Hi guys,

I've just adopted a new budgie, well its probably more accurate to say that I had him dropped on me by my housemate who works at a vet surgery (the vet was going to put him down just because they couldn't find a new home for him!) Anyway he is a recessive pied (with violet colouring), and we named him DT. I'm pretty sure he was hand raised as he's VERY friendly and I plan to put him out in the aviary once I make sure he's healthy.

I just wanted some opinions about some odd things I've noticed him doing... First thing is that at night he raises the top part of his beak, regurgitates and then chews on the regurgitated food, its like he's ruminating... At first I thought he was just grinding his beak, but you can see the food. I've never seen that in any of my other birds.

The second thing is that he constantly worries at his feet and while they don't seem to be inflamed, there is a lot of dead skin that seems to be bothering him. Any ideas why this could be?

Apart from that he seems bright and happy (as long as he's out of the cage and sitting with me or one of my housemates), although he doesn't seem to know what to do with vegetables and grass yet but I'm working on it.

Any insight would be appreciated,

Shannon

Hi. Sounds like it could be a mite infection. Have him checked out.

 

Yours, B.J.

Mite infection re the feet symptoms...... the other symptoms could be canker or megabacteria...................Needs vet check.

Thanks I'll take him to a vet to get him checked out... maybe not the same vet I got him from

Thanks I'll take him to a vet to get him checked out... maybe not the same vet I got him from

 

 

Well I should say not! Seeing as that vet was going to put him down just because he didn't have a home!

 

It's very kind of you to go out of your way to help this bird. I wish you luck.

Take him to an avian vet, not a normal vet. General vet are a waste of money for birds.

 

I see you are in Haberfield. There's Rob Marshall's clinic at Carlingford - very good reputation. And Alex Rosenwax's in Waterloo.

I usually go to Cannon and Ball down at Wollongong (thats where my parents live and they keep most of my birds while I'm at uni) and they're great. But its good to know there's other avian vets close by

So how did it go at the vet?

The vet seemed to think it wasn't anything serious, she said it was most likely a bacterial infection/imbalance brought on by the stress of being moved around so much over the last couple of weeks but prescribed a course of psittavet (a type of tetracycline I think) just in case and told me to come back in a few days if she doesn't improve (I've decided that I think its a girl, but its always difficult to tell with recessive pied budgies ).

Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon and she'll be okay