HELPPP!

[hiriki]

I have a couple of guesses--and the core reason behind all of my guesses is that she's bored. She could be making noise (birds like to tap sometimes, just a totally normal thing that they think is fun). Or, since you have to open that little door to remove/refill/put back the plastic bowl, it's possible that she's in the process of trying to figure out how to open the door herself, which I can tell you from experience that a determined bird can and WILL figure out how to open those doors lol.

Since you're in the recovery process and starting to think about making her more comfortable as a part of your family, I think now might be a good time to think about a permanent cage. You haven't posted pictures/video that show the whole cage, but that style of cage is familiar to me so I'm fairly confident that it's not really big enough for a full time cage. Members of this forum love to give cage feedback and recommendations, so you can always take pics showing the full cage setup and we'll give you more specific pointers, but some basic rules of thumb that I go by are:

1) you should have multiple perch diameters, and the dowel perches that come with the cage are not enough. At minimum, you need dowels of multiple different thicknesses to keep your bird's feet healthy, and ideally you should have natural perches because the texture is better for your bird's feet.
For example: https://www.amazon.com/Grinding-Parakeet-Exercise-Training-Cockatiels/dp/B09V6SD3DS
2) you need plenty of destructible toys in the cage. I would aim for 3-4 toys with different materials (different birds like to chew different things!) Paper, cardboard, balsa wood. Your bird should be able to shred the toys. Plastic toys are not going to be fun for the majority of birds, so I wouldn't recommend bothering with those, just go straight for the destructible toys.
Examples:
https://www.amazon.com/KATUMO-Foraging-Shredder-Cockatiel-Lovebird/dp/B0CSK4DFFD/

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

3) a bird should be able to comfortably fly from one perch to another in their cage--and because you need to also have room for a variety of perches and toys, I can almost guarantee you're going to need a bigger cage than you have.

 

[cikajova]

I have a couple of guesses--and the core reason behind all of my guesses is that she's bored. She could be making noise (birds like to tap sometimes, just a totally normal thing that they think is fun). Or, since you have to open that little door to remove/refill/put back the plastic bowl, it's possible that she's in the process of trying to figure out how to open the door herself, which I can tell you from experience that a determined bird can and WILL figure out how to open those doors lol.

Since you're in the recovery process and starting to think about making her more comfortable as a part of your family, I think now might be a good time to think about a permanent cage. You haven't posted pictures/video that show the whole cage, but that style of cage is familiar to me so I'm fairly confident that it's not really big enough for a full time cage. Members of this forum love to give cage feedback and recommendations, so you can always take pics showing the full cage setup and we'll give you more specific pointers, but some basic rules of thumb that I go by are:

1) you should have multiple perch diameters, and the dowel perches that come with the cage are not enough. At minimum, you need dowels of multiple different thicknesses to keep your bird's feet healthy, and ideally you should have natural perches because the texture is better for your bird's feet.
For example: https://www.amazon.com/Grinding-Parakeet-Exercise-Training-Cockatiels/dp/B09V6SD3DS
2) you need plenty of destructible toys in the cage. I would aim for 3-4 toys with different materials (different birds like to chew different things!) Paper, cardboard, balsa wood. Your bird should be able to shred the toys. Plastic toys are not going to be fun for the majority of birds, so I wouldn't recommend bothering with those, just go straight for the destructible toys.
Examples:
https://www.amazon.com/KATUMO-Foraging-Shredder-Cockatiel-Lovebird/dp/B0CSK4DFFD/

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

3) a bird should be able to comfortably fly from one perch to another in their cage--and because you need to also have room for a variety of perches and toys, I can almost guarantee you're going to need a bigger cage than you have.

Oh okay thats good news. I didnt think that i would need a bigger cage, in the pet shop they asked me how many birds do i have and said that this should be a plenty of room for one. I will look into more toys and a new cage but first things first i want to tame her so that i can start letting her out. I can see that she has been much less afraid of me so thats something.

Also, i cant thank you enough and other people for supporting me through this journey with her. You have been of so much help that i cant describe it. I dont know what would have happened with budgie if it was not for you and other people. If i see you one day you have a drink on me and my little budgie.

 

[hiriki]

Yea, I wouldn't be worried about that behavior! When birds get bored they start doing really weird things lol. And you're so welcome, I'm just really happy this birdie is still doing well... by the time they look as rough as she did on day 1, it's often too late, so this is a really happy story <3

Regarding the pet store advising you on size, that really doesn't surprise me... I say this with love but, I have worked at pet stores and of course shopped at pet stores, and both from a customer perspective and also just talking about the people I worked with when I was an employee at Petsmart, pet store employees don't know much about any pet that isn't a dog. Lol. In fact, my coworkers would talk openly about how much they hated birds and always groaned and whined about having to feed the birds or heaven forbid, catch one to sell to a customer. I wouldn't trust any of those bird-haters to give a customer an accurate idea of what makes a good bird cage

It is a common rule of thumb that if your bird can stretch both wings in their cage, the cage is big enough, and frankly... stand up in the room you're in right now and hold both arms up and notice how you have WAY more space than just your "wingspan," and then imagine that you have to spend 24/7 in that room. Most cages that say "parakeet cage" on the box are NOT big enough for a budgie, in my opinion. Something marked as a "cockatiel cage" would be a more appropriate size for 1 budgie.

