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Parakeet Health Problems

Once you have become familiar with your bird’s everyday behaviour, you will very quickly notice when something is wrong. You don’t have to be an expert in diagnosing specific diseases in parakeets, as long as you can spot when the bird is acting out of character.

Parakeet Health Check

If you are keeping your parakeets in an aviary, illnesses will be much harder to spot and the chances of the disease spreading from one bird to another are much higher. So make sure you always check up on your bird’s health. Parakeets, like many other animals, are annoyingly good at hiding the symptoms of an ailment until it gets very serious. This helps in the wild, as an ill bird is more likely to get picked off by a predator, but it isn’t much help when they are kept in captivity.

Once you have managed to identify an ill bird, a trip to the vet should be top priority, and you should not delay this in hope of saving money on the vet’s bill. Think of it as a trip to the cinema or restaurant, a small price to pay for saving your bird’s life!

You should choose a vet who specialises in birds. If they ever tell you that small birds such as budgerigars cannot be treated, choose another vet! This assertion is untrue, but in the past decades has been often used as a cold comfort by vet surgeries more used to treating cats and dogs.


 parakeets and other pets
Health problems can spread quickly in crowded cages

Examining a Parakeet

There are a number of ailments that can afflict your pet birds. The one thing you should be doing is keeping an eye out for any symptoms, and to promptly call a vet as soon as a problem is spotted.

You can also gently examine your birds yourself, to check for problems such as wounds and lice. A finger-trained parakeet will be easy to coax onto your hand. Once they’re there, gently grip your bird as described in the Holding a Parakeet, above. Make your examination as quick as possible in order to not make your bird too anxious.

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Comments Leave a comment

Leo, 5 March 2020

My female budgie’s sere has changed to blue. She had been ill for about a month, having what looks like wet head feathers and red rimmed eyes, sleeping a lot, has diarrhoea, but still eating and drinking as usual. She had this, recovered for a couple of weeks and is now like it again. She is apx sixish


Shane, 20 January 2020

Im no expert or anything but just got off the phone with my local vet. They normally charge $63, but since they are a local vet clinic and i am local the first one is free. it may be a long shot but call around your local vet office and see if they have a deal for new pets. Most do just to get you in and hope you return the favor by making them your pets vets. Also ive read, you should get birds to the vets right after buying to see what kind of health care the pet store you bought them from provided. I've also read having a regular vet for your birds can lead to better trust, and less stress on the birds. Take care of your pets, as if your were that pet. Also research your pets and right down any questions you might have for your vet. And by "local vet offices" i dont mean big corp. stores like petco. i mean a locally sourced or family owned vet office, that takes cares of birds.


Sandra, 31 October 2019

I think my budgie has got air sack mites he keeps squeaking and making funny sounds ,he is still eating and drinking but doesn't talk as much ,is there something I can put in his water


Sue, 2 October 2019

Hi my bird got abscess below eye.is it better to pop it all leave it


Jane, 26 August 2019

I'm going to briefly step on my soapbox & leave a comment for the sake off all the budgies & other birds in people's care. I cannot stress how important it is to find an avian (bird), veterinarian to take your birds- for at least a yearly check up. Besides diagnosing and treating a bird when they're ill, a good avian doctor will enlighten you to practical things you can do in to make life for you and your budgie & other birds healthier & happier. I had a budgie that was a chronic egg layer. At the time, I had all female budgies and was clueless about the sun's powerful egg triggering effect on birds. I also had no idea how much calcium was being depleted from my poor bird. Thankfully my avian vet caught this on a check up & gave her a hormone injection to stop egg production; but he also prescribed to ME that I put BLACK OUT ON ALL THE WINDOWS in the rooms that birds were in. I also had to get BLACK OUT COVERS FOR THEIR CAGES. It was so simple: I WAS TO CONTROL THE DAYLIGHT. 14 hours may seem like a long time for a bird to be in black out, but I assure you that she fared quite well; not only did she stop laying eggs, but she became happier bird & got along well with the others. As she grew older I was able to reduce the amount of black out to 12 hours. The other birds all did fine with this. No eggs, No calcium loss, no hormonal behavior; just happy budgies. She had one hormone injection and never needed another.