# Hello



## Babybuttons10 (Dec 31, 2020)

Hi everyone, I’ve just joined this group. I bought a baby budgie for my little 9 year old daughter 10 days ago and devastatingly we lost him tonight. My daughter is inconsolable and I just don’t know what happened to him! He seemed fine and was really starting to bond with us and was sitting on our hand just today. I can’t help feeling like we did or didn’t do something correctly; we were feeding him on his seed from the pet shop but had only realized about removing the husks when I came on here. I’m hoping that he didn’t get one rod these trapped in his little throat. He was eating so much and was lively and chirping. He loved Millet and as we were trying to bond with him maybe we offered him too much. My head is boggled and it’s a horrible feeling. We loved him so much I’m such a short time. We did add some pellet to his seed and again I was worried it might have been too big for him being so small but when we read up it seemed ok. I didn’t light a single candle in the room he was in and opened doors and windows when we cooked as he was about 6 or 7 metres from the kitchen. I even used my grill as opposed to frying pans where possible and I turned the heating off as thought it might be too warm for him but our house was never cold. We kept him downstairs as didn’t want him lonely and he loved all the attention. We are truly devastated and my little girl thinks she did something wrong. I’ve reassured her she was wonderful with him. Maybe if we get another one we should keep it in a bedroom instead perhaps. We also have an old dog who barks on occasions so maybe that frightened him although he never showed signs of that. He did seem to be fairly sleepy from the offset and didn’t drink much water despite our efforts to coax him to his water with Millet. Anyways any advice or reassurance you could give would be much appreciate. 
Many thanks. 
Rip baby buttons xx


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

So sorry for your loss. It is most likely that the bird was already ill when you got him. Birds are masters at hiding illness and things can go easily unnoticed. It is advisable that when you get a bird to take it to an avian vet for a well bird check up, at this time, if there is anything wrong it can be addressed. My vet will typically do a fecal exam checking for parasites, bacteria, yeast, etc. all this requires is a fresh dropping, and also a CBC, which is a blood test that can reveal all sorts of things. It is quite common for birds in pet stores to have problems, especially if it is a big box store as they obtain their stock from birdie mills and there is no check on the health of the stock, which makes it all the more important to have the bird checked by a vet soon after acquiring it, and sometimes the birds are just too young and have not been properly weaned. What are you referring to in your post about removing husks, all commercial bird seed such as millet and canary grass have hulls on them and the bird removes them as they are eaten. As for the dog, no matter how sweet the dog is, dogs are predators and birds are prey and it is not a good idea to house them in the same space, at the very least it could be upsetting to the bird making the bird fearful. If you have the space to give the bird its own room that is fine but to put a very social animal, the bird, in a room by itself is a bad idea unless there is someone in the room a good deal of the time.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*I'm very sorry for your loss.
Cody has provided you with excellent advice and information.

If you plan to get another budgie, I would recommend you either find a reputable and ethical breeder OR think about adopting a "rescue" budgie from a local animal shelter.

Please take the time to read through the Site Guidelines, all of the How To Guides, the FAQs, the Budgie Articles and the stickies located at the top of each section of the forum.

Truly, the very BEST advice anyone can offer you is to take the time to read ALL of the stickies throughout the various Talk Budgie forums as well as the Budgie Articles we have posted.

These are great resources for Talk Budgie members and have a wealth of reliable information which will assist you to learn the best practices in caring for your budgies for their optimal health and well-being.

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To upload full-sized pictures with the proper orientation, please use a photo-sharing service such as Imgur and follow the steps in these instructions:
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If you have any questions after reading through everything, please be sure to ask!*


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