We adopted Woody and Ivy from you last spring (formerly Dumbledore and Rawling). They are doing great and we love them. I go to the store to buy the food ingredients that you list, but forgot my list last time. I bought organic dandelion root instead of leaf, and burdock root. Are they ok to feed to the birds?

thanks,

ellen

How we wish we’d had access to a breeder who gave the little ones such great care and trained them to eat the good stuff as you do. It’s quite an uphill battle with older birds, as we’re sure you know, and not always a resounding success. When the time comes to open our doors to two new little ones, we do plan to check with you.

Thanks for your suggestions. Andy, our little 10 year-old guy has had a hard-to-diagnose underlying condition for years that has resulted in repeated yeast and bacterial infections showing up in his crop, along with bouts of vomiting. Some feather problems began showing up in the last 18 months but they don’t match what you typically see in one of the serious diseases. We (and the vets) suspect an underlying liver issue is behind the myriad of problems and we’ve been treating Andy for this.

Alex, our 12-year-old we lost last month, was incredibly healthy right up until the last few weeks and only had to see the vet for his annual exams. In stark contrast, Andy was a regular visitor – if we managed a 3 month stretch between visits we felt fortunate. Ironically, Andy’s health issues had no apparent effect on hearty Alex.

We’ve always provided stimulation for our birds, usually through music when we’re gone during the day. Our precious Alex came to us when he was 1-1/2 already a movie buff! He loved action movies, musicals (especially those with Julie Andrews or Judy Garland) but his hands-down all-time favorite was How The West Was Won. We even once tried just playing the CD of the soundtrack with the TV turned to whatever was on. Within a few minutes Alex was raising a fuss. We put on the real movie and Alex was a happy camper for the next 3 hours. We miss our little guy’s enthusiasm during family movie times (he’d realize it was “movie time,” leap into his swing and start swinging and chirping waiting for the movie to start – he was utterly adorable!).

The last couple of years we’ve started putting the TV on for our little guys so they have visual as well as aural stimulation while we are gone during the day, and they seemed to respond to that.

We’re introducing more organic produce to Andy to see if that improves matters. We’re also going to try the Dr. Harvey’s brand of seed while we continue to work to get Andy off of his seed addiction (no easy task with a 10 year-old). Harrison’s organic products have been part of our birds diets for years, as well as fresh veggies. However, Andy has a strong competitive streak and can’t stand to be left out of anything. He ate a much healthier diet before we lost Alex because he saw Alex eating the healthier foods and couldn’t stand to let Alex have something he wasn’t getting. Now that he doesn’t have Alex to compete with over food, his “interest” in the healthier foods has diminished significantly.

Again, thanks for your suggestions and we’ll explore some more of these options to see if matters improve. We’re also keeping an eye out for an older bird to adopt if Andy’s health remains stable.

Sincerely,

The Cramers

So sorry about the loss of your budgie, although clearly he lived a long and well-cared-for life.

Hmmm, what would I do with the surviving 10 year old cage mate…. Assuming that his crop infections didn’t affect your other bird (non-contagious), you could find an older budgie at a local rescue organization — one who would provide companionship without being too young and rambunctious. Alternatively, get a young budgie and cage it right next to the older one. They can interact when out on a play gym. This way he can have the companionship AND get the rest he needs.

If you don’t get another budgie, play music in the room where he is or keep a TV on for him when you are away. Keep his cage in a part of your home where you and your family spend the most time.

Curious — are his crop infections due to a slow moving crop? If so, have you tried removing his food for 10-12 hours every night so it can completely empty? Or is something he’s eating, like food that may have spoiled? Have you tried rinsing/soaking his food in organic apple cider vinegar before feeding? Did your other bird ever get crop infections, too?

~Jen

Unfortunately, the 10 year old has had repeated crop infections for several years that has baffled the team of avian vets we worked with regularly in another state (and who still provide consulting services long-distance). The underlying cause has never been found. We’ve had to become very proficient in administering oral medication over the years.

While we’ve been very tempted to find a new cage mate for the 10 year old, we are wary of exposing a new bird to whatever the 10-year-old may have that has eluded a useful diagnosis. We try to give him as much attention as possible but can’t be with him as much throughout the day as we know he needs, particularly in the wake of losing his cage mate. Given his health history, we are amazed that he has lived this long and is as active and vocal as ever (in fact, he has improved dramatically after a set back a few months ago). He’s much more of a seed junkie than the 12-year old ever was and has seemed to hit the seeds more in the aftermath of losing his little friend.

We honestly thought our very robust, strong and always healthy 12 year-old would outlive the 10-year old by a few more years, and were stunned at how his health failed so unexpectedly and so quickly, in spite of our diligent monitoring on a daily basis, including daily weighing. (We’re fairly certain his death was due to kidney failure). If you have any suggestions or recommendations as to what would be best for our surviving 10-year-old, we would appreciate it.

Thank you.

The Cramers