Caryl

Thank you all. We are really missing him. His empty cage is on the floor and the bungy cord from which it used to hang looks out of place. Southerrrngirrrl (can't remember how many RRRs are in there) he was 4 years old and lived his life to the full. He was such fun and was a great little friend.

I am sorry to report that Bud the wonder budgie died today (with the vet's help) at 2.58pm Turns out he did, as we expected, have a very large tumour. The vet suspected it had been pushing against the other body parts which was why he appeared to be partially constipated and having difficulty breathing. I cried almost all the way back to mum's then, once there, having to tell her we had to euthanase him I burst into tears again so I have been too upset to post earlier. Sorry to those of you waiting to hear the outcome. He was a wonderful little companion and we will miss his chatter and funny (and not so funny) antics. RIP Bud

Congratulations! It sounds like it will be interesting.

Good idea. You don't know what the gene mix was from the male side

Thanks for the link Mark. It sure has plenty of information! I am printing it off in booklet form so I can refer to it easily. We want to make sure we feed him the right stuff! I will have a look for Jennifer's link too as I know clicker training works.

Actually Brad Pitt doesn't really do it for me. I think I would prefer that Aussie bloke - Hugh Jackman I think his name is. Or Victor Webster :lol: (I Googled Claire and can see the attraction! Better than Ange definitely)

How long was it in the trap? Sometimes moving them into the trap can cause them to abort early. If she is young, that may have been the problem but I am no guppy expert so someone else may have something more reliable to offer :roll:

Neat. I hope more appear. Only 9 more required to register

Why don't we just Photoshop Brad Pitt in and remove Navarre entirely? :lol:

Meet the latest addition to our family. It is a green, maroon bellied conure. No idea of sex as, unless it lays an egg, we will have to have it DNA tested. At the moment it is being called Pepper cos it is green with a touch of red and has bite. 8) It loves baths apparently... I think the man said he was about 3 or 4 months old and hand reared. He was loose in the shop and happy to be passed from customer to customer. They had 2 and the other one was sold the day before so it is probably missing its companion It has been quiet so far and only given light nips on occasion. It rode home loose in the car moving from person to person as the fancy took it. Grant and Ryan managed to get the cage built so we had somewhere to put it! We bought a really big one on wheels so it can be moved about and maybe get outside for some direct sunlight (if I can keep the neighbour's cat away :evil: ). It came with a starter pack of food and toys so ew are all set for a while.

Thank you all. He gets reassessed at the vet today 2.45. He has improved a little but is still a sick budgie so I think it will be kindest to have him put down. He certainly does not have quality of life and we put off getting Misty put down so I think she suffered longer than she should have just because we couldn't bear to make the decision. We have not heard a sound out of him for a week now and he is usually bouncing about nattering away and playing with his toys. As to names, Deidre (one of our members) works at a supermarket with several Brazilians and Sth Americans so is going to ask them for South American name. Of course we will have to trust us when they assure us the name relly does mean something nice! :lol: At the moment it is being called Pepper cos it is green with a bit of red on the front and it has bite I understand you can train them to poo in designated areas so will need to learn more about them. We are not even sure what they can eat apart from bird seed. The guy at the shop said they love raw peanuts in the shell but I could only find roasted ones. Anyone know where else they can be found and how often they can have them? Also, what fruits and veg can I give, and how often? Any advice on training or any aspect would be appreciated.

I have to delete that first one Navarre. Not only unflattering lower areas but your eyes were shut too :lol: The one with you and Grant in it was good though. Hopefully I wil have time to post pics later. I hope nobody objects to being identified? There are no photos of anyone doing anything embarrassing or anything like that! 8)

It was a delicious cheesecake wasn't it? So was the carrot cake and the cup cakes :lol: I hope to upload photos of the weekend in the next few days but have a lot of other stuff to do, including finishing off the AW!

Well we had a fantastic weekend and met many fellow fish keepers. Thanks Navarre for hosting us for lunch and showing us your fish room etc. Thanks to the Totally Tanked members for joining us on most of the shop crawl and to those who showed us their tanks too. It was great to meet our Auckland member, Adodge and her husband, and MarkLB. I like putting a face to the name 8) Thanks DonnaM for opening your home for us in the evening for a delicious BBQ. I hope Milo has recovered from the onslaught! We came home with quite a number of fish and plants (plus a new bird and large cage with accessories). Good thing we took 2 vehicles in the end!!! :bounce: Thanks to all involved in making it such a fun (if expensive) weekend - from Caryl, Grant, Ken, Deidre, Joe, Ryan and Paul At some points we had all the above plus Alanmin4304, carznkats, humvee, bdspider, DonnaM, jenniferh & wilson with us too. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves as well. We must do it again sometime! :lol:

Well, there may or may not have been an improvement over the weekend but he is still a very sick bird. I want to take him back to the vet on Monday to make the decision of whether to continue treatment or put him out of his misery but I feel he is not going to get any quality of life from now on and, if we are right about the tumour, getting over the pneumonia is not going to help as the tumour is killing him anyway Now is probably not the time to say this but we bought another bird today (Grant fell in love instantly). We now have a maroon bellied conure which we haven't named yet. It has a very big cage and stand and a lot of toys. We will not tell Bud though as he will think we don't love him anymore and that isn't so :-? Of course, if he makes a miraculous recovery he will get to meet it eventually but at the moment he is still with his grandparents.

Kerry

thirst

We are in ChCh this weekend so rang mum to check on him. No change I am afraid. I htink we wil get the vet to euthanase him on Monday

It is DELICIOUS!!!! I speak from experience here as I have tasted wok's ganache icing. The chocolate cake underneath it was sublime too

Beautiful

We haven't left yet (go in the morning) but he is worse If he is still alive on Monday I think we will have him put down by the vet as he is obviously suffering. He can only fly short distances and I am now pretty sure there is an underlying tumour causing the rest of the problems as I think I can see it from certain angles (either that or he has developed a beer gut) He still has a raspy breath and is breathing very heavily and sitting uncomfortably. He is still eating but otherwise just sleeps. Today he spent quite a bit of time on the cage floor rather than his perch - not a good sign He can't die today cos it's my birthday! :-?

Great pics! Thanks for sharing

I have found my font size increases when I put my glasses on 8)

Definitely Let it rest 10 minutes or so, the sides will shrink away from the tin. Ice when cold. Eat immediately as it will go off otherwise :lol: So, you using chocolate or banan flavoured icing? 8) There is a thread somewhere here on the "proper" icing for banana cake :lol:

pain