Please help!

petethebudgie

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Jan 12, 2019
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pete the budgie
Hi everyone,
My parakeet, pete, has been with us for a little less than 4 months. Recently, he started becoming super unactive. He eats, but doesn't "scavenge" for food and only eats when the food is close to him (he rarely flies down to his food bowl). He never comes out anymore (he used to jump around a ton, trying to come out of his cage), despite us leaving his cage door open. He used to play with me, climbing all over, but now he seems to avoid me and just sits on his perch all day. He also has some brown staining above his cere (I thought it was dirt, but it didn't come out with a bath). We changed his diet from seed and pellet mix to just pellets a few months ago, and he adjusted okay, but it's hard for him to eat pellets (they fall out of his mouth even though he tries to chew on them), so I hand feed him pellets (one pellet at a time). He has a cuttle bone but he doesn't use it. Please help! Not sure if this is normal behavior or if my budgie is sick. I was going to buy another parakeet but I don't want to if I'm going to expose a new bird to a sick one.
My parents don't feel like taking him to a vet (which upsets me a ton, but I'm still working on getting them to agree) and I don't have a license.
Please help.


Additional information:
Hi everyone,
My bird, pete, has been with us for a little less than 4 months. Recently, he started becoming super unactive. He eats, but doesn't "scavenge" for food and only eats when the food is close to him (he rarely flies down to his food bowl). He never comes out anymore (he used to jump around a ton, trying to come out of his cage), despite us leaving his cage door open. He used to play with me, climbing all over, but now he seems to avoid me and just sits on his perch all day. He also has some brown staining above his cere (I thought it was dirt, but it didn't come out with a bath). We changed his diet from seed and pellet mix to just pellets a few months ago, and he adjusted okay, but it's hard for him to eat pellets (they fall out of his mouth even though he tries to chew on them), so I hand feed him pellets (one pellet at a time). He has a cuttle bone but he doesn't use it.
 
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SailBoat

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Jul 10, 2015
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Sorry to hear that your Parrot is not as active as it had been.

- Has there been a change its poop. Is it very dry, kind of wet, but holds together or is it runny?
- Any change in drinking water?
- Breathing with easy, or having difficulty breathing?
- Sleeping more during the day?

Consider crushing the pellets into smaller pieces.

Parrots (Birds) are very good a hiding their illness and we commonly only notice it when there is a notable change.
Do you have Avian Vets in your area?

When a family gets a Pet there is commonly a discussion regard its purchase cost, care and the cost of that care. That assumes that everyone is in agreement as a family to getting that Pet.
 
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petethebudgie

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pete the budgie
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Sorry to hear that your Parrot is not as active as it had been.

- Has there been a change its poop. Is it very dry, kind of wet, but holds together or is it runny?
- Any change in drinking water?
- Breathing with easy, or having difficulty breathing?
- Sleeping more during the day?

Consider crushing the pellets into smaller pieces.

Parrots (Birds) are very good a hiding their illness and we commonly only notice it when there is a notable change.
Do you have Avian Vets in your area?

When a family gets a Pet there is commonly a discussion regard its purchase cost, care and the cost of that care. That assumes that everyone is in agreement as a family to getting that Pet.

His poop has not changed and seems normal. I give him fresh drinking water daily and he doesn't seem to be sleeping more during the day.
His beak is crusty (it seems to have multiple layers?).
I'm also worried about the brown staining above his cere though-- any thoughts on what that's about? My mom has agreed to take him to an avian vet next week (it's far), which is good news!
 

SailBoat

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It is possible that your bird may have something like mites or another bug(s).
The beak being crusty depends, because the structure of the beak is in fact layered. But there is a difference between crusty and layered.
At this point, I will let our members with greater experience with parakeets comment.

My background is with older Amazons.
 
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Laurasea

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Aug 2, 2018
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Hi and welcome. Sorry to hear about Pete. Ate you able to posts picture? An easy way is to click the go advanced button under the text box, click the paperclip abd upload a picture. It will attach as a thumbnail under the text box, but can be clicked to enlarge.
You can also offer your budgies fresh greens, leafy stuff like romaine lettuce, bok choy, hang them in the cage abd they will nibble on them, discard after a few hours.
It's so hard to help over the internet, so I'm glad you will get a vet visit next week. I'm so glad you care enough to reach out to us. All life has value, and that value far exceeds the price one pays to take them home.
 

