# Speaking of Ruby ....



## AnimalKaperz (Jun 19, 2012)

I am delighted!!! She is FINALLY eating seed AS WELL AS pellets! I have been quite concerned about her weight. She has a very sharp keel bone and is way too light! She refused seeds from the get go and went from hand fed formula to eating the Vetafarm pellets but would not eat seed. I had both on offer, but the seed got ignored.

She is a rubino Bourke's Parakeet, so being small, I tried budgie seed. Nope. Tried finch and canary seed. Nope. Gourmet Parrot blend. Nope. I even had millet in her cage. Would not go near it and in fact treated it as if I'd put a monster in that part of her cage! 

I resorted to a Trill, stuck on a stick with honey wild bird treat. Its a cockatiel / budgie seed looking blend. She's EATING IT! :jumping: :woot: :jumping: And I know she is not just playing with it because she has two types of poop on her poop tray - pellet green poop and seed poo!

She will now put on some weight! I don't like those honey sticks particularly, but I got desperate. I thought I'd be putting them out for the wild birds! Because she is so incredibly light, my concern is if she did get sick, it would not take much for her to be/seriously underweight and thus sicker by having no weight to afford to lose.

Ming, my old mama budgie got very, VERY thin when she/was sick recently, but she had normal weight, and was not a featherweight to start with, so she had something to help her ( I don't mean that she was fat, but ya- hope that makes sense!)


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## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

That's great, I'm glad your little Ruby has learned to eat the seed! Now that she has gotten the taste of it, next time it will be easier for her to actually try out the normal "loose" seed mix. 
And I completely understand your point and in fact have been doing the same thing with my flock over the years. I do this especially when I have pet birds prone to being sick more often and I purposely make sure they have a good weight bordering just slightly overweight to be able to better cope with the afflicting illness, because no matter the ailment they can have, weight goes down fast most of the time and it's good that they have a bit of extra reserves to keep them going. 
If I hadn't done this with my Tito, he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did, of that I'm sure.


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## woodsy (Jul 16, 2014)

I'm so glad the treat stick work. Sounds like she could use it, hopefully she'll realize seeds are an enjoyable good food. I must of missed the thread that gave a bit of background on her..is she a young bird?


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## AnimalKaperz (Jun 19, 2012)

woodsy said:


> I'm so glad the treat stick work. Sounds like she could use it, hopefully she'll realize seeds are an enjoyable good food. I must of missed the thread that gave a bit of background on her..is she a young bird?


Ruby was an orphaned Bourke's Parakeet that I picked up when she was only 3 weeks old, Tina. She did not want to come off formula, seemingly, but eventually did. I had seed and pellets in there with her on offer, but she was just not interested in seed. Its been worrying me to bits, because pellets, whilst nutritionally balanced, just don't have the putting on weight ability that seed does. She's only four months old, and I was getting resigned to her never eating seed. The honey stick was a desperate last try....so hopefully, now that she knows seed is good, she will take to it!

The Bourke's are only as small as a budgie, but pink ( not sure if you are familiar with this type of bird?). They seem more ... fragile, I think, and not as robust as budgies. They are apparently more prone to illnesses, because they spend a lot of time down on the bottom, where poop and germs lurk, from what I've observed her doing and what I've read and been told here.They are _incredibly _ gentle and just do not bite. I think they'd make the best first bird for a child because o f that - but you have to keep their cage super clean.

They are a sheer delight - very quiet, but they do whistle and chirp, softly. Because I've brought her down to Brisbane with me on a "road trip", she's getting all my attention and is thriving. Last night I heard her speak! She said " Hello Mista", and I was astonished! ( Mista is my companion budgie and she's heard us speak to him!) Bourke's are not known for a heap of talking, so I am rapt!


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