Budgie losing a lot of feathers

[jason96]

Hi there!

I have a female budgie named Betty who is roughly 1 and a half years old. Last night I noticed she had lost a lot of feathers. I just assumed she was moulting, but this morning I've noticed that she's beginning to look really patchy and that she's over preening (potentially plucking). Every time she preens, she ends up with a feather in her beak and drops it so I'm scared she might actually be pulling them out as she doesn't normally look so patchy when she moults.

Has anyone seen this before? Is there something wrong with her or do you think she's just going through a heavy moult?


Some extra information: 

• Her poops look normal
• She is behaving how she normally would, excluding the over preening
• I thought she might be bored at first so let her out of her cage, but this hasn't changed anything
• Her cage is clean
• Her last shower was under a week ago
• She is on a seed diet but has fresh veg frequently 
• I saw her getting jiggy with a male budgie for the first time a few nights ago, so she could be hormonal 

Update: Picture taken right now, she's looking worse. Can confirm she's losing them to over preening or plucking and that they aren't just falling out.

[Morgan]

I don’t have any experience be with feather plucking in budgies. Someone should be along soon to help though! Hang in there

[Hezz]

If she is wanting to mate, the feather pulling might possibly be due to her wanting to line a nest. A hen will sometimes pull her chest bare (her brood patch) to keep eggs warm while she incubates. Without a nest or eggs, I don’t really expect this to be the case, but budgies are not prone to over-preening or feather-plucking. Boredom could be a factor, and being kept cage-bound can’t be all that good for her mental or physical health.

[Morgan]

Well, per the photos provided she doesn’t exactly look cage-bound, but perhaps she needs additional time out of the cage to fly around and explore?

jason96 How often is she out?

Could she just be going through a rough molt? Her down still looks in tact at least. That is all I can think of. Keep an eye on her and I suppose I wouldn’t worry unless I saw clear bald spots to her skin appearing.

If she is seeming broody, you can also increase her sleep/dark hours, meaning no artificial light at all and cage covered and quiet for sleep for a minimum of 12 hours a night, but 13 might be better.

[jason96]

Thank you all for your replies!

The plucking has reduced a lot today. She's still preening a lot though and is eating A LOT of cuttlefish. She has no bald spots, she's just very patchy.

Hezz a lot of other people on other websites have pointed out the same thing, so I've bought her a nest just in case! She seems wary of it and hasn't approached it though, I'll give her time to get used to it being there.

Morgan She's typically out for 3-4 days a week for an average of 6 hours. She usually goes back into her cage herself, I don't force her as she isn't tame. So far there aren't clear bald spots, she's just looking really patchy. She's usually goes through very light moults but I think her going through a heavy one would be the best case scenario.

[Hezz]

Sorry, I misunderstood your comment about letting her out, thinking that that wasn’t something you often did. . Glad she has plenty of time out and in-cage boredom is not likely the problem. I wouldn’t give her a nest box unless you are wanting her to breed. A pair can mate without necessarily producing eggs if there is nothing in the cage that resembles a nesting site.

Given that she doesn’t seem so bad already, I expect this is just a heavy moult rather than a more serious plucking issue. I’d wait and see how she looks in a couple of weeks’ time when new feathers would be normally growing in. Some moults are heavier than others and can leave a budgie looking rather scrappy.

[Morgan]

jason96 - Hezz is usually spot on in these matters! The nest box will give her a place to lay eggs and encourage egg laying if that is what you want, but otherwise there are ways to deter her from mating and laying eggs if you don’t want the responsibility of watching over a clutch and the complications that can come with it!

If she isn’t actually getting bald patches it’s likely just a heavy molt. She may appreciate a bit of extra warmth when in her cage if you have a ceramic heat coil that doesn’t produce light, or even a heating pad under just half the cage, or hot water bottle rolled up in a towel placed inside the cage. Even a warm incandescent bulb on the outside of the cage but behind a cover so it isn’t bright, may help. Just make sure that whatever the source she can move away from it too if she gets too warm.

She may also enjoy eating some boiled egg to replenish her protein for growing all those new feathers at once! A heavy molt can cause some mild symptoms of illness, such as napping more, being less active, and perhaps a bit fluffed up,so don’t be too alarmed. But do keep a close eye on her if she is feeling a bit under the weather because a heavy molt will be using up her energy more quickly.

[mona]

The left one is Breezie (the white & blue one) in Oct 2020 and the one on the right is from Dec 2020. They had a really rough moult..
Breezie's skin above the cere was visible in both the moults he had, since I have him. He really looked like an old man.

He looks much better. They kept me on my toes..with egg food, protein rich pulse diet (moong beans, brown & white chickpea, carrot, a bit of red millet/finger millet, etc), keeping them warm, letting them rest inside cage and they slept almost the entire day..




He had a lot of spiky pin feathers above his cere and it took a long time for all feathers to grow back..

[jason96]

Here is a better picture of her now that she's in her cage:


You can see that she's lost a lot but i wouldn't really consider them bald spots, more so just patches?

Hezz Morgan Thank you both for your help, I was panicking at first because she's never gone through a heavy moult before but this has been really reassuring. I'll still keep an eye on her in case it could be something else but I think you might both be right, she does seem tired (but not in a concerning way and doesn't seem to be displaying signs of illness). I've offered her egg before and she ignored it but i'll try again, thank you so much!

Edit: And thank you for educating me about nesting, I admittedly don't know too much about it so assumed, that when people on other sites told me that she might be looking to nest, that she was egg bound and needed a place to lay them. She was scared of the nest anyway and didn't go near it lol. 