Allee

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A warm welcome to you and Pete, so glad you joined us. I'm glad your mom agreed to take Pete for a vet visit. I hope your little guy will be fine.
 

Laurasea

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Female budgies get a brown and crusty cere as they mature. But there shouldn't be any staining of featheres. And the listless behavior you describe isn't normal.
 

ParrotGenie

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2 umbrella Cockatoos One male named Cooper and female named Baby 1 Little Corella male named Frankie and have 5 Cockatiels three named Male named Pepper, Fiesco for the female and female named Wylie.
A picture would really help. Sometimes a dietary deficiency will cause the staining of feathers. Are you feeding a good seed and or pellet ALONG WITH plenty of fresh veggies etc? I know you mention pellets? At around one year of age, the cere, or pink fleshy nostril band above the beak, changes color in parakeets. This is normal and expected. In female parakeets, it changes to tan, pale blue, white or brown. It could also be a sign of disease or illness,or mites.

The lack of being active and lack of interest in food does worry me, thankfully your parents agreed to taking him to the vet. If you are able to take a picture, take a close up of his legs head and beak area mainly?
 
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LaManuka

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I’m glad you are taking your little guy to a vet. I had a budgie called Pete once and he was as tough as ten bears, I hope yours is the same. Good luck at the vet and keep us posted, we are all hoping for the best for you both!
 
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petethebudgie

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pete the budgie
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60A7EA01-9599-4A21-913A-7D6E55DDE024.jpg

B31A435C-D9F6-4C58-9041-C08B05AB2C1A.jpg

hopefully I attached the photos correctly. I’m not sure if Pete looks normal, and I don’t have a trained eye so I could just be paranoid, but his cere seems to be a little crusty, and his feathers (especially the ones right above his cere) seem to stained brown. he kind of looks sickly overall? today he came out of his cage for about ten minutes until he was spooked by an opening door upstairs and ran right back into his cage. (this never happened until recently, right around when he started showing no interest in food or physical activity). he doesn’t seem to be scared of me (just indifferent), but is scared of everything else.
i feed him crushed pellets with the occasional seed mix. i also try to feed him bok choi, carrots, and cantaloupe, but he refuses them all.
i used to have another parakeet, felix, who was a lot more active, happy, and interactive (i used to take him everywhere around the house), which is why i’m worried about pete.
 
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petethebudgie

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i’ve also just noticed some tail bobbing today, which has me worried. just waiting for the vet visit next week. thanks everyone for your support so far!
 

ParrotGenie

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2 umbrella Cockatoos One male named Cooper and female named Baby 1 Little Corella male named Frankie and have 5 Cockatiels three named Male named Pepper, Fiesco for the female and female named Wylie.
Get him to a vet ASAP!! He might not have till next week? He doesn't look that great and tail bobbing not a good sign, as could be a respiratory infection.. Also is he preening himself, or not active at all?
 
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Laurasea

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I can't appreciate anything weird in the pics.. but his behaviors are way off. He sounds sick, and tail Bob is not good.
In the future you can get a kitchen gram scale, and start tracking his weight, that helps keep an eye on health.
 
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petethebudgie

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pete the budgie
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ok, thanks for helping me! scheduling a vet appointment asap.
 

EllenD

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First of all, Pete is a girl...The blue cere with the white rings around each nostril are very clear, so you've got a little female Budgie in Pete...

If she is tail-bobbing then it's time to go to an Avian Vet immediately, and she needs to have a Fecal Culture/Microscopy done, don't just let the Vet give her antibiotics without running any tests, that is a recipe for disaster, and Exotic Vets often do this, especially with a Budgie...They need to do a Fecal to determine whether it's bacterial, fungal, or something else...And they should also swab around her beak/cere and look at it under the microscope for mites, as they are very common in Budgies as well.
 

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