Weird behaviour in my 8 month old Budgie

[Nwgirl2112]

So I don't really know whats going on with Little Bird. A quick background- He landed on my porch in early May, I tried to find his owners for a solid month but then resigned to being the new owner of a parakeet. I have done a ton of research since then and have tried to get to know this little guy and make friends with him. I used some online resources and from his stripings and the lack of color in is cere, I figured he was around 4 or 5 months when he found me. Which means he's probably 8 to 9 months old now. About 2 months ago I started noticing this odd behaviour.. (See videos) its almost like he's chewing or mouthing a lot. I have scoured the internet and different forums to see if anyone knows what this is about, and haven't found much like it. The first video is what it progressed to, where it seemed to become an actual crop issue.... he started to stretch his neck and seem like he was struggling there. When I saw that I immediately took him to the vet, and they did a crop flush. That seemed to take the problem away for about a week, but then I noticed the chewing behaviour return. I returned to a different vet last week to see if they could do a more thorough exam. (Note: I live in a small town, we have no specific avian vets, but 2 vets that have experience with small birds and can do basic care and check ups. The first Vet I went to I wasn't a fan of, he didn't really examine LB, he just listened to my symptoms, watched the video, and gave him a crop flush with mineral oil. I found out this second vet i took him to this a few weeks ago had a little more experience with birds, and is the local vet that gets called when any wild birds have issues.) Anyway, I took him in again 2 weeks ago, and unfortunately came up with no answers. This Vet agreed there is definitely something going on, as this isn't a behavior she has seen in any of the birds she's worked with.

Yesterday I made the 6 hour roundtrip drive to Boise to get him to an Avian specific vet. When I arrived the vet was very nice, watched the videos, listened to everything I explained, and did an exam. The reason I took him to the local vet 2 weeks ago is he started sneezing a lot. I don't know if it has to do with the changing of the seasons, but I'm worried that whatever this issue is might be weakening his immune system. They are wet sneezes, but he hasn't had any discharge or build up on his cere, or nostril area. The local vet thinks that if seeds are caught in his crop or throat that it might be causing the sneezing. Yesterday the vet says it seems like he has a sinus infection, but I get the feeling she was guessing as she didn't really do any tests, just based it on the fact that he was sneezing. Either way she gave me medicine for the sinus infection that I have to give him every 12 hours and I started that last night. The more concerning thing is- she thinks the chewing/mouthing behavior is sexual frustration??? That what he is doing is regurgitation because of the hormones, but I can't find ANYWHERE that someone has seen this. He isn't actually regurgitating though?? I really don't know what to think because he is doing it more and more every week, and he has started doing the neck stretching thing again. I'll add some videos down below so you can see what i'm talking about. I guess I'm hoping to get some opinions from other Budgie owners, has anyone seen this behavior in their birds? Know if it is indicative of some issue going on?

Other things worth mentioning.....
1. For the most part he is a friendly little guy, but there are days where he seems to be more agitated and aggressive, nips more and wants to be left alone. My guess is it has to do with whatever is going on??

2. Another concerning behaviour is when we are playing and he's tapping his beak on my nails, occasionally seeds will just fall out of his beak. He's not regurgitating or vomiting, they just sort of fall out. It even seems to surprise him a little!

Thank you for taking time to read this and any advice would be so amazingly helpful!!


Melissa and Little Bird



Videos:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De0vs6uFOc0&feature=share"]September 15, 2019 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwO_DX0Z0bE&feature=share"]September 15, 2019 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Riah-jKWs&feature=share"]Little Bird weird mouthing behavior - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV-pGK67InA&feature=share"]Little Bird weird behavior - YouTube[/ame]
(This last video is from this morning)

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome aboard Melissa and Little Bird, he sure is a little cutie! Thank you for taking him in and giving him a loving home.

I’m sorry you don’t seem to be having much luck with the vets in your area. I wish you lived in Brisbane and could see my bird vet, he would have Little Bird sorted out in a heartbeat! Really the only way to determine exactly what’s going on is to perform blood and/or faecal tests and it’s a great pity that you drove all that way for the vet to not perform those fairly basic exams. The sneezing could be an infection, or it could be a reaction to something in your home, like microscopic mould spores or anything in the home that may be fragranced so you need to make sure no-one is using any kind of air freshener, room spray, scented candles, Teflon cookware… the list is fairly extensive! Do you know what type of “medicine” the vet prescribed? It’s a wee bit concerning that the vet prescribed a treatment without doing any tests to know for sure what condition is actually being treated. It may be a broad-spectrum anti-biotic of some kind which may or may not be entirely useful.

Your first video looked a bit like a regurgitating kind of behaviour and it appears as though he is swallowing the regurge since there’s no-one around for him to feed it to, but I’m really only guessing about that. Tapping his beak on your fingernails is most likely another precursor to a bit of regurgitation. They will also stretch out their necks and look like they’re yawning from time to time as they adjust their crop and that’s normal – my cockatiel Fang seems to do this much more than my other two.

This will probably be of no help to you at all, but my lorikeet Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess Lilly Pilly (tiny bird, big name!) does a similar beaky/mouthy thing when she sits on my shoulder. She fuzzes all her feathers up while she does it so she looks like a little green puffball, and if I make similar lip-smacking noises back at her she TOTALLY LOSES HER MIND and attacks me – in the cutest possible way of course.

Your best bet going forward though is if you can possibly find a proper certified avian specialist who will carry out the necessary testing to at least get a baseline on Little Bird’s health. I’m also hoping one of our more knowledgeable members spots your thread and is able to chime in with some more helpful advice for you. It’s a pleasure to have you both aboard!

 

[Laurasea]

I think Lamanuka is right, it looks like breeding behavior. Trying to regurge to an imaginary friend. My parakeets do this to objects or eachother.
Unfortunately sound is broken on my device so I can't commit on noise.

 

[Smerft85]

I agree, breeding behavior, the one budgie I have that I can give a 90% guarantee acts like this with the one I'm about the same surety of being female. Regurgitation is how the males keep the female fed while she is taking care of baby business. Other than the nostril discharge I didn't see anything mine don't do as a norm, however I'd still search for a more avian cultured veterinarian for the discharge, and use caution with the med prescribed without a proper exam and diagnosis. Wish you both luck!

 

[bug_n_flock]

Yeah. I have a hen who does this. It is a breeding behavior. We just laugh at her for being a silly girl. She has yet to raise a clutch, but we may breed her this year.