English Budgies and Health Issues

Hi Guys! I wanted to ask anybody who has/had english budgies on their health issues compared to American budgies? I have had American Budgies before and now I have been really interested into English budgies. The health concerns scare me a little bit but people from other forums had an array of different responses. Some people only had their English budgies for 8 months and some had for about 10 years. Should this be a concern for me to consider on whether I should get one or not? Thank you so much guys!

I have quite a lot of experience with budgies. I have an aviary of 16 budgies currently (both English/show and wild-type), as well as my tame birds, 2 English/show budgies and a cockatiel. I take very good care of my birds, they get a varied diet, plenty exercise (especially those in the aviary), and almost all of the budgies that have had health problems have been English budgies, not their wild-type cousins. Sunshine was an English budgie who developed a vicious sarcoma (tumour) on her wing in less than 3 days, she didn’t make it through surgery. She was a year and a half when she died. The vet believed it to be genetic, and that the tumour had likely spread throughout her body. Buttercup, another English budgie, developed a lung problem, and after months of relapsing after being treated continually (nebuliser, medication, etc), the vet believed that her lungs were permanently damaged, and no amount of treatment would heal her. We chose to euthanise her because she could barely breathe, and would not recover. It wasn’t contagious as all of my other birds were and are still fine, so again, it was a genetic issue. She was 2 years old when she died. Malachite suddenly dropped dead in the middle of the night, we believe he had a heart-attack. He was 3 at the time. Emerald was so young when she died, only around 1. She was sick when I brought her home. Myself and my vet did everything we could to save her, but it was just too late. Finally, Mango, my sweet boy, passed away of a very sudden illness, he was treated by the vet, but to no avail. He was also 3 at the time.

Now, all of these birds received the best possible care, and yet they were inherently unhealthy, something that was totally out of my control. Pearl, my tame female English budgie, has also had a string of health problems, and she is only 2 years old. She is doing much better at the moment, but for a time earlier this year she was constantly at the vet. My mom always jokes that I should have frequent flyer miles there because I was there pretty much every other week. I have other English budgies who have lived much longer with no health issues (Nimbus, Perriwinkle, Kiwi, and Azura are all fine), but I have just had too many bad experiences now.

Having kept both wild-type and show budgies, it is clear that the latter suffer far more health problems than the former. They are overbred, and certainly not bred for good health but for looks. I no longer support those who sell English/show budgies, as I have witnessed too many cases of unhealthy birds. This is just my opinion and my experience, but really budgies should be living 10-12 years, and even at best, show/English budgies live maybe 8 years, and in many cases, they don’t even make it to that age.

Also, some are so disproportionate, and struggle to function like normal budgies. Opal, for example, has really short wings and a huge body, so flying is really hard. Luckily, he lives inside and not in the aviary, but he can’t keep up with his cage mates. It’s not fair for these poor birds that they were bred to be big, disproportionate and unhealthy.

The whole business of showing budgies is another discussion entirely. They are terribly mistreated in the showing and breeding process. I am glad that I gave a home to English budgies that might have been forced into that world. I still have some in my aviary who are doing well, and luckily Pearl and Opal (my tame pair) are doing great too - but I never know if they will suddenly fall ill.