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Post by andruec on Jul 30, 2012 6:36:02 GMT
Poor ol' Beekle passed away last night. He'd been a bit below the weather for a couple of weeks now. Nearly nine years I've been sharing my house with him. So there'll be no more attempts to drown out the TV with his screeching and no more muttering in the background. A bit less housework as well but I'd rather still have him. Cya Beekle!
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Post by andruec on Apr 6, 2010 19:18:01 GMT
I've had Beekle for about six years now. Over the last year he became very friendly and even precocious - exploring parts of the room he'd never been interested in. That's fair enough but what concerns me is his recent/current moult.
He didn't lose a lot of feathers but he lost some flight feathers and it nearly stopped him flying. He took to spending time alone either in his cage or occasionally on a favourite perch at a back window.
It's now been over a week since this started and he's still not flying very well. He still chirps and chatters and seems basically happy but I've never known him be so badly affected by a moult nor to take so long to get over it.
Is this just a sign of encroaching age at last? Is it unusual for a budgie of his age to take so long to grow new flight feathers?
One other thing:For the past 18 months his beak has been growing and has needed a trim. Recently it's been every couple of months but at present his beak has stopped just short of needing a trim.
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Post by andruec on Dec 5, 2008 19:19:29 GMT
Beekle's latest trick is that his head seems to be changing colour. It's going distinctly orange at the front. I'm assuming it's something to do with feather density and is just the underlying colour (he normally has a yellow head) but it looks rather odd. Like he's going through a punk-rock phase. At over five years old you'd think he'd be more mature than that
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Post by andruec on Nov 19, 2008 20:20:10 GMT
I'm definitely considering doing it myself. I don't have any concerns about the 'operation' but I don't want Beekle to stop trusting my hands. Over the last few months he's become increasingly friendly. He can be quite a trial when I'm trying to type on the laptop and he starts playing with my fingers.
I'd much prefer it if he could start using the lava block or cuttle fish bone to trim his own beak but he just doesn't seem to care.
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Post by andruec on Nov 17, 2008 15:07:19 GMT
I took Beekle to have his beak trimmed eventually. Rather ironically (cheeky more like) he actually broke some of it off clambering around his cage on the drive to the vet.
I wasn't very impressed with the vet though. He was supposed to be an avian vet but his method for getting Beekle out of his cage was:
a)Remove bottom (the cage, not Beekle's) b)Tip cage on side. c)Reach in. d)Grab towel. e)Chase Beekle to book shelf. f)Chase Beekle to floor. g)Grab Beekle.
He also used scissors to cut the beak when I'd have preferred clippers.
Thankfully Beekle seemed largely uninterested in the experience. Unfortunately I'm detecting a little beak growth so I think this might become a regular occurence every couple of months. I'm very tempted to do it myself next time though. I don't think he'll suddenly hate me for it.
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Post by andruec on Oct 16, 2008 17:58:01 GMT
I've not used this service before so I hope it works: www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=4483Oh and of course a search of YouTube for "beekle" will turn up three or maybe four short videos of the little fool
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Post by andruec on Oct 14, 2008 17:37:28 GMT
It's his stare that is most unnerving. I swear that nothing stares at you like a budgie. It's if they they can just pause their brain indefinately
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Post by andruec on Oct 12, 2008 8:23:39 GMT
No..not a religious experience. A food experience.
I've decided to convert him from seeds to pellets. So far it's looking hopeful. I had a spare seed container so I've been playing the 'bait and switch' game. I'm pretty sure now that he knows the pellets are supposed to be food. I've even seen him stick his beak into them and hopefully swallow a few.
At the moment his main seed pot has 90% pellets, 10% seeds. When I see that he's spent a while in the main container I offer him some seeds. I think now it's just a battle of wills.
