Hey, feather family, welcome to the new blog reading which is going to be super important for anyone who owns a pet bird/budgie. Upon reading this article, you are going to find symptoms of dying budgie and answers to the below mentioned most asked questions.
- How do you know if your budgie is dying?
- What are the urgent symptoms of dying budgie?
- What are the common symptoms of sick budgie?
- What to do if you think your bird might be sick?
So why exactly am I writing this article right now? That is because my feathered friend “Lemo” is currently sick, as well as the fact that, of course, it’s a very important topic. I’m going to be using Lemo as an example bird.
So what is exactly going on with Lemo right now? Lemo has a bacterial infection in her crop. There is bacteria all around us and all around a bird’s environment. But if a bird’s immune system gets weakened in some way, like if they’re under some stress, if they’re molting, If there’s a sudden change in environment or anything else really that can just kind of throw them off, they can get sick.
Most of the time, we don’t really know what exactly causes the bird to become sick. But one of the most frequent causes of infection is when the bird poops in their food or water. So one of the important things you can do to prevent your bird from getting sick is to change their food and water every single day. And make sure your bird food and water is out of the way where it could get pooped on. Don’t keep your bird food and water right underneath the perch.
Another thing that could cause your bird to get sick is a drop in temperature or a draft. But in the case of Lemo, I don’t know what caused her crop infection. We just know it’s there.
And even healthy birds can at some point get sick and they need treatment. And Yes, even with good care, birds can get sick just like people can. I have had to deal with sick birds several times before now.
Before I get into the symptoms of dying birds, please note that I am not a vet. My first and foremost recommendation would be visiting an avian vet in case you find your feather friend uncomfortable with health. I am presenting to you my personal experience. If you notice something off about your bird and you think they might be sick, don’t use this article as your main source of advice. But obviously yes, this article helps you to be aware of possible threats.
Another really important thing is if you notice your birds showing any symptoms of being sick, they likely have already been sick for a while because birds hide their illnesses extremely well. In the wild, if a bird shows signs of being sick, then it can be an easy target for predators. A predator will visibly see that this bird is the weakest and go for them.
Table of Contents
Urgent Symptoms of Dying Budgie
Okay, so now going into the symptoms, I’m going to start off with some of the most urgent symptoms of dying/sick birds. If your bird is doing any of these, they are in trouble and you need to get them to the vet as soon as possible.
- If your bird feathers are consistently puffed up all the time
- If your bird is sleeping all day or most of the day or if their eyes are closing
- If your bird is having trouble breathing.
For example: open mouth breathing, breathing with a clicking noise or making wheezing sounds.
- If your birds doing those things that could have a respiratory infection
- If your bird is not eating
This is a very urgent situation. Birds have a very fast metabolism and they need to keep eating.
Birds can actually start to death really quickly, and if your bird is not eating, it is a symptom of a serious illness. This does not count if you just got your bird and your bird is still just settling in. Birds sometimes don’t eat for the first day when you get them, but if you notice that your bird actually stops eating, that is very serious.
- If your bird is not pooping that is also a sign that they’re not eating or that the food is not going through their digestive system.
- Losing balance on a perch or falling down
- Shaking, twitching.
- If your bird has bad posture, like if they’re slouching over in a horizontal position, that means they’re very weak.
- If you find your bird resting on the cage bottom when you know that they don’t normally go there.
So those are some of the most urgent symptoms of sick budgie. If you notice any of these things in your bird, you really need to get them to the vet immediately because they are very sick.
And if your vet is closed, then try to find an emergency vet. I’m very lucky that I have both my regular vet and an emergency vet near me.
While you’re waiting to take your birds to the vet, something that you can do is separate your bird from many other birds.
If you have them in the same cage, keep your bird warm by putting a blanket over their cage or giving them a heating pad and giving them lots of their favorite food.
If you’ve just got your bird and you’ve never had a bird before, all of your bird behaviors are going to be new to you. But this is just another reason to spend a lot of time with your bird and learn bird body language so you can notice any changes you want to become really attentive to your bird because again, birds hide their illnesses so well. 16 things every budgie owner must know, this may be helpful to understand budgies behave well.
Common Symptoms of Dying Budgie
Now going over some of the more common symptoms of sick birds. This is by no means a complete list, but these are just some of the most common things that you want to look out for.
Being Less Active
The most common symptom of a sick budgie is being less active. If you notice that your budgie is sleeping for most of the day, not chirping or cleaning itself or playing with its favorite toys this is a sign that something’s wrong and requires immediate attention.
