Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 8/21/2010

Question
My budgie is white with blue and he is so very good.  He gets on my finger and doesn't bite unless he is grabbed.  My question is why doesn't he play in his cage.  It is a large cage with toys in it.  But he just sit's there and sings and he loves TV. We have our hour of cage time every day but he seems to get hurt every time I let him out. He'll fly to low and hurt a wing or fly to high and hit a wall I am so afraid he will hurt himself bad.  And also he keeps on clearing himself to the point that there is those little fluffy feathers all over the place.  Is he sick or molting ? He eats pellets, seed, and I give him molding seed also is that to much?  I have had him for about 8 months. He doesn't have any bold spots and his plumage is very pretty and clean. Is he Ok His name is Maverick.

Answer
Hi, Deborah!

Perhaps your bird doesn't like the toys you have chosen for him.  Try different types of toys to see which your bird likes.  I've never met a keet that didn't like a swing.  Another reason he might not want to play with his toys is because he's getting enough attention from you or others in his life.  If he's singing, he's content.  The TV might be providing enough entertainment for your bird.  

Free-flight inside our homes can be disasterous for birds.  They can fly into sinks full of water, hot stoves, right out a winder or door, or they can fly right into a wall and kill themselves.  If you want to continue to let your bird out of his cage, which is a good thing, I recommend you take him into a room that you've "bird proofed" so he won't hurt himself when he flies.  Another recommendation would be to have his flight feathers trimmed (properly) so when he does fly, he can't gain altitude.  Birds with trimmed flight feathers often times won't leave the top of their cages once they learn they don't have the ability for full-flight.  

I can't tell you if your bird is sick (I'm not a vet and can't tell this over a website), but it's normal when a bird preens itself for some feathers and/or down to fall out.  A keet usually doesn't molt this time of year, but if the environment in which your bird lives is right, he could be molting.  If so, you'll see pin feathers emerging (they look like white sticks coming through other feathers).  Your bird doesn't really need "molting" seed.  Pellets are good, seed is OK, but not in large quantities.  If your bird eats pellets well, provide more pellets than seed.  Seed is high in fat and low in nutritional value.  Keets have a tendency to get fatty liver syndrome and other fatty problems when fed too much seed.  Spray millet is more nutritional.  Try offering your bird human foods, such as cooked brown rice with some corn mixed in (not too much....corn binds with calcium in the body and could leave your bird calcium deficient) or other veggies mixed in (not canned.....frozen or fresh....canned has too much salt).  My keets love corn bread and other types of multi-grain breads, sugar-free cereals and other healthy, sugar-free human foods.  Put in dish in cage every day so your bird will get used to human foods.....they won't eat what they don't recognize as food until they get used to it, so keep up with this every day and soon your bird will be eating healthier.  What a bird eats affects everything about the bird....health, feathers, behavior, etc.

Maverick sounds to me, based on your post, to be a normal budgie.  Check out my website for lots of information on caring for birds:  http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Chrys Meatyard