Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/11/2006

Question
Thanks for responding. I am positive one is a boy and the other is a girl. They fight sometimes, but not often. They usually enjoy each others company and don't like to be seperated. It does get dry in my room this time of year and the house is fairly new. I feed the birds regularly and give them Nutriphase Gold Parakeet Formula. They don't appear to have lost any weight, but the girl may have.

Thanks for the help!
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
This is a very important question I have for you! I have two parakeets, both a girl and boy. I have had them for about 2 years now and have not had any problems. But today when I checked on them, each of their nostrils were bleeding. Their poop is also runny and I am afraid they are getting sick. Can you tell me what is going on?
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Hi, Harli.  Thanks for posting!

Are you sure you have a male and a female and not 2 females?  Sometimes, 2 females (or even a male/female) will fight and result in tears to their ceres, which results in bleeding.  However, I'm not positive this is what is going on...I need more details from you about what's going on with your keets.  The more details you can provide, the better I can help you and your birds.  Have you noticed/heard these birds fighting?  What type of diets are they on?  Is your home dry this time of year?  Are your birds losing weight?  

Chrys  

Answer
Thanks for the additional information, Harli.

The bleeding from the nostrils concerns me.  I was thinking perhaps if their room was really dry, it could cause nosebleeds, but now I'm not so sure about this.  Weight loss is a possible sign of illness.  Runny poo could be an intestinal problem or could mean one or both are drinking a lot of water (dry air, seed eating).  

I really think you need to at least phone an avian veterinarian about the bleeding noses and see what they recommend (not a cat/dog vet, but an exotic animal vet).  They don't charge for phone calls!  Bleeding is not a good sign, especially coming out of the nostrils, unless there's another explanation.  Since they don't seem to fight (2 females will often fight, sometimes drawing blood), that explanation doesn't seem to apply.  Blood from nose could mean internal bleeding, but they would have bled out by now, unless it's something slowly progressing.  Their diet is poor...all-seed is high in fat, low in nutrition.  You need to get them on a better diet...visit my website for information:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

The vet would be able to tell you more definitely about causes and whether they need to be examined and/or tested.

Chrys