Hi guys,

 

Most of the photos of scaly face on the web are really advanced cases where the bird's beak is malformed or the face/eyes are covered in crusts. As a budgie newbie, I couldn't find any pictures of the early stages of scaly face - recognising it before it actually gets to be quite bad.

 

Is this it?

 

 

I first noticed a brown dirtiness above his cere a few days ago - is this related?

 

Then I thought the lower part of the cere seemed to be a bit dry and as if it was peeling back, but it was very hard to tell on a budgie that won't sit still so I can look, GRRR. (I don't like pulling him out and stressing him since I've only had him a short while and we're still getting to know each other).

 

But then I noticed the lower part of his beak flaking.

 

Is this early scaly face? If so, would it be worth putting this picture into the FAQ for newbies who don't know how to recognise the early stages? I think it would be helpful to show what it looks like very early on.

 

If it's not scaly - can you tell me what it might be?

 

Thanks again

I can't see any scaley mite burrows or build up yet, and the flaking of the beak isn't related to it, that's just beak "shedding" which is natural.

If you're worried i'd put a small amount of oil over his cere and see how you go, but there's no definate scaley signs there. Usually they'll get a hard build up line on the bottom of the cere.

 

His cere looks nice and clean, maybe it's a little dry, but I wouldn't say it's scaley

Personally I dont think its scaly face. All birds get that flaky look. That cere is actually quite clean.

Oh, well that's great to know.

 

I don't mind looking dumb! It's better to be concerned and ask rather than let things go. Better to be safe than sorry

 

So the first signs are a line of buildup? Anything else? As I said - most of the stuff I can find online are the really horrendous cases, not mild cases. It would be good to be able to know what to look for.

 

What would the dirty brown marks above the cere be? It has looked a bit grubby for the last few days.

Dirty brown marks above the cere indicate respiratory problems if im not mistaken. One of my birds had this and I put him on a week of chamomile tea and he was cured. The tea relieves the problem like it relieves sinus for us.

I managed to pick up Smokey's scaley face pretty early... these pics show fairly early stage scaley face, if you are interested in what to look for early on:

 

 

Like you, I looked for images of scaley face and only came across the really set-in stuff... As you can see, Smokey had virtually no crustiness on his cere. You can see the burrows on his top beak, and the second picture also shows some damage in the corner area of his lower beak too. The burrows were almost impossible to see just from looking at him in is cage. I needed to get him out and look at him really close up - in the end I decided to take some close up pics so I could get an even better look (and these pics are very close up!). The only reason this rang alarm bells for me was that I had had a budgie with scaley face before... if I hadn't, I don't think I would have noticed this until it was much more set in. Treating with oil got control of it within a week or two and prevented it spreading around his face or to his legs and feet, but I still took him down to get proper treatment once I got the chance.

Edited March 8, 200916 yr by CaspersRose

Fantastic! That's exactly the kind of thing I meant