I hunted through my camera roll to find a picture of the cage setup I did for a lovebird (which are roughly the same size as a budgie) so I could show you as an example:

I do want to clarify, this is much bigger than is really necessary. I tend to go big with cages. But, it's a good example of the types of perches and toys that will be enriching for a budgie, laid out in a way where the bird can reach all of the toys from a perch. And there's really no such thing as "too big" for a cage (as long as the bar width is appropriate & the bird can't get their head stuck between bars), so it's still a fine example.

 

[cikajova]

Yea, I wouldn't be worried about that behavior! When birds get bored they start doing really weird things lol. And you're so welcome, I'm just really happy this birdie is still doing well... by the time they look as rough as she did on day 1, it's often too late, so this is a really happy story <3

Regarding the pet store advising you on size, that really doesn't surprise me... I say this with love but, I have worked at pet stores and of course shopped at pet stores, and both from a customer perspective and also just talking about the people I worked with when I was an employee at Petsmart, pet store employees don't know much about any pet that isn't a dog. Lol. In fact, my coworkers would talk openly about how much they hated birds and always groaned and whined about having to feed the birds or heaven forbid, catch one to sell to a customer. I wouldn't trust any of those bird-haters to give a customer an accurate idea of what makes a good bird cage

It is a common rule of thumb that if your bird can stretch both wings in their cage, the cage is big enough, and frankly... stand up in the room you're in right now and hold both arms up and notice how you have WAY more space than just your "wingspan," and then imagine that you have to spend 24/7 in that room. Most cages that say "parakeet cage" on the box are NOT big enough for a budgie, in my opinion. Something marked as a "cockatiel cage" would be a more appropriate size for 1 budgie.

I hunted through my camera roll to find a picture of the cage setup I did for a lovebird (which are roughly the same size as a budgie) so I could show you as an example:
View attachment 59165

I do want to clarify, this is much bigger than is really necessary. I tend to go big with cages. But, it's a good example of the types of perches and toys that will be enriching for a budgie, laid out in a way where the bird can reach all of the toys from a perch. And there's really no such thing as "too big" for a cage (as long as the bar width is appropriate & the bird can't get their head stuck between bars), so it's still a fine example.

Thank you so much again! Thanks from my budgie too, if she only knew how much people from this forum, especially you, helped her in getting better she would be really thankful i believe. Of course, i will probably get on your nerves again if something happens with her, or i need some kind of advice. Either way i will update you as time passes. Love❤️

 

[cikajova]

Found this a little while ago. Did she maybe injure her head while jumping around the cage?

 

[hiriki]

I don't think that's probably what that is--actually, I'm now wondering if the eye crust is actually mites, not an infection, now you've found another crusty spot... I feel kind of silly that I didn't think of this earlier. It would make sense, mites can easily be caught outside...

If it is mites, then unfortunately most at home mite treatments don't work, you'll very likely need an actual prescription mite medication to get rid of them and I'm not sure a cat/dog vet would have that since bird mites are different than the mites that infect cats and dogs.

Mites are really tiny so you probably can't see them with your eyes but try looking real close at her to see if you see tiny tiny moving black or red spots. You can also look at the cage floor, if you line with paper towel then sometimes the contrast between the plain white and the red/black mites is enough to catch some tiny moving spots

 

[hiriki]

How To Get Rid of Bird Mites: Signs, Treatment and Prevention

Learn about three common bird mites that affect pet birds, the signs of an infestation and how to get rid of them.

be.chewy.com

 

[cikajova]

I don't think that's probably what that is--actually, I'm now wondering if the eye crust is actually mites, not an infection, now you've found another crusty spot... I feel kind of silly that I didn't think of this earlier. It would make sense, mites can easily be caught outside...

If it is mites, then unfortunately most at home mite treatments don't work, you'll very likely need an actual prescription mite medication to get rid of them and I'm not sure a cat/dog vet would have that since bird mites are different than the mites that infect cats and dogs.

Mites are really tiny so you probably can't see them with your eyes but try looking real close at her to see if you see tiny tiny moving black or red spots. You can also look at the cage floor, if you line with paper towel then sometimes the contrast between the plain white and the red/black mites is enough to catch some tiny moving spots

I dont know, that bald spot now mostly disappeared, maybe she fell while playing and that spot just got uncovered. I have a white paper on the bottom of the cage and i cant see anything. Im just noticing now a good amount of feathers on the floor tho. I will send you a video later so that you can see.

 

[cikajova]

Here she is

 

[cikajova]

Budgie sadly died. I just noticed now when i was about to put her to sleep. Thank you all for help, i hope i gave her at least a peaceful death. She was just starting to get more and more cheerful and today i noticed that she was more quiet and that bald spot on the head. It was probably the mites so i was giving her the wrong treatment whole time.

 

[cikajova]

At least she showed me how beautiful parrots are and i will get a new one probably.

 

[hiriki]

Budgie sadly died. I just noticed now when i was about to put her to sleep. Thank you all for help, i hope i gave her at least a peaceful death. She was just starting to get more and more cheerful and today i noticed that she was more quiet and that bald spot on the head. It was probably the mites so i was giving her the wrong treatment whole time.

I'm so sorry to hear this 😔 I feel awful that I didn't think of mites earlier, it doesn't surprise me that a cat/dog vet didn't identify that as the issue... it also could have been a lot of other things that haven't even occurred to me, that's kind of the struggle with avian vet care is that only a specialized vet is really going to have the tools to help you. Either way, I'm sure that this sweet bird appreciated spending his final days in a warm home with plenty of food and water.