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So a little backstory: I work in a pet store. Yesterday while I was tending to some young birb, someone opened my door. Proceeded to slide a cage into the store and told me, "I don't want him anymore."
Now this is not the first time this has happened. This is how I got my latest dog. This is how I've gotten several lizards. Fine. People suck.
So I finish and head over the cage and see...this budgie. Sitting on the floor in the corner, puffed up and listless. I just assume he's sick. Since we have other birds I shuffled him far away into a QT zone...and then I saw his food dish. Which was half full of...dust. As in, he had eaten his seed mix and then ground every last shell into powder. Okay, weird. I give him a big bowl of food and he goes nuts.
An hour or two later, go to check on him. He's still frantically eating. I pick him up to check the crop and ... I can't even describe the noise that came out of me after picking him up. He is not a bird. He is a skeleton with feathers. He is STARVING and despite ripping apart the food dish, his crop is empty.
The avian vet is closed. He is frantically trying to eat but can't seem to swallow food. So, we made the call to feed him formula. Not a lot just enough for a full crop. Within seconds he falls asleep. At this point we're wondering if he has a digestive issue. But nope - once he wakes up he has a nice giant turd. Let him go at the food again (seed mix, egg food, apple, and some salad to see what he'll take) and still nothing.
I hand fed him four times. Avian vet isn't available until next week but - budgie has started eating on his own after the hand feedings. His eyes are open, he can fly!!! And he is giving me SO MUCH attitude for touching him. His crop is full.
I've already decided I'm keeping him. So, any idea for names? I've just been calling him my blueberry muffin.
I'm super hopeful, her owner is a giant turd. I have the feeling he'll only let her go for fat stacks of $$$ and at this point I'm willing to shell it out for her.
I just can't stand to see any animal in pain or neglect :( even if I can't keep them all, rehabbing them and adopting them out is so rewarding on its own. Blueberry ain't going anywhere though, and if I get the Grey she is my forever friend.
I will! Now that he's eating on his own I'm hopeful he'll pull through! Once he's got the all clear for not carrying parasites or whatever I'll be getting him a budgie buddy and moving him into a flight cage :)
I don't want to put him with anybody else until I'm sure he doesn't have anything. We have a general probiotic he's on, as well as vitamin water, and he was sprayed with mite spray.
Right now in his cage he's got broccoli, kale, shredded brussel sprouts, some cabbage, apple slices, a vitamin budgie seed mix, spray millet and egg food.
I've clipped birds before but I'm leaving his wings for now. He's so weak and so skinny (literally no meat he is an actual skeleton) that I don't want to stress him further by taking his escape away! He seems to know step up and will actually hang out on my chest/shoulder so long as I don't touch him too much haha but that's just sort of a typical budgie thing I've noticed!
That's such a cute name! In the photo he looks okay but when I first got him he was so puffed up with his head down he just looked like a sad blueberry!
He seems to be doing okay now. I can feed food in the crop and he's definitely drank the water! I'll pick some applesauce up when the store is open and add a small dish just in case. Thank you!
I'm just happy I was able to 😍 I just caught him perching for the first time since I brought him home and I'm so happy he's making so much progress.
As stands I've got 2 "adopted cats" (my roommate dipped left her cats - came back six months later to take them to a shelter and I told her to fuck off) my husky that I actually bought from a breeder, the rescue mutt, a few fish tanks housing PetSmart "soon to die" Bettas and a hedgehog with a hibernation problem. Also, Blueberry. And I'm currently in a big argument over an African Grey parrot I am struggling to take in (long weird story if I manage to get her from her owner I'll post about her)
I've got a zoo running here 😂 I often have disabled babies/ditched babies here too. Birds, hamster's, cats...whatever! I didn't choose this life it chose me! And sometimes it's hella sad but I have no regrets.
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Honestly at first I thought it was just a case of "my kid got tired of the bird let's drop it at the local bird place" but after feeling his chest, nah. I doubt I'll ever see his people again but if I do, they're getting ripped a new asshole. Even if they didn't like him that's no reason to STARVE him. Takes a special kind of evil to neglect an animal so badly. Their only saving grace here is that they brought him in before he passed away.
And I wish this was the only case! A few months ago someone peeled into our driveway and dragged a 20 gallon tank in and dropped it at the door while I tried asking questions. Blind leopard gecko that's too hard to feed. He ended up being rehomed (for free we don't sell abandoned animals, we keep them or adopt them out) to a herp loving family. He's doing great.
My dog: I had a customer I know walk in with puppy. I side eyed puppy because he's supposed to be a Big Breed Mutt. Puppy is maybe 15lbs soaking wet at 5 months old. Customer says, "I don't want to pay the fee for bringing him to the shelter. My husband says he goes today or he's taking him to the ravine and tying him to a tree " it's winter. In Canada. No one is walking the ravine to pick up a puppy. Turns out Big Breed Mutt is being fed senior small breed dog food. "I don't think he'll get any bigger." Well, newsflash: proper dog food and exercise, he's now 50lbs 5 months later and one of the best behaved dogs I've ever owned.
Sorry I'm ranting I'm just so absolutely sick and tired of people and their shit attitude towards animals and no one IRL thinks my rage is valid. I have Blueberry but I'm also co-nursing a 5 year old African Grey at the moment. I'm trying to get "custody" of her (weird story - no pics of the Grey ATM because I am trying to gain ownership. If I get her, she'll show up here) and her, with Blueberry, and a handful of other animals I've seen the last three weeks is just draining my energy and my love my humans.