Budgie sneezing.

[kjaswal]

Hey All, one of my Budgie sneeze continuously for a while and stop sneezing then. It is like sneezing 10 times together and then not sneezing for a whole day. I don't see any nasal discharge.
It is happening since a month.

[Hezz]

A budgie will sneeze for the same reasons as humans do. Check for dusty seed, dust around the cage; is there a lot of pollen in the air, grasses seeding etc. As there is no discharge, probably not a respiratory infection, and little to worry about.

[karen101]

Rather than start a new thread @kjaswel on of my budgies is the same and sneezes quite a few times in a row. Fred has always sneezed more than his cage mate Monty who I've heard sneeze about twice in six months!!

Hezz it sounds like this might be normal, Fred also doesn't have any discharge. I was thinking of using some Guardian Angel and ordered some last night but do you think this would be pointless? (sorry I know you are not a vet!) When I got the birds when they were babies the breeder said he uses Guardian Angel if any of his birds are under the weather and it tends to work really well.

Thanks!

[Hezz]

My understanding is that GA should be used only as pick me up, not as a general vitamin booster. The trouble with using things like this, meant as a life-saver, all the time is that firstly your birds don’t get to develop a strong immunity system, or other systems for that matter - digestive, respiratory etc - of their own as they are always being propped up by the ingredients in the GA. The other things is a that if used on a regular basis, you then don’t have anything to fall back on when you do have a seriously sick bird; you have already used it.

[karen101]

Thank you Hezz for your response. That does make sense. Is there a good vitamin supplement you'd recommend? I should say that Fred (and Monty) are good eating their veg so maybe they don't need anything extra!

I am not sure if I am being an overworried budgie parent! Funnily enough Fred hasn't sneezed today and I've been with them all day except for 45 mins when I went for my lunchtime walk so maybe he is ok. I also had a really good dust of the front room (where they are) yesterday, it didn't feel that dusty but I am going to be ultra clean I think just in case some dust was irritating him.

[karen101]

Also should have added that pollen is fairly high where I live in the UK at the moment so maybe that isn't helping!

[ffiscool]

Abidec is a good one

[Hezz]

It the budgies eat their greens and yellows, especially carrot, I would be fairly sure that you don’t need anything extra. I very recently took my conure to our vet and listed his diet, asking the question about things like mineral blocks etc, and that was the answer I was given - good variety of veg, making sure to include foods in the orange, red, yellow range and you don’t need to add anything. Mine do also get a great variety of grass which helps immensely, but if yours are not picky eaters, I can’t see that you would have a problem.

I don’t see why pollen wouldn’t affect some birds the same way it affects some humans. This might be drawing a long bow, but the pollen you are getting around London at the moment will not be the same pollen as budgies have evolved with. Your tree pollen may be very foreign to them, causing more irritation than for example the pollen that is around in my general area, even though budgies are only found further inland. The tree species are pretty much the same.