love these two, so I'm going to do my absolute best for them - I've had birds in the past (even a cockatoo as a kid), but I'm pretty certain I wasn't the best owner I could've been. So, I'm gonna be asking for advice on here, sorry in advance if I'm annoying :)