So I have had Holly for almost 6 months now (I really should put his picture in my sig) and in the last few weeks a problem has developed.

 

I started finding him with sticky chest feathers and yellowish stains on the feathers around his beak. After losing Smudge so horribly after he started vomiting I was obviously concerned that Holly was going to go the same way, but since I hadn't actually seen any vomiting I started keeping a very close eye so I could see what was going on, particularly as he continued to act like a total hooligan.

 

I have now seen what is happening - Holly has two balls in the bottom of his cage that he likes to, as my brother puts it, play "naughty football" with - i.e. he humps them. What is happening is that he has been regurgitating to one of the balls in particular and then obviously where he humps it, rolls around on his back with it etc, he's been getting the regurgitated stuff all over him (being an albino means it is that much more obvious that he's dirty).

 

Any advice on this would be appreciated. Holly is in the house on his own between 9 and 3 during 3 days of the week (tho my brother is home from uni for the summer now) so I don't want to start having to take toys away from him that keep him occupied whilst people are not there. I have been putting his bath on when I have come back and found him sticky, but he does not always want to get into it, even if I think he's dirty and needs it.

The best thing you can do is remove the offending object because this type of behavior though normal can become obessive.

 

Make sure you rearrange the cage 1 a week and you can intro the ball in 1 week. If it happens again then only give the ball to him for out of the cage play or as a reward for stepping up.

 

Pretty loved playing his toy balls too before I got Merlin. Single kept budgies can get obsessed with toys, mirrors etc...so making this interesting, giving them flight time and covering them up to ensure they get 10-12 hours of sleep will help the issue. It did with my boys.