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Post by andruec on Sept 21, 2008 18:52:12 GMT
So..you think your budgie doesn't understand technology? Last night Beekle was wandering around my laptop keyboard as normal and decided to get particularly frisky with my fingers. So stared him in the face and said 'No!'. He immediately stepped backward straight onto the peg that detects the lid closing. Strike one for Budgies. This afternoon he was he was particularly annoying whittering away on the arm of the sofa so I paused the DVD and glared at him. He jumped onto my Harmony One remote and switched off the player. Strike two for budgies. I caught him staring at my beer a few minutes ago so I'm thinking I should either drink it or put a cover on the top of it.
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Post by andruec on Sept 19, 2008 11:08:10 GMT
Beekle is one handsome dude Thank you That was in his short beak phase though. This summer he's wearing it a bit longer
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Post by andruec on Sept 18, 2008 19:01:26 GMT
Scully's right, it would grow back really quickly after trimming anyway. I have to trim Ivy's because it causes her problems with eating and drinking though Trimming the very tip off might be a good idea if it's sharp though, it's possible he hurt his foot himself with his beak whilst preening or something??! It's possible I suppose but I don't know. I never saw it bleed and it healed fairly quickly. You can find some old videos of Beekle on YouTube if you search for them.
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Post by andruec on Sept 17, 2008 17:26:14 GMT
Ok. How much noise do green cheeks make? Volume isn't always the problem. My budgie (Beekle) can imitate some human words. He will often sit in his cage muttering away. A lot of what he 'says' is unintelligable but it's close enough to human to distract and irritate you, lol. His actual vocublary is: Beekle Brackley Pizza Bicycle Ploppy Bottom Squeak face Digital God damnit (Well it sounds like that though no-one's taught him it) He can also perform various burps. Laugh like Kenneth Williams and has a fairly wide repetoire of whistles.
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Post by andruec on Sept 17, 2008 16:57:36 GMT
As long as he's not having any problems eating and drinking and he seems comfortable with it, I'd leave it. I have to trim my conures beak as the bottom overlaps the top, she's handreared so she's not too much of a pain but if your Beekle isn't handreared, it would just stress him out. I think he'd be okay with it. Early this year he got a minor cut on one foot (no idea where from) and I took him to the vet. The vet just reached in and grabbed him. He waved his feet around a bit and tried to nibble her fingers but not seriously. After she put him back in his cage he just shook himself and started preening. But as you say - if he's happy then why bother. I assume that somewhere in his bird brain he knows how to do that. He now has a block of lava to go with his cuttlefish and iodine block so he's got lots of opportunity. Maybe beaks are just being worn long this year in Brackley We've tried asking him but what can you make of "Ploppy bottom Beekle, bicycle pizza!". The cosest he comes to a sensible answer is "Squeak face" which doesn't really help
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Post by andruec on Sept 17, 2008 16:50:13 GMT
That's weird. My budgie, Juniper, never chews on anything. He rejects the chew blocks I give him. Yeah, Beekle doesn't seem to interested either. I'm currently trying to encourage him because I think his beak is getting a bit long. I've seem him grab a cage bar or the edge of a perch in his beak and move it back and forward for ten minutes but I don't know if that's his attempt at trimming or not.
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Post by andruec on Sept 17, 2008 16:44:43 GMT
It's been a long time since I posted but I've been busy and Beekle can't type. For those that remember us he's doing well and has expanded his vocabulary a bit. The main reason I'm writing is to ask about beak trimming. Beekle is around five years old now and the last couple of months I've become aware that his beak is a bit on the long side. The tip of it now brushes his neck feathers about half way down when he's relaxed which seems a bit excessive. I don't think the growth is sudden - it just seems that over the past year he's decided to let it grow a bit. I've seen him chew at his cage bar and his plastic porch now and again over the years so I think he knows how to trim it. That leaves me with a quandrary. I don't want to take him to the vet to get it trimmed if he's happy with its length but I also don't want him scratching or stabbing himself if it gets too long. I've also read that if you trim it you can encourage it to grow which seems like a bad idea. Is it possible that he just likes a long beak or is it time to take him to a vet for a second opinion?
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