budgie ate part of a plant , please help!!

[amza]

there are some plants near my budgies cage
he climbed out and ate about a quarter of a leaf from one of the plants. he is now repeatedly opening his mouth and extending his neck (sort of like yawning) and doing something with his tongue.
he also seems to be itchy, as he is rubbing his head on the cage. he's still eating and drinking, but he's all quiet.
i have no way of finding out what kind of plant it was at the moment
i'm very worried, any suggestions are appreciated

[Amy]

My advice is take him to an avian vet ASAP. If the plant was aciddy then it is worse. Good Luck!

If you can't find any avian vets in your area look here: http://www.aav.org/vet-lookup/

[Budgiekin]

Bring your budgie to an avian vet and get some stomach protectant. My budgie Skyla ate part of a calla lily leaf, which is poisonous so we gave that to her and she was fine. I know you said you can't find out what the plant is, but is there any way you could post a picture of it? I'm pretty knowledgeable about plants so maybe I could help you identify it.

The behaviours you are describing aren't neccessarily the result of having eaten the leaf. Budgies do scratch their heads, particularly when they are moulting. That other thing your budgie is doing (extending his neck and doing a tongue thing), which I call "whorking", is also normal.

If your budgie ate a toxic plant, he would likely start vomiting and/or have runny droppings, potentially with blood in them.

By the way, the stomach protectant can be used even if you are not sure what the plant is. It is also inexpensive so please don't let the cost of the treatment prevent you from bringing your sweetie to the vet.

[snowy]

What type of plant is it? Or atleast, what does it look like?
My mum might know if u say what it looks like.....

[ditto]

you should observe his droppings are they healthy?, this is very important if he ate leaf.
opening his mouth and doing something with his mouth can be because of some other reason too, my all birds (the ones in the past and the existing one) used to do/still doing things like that but there is no reason and very healty.

you can smell his breath maybe? does it still smell leaf? (and how long ago did this happened?)
what kind of plants do you have? can they be hazardous if swallowed by a bird? (I mean like cactus, or some other poisonous etc.)
I am really careful about this plant issue and try to protect my bird as hard as I can, because I use fertilizer for the plants.

try to stay calm...budgies do such things. its best to keep an eye on him when he is out of the cage.

[shannon]

Just something to keep in mind for the people who dont know. There are list of poison plants or harmful plants to budgies that you can read off. Exsample of plants to void in our home are:
Amaryllus, Calla Lily, Rhubarb, Mistletoe, Daffo Dil, English Ivy, Lily of the Valley, Holly, and a foxglove. Good Luck!

[jayjay]

i agree with budgiekin about the head scratching. if you keep the budgie singlely, he will more than likely resort to head rubbing on the cage bars or anything else he can use during moults or even when it just itches. usually another budgie would help out with the itch or preening and rubbing, but with no one else to turn to, a budgie will make do with what is available. so that is certainly nothing to worry about. if you are concerned about the plant being poisonous, definitely take him to a vet. if you see any changes in the droppings, its is even more urgent you take it to a vet. but again, if he's moulting, the behavior you describe sounds pretty normal. budgies also tend to calm down some when moulting, but thats on a case by case and some stay hyper either way so use your best judgement. hope everything turns out well.

[Alfie]

My Alfie is always scratching his head on the cage bars. Going through some serious moulting at the mo! His pin feathers look so cute!

[Lace]

I agree with BKins, Take her to a vet and get it checked. If it was poisonous she could die from it.
And also, what she is doing is accually quit normal, budiges do that alot. ^^ but still get her to a avian vet right away to make sure.

[abel]

Amza, what happened, and how is your budgie? I hope he's okay by now!! Please let us know..:(

[HollyT]

http://www.parrotchronicles.com/departments/plants.htm

the above link is one of many lists online that give good and bad plant species around our birds.


http://www.birdsnways.com/articles/plntsafe.htm

here's another...birdsnways is a great resource for info as well as parrot chronicles.

[HollyT]

http://www.companionparrot.com/

another great site for info in general.

[HollyT]

http://www.upatsix.com/

another...ok...hope all goes well with your little budgie