Tail Bobbing and Heavy Breathing
The second most common symptom of a sick budgie is tail bobbing and heavy breathing. Don’t be confused with a budgie that just landed after an intense flight or a budgie that’s overheating. If your budgie is breathing heavily while doing nothing or its tail is moving rapidly, this could indicate a respiratory infection or pain.
Dirty Feathers
The third most common symptom is having dirty feathers. By nature, budgies are very hygienic and clean birds. A healthy budgie is constantly preening itself throughout the day. However, if you notice that your budgie has dirty or messy feathers that could be a sign of an illness. Some sick budgies express the symptoms of dirty vents. This doesn’t necessarily indicate an illness as young budgies sometimes have a dirty vent too because they’re just not skilled enough at cleaning vent.
Unusual Poop
The fourth and most common symptom is unusual dropping. A healthy budgie should have well formed droppings that should look like this. 
Anything that looks different should alarm. However, food is a big part of how your budgies droppings look like. For example, if your budgie eats cucumber it’s normal if its dropping are watering. If your bird has been eating a lot of raspberries, their poop might be stained red and it’s probably not blood.
On the other hand, if your budgie adds no change in its diet and its droppings are still different, then it’s time for a vet visit. Please don’t wait with a normal change in your budgie’s behavior. Even a few hours have a huge impact on saving your budgie.
If the change in poop is consistent, then that’s an indicator that your bird might be safe. However, you can never be too careful. So if you notice a change in your birds poop and you’re not really sure what it is, you can still contact your vet just in case.
Also, if you’ve recently moved or there’s a sudden change in your bird’s environment, that stress can also cause a change in your bird’s poop that’s not related to sickness.
Vomiting
Pretty self explanatory. If your bird is vomiting, then they might be sick. Vomiting in birds is not the same thing as regurgitating, which is a hormonal behavior that birds will do towards their mate. They might do it towards you or towards an object that is not the same thing as vomiting.
Regurgitating will often come with other hormonal behaviors like eye pinning which is completely normal and not a symptom of sickness. When a bird vomits, it’ll often get all over their feathers or just stick everywhere.
If your bird is sneezing a lot consistently and it’s not just the occasional. They got a feather in their nose and they’re trying to adjust it. That could be a symptom of a respiratory infection as well as discharge around their nose, beak or eyes. If your bird is sneezing out of sickness, they will often sneeze out discharge. If your bird is just sneezing normally it’ll often be dry.
Reduced Appetite and Weight Loss
Just like humans, while budgies are sick, they lose their appetite. But unlike humans, it could be deadly for them. If you notice that your budgie isn’t eating, it’s most likely that it’s in an advanced stage of an illness. A healthy budgie should weigh around 30-40 grams. Anything below that would be considered underweight and could signal a dying budgie. Underweight budgies would have a sharp and noticeable chest bone.
Yawning Excessively
When birds yawn, they are often adjusting their crop and yawning over and over again is a sign of a crop infection.
Bobbing Motion
Not at all related to the happy head bobbing that budges do all the time. This one was something that Lemo hasn’t done before. As he was doing this neck bobbing motion, he also kind of looked like he was swallowing or gulping something. In general, if you notice your bird doing any kind of new strange behavior that they’ve never done before, they could be sick.
Getting More Tired
Lemo was kind of closing his eyes more and just being more sleepy as well as panting more after flying. But the thing is he’s still active. He’s still flying around bobbing head and playing. But he just seems to be kind of more fatigued after doing these things. And that’s an example of how birds hide their illnesses.
Your bird still might be acting mostly normal and still playing, flying around, eating chirping. But if you notice any kind of off behavior that’s when they could be sick. I also noticed that Lemo had a little bit of a tail bob, which is a sign that they could be breathing more heavily than normal.
Now, that is all the symptoms that Lemo was showing and most of the sick birds may show, but Lemo is just one bird. In one case, there are so many different signs that a bird could be showing that can indicate that they’re sick and as well as a crop infection is just one illness a bird can get. Birds can get a bunch of different illnesses.
So what should you do if you notice above mentioned symptoms of dying budgie and you think they might be sick?
Budgies are extremely fragile, and anything that makes you worry should be addressed to a vet as soon as possible. It’s also very important that you take burden to follow all of your vet’s instructions on how to treat your bird. If they put your bird on medication, it’s really important that you don’t miss the dose.