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Luxie’s Ongoing Picture Thread

9K views 203 replies 8 participants last post by  karenblodgett3261 
#1 ·
Let’s start with a glamor shot of the young lady:
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…Luxie takes a lot of naps, I’ve observed. It seems like it might be because she is still so young? Internet searching seems to indicate that budgie youngsters sleep more than adults, 12-14 hours. I wonder too whether she is not sleeping through the night (the past couple mornings I’ve found a computer on that I thought I’d put to sleep, so the noise might have disturbed her), or else was on a different sleep schedule. I got her up a little after 8am, but she seemed very cranky and screeched at me while I replaced the bowls for our morning routine. But she perked up today around 9:30, ate some breakfast, and then sat quietly under the UV light. (She doesn’t seem to like the UV light, though I don’t know whether that is due to the world looking different to her when it is on? I was told Lutino eyesight can be poorer, like Albino mutations). She takes many naps:

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…I tried very hard to just leave her alone to get settled in, but then, one thing led to another…

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(she is not yelling, I just got lucky and snapped the shot when she was either yawning or adjusting her crop.)

…She has been on my shoulder or at the back of my neck for most of yesterday and today. What a radically different experience to my first budgie! I put her back in her cage for “cage time,” but she tries to find a way out toward me. When I opened the door today, she came right over me, perched, and has been sitting there contentedly since. I’ve been doing homework, dishes, rocking in my rocking chair, and she does not screech at all, just sits contentedly. She seems to snooze on and off as she’s sitting. She seems to go in short bursts of activity (eating, preening, climbing and “beaking” things) and then a snooze.

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She tried a bath yesterday! Though I’m not sure if she liked it. I offered her one today, but she wasn’t as interested. The water might have been a little too cold. She was a bit shivery afterward. I got a little rice pack I use as a heating pad and heated it (more moderately than if I were using it) to offer her something warm. She didn’t seem interested. The first budgie never bathed, so I’ve got more to learn about this.

She doesn’t seem to be eating the greens I put in, but it is possible that she is still getting used to the new set-up. She seems to be working on figuring out how to get between perches in the cage. Lots of near-falls. Oh! And even with her wings clipped, she made it up to the top of my tall bookshelf:

Bird Wood Parrot Beak Rectangle


So she definitely manages flight, it’s just very fluttery right now.

I’m guessing she’s still getting used to the new setting. I think she was flock-calling for the first time this morning, and I was so sad to tell her that her brothers and sisters weren’t here. Today she has started occasionally chirp-singing while I work. I’m still learning exactly what she is communicating with her screeches—sometimes it seems more like “oh you startled me” and other times it is more of a “leave me alone.” I‘ve been going more off her body language than screeching, since she does it for so much—if she edges away from me, she doesn’t want something, but if she steps up and then refuses to get down, she was probably just surprised by my hand appearing in front of her. Though she often seems irritated when I “interrupt” her doing something, but once she has switched to the new activity, she is fine. I can relate–I hate task-switching before I’m ready too :)

Such a different experience from Ibid! I am hoping to get that pet clicker soon and see how she does with some training.
 
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#68 · (Edited)
Luxie says hello, how are you doing, and totally unrelated, do you have any millets?
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…though thanks to a recent post here, I tried bok choy and found that she seems to like it—at least that‘s what I assume those holes in the leaf mean.
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Look at those wings! There is a pair of flight feathers that have grown back! Luxie seems to already have figured out that flying takes a little less effort, as she has done more of it since they came in. I’m expecting a second pair soon, as that is the number of pairs of clipped flight feathers she has lost in molt thus far.
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Bath-time with some of the widest wing-spreads yet. She has such opinions about how exactly how strong the spray of water must be—too strong and she’ll avoid it, too weak and she’ll just drink it.
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…a bit blurry, but photographic proof that she allows me to scritch her. Once in a while.
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Oh to be a well-cared-for bird, contemplating bok choy.
 
#71 · (Edited)
Luxie‘s 6-month “hatchday” was a couple weeks ago; since then, her cere has been turning brown.

