Common Budgie conditions and their Treatments

Broken Wings

Do not try to mend a broken wing, as it will heal perfectly in a matter of weeks if the bird is kept quiet. Place it,in a smallish cage, with perches close to the ground. Put the water and seed containers on the floor of the cage where the bird can reach them without effort. Keep the bird quiet, stopping its normal free-flying outside the cage until the wing is better. Cover three sides of the cage with dark cloth to shut out distractions. Give extra green food to prevent constipation, which could result from the bird's enforced inactivity.

Bronchitis

Symptoms: Troubled breathing, wheezing, and, in bad cases, violent jerking of the tail as each breath is taken.

Treatment: Keep the budgerigar warm in an airy, draught-free room. Add three drops of glycerine to the drinking water each day and give additional green food to avoid constipation.

Chills

Symptoms: Loose, watery grey diarrhoea.

Treatment: Keep the bird quietly in a cage in an airy, draught-free room with an even temperature of between 27°C and 32°C. Do not neglect a chill as it can develop into pneumonia. Cover three sides of the cage with a dark cloth. The budgerigar will almost certainly begin to improve in a couple of days. Drop "Sulpha D" into the beak with an eye-dropper.

Enteritis

Symptoms: Diarrhoea and a generally run-down appearance. Often the bird sits with its head tucked under a wing. It fluffs out its feathers in an effort to keep warm and looks dejected. Enteritis is usually caused by feeding unsuitable foods such as cake, or other sugary and starchy titbits.

Treatment: The same as for "Chills".

Egg Binding

Symptoms: This usually occurs when breeders mate hens that are too young for breeding, when they are too fat, sickly, or when they catch a chill just before laying. The condition is fairly obvious, as an egg bound hen usually huddles in a corner of the aviary or cage.

Treatment: The hen should be transferred immediately to a warm, draught-free place where there is an even temperature and olive-oil applied to the vent with an artist's camel-hair paintbrush. If the hen does not pass the egg after a few hours in the warmth, she can be given steam treatment by holding her over a basin of hot water for a few moments at a time. This usually has the desired effect.

French Moult

Symptoms: This is a condition in which young birds shed their flight and tail feathers. Sometimes only a few feathers are dropped, but in more severe cases budgerigars lose all their feathers.

Treatment: The cause is still unknown and there is no known cure. Sometimes the feathers grow again in a few weeks, sometimes it takes three to four months.

Symptoms: This is a fungus disease that birds pick up from discarded food and excreta in the bottom of the cage and transfer to their face around and on the beak when scratching themselves. If allowed to develop, the fungus—a crusty greyish growth rather like tiny white pieces from the centre of a cauliflower —will spread rapidly. It is contagious, and birds with Scaly Face should be isolated from other budgerigars until they are cured.

Treatment: Paint the affected parts with a mixture of one part dettol to four parts water, using an artist's fine camel-hair paint-brush. Take care not to get the dettol mixture in the bird's eyes.

Overgrown Beaks

Symptoms: Usually it is the top beak that grows long, preventing the budgerigar from grinding its food, and in bad cases stopping it from eating altogether.

Treatment: Lime blocks or cuttlefish bone help to keep beaks trim, and a wooden clothes peg stuck between the bars of the cage will give the budgerigar something to gnaw on.

Once overgrown, the beak will have to be trimmed with sharp nail clippers. Care must be taken not to cut the budgerigar's tongue or to cut too deeply into the beak. If treating at home, get an expert to show you how to cut the beak before trying by yourself.

Overgrown Claws

Treatment: Grit sheets will help to keep the budgerigar's claws at a reasonable length, but if they do grow too long, they will have to be trimmed with sharp nail clippers. Overgrown claws are uncomfortable for the bird and can lead to rheumatism and crippling injuries to the legs.

Hold the budgerigar in the palm of your hand with, its head poking out between the forefinger and thumb, which grip the leg.

Lift the claw to the light so that you can see the faint red vein inside each nail and cut the nail a fraction of an inch at a time, keeping clear of the vein to prevent bleeding.

Try to keep the nails short by natural means, using a sandsheet on the floor of the cage, as once you start cutting the nails you will have to repeat the process regularly. Regular cutting will keep the vein back in the nail, but if the nails are neglected it will extend down into the overgrown area, making trimming impossible and crippling the budgerigar.

Red Mites And Bird Lice

Symptoms: Budgerigars occasionally pick up lice or mites in the aviary or from other birds in the pet shop. If your new budgerigar is continually pecking among its feathers, it may be infected with either of these parasites and will need to be treated. Red mites are tiny transparent parasites that lodge in cracks and crevices of aviaries and sheds. They come out at night, feed on the birds, and disappear back into the woodwork at the first sign of light. They become red with the blood sucked from the birds.

Treatment: Allow the budgerigar a week or so to settle into its new home and then give it a thorough dusting with a reputable insecticide especially manufactured for birds. Rub the powder well into the plumage but try to avoid getting it into the eyes. Repeat two days later, to destroy any lice hatched out after the first treatment.
At the same time, you must clean the cage by immersing it and the contents in very hot water. You will then have no further worries from these parasites.

Guest Book Comments page 1 of 1 Click here to add a comment Your Name: Image verification: Message:   Tony Posted 513 days ago Hi Can anybody assist? Our budgie seems to be constipated she sits on her perch and seems to pulse her anus, she does not appear to be distressed but there is not much poo on the bottom of the cage. Although the cage was cleaned last week I feel that there should be more poo then there actually is. She has also been laying some eggs of late. Any ideas? <1>