help! does anyone know whats going on here?

[Crystal_Dawn]

I'm bird sitting my friends budgie for a few weeks untill his place is ready... we brought to my house directly from its last owners (who did not take good care of the poor little guy at all... tiny home, only 2 perches, no baths at all ever, very dirty now! all alone, never took him out, locked in a spare room.) I clipped his wings for him before putting him in my open concept bird area. He is extreamly happy :) playing with every toy within reach, chirping form the top perches, kissing my other birds lol... but he keeps lifting up his wings in a weird way and somtimes they shake... he never did this untill after being clipped. Its not the "i'm hot" lift either... its weird. But he can still fly really well (well as much as a clipped bird can), and when he gets really excited from playing he holds on tight to a perch and flapps for all he's worth haha... so I assume it can't be a phisical indury. can it? maybe he pulled a muscle while skwirming during the clipping? but wouldn't he not flap and fly if he actually felt pain? I don't know... I've clipped hundreds of birds (not exaturating) and I've never seen this reaction. anyone have any ideas?

oh and the other day he started making this little birdy coughing noise... a bunch in a row and then eventually he stops. he's done this on about 3 or 4 occassions. I don't know if they are related symptoms, but ya never know.

[Amy]

Hmm, you should get it checked out with an avian vet to see if there are any problems.

I hope everything is alright.

[Bea]

I actually think it sounds normal for a just clipped budgie. You know when you clip your nails from really long to very short it feels incredibly odd? Well the lifting and twitching would probably be him getting a feel for his 'new' wings. :) The holding the perch and flapping is just a wing exercise/hyper budgie behaviour, a lot of budgies (clipped or unclipped) do that.

[Crystal_Dawn]

I know he is playing and happy when he flapps excitedly :) my other ones do that too. I was using it as an example of why I don't think hes in phisical pain. cause if his wings hurt, I can't see him doing that haha.

I thought that it was just cause he felt weird, but its been about 5 days or so! is it normal for them to do it for that long??? like I said, i've clipped hundreds of birds and none of them have ever reacted this way. Then with the coughing noises combined I'm worried :(

[Budgiekin]

Hmmmm. This is a very interesting situation. I don't think the two issues are related (i.e. the wing "holding" and the coughing). He is still probably just getting used to having his wings clipped. After my budgies have been fully flighted, it is not unusual for them to hold their wings differently for a week or two after they finally get them clipped. I wouldn't worry about that, especially since he still flaps them while holding on to the perch. It doesn't sound like an injury.

As far as that coughing sound you are hearing, do you notice any other noises coming from his chest when he breathes? Any wheezing or whistling for example? How do his poops look? Normal? Watery? If you are at all concerned about this little guys health, I would certainly bring him to an avian vet for a checkup. The vet can listen with a stethoscope to his heart and his breathing to find out if he has any abnormal sounds. Weighing him would also be good since then you will also know if he is about right in terms of weight.

If the budgie is a little bit overweight, that may explain some abnormal chest noises. Also, if the budgie has not been getting much exercise, he may have sort of like a wheezing or whistling noise when he breathes following an exertion; in that case, he certainly needs more exercise! I think it would be best to get him checked out to be on the safe side. Budgies are exceptionally good at hiding illness so they often seem to deteriorate rather quickly, when in fact they could have been ill for quite some time.

If you are looking for an avian vet in your area, you can look one up at this site:

http://www.aav.org/vet-lookup/

Good luck with the little sweetie and please let us know how he is!! :p

[Crystal_Dawn]

I have an avian vet already, but thanks! I have been unemployed for a while though, so I definatley can't afford to take him, but I will mention the idea to his owner (im just bird sitting him). He's not weezing at all and he's not over weight, infact i'm quite sure he's malnurished :( he wasn't given vitamins or veggi's or bread or anything other than seeds in his last home. poor thing. and his poop is getting better now that he's been eating better. Its almost normal :D

*fingers crossed* I hope he is ok, and i hope his daddy takes him to the Dr.. Hes such a sweet heart and I wil be devistated if anything happens to him :(

[Amy]

Does he have a cuttlebone or mineral block?

[Crystal_Dawn]

they have a cuddle bone and I put prime vitamin powder on their seeds which is even better than a mineral block :D

[Amy]

They have a 'cuddle' bone do they, whats that!:p

Billy and Lily love to hold onto their perch and flap their wings, they are unclipped. I don't like it though, it means time for the hoover!

[Crystal_Dawn]

haha, yes I understand the hoover issue lol. With 4 birds I have to vacume daily and it's not my favorite part of the day ;)

I'm quite certain it's called a cuddle bone... I could be wrong, but if I am then so are the companies that my stores have ordered from... or maybe I read the books wrong the whole time, wouldn't that be funny. Its possible cause I didn't even notice you had called it something else when I read your message haha. I had to scroll up and recheck it when you made fun of me for calling it a cuddle bone. I was told that it is the bone from a cuddle fish. hmmmm... i'm going to have to look into this now haha, look what you've done! LOL. :p

[Bea]

a cuttlebone is the backbone of a squid. :) That's what you give budgies for calcium..

[~*Brittany*~]

Squids have backbones?!?!?!
News to me.... lol

[Amy]

I thought they were the skeletons of cuttlefish because sometimes I see them in my local pet store called cuttlefish. Also I find them on the beach.

Am I wrong?

[Amy]

It's cuttle bone!

[Amy]

Look, here's a pic of a cuttlefish:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:cJOOghlTCX3tPM:http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t010/T010707A.jsm (http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t010/T010707A.jsm)

See how it has the same shape as a cuttlebone?

It's bone/shell is called a cuttlebone/cuttlefish.

[Bea]

And a cuttlefish is a type of squid isn't it?

[Amy]

Oh it may be, I'll have to do some research...

[Mistyoriline]

It is a bone from a fish....the cuttle bone