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I assume it’s hormonal and puberty-type things? I’m trying to limit her daylight and protein, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the change. I rearranged the cage a few days ago, too. On the other hand, she is exhibiting no nesting behavior and no aggression (without cause, like if I interrupt her when focused on something else). She’s actually been more interested in just sitting and chilling on my arm or shoulder, which has been nice. I do wish she’d let me scritch/preen her a little more, I want to get those feathers on her head that she can‘t reach opened up. Does that ever bother anyone else? It is of course not worth forcing anything upon her, but it is a bit like seeing a loose thread or bit of lint on someone else’s shirt.

On the other hand, her comfortable-ness with me has led to some “oh what’s that you’re eating flock always shares food so gimme” behavior. Today was the first time she came over when I sat down to eat something and tried to bypass me entirely to land on the plate to partake. Needless to say, she did not get what she was after—carrot cake that it was, even I the human eating it knows saying “I’m getting my veggies!” doesn’t negate the other things in the cake coming along with it.

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I’m trying chopped fine red pepper + green bean + corn or basil right now in the evenings before she gets the other half of her daily allotment of seeds. She’s still putting in regular munches at the pellet bowl, which is great; the veggies remain generally uninteresting for her. This evening she did nibble some at the little bowl of informal chop, so I hope that might be a good sign. She does seem to like basil enough to take several little bites all over—I bet it tastes more strongly than other vegetables. I forgot to do it today, but I yesterday after we’d spent some time with just the basil leaf, I chopped it up for her dinner‘s seasoning. My general thinking is that if she likes the taste of basil, what with how fragrant it is, it might help make other vegetables more appealing (a la FaeryBee’s use of garlic powder on sweet corn). She looks like she’s really into the veggies in the above photo, but I think it’s more that she’s really into the seeds that are also in there.

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Another “classic pet bird” thing that has happened: she has finally discovered the computer keyboard. And like so many birds, she loves to be on it (leaving her poops wherever she pleases) when I have typing to do. She will chitter at my fingers all the time like she’s irritated, but never bites or leaves; I think she finds it a form of play and spending time. I’m pleased to report that the “apple”-type keys don’t seem to immediately be pry-able. (Though I am keeping a vigilant eye, as one never knows how birdproof things turn out to be to our smartie birds). Our basil plant is visible in the background, and lives in a pot with some parsley (more for my love of tabbouleh than her nourishment).

She has gradually increased her zone of exploration while she’s out of the cage: she now explores the ledge beneath what I call her “porch perches” (the ones on the cage but the outside of the cage—so like a porch for her cage home!), as well as the computer time work space next to her cage. She really loves the porch perches; I think it might be because of how she can keep an eye on me, the birds outside, and her own home all at once. It also is a place where she gets sun in the afternoon.

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(this was from a bit ago, as her cere was lighter.)

Luxie has also figured out that “kitchen” = “food/bath/time with flock human,” and so she has started to come flying over especially when I’m in there doing dishes or at the cutting board. The first time she did this while not connected to an approximate seed mealtime, I was focused on something else, and turned around and she was just standing there on top of some chard I was working on rescuing from the back of the fridge. (Narrator: “The chard could not be rescued.”) I admit I got quite a jumpscare! I hadn’t heard her flight approach at all. (Being a grad student in student housing, my kitchen is quite tiny and really more of an extension to the main room, so she’s had time to observe me working in the kitchen for quite a while… but was at the time content to stay in her cage. Looks like it’s time to institute mandatory cage time for when the knives are out or the stove/oven is on.)

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She’s gotten much more comfortable climbing around her cage of late, which makes me happy since all the cage rearrangings cannot guarantee a clear path everywhere every single time. This was a recent morning in anticipating of me opening the door. Daylight saving time was rough on me (it always is), and so her schedule is regrettably a bit all over as my circadian rhythm adjusts. So far she’s quite polite about it all, waiting in the morning for me to uncover the cage without being noisy, and then hopping up on her swing when she’s ready for bed.

