My five budgies are forever preening themselves not each other, well, may be sometimes. Is this normal? They have sleep time, feeding time, talking time, flying time and preening time, however I am wondering if this preening is excessive. I thought may be they have lice or mite however they seem very healthy and have no bald patches. Their cage is outside our family room and we watch them constantly, they give us such pleasure.

Preening alot is totally natural. It's part of their daily lives. We do our hair have a shower, paint our nails etc. They preen

 

Only when feather loss, damage or other problems occur is it a worry.

 

Just think of it as a recreational sport/relaxation time for them

They could live feather mites which often doesnt show as a bald patch. Choose your palest coloured bird, catch it and look through its feathers...wings etc for signs of mites.....anything wriggling around that doesnt look like it belongs to the bird

You will find that when one preen they all start doing it . It is a flock thing

I agree with what everyone said but if you are concerned take Kaz's advice and check out one of the birds .

Thanks guys and girls, I feel better now. I will check the white one though just to be sure. They look and seem very healthy.

How did you go ? Are they all clear ???

Sounds like it was all good and clear from her comment, glad everything is okay.

You will find that when one preen they all start doing it . It is a flock thing

 

Hehe... a bit like people and yawns! One starts, and everyone else is off as well!