Possible sick budgie

[dljas]

One of my youngest budgies had quite a lot of missing feathers above his/her cere, and the skins very red. At first I thought he was just having a rough moult, but definitely not. There are little dots where the feathers once were. He’s in a cage with his dad and his cousin who’s about the same age but weirdly small. Should I be worried? Are they just plucking him (which is easy to deal with) or could he have something like PBFD? He hasn’t showed any signs before. How do I post photos here? I really need some help, if this is a contagious disease I want to know so I can quarantine him and prevent my other parrots from getting it. His cage was right next to my ekkie.. please give me some advice!

[Marianne Marlow]

to post photos you need to be in "desktop mode", then a button appears` in the reply box to add images to post.

[dljas]

Oct 5, 2019 15:35:38 GMT Marianne Marlow said:

to post photos you need to be in "desktop mode", then a button appears` in the reply box to add images to post.

Alright, added a pic

[samwiseg]

To me that just looks like a moult

Budgies do get feather loss and it shows pink skin above their ceres, plus those little black dots are the new feathers coming through

She also looks like a hen to me too

Hope that helps

[Jane]

skysmum has a budgie called Bumble who has really bad moults so maybe she can review this picture when she’s online next to compare. Yes agree with samwiseg, you have a girl there 😊

[Shirls]

Yes looks like a really bad moult to me too. Some birds seem to suffer more than others sometimes. See if you can encourage them to bathe, or use a gentle tepid spray mist which may help.

She's an adorable little budgie too!

[Hezz]

It just looks like a normal moult to me. This will happen a few times a year, and affect some birds more than others. It is not uncommon for a budgie to lose a lot of head feathers so that their forehead appears rather bald, and then red and prickly as the new feathers start to poke through the skin.

[dljas]

Oct 5, 2019 17:11:47 GMT samwiseg said:

To me that just looks like a moult

Budgies do get feather loss and it shows pink skin above their ceres, plus those little black dots are the new feathers coming through

She also looks like a hen to me too

Hope that helps

Thanks a lot! That was my first thought, but I own 26 budgies and have never had this problem haha it’s good to know it’s just a moult. I’ve been quite busy, and wasn’t really paying attention to her gender at the time. I see what you’re talking about, she definitely does look like a hen. But she is only a few months old, so the cere probably has some more changing to do before we can be sure.