Also, I found her first molted tail feather this morning, and at least one of another pair of clipped flight feathers has come out recently. The clipped feather discovery was another little surprise, as she had been sitting on my shoulder preening while I was working, and I vaguely register a kind of cronching sound, like she’s cracking seeds. I look over and find she’s got the fallen-out feather in her beak, chewing away at its shaft end. Her flight definitely seems affected, as she has been flying in these sudden change-in-direction zig-zag patterns (probably due to the number and type of feathers present), but this hasn’t seemed to be a deterrent. If anything, she actually seems to be more willing to fly about.

Amidst the arrival of spring and the changes that brings, we do our best, here 💛
 
#73 ·
I’ve been trying with the target stick and occasionally a knitting needle… no dice. I do hear you when you say the toothbrush didn’t go over well, but I hadn’t thought of that and I totally want to try it now >.> Luxie loves to use a few toys that are “bristly” to scritch her own head (while I tell her “I could do that for you if you’d just let me!”), so maybe she might be interested in a toothbrush. Of course, imagining and reality are totally different worlds!
 
#75 ·
We have successfully acquired a vegetable!! Which I believe is budgie-owner-speak for “my bird finally will eat this vegetable I’ve been chopping up and offering them in all shapes and sizes for the past two months.”
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Behold! CORN.

However she finally decided to try it, she now combs through her veggie plate for the bits of corn, and works the kernel “skins” until she’s gotten all the juicy bits out. I am delighted.

I figured out in this process that Luxie does not like garlic—I had offered vegetables with garlic powder on them before, and had chalked up her disinterest to the time it takes for budgies to try veggies. However, after establishing her willingness to eat corn, when I then offered garlic-powder corn, she bit into a kernel and then aggressively spat it out. And then aggressively tossed it off the plate. And then left the plate in a pointed huff. Apparently, this was, as the internet might phrase it, one of the #toptenanimebetrayals.

For Luxie, basil has proven the spice winner. As for #veggiegoals, we‘re still testing mint. Red pepper has yet to make an impact—I might try a yellow pepper next, since it might look more familiar now that she will eat corn. I genuinely can’t tell whether she eats sprouts or not—she definitely plays with them. No interest in green beans, carrots, or sugar snap peas yet, either in full-length or chopped-up form. I’ve also tried peels of carrots, with no luck yet. Luxie tends to be more willing to try leaf-like vegetables, so I try to have some kind of leaf clipped to the side of her cage daily. This week it‘s been butter lettuce or red kale. Sometimes she just rips the leaf up into pieces, but I do see that she usually has a few bites before or after the confetti-making session. She definitely likes spinach, but I believe that’s a once-in-a-while veggie due to something in it that blocks calcium absorption for budgies. I keep meaning to try sweet potato for its vitamin—A, I think? But I think that’s a thing that I would need make a bunch of and then ice-cube-serving-size freeze it to conserve my own low energy stores.
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Luxie‘s taken a few flights around the room of late, and this morning she found her way on her own to this perch near my desk. Historically when I’ve placed her on this perch for training, she has “tolerated” it, but left as soon as she decided the session was done. As far as birds go, I’ve just had Luxie long-term thus far, but owning a bird after having owned dogs is an interesting experience. My dog learned a lot growing up, but then settled into a routine that he didn’t deviate from to the point that I could keep time by where he was in the house (Is he on the couch? Mid-morning. Is he in front of me? 2:30-3pm, time for a walk. Is he in front of his foodbowl? 5:30pm, dinner. On the stairs? 9pm, bedime.) It feels like birds, even with their love of routine and their potential fears of things like new toys, simultaneously seem to enjoy “changing it up” without warning. At least, that’s what Luxie seems to like so far.
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We took a walk together a few weeks ago! It was about half an hour, with ten minutes each of walking to and from a shaded bench we sat at for about ten minutes. I couldn’t tell whether she enjoyed it or not. But I was hoping she might feel a little more used to travel if we did it here and there without a vet visit destination. She does seem very interested in looking at the world around her. The vet recommended that I wrap those travel dowel-rod perches with—something. Some kind of veternarian tape? Might I trouble knowledgeable readers to point me in the direction of what she was talking about? 🙏
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In the evening, after dinner, she occasionally spends more time with me if I hold my hand like a perch (held close to eye-level and generally still) and if I blink slowly at her. So sometimes we just sit and blink at each other, and it’s lovely.
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#78 · (Edited)
A small off-the-topic-of-Luxie post. Yesterday, I came across an injured wild rabbit on my way home from school. Historically, I might not have even noticed, but after watching it not move despite how closely others got to it, I got worried. I walked right up to it and sat down next to it, and it still didn’t move. I went home, fetched gloves, a box, and a towel, and gently transferred the rabbit to the cardboard box. This is when I was able to ascertain the severity of the injuries—for mindfulness of the many readers on this forum, let us just say the injuries were severe (there will be no pictures of the rabbit). I was not optimistic about its chances of recovery, but I felt strongly that I could not just leave it where I had found it.

It was already too late to take it to a wildlife center, but I tracked two locations down and prepared myself for getting up early the next morning to take it in. Following online resources, I closed the lid of the box, placed the rabbit in a dark, quiet spot in my small living space, and added a gentle heat source (a sock with rice, though if I had had a heating pad, setting it on low under the box would have been ideal).

Sadly, the rabbit did not make it through the night. I hope I might have been able to give it even the smallest bit of relief from the suffering it was in.



Last night, after I had carefully brought the rabbit in and made sure it was in a separate room from Luxie (I did NOT want there to be risk of disease transmission!) and having verrrry thoroughly washed my hands and arms, I sat with Luxie quietly. She seemed to know something sad was going on. I actually explained to her a bit of what had happened; whether or not she understood the words, she seemed to understand something was serious and sad.

I also think that my experience owning a bird is part of what got me to be willing to give the rabbit a chance at something more than just dying in the street. Things like having the skills to recognize when a prey animal is in distress, and also having more experience looking for best-practices resources for animals in distress. Perhaps it is a little bit of a stretch, but maybe I could say that Luxie helped me help the rabbit—even if all I could do was give it a warm and safe place from which to cross the rainbow bridge.
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Luxie sitting with me as I process everything that happened.
 
#80 ·
So I was watching some videos of a certain honking cockatiel beloved by the internet (RIP Alex), and was joined by a VERY interested birb, who stood stock-still and watched in rapt attention:

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…and then within less than 24 hours began honking herself. It is ADORABLE.

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She looked so offended when I caught her climbing on top of her lettuce leaf for maximum rip-crush-tear technique…

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This quarter with in-person instruction, I’ve had to go to campus a lot more. She HATES me leaving, and when I put her in the cage, she lectures me in high-pitched screms. It does not change the situation, but seems to make her feel better.

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Just a beautiful portrait of her—the sunlight is reflecting off her water/bath bowl, and it created a nice glow.
 
#86 ·
She only chews the edges if she can find them, and even then she’s only an occasional chewer of paper. When the paper is lying flat, she seems more interested in staring at it—maybe she’s trying to ”forage” and find the seeds in all those little marks? That or chase my pen around…
 
#87 · (Edited)
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I started a modest little effort to sprout Luxie’s seeds over the past week. I followed our sticky here and

1.) got a bag of Hagen’s seed
2.) Looked through my pantry and found Wild Rice and Green Lentils
3.) decided I didn‘t have to have everything listed in the sticky to get started
4.) got one of my little tea infusers as per a recent forum post mentioning using a tea ball for sprouting
5.) I found a little cup to set aside with it
6.) In the morning I put about 2/3-3/4 tsp Hagen’s seed + 6-7 grains of wild rice and 6-7 lentils into the strainer
7.) I rinse and then let soak throughout the day (minimum 8-12 hours).
8.) Before I go to bed, I drain/rinse the seeds and then empty them onto a plate. I let that sit overnight to dry.
9.) The next morning I mix the dry sprouted seeds in with some pellets, some mash, and 3/4 of a couple other seed blends that have things in them that shouldn’t be sprouted
10.) …and that’s the day’s seeds! While Luxie is eating breakfast, I start the process over again at step 6.

…Luxie eats these right away (and does seem willing to eat them wet as seen in the pictures above, though I read that not all budgies will), so I’ve not seen the tiny little sprout “bud” while doing this yet. I can probably slowly add some other grains as I go, but this is the best I can do right now. Hopefully it’s helping her be healthy.
 
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