4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[CrazyDaizy]

Hia Folks

 

Got two budgies, Ken + Bertie. They are NINE years old which is quite old in budgie years. Other budgies I've had in the past never lived beyond 5-6 years.

 

For the past 18 months/2 years Bertie has a kind of "wart" on his lower tummy, it is quite big in proportion to his size. He's always been a poor flyer too. He's fine in his cage with Ken, but sometimes flaps his wings (like budgies do to stretch them) and accidentally drops off the perch to the bottom of the cage. We have arranged the cage so perches are low enough to hop back up to, but he still clambers on the bars of the cage, which is causing his wart to bleed.

 

Apart from this ugly and sore looking wart and his inability to fly, he looks a healthy chirpy birdy and is always eating and drinking and playing with Ken. They even feed each other.

 

Is my little bird suffering do you think?

 

Any help + advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Old Speckled Hen]

Oh dear you have two problems here.

 

Bertie might well be a little uncomfortable but is obviously coping. However as the growth has started to bleed it seems that you will have to do something soon. It may be operable but somehow I don't think so.

That will leave poor Ken on his own and he will pine.

Are they tame budgies?

In which case you would have to spend a lot more time with Ken after Bertie has gone.

He might be OK with an extra new toy in the cage and maybe a change of location so he has something new to look at.

 

He might take to another bird (keeping them in adjacent cages at first) but then you would have the same problem when it was Ken's time.

 

I'm so sorry for you all and hope it works out.

[CrazyDaizy]

Thank you for your kind and sympathetic reply DA.

 

The only reason Bertie's "wart" bleeds at the moment is because he tries to clamber up the bars of the cage and rubs it. It doesnt bleed too much and soon stops, but it must be sore.

 

I think he needs a padded cell not a cage!!

 

I am concerned about leaving poor Ken on his own. Both birds are very tame. I wasnt planning on buying any more birds, so if Ken is left alone, we would spend extra time with him, which we already do as the cage is in a busy area of the house.

 

I feel I should leave things as they are since Bertie seems to be coping ok and still feeding/drinking/preening etc.

[Old Speckled Hen]

A little bit of vaseline rubbed on the wart will help seal the blood vessels and lubricate his passage up the bars.

It's funny how you can get so attached to a little bird.

[Space Chick]

We had a budgie when I was a child called Buddy that lived to be 10. He stopped flying around the room at the age of 5 and would only fly from A to B, so we thought we would lose him soon after that, but he kept going and always seemed happy.

 

He was a very good talker too, although I taught him a few "unsavoury" phrases which he would always say when our church minister was around I think he knew

[CrazyDaizy]

We had a budgie when I was a child called Buddy that lived to be 10. He stopped flying around the room at the age of 5 and would only fly from A to B, so we thought we would lose him soon after that, but he kept going and always seemed happy.

 

He was a very good talker too, although I taught him a few "unsavoury" phrases which he would always say when our church minister was around I think he knew

Haha, funny to think he said some unsavoury things when the church minister was there

 

When you teach budgies to talk, do you have to sit by the cage for hours repeating the same word? We've never had much luck with budgies talking, even males that were alone in the cage. They kinda said words in a "chirpy" sort of way!