Male budgie with brown cere

[arman5432]

Disclaimer: I have no qualified Avian vets near me. I had a consultation with an avian vet from a different country through video call.

Hi all,

I have owned my 2nd budgie (the one that is currently facing this problem) for about 2 months. I still have my other budgie (female) and she has been with me for 6 months. Both have been living in the same environment. No Teflon, no perfumes, you name it. Ok let's move onto the issue now.

So, when I first got him he had like crust on his cere. It was a mild brown and the previous owners had told me he is healthy as far as they know. They were good people too, they had a nice set up and it was clean. Moving onto the first day I had him. He was very quiet because of the new surroundings. By day 3 onwards he was a happy boy and kept chirping and bobbing his head to the female budgie. Also, before I continue. His chirps are very quiet till this day. When he's extremely happy, he chirps very loud as if he's calling for a mate, but it's sounds like a hawk or something. Anyways, my female budgie didn't like his behaviour.

He stopped doing that after a week and started staying on his own and bobbing and chirping. She disliked that too and chased and attacked him to stop. Eventually he stopped and now he wants his cage 24/7 that's the only place he feels safe. He is extremely quiet throughout the day since that. He doesn't want to move a lot and is falls asleep most of the day due to not eating, so I have to get him down to his food bowl and he does eat.

His cere on the right side, I have noticed it gets really dark and then it gets lighter. My vet said its due to a lack of iodine from a complete seed diet. I'm trying to convert to pellets and have got iodine blocks for him.

Because I do not have a qualified Avian vet, I am posting here for some support, at least something I could do to help.

[arman5432]

[Hezz]

While iodine blocks can be helpful, often the birds won’t touch them. I suggest you ask at your chemist/pharmacy for iodine tincture, concentration 0.25%. Add three drops of this into 100mls of his drinking water each day for a week and then drop the dosage down to one drop once a week. The three drops for a week will bring his iodine levels up to a normal range if this is the problem, and then the once a week drop will give him the top up that his body requires on a regular basis. I hope that makes sense. This is by far the easiest and the quickest way to improve an iodine deficiency and to prevent the problem from reoccurring.

[Marianne Marlow]

How is your budgie now? did you try the iodine that Hezz suggested?