Ask Lafeber

Sick female budgie

Hi, so I have a female budgie who is a above one year old, she laid her first egg ever on March 14
She didn’t have a male and was a tamed budgie and I didn’t know that she must have a male during the laying on the eggs, so unfortunately she was doing all the work alone, she laid three eggs, and got egg bending on her third and it was 3 am when I noticed so I quickly realized she needed help and searched on how to help her, at the end I got the egg with my hands by pushing and there was some blood, and two of her eggs broke so she slept on on egg for 23 days when I took the egg from her cause she didn’t want to leave it at all, and she was losing a lot of weight, since that happened she has been sick and I’m feeling like I’m about to lose my mind, I’ve got her to multiple vets that are in my location and they didn’t help at all, they gave Me medicines for worms, fungal inside the body, canker, enteritis, they may make her better when I’m giving her the medication, but as soon as it ends and within two or three days she is the same again, her symptoms at the first was sitting in silence not doing anything, then she started to vomit hard every time she fly, and now she is vomiting sometimes when she moves a lot around the cage, or if she is anxious about something, and sometimes when her condition gets worse she will be vomiting hard, i can’t even get her out of the cage anymore cause she will be vomting like crazy, without moving or eating, looking like a little ball with her feathers and even I had to hand feed her sometimes when she is so sick
I’ve tried and gave her liver tonic, a drops of lemon and a small spoon of garlic water because some people said it’s good for her body, and the lemon with the garlic was really great, I even thought she is finally getting better, but ad soon as i quit the lemon and garlic she is vomiting and sick again
By the way, I’ve got her a male since May, and she looks sometimes happy with him

I’ve been struggling with her since March till now,I’ve tired everything i know and i can and now and i really don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really trying hard so please help me, English is not my first language so don’t mind any weird sentences please

Hi,

She actually is too young to be laying eggs already. Budgies should not have a mate or be encouraged to lay eggs until they are two years old. Younger birds are at a higher risk of becoming egg bound, which happened. I know you didn’t plan for her to do this, but something triggered her egg laying. And now having a male around is not going to help – he may cause her to lay more eggs. Single females lay eggs all the time, and they do not need a male around to help because the eggs will not be fertile. A male helps if it is a breeding pair and the eggs need to be incubated.

I’m not sure if she had a nest or “bed” or something to sleep in before she laid the eggs, but this is something that can cause egg laying. She should not have any type of nest or house to get inside of or sleep in. And if she does lay eggs, you should take the eggs away. Given her condition, I would keep the male away from her or even find him a different home. If she tries to lay eggs when she is in poor health, it will likely kill her.

Vomiting is rare in birds, but regurgitating is common. It is possible she has remained in a hormonal state and is regurgitating due to hormones. This would normally result in liquid along with whatever she is eating or just a slimy liquid. I’m going to give you some changes to make to see if it helps. I would not advise anymore home remedies. Garlic is toxic to birds in certain amounts and since she is a small bird, it doesn’t take much to be toxic. I would recommend taking her back to the Vet if she doesn’t stop regurgitating. Take a sample of what she is throwing up so the vet can tell if it is from regurgitating or if it is vomit. But vomiting is usually something gravely ill birds do not long before they die.

I can’t speculate what is wrong with her unless this is all from hormones. She may still have an infection if the antibiotics helped. Sometimes they need to be on medication for a longer period of time. I would discuss this with the vet and see if more can be done to try to diagnose the problem.

You need to do all of these things to discourage egg laying. Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. Your goal is to reverse these conditions.

Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening

Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.

Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.

Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.

Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.

If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.

When she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.

When you handle her, limit any petting to only her head and neck – do not pet her on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.

If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda