Monday, June 25, 2012

Budgie Lullaby (video)

The song in the background is "Coquetry" by Mackenzie Stubbert. It's basically a lullaby for him. He only does this when he's feeling very relaxed on my computer and only when I play this song for him.



Video reblogged from We Love Budgies

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Harrison's Bird Foods: Budgies live three times longer

"Harrison's Bird Foods is a family of certified organic, formulated diets that were created by avian veterinarians and nutritionists with the health of your bird in mind. Our formulas require little or no supplementation."

Photo © Harrison's Bird Foods website

Dr. Greg Harrison, the main developer of Harrison's Bird Foods, is a certified avian specialist with 34 years of experience in bird care. The good thing about Harrison's Bird Food is that all the necessary nutrition is included in the same food mix: you don't need to supply your budgies with extra vitamins or minerals.

With Harrison's Bird Food, you can avoid a wide range of problems that are associated with the low nutritional values from seed mixes: breathing problems, obesity, calcium deficiency, breeding problems and early death.

My avian vet explained me how budgies and children are the same when it comes to "being picky about food". If you give them the choice between a salad bowl or hamburgers with fries and mayonnaise, you know which one they will pick. Budgies will gorge down any kind of seed mix, because it's like their version of fries and mayonnaise.

Seed mixes don't contain enough calcium, iodine and vitamin A, and they contain too much fat, which is harmful to your budgie's health and may shorten their lifespan.

In fact, Harrison's Bird Food guarantees a lifespan for your bird that is three times longer than the average life span of a domesticated budgie. Most domesticated budgies die between the age of 3 and 7, and this is often due to malnutrition. My avian vet told me this repeatedly and I think that all budgie owners should know, because she is right about this. I have read about the benefits of pellet mixes before, but I never realized how important they were.

My avian vet immediately told me to change my budgies' diet when I told her that Frodo and Isla are eating seed mixes. Nowadays, I feed them The High Potency Fine mix, and they happily eat it up.

Photo © Harrison's Bird Foods website
FYI: both the High Potency Fine and the High Potency Super Fine mixes are suitable for budgies.

I know this may seem like a huge eye-opener, even a bit shocking to a lot of people. I also was left with one big question at the end: why do they keep selling seed mixes in pet stores if this is so bad for budgies? 

First of all: not everything they sell at the pet store is good for your budgies. Think of all the sugar-loaded crackers and other treats that are more bad than good for your budgies' health.

Birds have been associated with eating seeds for centuries, but this is actually not how it should be. Budgies in the wild feed off grass seeds, plants and fruit. If they weren't exposed to so many dangers, they would outlive domesticated budgerigars.

People buy seed mixes for their budgies because they don't know better - and because everyone else does it - and because there's a beautiful picture of a budgie on the cover.

picture © comparestoreprices.co.uk

The people who manufacture these seed mixes don't know how bad this is for birds, and anyway, they have to do their job. They have a business to run. They have to make money.

When my budgies started eating pellets, I could definitely tell the difference after  a few days. They were more happy and chirpy than usual, they seemed to be more fit. Now, after one month, they are both in top condition. My mum already asked me to order the same pellet mix for her budgies.

In case you are interested, or if you want to read more, please check out their website: http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/index.html

Budgie of the Month: Rex the Survivor

"Rex the Survivor" - a budgie story from Me & My Budgie 

Photo © Ehow. Note: I don't have a picture of Rex, but this budgie made me think of her.

We found Rex - a beautiful female budgie - in our tomato garden last summer. Her colors are turquoise bottom, emerald belly, and a gorgeous yellow head. We figure if she survives after spending the night in the garden, then she'll be OK with us for a while. 

Well, it's better than that. We live on the South Shore of Montreal and this past January [1998], have spent 12 days of power blackout, ice cold weather, no heat, no light. We had to move from home to home, looking for a warm place to live. Of course, Rex had to come with us. All the "experts" said that a budgie could probably live in a closet, if you kept it wrapped warmly. Not likely were we going to leave our baby alone in a closet, in the dark Alone with no humans. So she travelled with us. 

The little thing survived probably better than us! She is a strong little girl, and we are very proud to have her as part of our family. 

Submitted by The Assaf Family, Boucherville, Quebec

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Busy weeks

Hi everyone!

Photo © Wikipedia

First of all: my apologies for the lack of posts this month. I've had a lot on my mind for the last two weeks: planning the move in August, taking driving lessons, visiting friends with babies, and last but not least: taking my budgies to the avian vet to have them control-checked on parasites.

Isla has been suffering from avian trychomoniasis. She had to take antibiotics for ten days, and now she's singing and having fun like never before. The avian vet took a sample from Isla's crop, and my thoughts were confirmed: Isla is 100% parasite-free!

Posts I'm still planning to write this month:
  • Budgie of the Month
  • Harrison's Bird Foods: Budgies live three times longer
  • UV lamp for budgies
  • Paper shredding: harmful or not?
  • New budgie video

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Budgies: buy a couple!

Photo © Honest-Style on deviantart
When I went to the pet store a year ago, I already knew what I was going for: a budgie couple. Pet stores are cruel. Imagine all the budgie couples that are living together there until some ignorant person decides to separate them. I didn't want to do that, so I took my time. It takes some patience and observation to determine whether budgies form a pair or not. Look at the pictures above: budgie couples often preen each other. I could tell that Frodo and Isla were a couple, or at least they seemed to be very close together. But there was another female, who almost looked like a copy of Isla, so I was scared that they would catch the wrong bird. Today, I'm still pretty sure that they are a couple. They playfight a lot, and they preen each other a lot. I think they're too young to start a nest... but maybe, someday in the near future?