Edit 2: She threw herself into her water bowl hahaha, I think it's definitely a heavy moult. I'll give her a shower and prepare some eggs for her.

mona He's so cute!
My Mango went through a very similar moult on his head but it was over within a few days. I'm glad your Breezie got through it, it's good that you were prepared!

[mona]

Thank you dear... Cookie and Breezie both are indeed cute 🥰 I guess, we, bird owners are always biased with birdies. We find every birdie cute 😍

People on the forum also suggest using commercial dry egg food if they aren't interested in egg.. Mine weren't eating as well..but I started mashing boiled egg yolk and a bit of white in their existing veggie chop and soft food mix.. that worked for them after a few attempts..so I didn't have to find the dry egg food.. Spray bath helps them with softening the hard sheath around feathers..however, during moult they are prone to cold since they are loosing feathers that keep them warm..also susceptible to illnesses, since they are weak at that time.. Vit C helps with that and I generally provide bell peppers and brocolli to deal with the Vit C intake.

Not sure if you need this info, still.. as far as I have learnt, feather production needs lysine (found in egg, fenugreek seeds - cooked or sprouted, whole legumes) and cystine rich diet (sunflower seeds, hemp seed, chia seed, sesame, flax seeds, cashew, almonds). However sunflower seeds and dry fruits are very high in fat, so I provide those only in the worst of their moult period for energy, if required). Increase in cystine levels also requires birdies to sleep more. That's the reason to let them sleep as much as they want during the day. Also, for feather color and pigmentation, Vitamin A works well (spinach - occasional due to calcium binding, carrot, broccoli, bell pepper, kale, etc). The biotin content of Vitamin B is also required for feather production, however it's self generated and a very little amount is found in egg. Red millet or finger millet contains carotene which is good for feather color.. plus calcium intake via cuttlefish bone or mineral block a bit in quinoa as well..

I had followed this diet during the current moult and I actually saw a difference in the feather quality 🧡

[Hezz]

If Betty won’t eat cooked egg, try with dried commercial egg food. Some budgies seem to go for one but not the other. Mine will happily munch on the egg food but not a boiled egg. The good thing about the egg food, being dry, is that you don’t have to remove it from the cage after an hour or two. Tired and grumpy are often side effects of heavy moults.

[Morgan]

To try and get her to eat the boiled egg you can prepare it in different ways, sliced, mashed, chopped, etc., and sprinkle a little seed on top to catch her interest. Otherwise dry commercial egg food is a good backup. I don’t know if any exist without sugar though - I only did a brief search because mine do eat boiled egg just fine, but the dry ones I looked at all seemed to have sugar and lots of other ingredients.

[jason96]

Hezz
An update on Betty. I uncovered her this morning and she now looks like this. Do you think this still looks normal for a heavy moult or is it now a cause for concern?

Edit: I still don't think it's an internal health problem because (apart from looking a little sleepy), she looks and is acting perfectly normal. Poops are still healthy. I've noticed she's been rubbing her head on the cage bars, so maybe it could be mites?

[Hezz]

Rubbing her head could just be her way of helping relieve the itch of the pin feathers on her head, if she has any, particularly if the male doesn’t preen her, but her chest area is looking much more than just a heavy moult, and I don’t see any pin feathers anywhere else, on her head for instance.

It doesn’t look like typical mites to me - you have scaly mites that affect the beak and cere mostly and sometimes the feet and legs, feather mites that chew on the feathers so that you can see the damage particularly on the long feathers - tail and flights, air sac mites that live in the air sacs, so it’s not going to be them, red mites that are a bit*h to get rid of (not had that dubious pleasure, thankfully) or lice. You could try putting clean white paper down on the floor of her cage every day and clean for overnight as well, to see if you can see anything abnormal on the paper in the morning. If she has red mites feeding on her, you should be able to see small red specks on the paper in the morning as they feed overnight. This may help you understand red mites more easily:

poultrykeeper.com/external-problems/red-mite

Is her skin healthy looking where she has been plucking? I’m going to use that word now, as that definitely is a bald patch. In the photo it looks like it might be irritated, a bit red and inflamed, but might be just the photo. As I said before, budgies aren’t known for feather mutilation or plucking. Yes it does happen sometimes, but usually associated with loneliness, boredom or stress but it would seem that none of these factors should apply. Has anything changed for her recently? There may be an underlying health reason for her doing this but I think you are going to need to seek professional help to find an answer, unfortunately.

Mites are relatively easy to treat - 0.1% Ivermectin, one drop on the back of the neck (skin) once a week for three weeks, and a good deep cage clean each time you do so, but red mites live in the cracks and ends of anything wooden during the day so not so easily rid of unless you are prepared to throw away all your wooden perches and toys. I think this is one where you might save yourself a lot of grief if you get a profession opinion sooner rather than later. As you can see there are a number of things that could be causing her bald patch.

[jason96]

Hezz

Thank you for the info.
I've never had a bald budgie before so I don't have much to compare her to apart from online pictures, but her skin looks a little darker than what I'm seeing.

I've took your advice and have her booked in to see a professional later today, I'll keep you posted.

Thank you so much for all of the help you've provided for me over the past couple of days, I really appreciate it!

Edit: We're back from the vet. They said they couldn't see anything physically wrong with her and think it's just a psychological problem (stress or boredom related). They gave me some anti inflammatory gel to rub on her twice a day.