Semi Passive Bird

[Budgiefeets]

Story:

We have this green female budgie and we dont know her age since we got her from our neighbor that wanted to buy a "blue bird" from a old grumpy breeder that sold budgies. So when the neighbor came home and opened the cardboard box, then it was this green female budgie. And ofc it made a mess around the cage cuz thats what bird does. So our neighbor dident want to have a bid anyway since she her appartment is almost sterile clean. So we adopted her and asked about her age and stuff. But these information was not given by the breeder since he was a grumpy old man.

We have a great time with the female budgie and we love and spoil her.

problem:

Recently she became more passive and most of the day just wants to be inside her cage or on top of it, when she is out.

She has a open cage where she can roam free outside from 8 in the morning to 22.00 in the evening. But lately she just want to be near her cage or inside. When i try to get her out with my finger then she just sort of licks my finger for a bit until i try to lure her out.

She dosent chirp as much like she did before. This has been going on since a few weeks in last month.

We give her vitamins and carrots and she eats/drinks like normal.

She dosent look sick since she preens herself and climbs in the dreamcatchers and i can kiss her on her belly.

We think that she might be depressed over not having a mate, but we dont want another bird since my mother has allergy, but can tolerate 1 birds mess. And we dont want baby budgies im our small appartment

I interact with her 1-2 h in the evening when i come home from work. And she does sit on my finger but looks over at her cage like she rather be there.

Is it some sort of winter depression or what is going on ?

[Hezz]

How long have you had her, how long did the neighbour have her? Just to get some idea of her age, whether she is six years old or six months.
Another question: has she lost a cage mate, or never had one?

A couple of hours interaction each day is really not enough to keep her stimulated which is why we would normally suggest you get her a friend in these circumstances, but of course that doesn’t fit everyone’s life. Hens are generally not as active as they get older but it does sound as though she is either lonely or bored, or both. Older birds are generally not too interested in playing with toys either, but does she have plenty of shredable toys to keep her busy?

A winter depression? It is a possibility that she may be lacking in Vit D. Are you able to get something such as Vetafarm’s Soluvite D? I understand that enabling her to get a consistent time in unfiltered sunlight may not be an option, so a supplement may help.

Apart from these small changes, I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of ideas.

[Budgiefeets]

We had her for 3 years and she allready was showing her gender on her cere when we got her, so at least she is 3 ½ year if we believe she was a baby. But she can aswell be 5-7. We dont know but i guess at least 4 years.

She had a femeale friend for few weeks that we bought to give her company but they could not get along well and the new budgie was stressed allready when we got her. So we returned her to the breeder sadly...

But she have never missed that "friend" She is very in love with me. So she see me as a bird allmost

She has a world full of toys. 5 playgrounds full of toys we bought and made for her + some dream catchers she loves to destroy.

We give her vitamins and have 2 bottles of fluid vitamins that comes in her water dayli.

But we observed her droppings seems to be very green..Like very greenish. So we think she had a bad stomach pain.
We gave her some medicine we had from last time she was sick. Seems to work right away.

[Budgiefeets]

We will keep giving her meds for a week. And hopefully she gets better and more playfull

[Hezz]

Good news that she seems to be recovering. Be very careful using old medications, check that they have been stored properly and are within their use-by date. Probiotics, bird or human, may be more helpful than all the extra vitamin supplements. Vit D is different as they need a constant source but cannot store it in the body, plus sunshine just makes everyone feel better!

[Budgiefeets]

We called the vet and asked if we could use the medication we stored in the fridge.
And they said we could use it. She needs 1-2 drops each day for 1 week or less if she recovers fast.
It seems like the 2 drops we gave her allready works wonder since her droppings looks normal again.
I also gave her minced carrot that she ate some of.

Last time she was like this, then she recovered fast after she got the meds.
We dont know why she have these stomach problems that makes her droppings all greenish.
Like neon green glow to em. She dosent bite in any flowers and she dosent eat human food beside carrot.

We keep her seeds and water clean each day and her cage / playgrounds

[Hezz]

Very bright green poop usually is an indication that the budgie is not eating enough. Perhaps look at her seed and think about how you store it, how old it might be, is there any sign of mould, any insects that might be in it. If you store it in the freezer there should not be any bugs in it or any that were there will be killed off and prevent any mould from growing.

[Budgiefeets]

She has a seed stick and a millet and a seed bell inside her cage and we fill up her littel bowl in the mirror each day.
Since she dosent eat from the seed holders that came with the cage due to they are in the lower part of the cage.
She never sits in the lower part of the cage for some reason. So we installed 2 mirrors outside her cage also with food bawls fillet up with seeds. Its like a open buffet resturant for her where she can eat all she wants from 7 to 22 clock where she can free roam. She eats alot in the evening between 18-20 clock and she gained 4 gram since we last weight her.



So we fill up seeds in bawl on her play ground that we keep clean and fill with seeds. She eats mostly from her playgrounds.
There are no bugs or mould in her food.

Do you store seeds in the freezer ?

We store the seeds in the kitchen drawer where the seedbag is sealed

[Hezz]

I always freeze seed for at least 48hrs after I buy new stuff, as I have mentioned if there are any bugs in the seed they will be killed off by the frigid temperatures. 24hrs should be long enough, I usually forget to pull the seed out until a day or two later but there is no time limit for how long to freeze. It is a good practice to get into.

[Budgiefeets]

How long time do you then let it defrost before you can serve it ?

Also she is in her molting period. She is sleepy and less active.
But her poo looks normal and she does chirp a bit and preens herself.

She just wants to sit in her dream catcher that she destroyed or transformed to a resting place.

I tryed to to let her sit on my finger but she just kissed my finger and dident want to step up.

Like she tells me that she wants to sit and sleep for a bit.

Thats seems to be normal right ?

[Hezz]

Well seed doesn’t actually freeze as it has no moisture content, so you can use it straight from the freezer but I usually wait until the bag it is in has dried out before putting it into an air-tight container. And bugs’ eggs or larva in the seed will be frozen and die as they do contain water.

Being quiet and a bit grumpy are typical moulting characteristics; very good that her poop is back to normal.

[Budgiefeets]

Seems like it was molting sickness with a bit of stomack pain. She is more active now but loosing feathers here and there.
She does like to be scratched in her head with my nose