Ask Lafeber

Constant Regurgitation

I have a 3 year old male budgie who is regurgitating constantly. He was sick with gram negative bacteria in his crop and feces and was placed on medicine for 4 weeks. He was off the medicine for 2.5 weeks and the bacteria is back. Nothing has changed in his environment so we think the bacteria is from his constant regurgitation. Do you have any tips on just how to curb his behavior? We’ve removed some items and are giving him more sleep time. He is also getting probiotics on his food daily.
Thank you

Hi,

If the Vet feels this is behavioral, then you need to remove hormone triggers. You have made some good changes – removing anything he regurgitates on, limiting his light – we recommend 8-10 hours. If you handle him at all, only pet his head – never pet him on the body. Don’t let him roam around in the house or play on the floor. He should not have anything he can get into like a box or a bird hut or tent. Try moving his cage to different places in the room or home once a week. Don’t give him a lot of food at one time and limit fresh food offerings to a couple of times a week. If his cage doesn’t have a floor grate, don’t use any bedding or papers if he likes to get down on the cage bottom. Shredding paper or playing in bedding is a nesting behavior. He should have an open water dish that you clean daily. A water bottle has places that can harbor bacteria. Hopefully these things will help him, or possibly there is something else going on that the Vet hasn’t found yet.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda