Seeing the vet...

[fajrdrako]

I mentioned earlier that I was taking Pryde, the white and pale blue budgie, to the vet. I don't know how Pryde felt about it, but I was scared stiff.

I decided not to go through the process of grabbing her and putting her in a shoebox, which would make a difficult event even more difficult for her. So I let Kaylee (Pryde's cage-mate) fly free for a while, wrapped up the cage in a blanket, and took cage and bird together to the vet. Luckily it was a little warmer today than it's been all week - temperatures actually above freezing. Still too cold for a little budgie, though.

When the vet opened the cage to reach for her, she slithered under his hand and out the cage door and tried to escape by flying. Sadly, her condition at the moment doesn't allow for soaring and graceful flight, and she landed without much dignity on the floor, where he covered her with a towel and picked her up and checked her over, asking various questions about her disposition and her diet.

It was obviously pretty easy for him to see what was wrong.

She's fat.

See, he explained, when a bird eats mostly seeds, they can get deposits of fat on the chest that can interfere with their breathing and their balance. If it gets bad enough, it can kill them. He said Pryde was a healthy bird, but I should feed her nutritional pellets rather than seed, because seeds are too heavy on carbohydrates.

So my bird, like me, is now on a low-carb diet.

Who'd have guessed? I feed them other things beside seeds - millet and lettuce and organic baby bok choy and the occasional bit of spinach. But the bulk of their diet is birdseed. How was I to know Pryde was eating too much? She eats... like a bird.

So tomorrow they'll get a suprise when breakfast isn't their usual seed, but little coloured nutritional pellets. I think I'll have a revolt on my hands.

I am so relieved that there is nothing seriously wrong with Pryde. Nothing that a careful diet and some budgie exercise can't cure. I'm on a diet and exercising daily - now Pryde just has to do the same.

Comments

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad she's okay :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So am I! What a relief. I know you know what it's like. Such a burden lifted. Now I just have to persuade her that she wants to eat little coloured nutritional pellets rather than those delicious seeds she's been devouring for so long.

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Budgies - like rats - hide their illness to the end, so I understand just what you mean about the vets trips usually being for something horrible.

Perhaps you could start her off mixing some seeds with the pellets? Ease the birdies into the new food source?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I did for their breakfast today - filled heir dish with half pellets, half seeds. I expect they'll pick out the seeds first, but once the seeds are gone, they'll have to pellets to snack on. With any luck, they'll take to them. I find that often if they are resistant to a new food, their reluctance is visual and has nothing to do with taste, and once they start eating it, they like it. Except oranges. My little guys don't like citrus fruit.

[msdaccxx.livejournal.com]

*giggle* I'm sorry to laugh and I'm delighted that Pryde is okay, but that is too, too funny. Poor Pryde - she'll be jonesing for birdseed tomorrow.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The poor little thing doesn't know what she's in for. I need a Weight Watcher's point system for birds.

Now that I know I don't have to worry, I'm laughing too.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Oh ho ho, poor pudgy budgie! Tell her she has my total sympathy.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll tell her that. She has mine, too. (Smaller seed rations now for all of us.)

[acampbell.livejournal.com]

Back years ago when I used to have parakeets as pets, the birds would be doing fine, and then all of a sudden seem to lose control of their mobility, and nervous system, weave around, and ultimately expire. This happened to several birds.

Now, I wonder if it could have been the birdseed.

I'm so glad Pryde is all right! Good luck to her on the new diet.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I haven't had experience with a of budgies, but that sounds sort of like Pryde's symptoms. Maybe your budgies ate too much seed. Here I'd been thinking that it was a good sign, that she had a healthy appetite!

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

So glad she's okay! The interesting thing is that exactly the same thing happened to Milly, my mum's budgie. And without knowing that it was fat deposits on the chest, my mum suspected that it was caused by Milly eating Weetabix (a wholewheat cereal) crumbs at breakfast - my mum would let her out of the cage and they'd have breakfast together. Sweet, yes, but apparently potentially lethal. And Milly loved biscuit crumbs too. Anyway, she's been better on just birdseed for the last year or so, but I'll print out your entry for my mum. And we may try the nutritional pellets you mention. If we can find them here and if she'll eat them. *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can just imagine that a budgie would like Wheetabix. I do too! It doesn't look as if the birds ate much of the nutritional pellets I put in their dish today - predicatably, they picked out the seeds I mixed it with. That's okay, they'll eat it sooner or later. (I'm not going to give Pryde any choice!)

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Weetabix (a wholewheat cereal)

Heh, should have guessed you'd have it in Canada. *g*

How's Pryde doing with the nutritional pellet stuff? I still think it's weird that some budgies need what is, after all, an artificial diet. Coming to think of it, though, the fact that they get less exercise than wild birds is probably the reason for those fat deposits...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, we have Wheetabix, though I confess that I started eating it when I lived in England.

When I got home last night, the food pellets were all over the floor of the cage. I think they'd been digging through their dishes to find the seed among the pellets. But they do seem to be eating it - Domino is having some for breakfast right now.

No, they dont' get as much exercise as they would in the wild. I'll make a point of letting them fly around more.