Recognize a sick bird
Devitalised budgie Nobody knows your bird as good as you. If you remark any deviation from the usual behaviour pattern, this can already indicate a health problem. If a budgerigar is not tame, it may be more difficult to recognize a beginning disease. Therefore, you should observe the bird very closely, because budgies are very good at disguising their actual health state.
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Never show weakness!
If a bird is already suffering from a beginning infectious disease, it will usually try to make a perfectly healthy impression. In fact, this is innate behaviour and part of the survival instinct, because in the wild natural enemies, e. g. birds of prey, will always kill sick and weak flock members. Therefore, it is essential for a sick bird not to show weakness.
This behaviour is also common for pet birds. Typically, a disease is only recognized when it is nearly too late for help. As a responsible pet-owner, you should always be vigilant!
Strange, the bird has never done this before...
The mere thought should put you in absolute alert! If for example, a bird does no longer sleep perching only on one leg during the night, this can be a sign for a beginning disease. Another example is a change in the eating and drinking behaviour. If a bird drinks significantly more than usual, it may suffer from a kidney problem. Another alerting signal may be the fact that the bird eats a lot while constantly losing weight.
When birds are living as couple and one of them is currently not as interested in its mate as usual and rather wants to be left alone, this can also mark the beginning of a disease. However, the reason may also be that the bird is only moulting. If this is not the case, you should be extremely vigilant, because it may be that the bird needs more rest because of a bad health.
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From hotshot to lazybones
If your bird sleeps more than usual without any obvious reason, it is advisable to observe it very closely. A bird sleeping the whole day may be ill or it simply can't sleep in the night because the cage may be populated by mites. If there are mites in the cage can be recognized by the distribution of excrements in the cage. Another reason for sleepless nights may simply be that the cage is located in a place with too much noise.
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Hey, little fatty!
Sick budgie who is fluffed up If the bird looks fluffed up the whole day - thus looking round as a ball - without paying attention to its environment and mates, a beginning or chronic disease may be the reason. A bird with ruffled feathers, dull eyes and without any interest in its flock mates is definitely sick.
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Shaky and cold
Sick birds usually have a lower body temperature, i. e. less than 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees centigrade) and tend to shake heavily, which you can easily recognize looking at the fluffed up feathers. If your bird is tame, you can check the body temperature at the bird's feet. If they are extremely cold, the bird is definitely ill.
Depending on the actual disease, birds may breathe heavily and move their tail feathers up and down at every breath. In this case, the bird may suffer from a (beginning) infection of the respiratory tracts.
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Go to the vet!
After you have recognized that your bird is sick, you should go to a competent vet at once. In addition, the bird must be separated from its mates. Only a vet is able to examine the bird adequately and make a specific diagnosis. Don't hesitate to go to a vet because most diseases can be cured best when recognized in an initial state.
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Just like humans, birds can become sick for a wide variety of reasons. Common problems are infections by bacteria, fungi, yeast or viruses, or attack by parasites such as gut worms or mites and lice, or poor diet. In addition, injury can cause illness in birds.
Birds suffer from digestive system upsets quite frequently. They can be caused by infection, stress or just a sudden change in diet. When birds get diarrhoea they lose large quantities of water in the droppings and as a result they dehydrate. The water lost this way also takes with it many soluble mineral salts known as electrolytes. These include potassium, sodium, magnesium, sulphate and chloride. The loss of these electrolytes is life threatening and they must be replaced urgently.
Loss of appetite
Birds have a huge requirement for regular energy intake. As a result they eat about ten times as much food, compared to their body weight, as we do. Also they don't have significant fat reserves. So a bird that loses its appetite soon finds itself using more energy than it is replacing through the little it is eating. To keep its temperature up it starts to metabolise (burn up) its own tissues so it rapidly loses weight. In only a few days a bird can drop to just half of its normal body weight.
Many birds in actual fact die, not of the effects of the bug that is attacking them, but due to dehydration or starvation!
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