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Question:

December 1, 2022

Unarranged Budgie


Hi! Thanks for this question platform. I am constantly worrying about my budgie. He’s a male of age about half-year. I kept him with a female budgie and I hand feed them daily. The problem is that my male budgie have scattered body hairs (Wings). He isn’t interested in arranging them and I noticed that he mostly snooze off like tuck his head in his back and act like he’s sleeping. My female budgie is like annoyed by him. She pecks him often when they are eating. So I was wondering that Is my budgie Sick or something or he’s just lazy kid….
Thanks for the help.


Answer:

Hi,

I would definitely separate these birds, because the female may get aggressive and hurt or kill him. My guess is the male has a disease – very likely polyoma virus, also known as French Molt, or Beak & Feather disease. Both of these can be tested for, and are chronic illnesses that are very contagious to other pet birds. You should consider the female to also have the disease even though she has no signs, until you can get both birds diagnosed and tested by a Vet. You should never breed these birds. They can live a long life with these viruses if you give them good care, but the virus can be passed on to other pet birds, so you need to keep that in mind. I’m not saying this is definitely the problem, but given the age and your description, it is highly likely and should be confirmed by a veterinarian. There is no reason they can’t still be good pets for you, but do not have them around other birds unless you can have them tested by a Vet to know for sure what is wrong.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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