Dandruff Issues

[koimeteria]

My dear little Andradite is approximately six months old, and has been molting for quite a while with increased feather loss and brand new pinfeathers all over her head lately. (She doesn't look bad or anything, there aren't any obvious bald spaces anywhere, just when she gives a good shake, dandruff and small white under feathers fly everywhere! ) She's gotten pretty bad dandruff which I attributed to her molt (it's been at least two months now) but I also wonder if it's a vitamin deficiency of some sort. I always keep her in seeds since molting takes up a ton of energy I've been told. She had absolutely no interest in cuttlebone for months, so eventually I took it out because it had gotten gross, but today I got her a brand new one, and she showed slight interest. What kinds of fruits and veggies should I give her to fight the dandruff? Also, she is resistant to baths, so she's only had two, and they were such miserable experiences for her that I hesitate to try it again. She is energetic as can be, happy, and always eager to play with toys, toilet paper (with supervision), battle a mechanical pencil, or flutter around when she gets excited. If she loses a long feather she'll even carry it around and play with it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I just took this picture of her. Since it's really late, she's trying to snooze, but I keep disturbing the poor thing!


Ah, I don't know if this relates, but we live in a one-room apartment, and I always have the heating on so she won't get cold. It flows from an AC wall unit. Could the air be too dry?

[jellybean]

If she isn't very keen on taking a bath, you could try misting her, which would help with the dander (dandruff) and would also help with the irritation of the pin feathers, please make sure if you use a misting bottle, that it has had no chemicals or household cleaning products in it previously, I occasionally mist my birds, but I bought a bottle especially for this purpose.

I would always have cuttlebone, an iodine block, and oystershell grit, in the cage, to allow her to use these as and when she feels the need.
When moulting either fresh boiled egg mashed up (or dried eggfood if she won't eat fresh) is good,if you do use fresh egg though, remember to remove it after a couple of hours, you could always add some grated carrot and broccoli to that if you wish, or give them separate, sweetcorn is good too.

Try putting some shallow bowls of water around your apartment, these will help the humidity in the room.

I don't know if it's the angle you've taken the picture, but she looks awful near the top of the cage, could you maybe move her perch a bit lower to give her a bit more room to move.

Hope some of this helps.

[koimeteria]

jellybean Should I mist with warm water? I don't want to make her uncomfortable. I've tried giving her hard boiled egg before, but her response was very "meh, not interested". I'll try again tomorrow with carrot shavings. What brand of oystershell grit and iodine block do you use? I'll try to find and order them on Amazon. As to the perch, no it's not the angle, it's quite high up because of the arrangement of the bars. She has another perch much lower down with much more space, but she prefers being as close to me as possible so she can get head scratches through the bars at a moment's notice. (At least that's how it seems to me. ^-^; )

[jellybean]

I use lukewarm water (tepid), I usually boil some water and then cool it down.

This is the dried eggfood, oystershell grit, and iodine block I use, all from Haiths:-

www.haiths.com/cage-and-aviary-bird-seed/cede-budgie-egg-food/

www.haiths.com/cage-and-aviary-bird-seed/fine-oystershell-grit-cahe01007/

www.haiths.com/cage-and-aviary-bird-seed/johnsons-iodised-pecks/

Try the carrot shavings, or grated, or just simply cut a piece of peeled carrot and give it whole, that's the way my boys like theirs.
Its trial and error to see what they like.

[jellybean]

Sorry, your avatar does not say where you are from, so you might not be able to order from Haiths.
If not at least you know what to look for on other websites.

[koimeteria]

jellybean Oh, thank you so much! I'll start misting tomorrow since she's already got the towel on for bed. I'm living in Japan right now, but my Japanese is only upper elementary, so getting info on budgies here isn't easy, even at the store where I bought her. Is that website UK only? If I may ask, how long have you been keeping budgies? The two in your avatar are adorable!

[jellybean]

Your very welcome. Yes, I think the website will be UK only. But at least you know what to buy, and can source them a bit closer to home. I've only had budgies a short while, they are with me 2 years on 9th March. Couldn't imagine life without them. Good luck with your little girl.

[ffiscool]

I had a ceramic container with water in, near the cage. It helped with humidity. You can get them with hooks, to hang nearby