Ultimate budgie care guide

illnesses

Birds are prey animals, for that reason they hide their Illnesses until the last minute. By time you see something wrong with your bird it is usually too late.

The first indicator of a sick bird is their droppings. Others are cloudy eyes, nasal discharge, tail bobbing, labored breathing or panting. Things that the bird can't control.

By time they are less active and sleeping a lot on the bottom of the cage they are really sick and don't always recover.

When your bird is sick take it to a vet, even the slightest change in behavior could mean it's sick and it will progress quickly and end up killing the bird.

Budgies are prone to cancer, if you see a lump on your budgie it's most likely cancer.

Here are other common budgie Illnesses.

Budgies can also get psittacosis (commonly known as Parrot fever, or bird lung) it is contagious and will transfer to humans. Although Cockatiels are more likely to have this it is a good idea to keep an eye out for it. To prevent this keep cages clean, and quarantine new birds.

Yeast infections are very common in budgies, there are many kinds of yeast infections, too many to list here. Look online for more info about budgie yeast infections. I don't know how to prevent this.

PBFD (Psittacine beak and feather disease) is very contagious, and it affects the beak and feathers of a parrot. (Similar to hand, foot, and mouth disease) I don't know how to prevent this, other than to quarantine new birds.

French molt (also called Polyomavirus) causes messy feathers. It is usually caught at early age but the bird might not show it until the 6 month molt. I'm pretty sure this can't be prevented.

Bumblefoot causes painful blisters on a birds foot, or even on both feet. If not treated the blisters could open and the bird could bleed out! To prevent this perches must be different diameters and sand perches must be avoided.

I must also add liver disease to this list, I lost a budgie to liver disease. She can be seem in the top photo, shes the blue one. To be prevented give your bird fresh fruits and veggies, an all seed diet most often leads to this disease.

Here are things to look out for.

-Respiratory Problems / Abnormal Breathing(Tail Constantly Moving Up And Down)

-Discharge From The Beak, Eyes Or Nostrils

-Face And Head Feathers Coated With Mucus And Semi-Digested Seed

-Abnormal Droppings

-Abnormal Feathers, Feather Growth, Bleeding Feathers, Or Abnormal Molt

-Bleeding

-Drooping Head, Tail Or Wings

-Dull Or Swollen Eyes

-Falling Off The Perch

-Hunched Over Posture

-Lumps Or Swellings On The Body

-Sitting On The Bottom Of The Cage

-Vomiting

-Weight lost

If anything is off with your bord, take it to a CERTIFIED AVIAN VET as soon as possible. Make sure to call ahead though, you don't want to stress your bird by driving around for hours looking for a vet.