Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Normal Droppings or Illness? (1)

Budgie droppings are not merely a heap of dirt. Sometimes, a closer look may reveal useful information about your bird's state of health. In this, not only consistency and color play an important part, but also the position on the cage floor. Normally, budgies stay on the same spot while they sleep at night. As a consequence, there should be a pile of droppings in the same spot. If the droppings are spread around on the floor, it's possible that the budgie has been disturbed by mites or other parasites while he was trying to get some sleep.

Photo © littleedenphoto on tumblr
What should we look out for?

Normal consistency: A normal dropping of a budgie consists of a dark, firm range and a white urine portion in the center. The urine portion can be a bit more creamy if your budgie recently drank or ate fresh food.


Sometimes the consistency varies a bit, depending on what your budgie ate or drank. There could be signs of indigestion (that go paired with retching or vomiting). If the consistency of the droppings is different from the normal consistency for a period of over two hours, it could indicate the start of an illness. Be careful with this.
 
Abnormal consistency - please take your budgie to the vet ASAP

Photo © Birds Online
The picture above shows the droppings of a budgie that has diarrhoea. The color is greenish and the consistency is rather wet. Wet droppings are never a good sign. If the urine portions contain more water than firm portions, your bird might suffer from a kidney problem. In both cases, you should not be afraid to take your bird to the vet because these illnesses are not taken lightly.

Photo © Birds Online
If your budgie's droppings look like the ones in the above picture, you should definitely be alarmed. The droppings have a rather voluminous consistency and the colour of the edge and the urine portion are the same.This points to a pancreas infection. You have to go to the vet immediately because this can be cured and save your budgie's life!

3 comments:

  1. very important! thank-you for this post! i recently bought a young budgie (10 weeks old) and i have some concerns with the way he sleeps...he goes on the swing at night - coz i hear it rocking...and then sometimes i hear a sound 'thump' he fell off the swing while sleeping and then another moment later, i hear him climbing up again - i suspect that he's used to sleeping in a 'house' or some sort? do you have any suggestions?

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  2. Hi! Sounds like your budgie got really attached to the swing (I know my budgies are) and that's why he wants to sleep on it at night. It's not a bad idea to buy him a little nest or box to sleep in, maybe he will feel a bit safer in there.

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