Budgie is looking sick, what do I do?

[ilikebirb]

I got my male budgie Sky about a year ago. Just today we noticed he was very sleepy during the day. When he came out of the cage, he ate a few seeds and then just perched on my hand with his eyes closed. We tried to offer him some spray millet but he wouldn’t take them which was very worrisome because it’s his favourite treat. After I searched the internet, I think he is malnourished.... he only eats seeds, spray millet and lettuce which can’t be good for him. We’ve tried offering him fruit before but he would freak out and get scared of it. My mom put some apple sauce (completely natural apple sauce) in his water bowl which he seemed to really like. I really hope he can become healthy again so we are going to try to feed him more nutrients, do any of you have any suggestions on how I can get him to try new food?

here are some of his symptoms by the way (just in case he isnt malnourished and is actually sick)

- sleepy, eyes closed or one eye closed. Almost no noise unless I pester him.
- refusing food for a while (he ate some food afterwards but I’m worried he’s gonna refuse them again)
- he’s been tripping sometimes while on the top of his wired cage, he‘s fine on perches and on hands though (his nails are pretty long which might be why he’s tripping, I’m quite scared of trimming his nails on my own and my parents don’t want us going to vets because of the pandemic)
-he has also been shaking his wings but this started quite a long time ago (side note: he’s not tame yet so he might be shaking his wings out of fear, his wing shaking was a bit more frequent today probably cuz he thought he was vulnerable while sleepy and possibly sick. We really love him and have been trying to gain his trust but he only perches on our fingers and sometimes allows us to boop him with our noses. I’d really appreciate some taming tips too, if possible)

thanks guys, I hope my little baby will feel better after some more fruits and veggies. Please give me some tips!

 

[Farfah]

Has he been sleepy just today? How long has he been refusing food? If it’s just one day, he may just been having an off day. Sometimes my birds aren’t super active if they haven’t slept well or were especially active the day before. If he has been like this for more than a day, I would say take him to a vet to rule out anything more serious. Vets should have strict COVID safety rules to protect you. You can call the vet to check what they are and let your parents know.

Also my budgies are petrified of fruits and veggies unless I chop them up and put them in a bowl with seeds or sprouts. You could try that. But remember to introduce new foods slowly and make sure he has plenty of his old food to eat too.

Hope your little guy feels better soon!

 

[taxidermynerd]

What do you do? Go to the vet. Malnutrition is very serious.

 

[Shezbug]

Sounds to me like you have little choice about how to tackle this if you want your bird to pull out of this lethargy- from the description of his diet and his behaviour it’s sounds like he needs a qualified vet to look him over and maybe even send you home with some vitamins to bump up and support his health while you work on bettering his diet.
Your bird is better off being offered veggies not fruits- and if you’re choosing to feed the wrong lettuce it’s essentially just filling your little guy up on water.

After you see the vet you might consider looking into pellets and sprouting too.

 

[Mizzely]

It is very hard for us to be able to tell you what is wrong with your bird unfortunately. Even a qualifed vet would have a hard time without seeing your bird. All the vets I know are doing curbside appointments; you drop your bird off and stay in the parking lot. Very little risk to you and staff.

Budgies are pretty resilient on an all seed diet for a while; do you know old he is? I'm not ruling out malnourishment but I'd want a vet to look over my bird before deciding that.... And that's with me having experience with a malnourished bird.

If it is diet related, I would work on pellets if at all possible or at least adding a multivitamin to the diet. Diet changes can take some time.

Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips

A healthy parrot starts with a healthy diet. Although the perfect diet is controversial, many parrot enthusiasts and experts agree on one thing; a seed only diet is a diet that is lacking in essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Studies have shown that adding fresh foods and pellets to a...

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[ilikebirb]

Thanks, everyone (you're all quite quick at answering Lol). My bird seems a lot better now and he was only acting like this today (btw I think he’s about 1 and a half years old). I think I’ll try feeding him some cut-up vegetables every day or so and add more pellets to his seed blend. My dad also ordered some bird vitamins and vegetable sticks. If my bird starts acting up tomorrow we’ll have to contact a vet.
I Felt so scared when he started acting like that since this is my first bird. Your comments are very helpful and I’ll make sure to act on them, thanks again!