Community Guidelines

What this space is

A learning community for budgie people who want their birds living as family and companions, rather than cage ornaments. If that’s what you’re here for, you’re in the right room.

As with most online communities, this isn’t a veterinary service and it isn’t an emergency response service. If your budgie needs immediate medical attention, please contact an avian veterinarian in your area.

Everyone in here is trying to learn and make their budgie’s life better. That’s the whole entry requirement. You don’t need years of experience, and you don’t need to arrive with the right answers.

What you can expect from me

I do read and answer every post in here. I will do my best to answer your questions to the best of my ability and recommend some next steps including doing a spotlight session, clarity call or other series.

The depth of what I can tell you naturally changes with how much I know about your bird. If I’ve run a FEATHER analysis and worked with you one-on-one for three months, I will likely know that bird better and be able to give a much more detailed answer than one I have not yet done a long series of appointments with.

The rules

Share your story!

Support each other, swap experiences, ask each other questions. I hope this can be a place for budgie people to connect in that is reliable, safe, and fun.

Part of that is keeping in mind how different every flock in here is. There are large scientific principles that all budgies share, but how care actually looks from home to home can really vary depending on where people are located, what they can access in terms of resources, caging, equipment, time, and more. When someone is doing something differently than you would, it is very likely they have chosen it for a reason, and often that reason came out of an extensive analysis we did together. So when you notice a difference, ask why instead of correcting. The answer is usually the interesting part, and it’s often the thing that teaches both of you something.

The same logic runs the other way when you’re the one answering. You know your birds. You don’t know theirs. “Here’s what happened when I tried that” is usually more useful than “here’s what you should do,” because the first one is something you actually know.

We do not provide veterinary care in this community.

We can’t diagnose illness in here and we won’t try. What we can do is help you find someone who can and point you in the right direction. Ask, and you’ll get names of vets we’ve had good experiences with if we have members in the area.

What’s in here stays in here.

Someone else’s birds, photos, posts, and materials don’t leave this community. No screenshots going out. People share things in here they wouldn’t share publicly, and that only keeps working if the walls hold.

No soliciting, selling, or intentional recruiting in this group.

Please do not use this community as a sales platform for other programs, no DMs with offers, no selling birds. Violations of this rule will result in immediate removal and being banned from the community.

When we lose flock members

It’s sad but inevitable that as budgie people, we will have to face losing members of our flock. We do have a dedicated space for memories of those who have passed away where you can share moments and talk about this deep emotional topic. Please be kind and supportive rather than telling someone what they could’ve done differently, and they will show you that care if it ever happens to you.

Assume the person did their best with what they knew.

Everyone is doing the best with the information and resources that they have. Budgie care isn’t perfect, even for me. Everyone is on their budgie journey and is here for learning and support. Bullying or berating others for what you might view as a shortcoming will result in being banned.

Violations inside the community

Level 1 — redirect. I’ll flag that a post isn’t right for this venue, and either move it somewhere better or take it to a private conversation. No record or formal consequence will occur.

Level 2 — written warning. You will receive a written warning from Dr. Amy Zhao in DMs and you may have a discussion about it if you feel it is appropriate.

Level 3 — removal. If inappropriate behavior continues after the warning, you’re removed.

The following will result in a permanent ban from the group, effective immediately:

• Sharing paid materials or other members’ content outside the community
• Soliciting or selling to members
• Harassment or cruelty toward anyone in here, including me
• Exposing another member’s private information
• Repeatedly pressing advice on other members that contradicts what we know about budgie biology, after it’s already been corrected

Those are the hard lines because they’re the values this community runs on, and they matter to me and to everyone else in this room. If they aren’t your values, we urge you to find another community that you are more aligned with.

If you’re removed

Removed for cause: access ends, remaining installments cancel, and payments already made aren’t refunded.

Leaving on your own: standard cancellation applies, per the Scholar’s Club Terms.

Changes

I’ll update these as we keep building. This community will show me things I didn’t plan for, and the guidelines should move with it.

One last thing

Have fun in here. Get to know each other. Some of the people in this room will become your budgie friends, and a few of those turn into real-life friends who’ve met your birds.

See you at the weekly live! 😊