One of my budgies (male 2 years old) got a crop infection late Jan.
He was plucking at his abdomen.
The vet put him on antibiotics and had to keep him at the vet clinic for a week as my brother had a heart attack & died and the friend that I had taking care of my birds could not catch him (fully flighted) to give him meds.
When I got back 10 days later and picked up my guy from the vet-all of his chest feathers were gone!
I figured that once I got him back to his flock he would be ok.
Unfortunately, he is still pulling out his feathers and he doesn’t stray too far from any of his flock.
I have a Loro Avian adventure cage 24″L X 30″ wide X 72″ tall.
I have 3 “floors” that they can fly to with rope, pacific beach perches and wood perches with corner perches at the bottom & top and toys on each level (10 or more).
At the risk of oversimplifying this problem, I’ll start with “got a crop infection late Jan.”
Birds crops are in the middle of their chests where the plucking is occurring.Perhaps there is still a lingering infection or some scarring that took place at the height of the contagion manifesting itself in pain.
I advocate that you introduce fine-grained charcoal.
If your bird is experiencing hyperacidity, the charcoal will help sweeten the stomach and crop.
Please let us know if any of these ideas help. Stay safe. Best MitchR.
Updated 7/20/20 ~ Thank you!
I ordered the charcoal.
I had some coconut oil which I melted and put on some nutriberries for my flock.
All of my budgies seem to have more energy.
Am looking forward to getting the charcoal!
Will keep you updated.
Mary.
Update July 30, 2020
Hi Mitch,
I put a dish of charcoal in the cage and have been sprinkling some charcoal on the food. A couple of times a week I also started giving a nutriberry with coconut oil.
I have also been sprinkling prime vitamin powder on the food.
Plus I have full-spectrum lights on the cage.
And I added a few more toys for him to preen (besides his female cage buddy).
I think his skin looks better than when I wrote you then it looked raw & irritated.
Bandit also has 3 random small feathers on his chest. I am not sure how long it takes to grow a feather or in the case of my bare-chested boy-a a lot of feathers.?? If there are any additional nutrients I should add let me know.
Loved the arugula clip!
Mary
Sounds good but to clarify,
The charcoal needn’t be added to food, it should be isolated in its own dish.
Much like canaries in coal mines, when birds choose to eat the charcoal, that’s a signal of potential illness.
Budgies much like cockatiels grow feathers back quickly as in 30 – 60 days.
As a comparison, Quakers and Sengals molt out and replace feathers in no less than 6 months
You are doing everything fine, now it’s time to sit back, enjoy and socialize with the budgies.
Updated July 31, 2020.
Ok.
He seems to enjoy the dish with the Clay Cal & extra charcoal for dust baths not ingesting.
