Our Budgie...

I'm sorry but I can't for the life of me bring myself to put a photo with this story...you will just have to use your imagination! Tom and I have been concerned about our budgie, Caboose for the past couple of weeks. Caboose's beak around the nostrils has changed from a nice pale smooth beak to kind of rough looking and reddy brown. Also caboose has been frantically rubbing his bottom on the side of the cage...to the point where I feared he was going to start loosing feathers! Oh my, what does he have...mites...worms....both? So like the dutiful parent I am, we went for a trip to an avian vet. Now avian vets are very few and far between, so I had to brave peek hour traffic to trek all the way to Springvale...it took 1hr and 10 mins! Anyway I was 20mins late and therefore had to wait another 20mins for the kind vet to be ready. So now for the shocking diagnosis...Firstly HE is a SHE, and this is why the beak is changing colour. It's a bit rough due to some slight dehydration. I apparently have to get Caboose to eat a more varied diet. Now parents out there if you think it is hard getting your kids to eat things like broccoli, baby spinach and sprouts, you should try and get a friggin budgie to eat it! Also female budgies are more "bitey" than males and as the Vet was inspecting our lovely little girl, there was a cry of "OOH you little bitch". Now to tackle the the bottom problem...Oh my god...dear lord...please no, were just a couple of phrases that escaped my mouth as the Vet explained. Caboose is reaching maturity and it is common for a budgie to find pleasure by rubbing themselves against....things. Yes, our budgie makes me blush. So all in all it took a total of 2 hrs and 30 mins and $50 to find out that our Caboose is a sexually deviant female who should eat more vegies. Oh good lord...may I never have to explain this to my Grandma!