Hi, I'm new here. I found you while trying to find some answers about my bird on the internet. I wonder if anyone here has had this problem, and has any advice:

 

We have 3 birds, 2 males and 1 female. The female is the one I'm concerned about. She has had babies with both of the males in the past.

 

My parakeet is about 6 or 7 years old. She has had 3 successful batches of chicks, over the last 4 years. She seems to be taking a long time getting over her egg-laying. Or something like that maybe, I need to try to explain better. Her last clutch was this past spring. She is alone in her cage; her mate is in a cage next to her. After we took the nesting box away, and her chicks were gone, she did lay a few more eggs at the bottom of her cage, and that has stopped. However, her droppings are still quite runny, she is ripping up the newspaper (something she never used to do) and she's putting it in her water dish, or somehow getting the water all over the bottom of the cage. She is completely out of water every single day. It's like she's "not coming out of it" and going back to her normal self. We used to be able to let her out of her cage quite often, but not when her droppings are such a mess. So I thought she wanted a friend, and I put a bird back in with her, but she attacked him. She also seems to "like" me more than usual, if you know what I mean - I've always been her favorite person in this house, but now when I let her out she gets that breeding look in her eye and and twice she did that frozen position thing. Also in the past, she was able to happily live with one of the males in a non-breeding manner inbetween our yearly hatchings, and physiologically go back to normal in between.

 

Do you have any advice? I thought she would just get back to normal on her own, but it's been quite awhile, and something's out of whack. I called an avian vet, and the receptionist implied that they would check her over and if she seemed healthy they wouldn't do anything? But of course she wouldn't say anything for free over the phone, and I don't know how knowledgeable she was anyway. If you think she needs a vet, that's fine, I just didn't want a $60 bill for no good reason! Thank you.

It is not recommended to breed a female budgie over the age of 3-4 years of age, it is alot on their bodies to continue to have clutches after that age.

 

I am going to put it out there and think maybe she is simple done and not waiting to breed at this point and that is why she did what she did.

 

Since no one is an avian vet here I would suggest taking making an appointment for her. We can assume what it could be but if she is sick it could be too late. In turn nothing could be wrong but better safe then sorry.

 

Again, I would recommend to retire her from breeding and let her enjoy the rest of her life, she has done a wonderful job producing babies and now is a time to rest .

 

That is my advice.

Thanks a lot! We didn't know that. She is a great bird, she is like a dog the way she follows us around, and plays tag and hide n seek, and sings to our violins. She joins in the ruckus with the kids. She's just not acting sick at all (and nothing else is wrong with her), is why I thought it is just something with her "system." I will see about getting her to the vet. Anyone else have any ideas? Has this happened with any of your birds? Cheers, Kelsey

I havn't had an issue like this, but I would make sure she has a cuttle fish so she can re-stock calcium if need be. If they eat fresh fruit and vegges cut down her size becuase a lot of green leafy vegges can cuase poops to be runny sometimes. What is her cere like? still crusty brown or is a pale blue colour? Giving her more night time hours could help calm her breeding mood down a bit, by covering her earlier at night and uncovering later.

 

Let us know what the vet things. also Welcome to the place.

I took her to the vet!

 

The day before I took her in, I thought her newspapers were a bit less messy, and she actually had water. I take her in anyway, and $120 later, the vet says she is fine. She tested her droppings and urine for bacteria and diabetes, and was going to take her blood to check for kidney disease, with no other symptoms! She was even talking about a kidney biopsy! At no time did the vet say I could be right, that she was fine, just her system a bit off-kilter, until I directly ask her, if it's not diabetes, and it's not kidneys, than what is it?

 

So she hasn't had fruit in a long time (she doesn't really like it), and she hasn't had millet, and she does have a cuttle. She does eat off of our plates sometimes, but since she's been messier lately, we haven't given her that opportunity!

 

I think this will settle down, especially as our days get shorter.

 

The vet also said it was fine for her to keep having babies. We only let her have one clutch per year, but I think we're going to have her be done anyway, just so we can have her be normal and not go through this again.

 

Thanks, Kelsey :sad:

 

wow, I love these little bird pics

The vet was probably ruling out kidney disease, because if the droppings are consistently watery or loose without a dietary reason, the kidneys usually have an issue. The biopsy would have been if the bloodwork came back with abnormally low or elevated levels of certain things. A very good move on your vet's part to check the kidney function, I think. Hopefully the blood tests all come back within normal range. Checking the urine part of the feces was a good idea too. Excessive water intake can also cause watery stools, and excessive thirst denotes a medical issue. A bird's system just doesn't go "off" without a reason. But that reason doesn't have to be medical, so by ruling out a medical issue you can look elsewhere. I think your vet was right in ordering all those tests. And if you only had to pay $120 for the office visit, blood tests, urine and fecal tests, you got a great deal! Count your blessings on that one. I would have thought it would have been more than that.

 

If she is still in breeding mode (presenting herself to you and so forth) I would first start with rearranging her cage (toys and perches). Then I would monitor her daylight hours. It sounds simple, but lessened daylight hours really does curb the impulse to breed. If she is around a constant running water source (fishtank, washer, dishwasher, etc) try to either move her to where she can not constantly hear the water, or if it's appliances run those things more so at night when she will be sleeping and most likely tune it out at that time.

 

Keep us updated, please!

Edited October 5, 200618 yr by Rainbow