The problem can be caused by 15 or more different diseases, all resulting in massive weight loss which is rapidly depleted when a budgerigar is under stress and / or associated illness.

Regular readers are fully aware that we have, arguably, one the world’s finest avian veterinarians at our disposal. I refer, of course, to Dr Rob Marshall. So rather than take non-qualified comments from the editorial desk, please access his full expertise in the following way.

• On all pages on this site, in the righthand column, you will see (under the first advertisement section) a small navigation bar entitled “Translate Search Archives Tags X”.
• Click on “Tags” and this section will expand to show a dropdown box entitled “Select a Tag”.
• Click on the down arrow to the right of “Select a Tag” to expand the list of tags.
• Scroll down until you reach the tag entitled “Dr Rob Marshall”. Click on it to select it.
• All articles that have been “tagged” with Dr Rob Marshall will now be listed.

In the above list are articles entitled “Budgerigar Health – Parts 1-5″. These are superb for us amateurs to diagnose problems and narrow down the field of diseases which may be the route you can follow in conjunction with you local veterinarian.

We recommend that you print these articles and put them “on file” so that you can then submit them to your non-avian veterinarian, who can hopefully then supply you with the relevant drug(s). Make sure you take a sick patient with you after reading Dr Marshall’s excellent work.

Please do make use of the “Tags” system to quickly find items of personal interest. It is a very useful addition to this site.

The changes are minor in terms of visibility, but major in terms of usability.

Please note the new sub-menu in the right-hand sidebar (just above the “Latest Posts” / “Popular Posts” / “Recent Comments” sub-menu) on the site (as shown in the image below):

The new sub-menu contains the following:

• Translate
  • A language translation facility
• Search
  • A site-wide search facility
• Archives
  • Find previously published material
• Tags
  • Find articles that include a specific keyword, term or phrase

To use these new features, simply click on a menu item. To close the menu, simply click on the “X” on the right of the sub-menu.

Here is what each menu item provides:

Translate

The translate facility enables our readers to view Budgerigar.co.uk in one or more different languages. It is powered by Google and offers a choice of over 50 languages!

The tool will dynamically translate all text on Budgerigar.co.uk including: menus, article headings and content – thereby making it easier to read for those of you for whom English is not your first language. Please note: advertisements will NOT be translated as they appear as images and not text.

Please bear in mind, that translation of websites is still an immature technology and is performed by “machine” rather than professional human translators. So, on occasion, the quality of the translation may lack the accuracy that could be achieved by human intervention.

Search

The search facility makes it easy to find precisely what you are looking for on Budgerigar.co.uk .

Previously the search facility was located in the header area to the right of the main menu. However, analysis of the site showed us that it was not being used by many readers.

Hence, we have moved it to the sidebar and placed it next to similar facilities for finding “hidden treasure” on the site. We will continue to monitor its use.

The facility itself works on all site content, with the results displayed in the same format as existing article categories (e.g. Featured, Breeding, Beginners etc.). It is then simple to click on a selected result to display the article.

Regrettably, we cannot (as yet) highlight the existence of the searched for word or phrase in the search results.

Archives

When a new article is published on Budgerigar.co.uk it is very easy to find – mainly due to its appearance either as a featured article or by its presence in the “Latest Posts” or “Popular Posts” lists in the right-hand sidebar.

However, such is the value of the information contained in all articles (and their associated reader comments), that, rather than simply remove them, we keep them on the site.

The collection of these “older” articles is known as the “Archives”.

The Archives are sub-divided into the month / year in which the articles were first published – e.g. August 2010.

Just like the Search facility (see above), the Archives was an existing feature on Budgerigar.co.uk – but it was not displayed in a very prominent position. We have now corrected this and hope that it proves popular among our readers.

Tags

One of the most useful ways of finding “hidden treasure” on Budgerigar.co.uk is via the Tags facility.

When an article is posted on the site, it will contain a number of keywords, terms and phrases – such as “Budgerigar Society” or “tail loss” or “flights” etc. These are referred to as “Tags”.

We attach such Tags to each post we publish. By doing so, we can maintain a database of the Tags that have been used. This, in turn, enables us to list all of the posts that contain a specific Tag, thereby making it easy to find articles that have keywords, terms or phrases in common.

Thus articles that may have no obvious link between them may still be linked by the use of a certain keyword, term or phrase that is contained within them.

So if you want to read all articles (new and old) that mention “cod liver oil” or “Les Martin”, then the Tag facility will provide you with a simple way to find them.

It is a very powerful and useful facility – give it a try!

Feedback

We hope you will enjoy these significant changes to the site and that they make your visits more enjoyable and frequent!

If you have any ideas as to how we may be able to further improve the site, please let us know via our Feedback form.

So here are three tips that should help you to quickly find what you are looking for.

1. Tags

   Each article has a list of keywords – “Tags” – attached to it. The tags represent the most frequently used or most important words in the article. Tags therefore enable two or more articles to be “linked” via the keywords they share.

   For example. Say you wanted to read all the articles on the site that mention “French Moult”. Simply use the tag “French Moult” and all such articles will be listed.

   The most frequently used tags can found in the “Popular Tags” area (to the right of any article). Clicking on a tag will list all articles using that keyword.

   A complete list of all available tags can be found in the “Tags” section in the “Archives/Tags” area (again to the right of any article). In this case, click on Tags – the drop down selection box titled “Select a Tag” will appear. Scroll down the list and click on a tag – the articles containing that tag will be listed for you.

2. Archives

   Articles published on this website are rarely, if ever, removed. This is because the information they contain may be useful to someone at sometime.

   Older articles can therefore found using the “Archives” feature.

   To locate older articles, just find the “Archives/Tags” area (to the right of any article) – a drop down selection box titled “Select a Month” will be shown. Scroll down the list and click on a month – all articles published that month will be listed for you.

3. Search

   Another way of finding useful information is to use our site search facility.

   It is located at the top of each page, just above the “Noticeboard” link on the navigation bar.

   Simply type your search term or terms into the white field (marked “enter search terms”) and click on the “search” button to the right of the field. All pages that contain your search term(s) will be listed for you.

Finally, do open the noticeboard regularly to see any recent information – why not make it your first port of call?

Comments

Comments are Your way to respond to what you read on this site – we want your opinions on the articles we publish!

In each list of articles and underneath the article title you will see the following links:

• The author’s name
• The date of publication
• The number of comments
• Printable version

The comments number (i.e. Comments x) indicates how many published comments there are for this article.

By clicking on this link you will be taken straight to them.

For more on “Comments”: Click here.

Tags

Tags enable us to “link” articles together – no matter which category they are published under.

Tags are “keywords” that appear in an article – for example: aviary, flights, chicks etc. We add tags to every article we publish based on their appearance in the article.

The list of tags for a particular article are listed as links at the foot of each article – so when you click on one the website will list all of the articles that use that Tag! This makes it very easy to locate all articles containing a specific keyword – e.g. seed or vitamins.

For more on “Tags”: Click here.

Help!

Comments and Tags are described in more detail in our Help! page – enjoy!