Budgie Depression!

[Dreamer123]

Ok, here's the story.

I own 3 budgies named Indigo, Buddy, and Squirt. Indigo and Buddy lived together in one big cage. Squirt was in a seperate, smaller one, because we had just got him. During a few of the playtimes, Squirt would venture in to Indigo and Buddy's cage. After a while, I put Squirt in the cage with Buddy and Indigo. Indigo and Buddy were always very close, but as Squirt got introduced, Indigo clicked with Squirt right away, leaving Buddy out. Since then, Buddy just doesn't look healthy, and doesn't chirp alot like he used to when it was just him and Indy(Indigo).

I don't know what to do, if I take Squirt out, Indigo and Squirt will be depressed, but if I take Buddy out, he will become even more depressed. However, if I fingertrain Buddy, I can be his friend and maybe help him. But he's recently just started to not look healthy. I don't know if its because he's molting, because he lost two main feathers. One on his wing, and his long tail feather. Here are two pics:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/DareToDream9/132_3233.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/DareToDream9/132_3232.jpg

Here's the side that has the wing feather, I call it his good side:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a210/DareToDream9/132_3234.jpg

I don't know what to think. I've owned over 9 parakeets in my life and none of them have ever lost these two feathers during the molting process...he has little sort of whiteish/grey feathers sort of ruffled in his head, is that a sign of molting or sickness?

Any help will be appreciated.

[Joey]

Thats is a sign of molting..they are called "pin feathers" he is growing new feathers in..he looks fine to me?maybe try to get 1 more budgie male or female and put buddy with this new one...be sure to quarentine it and put squirt and indigo in a separate cage..thats what I would do.Are they picking on him?Like not letting him get to the food dish and knocking him offf the perches or fighting of any kind?:(

[Budgiekin]

If you are concerned about Buddy not being healthy, I would certainly bring him to an avian vet just for a checkup. If you need to find one, you can try looking one up here:

http://www.aav.org/vet-lookup/

It sounds like you just may want to get a new companion. Since you have an uneven number of budgies, sometimes one does get left out. However, you could consider trying to work with Buddy one on one to see how he bonds with you and whether or not that makes him happy. Then if that doesn't work, you could consider getting him a new friend...but of course quarantining the new one for 30-45 days.....;)

[Dreamer123]

The only way I could do a one on one with Buddy is if I seperate him from the other two. I might try that, but to get him in the other cage, I would need to grab him. That would pretty much just really stress him out.

If that doesn't work I can always move him back in with the other two.

And no, the other two don't pick on him, they just leave him out.

So it is normal two lose main feathers like the wing ones and tail ones?

[Amy]

I know about budgies having a release mecignism in their tail feathers, but wings.. hmm.

Like the others have said take him for a quick check-up and the problem will be sorted, hopefully.

[Dreamer123]

I think we might just call a vet thats like 5 minutes away from us and ask them about it over the phone. Then they can tell us what they think.

[Dreamer123]

I foud the vet on the link you provided me, BudgieKin, thanks!

[BUUZBEE]

budgies loose all their feathers, wing & tail. thats how clipped birds grow out their wings again.

how long has it been since he has been "depressed"? when my mickey lost his partner minnie, he pined for about a week.

budgies get moody when they moult, it could just be coincidence that his depression started when he began to moult???

[abel]

Our Nana has lost a couple of wing feathers once, when she was moulting. She couldn't fly right for awhile. She could only fly in circles. We just laughed at her. We knew she was fine. It took a couple of weeks before the feathers grew back sufficiently for her to fly properly. (She looked so cute, flying in circles!-- Poor baby!) I think your bird will be fine, but an exam is not too expensive and it's always good for peace of mind!:)