# How Long Do I Keep My Budgie in Quarantine?



## mjm (Feb 23, 2019)

*Is my budgie dying?*

Hi everyone,
I have an 8 year old male and a 6 year old female. They've both been healthy. They're both bonded to each other but my female budgie can be territorial. Yesterday, they were fighting. I broke them up by scaring them.
Usually that works but she was especially grumpy. I should've separated them but I don't have a spare cage anymore (a family friend took it to keep her budgie in until she got her own and she never returned it) so I did my best to break up their fights yesterday. There was however a moment when I went to the bathroom and I heard their rapid tongue clicking. I rushed back out and broke up the fight

Since then, my male budgie has been having trouble turning and when he does he loses balance. His wings aren't broken. I can't see any visible injury on him. I can't do a further inspection because he's not fully tamed yet. (I only recently learned how to hand tame them properly). I don't know if he hurt his wings because they look normal and there is no blood. He's able to lift both (heart wings). He's just not able to fly good as well. He can climb upwards and can stay on a perch
He does favor one leg over the other (he's always perche like that). He can't climb downwards and is very hesitant when he's about to jump. He's been sitting at one of their food dishes all day (except for the few times he's gone up to the other perches). He's not using it to hold onto but it's like he feel more comfortable there. He's eating and drinking normally. His stools are normal. He's chirping like he does. I don't know if he's dying or is injured. I know a lot of you will tell me to take him to a vet but I don't have any near me and my mom and I can't financially afford to take him to one. I'm not really sure what to because I've never had this issue with my budgies before. Anyvice would be greatly appreciated.


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Hi,
Sorry your bird is having a problem. I suggest you get a second cage and separate them. Without taking your male to a vet you cannot really tell what has happened but if the female was attacking him they need to be separated. Please do not continue to scare them if you see them fighting this is not a good way to handle the situation and will further traumatize both birds. You can have two cages right next to one another but each bird will have its own space and the male will be able to relax without the fear of the female attacking him. It could be that he is just traumatized from the fight or he could be injured, either way he does not need to be worrying about another attack so please take the necessary steps to separate them for now.


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## mjm (Feb 23, 2019)

Hi Cody, 
Thank you for responding. I have separated them. It was a little bit hard because he's not tamed. (My mom is a foster parent and she didn't think it would be a good idea to do so because she didn't want the foster kids reaching in and hurting them). I don't have a proper cage either because a family friend took the spare cage and never returned it after her budgie died. I had to use a an old 2 story hamster cage with. It's enough room for him to go around. He's frightened. He needs to go to a vet and I was able to find one in my town at the animal clinic. They didn't have an avian vet before. I'm going to try to convince my mom to take him to the vet. I'm sure there would be a payment plan that we could do because of our financial situation.


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## Jesska (Apr 24, 2018)

I hope all goes well and you can keep us posted! Best of luck! <3


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Hi there and :welcome: to the forums!

You've been given great advice. I'm glad they're separated now, that's important. 

I'm glad you're going to try to get him to a vet. I also would recommend sitting with him often and talking to him just so he at least gets used to people and that way he isn't stressed out and frightened all the time. 

Please keep us posted on how things are going! 

Also, you've come to a great place to learn even more about the best practices for budgie care. Be sure to read through the forums' many budgie articles and "stickies" - if you have any questions after looking through things, please do ask as we'd love to help!

I'm sending healing thoughts over for your little one :hug:

Cheers :wave:


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## mjm (Feb 23, 2019)

A week ago, I separated my budgie Skyblue from my other budgie Ginger after there was some fighting. (Ginger got very territorial out of nowhere) Skyblue sustained an injury. He's doing a lot better. He's eating, drinking, pooping, and chirping normally. He's able to maneuver his hospital cage perfectly fine. My mom wants to put him back into the regular cage with Ginger again. I don't know if that's a good idea since it's only been a week since his injury.


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

What you should do is separate them permanently. Squabbling between cage mates is normal, but should never lead to injury, and if it ever does, it's important they are housed separately on a permanent basis. They can be let out to have supervised play time together if they get along most of the time, but it's important they aren't in the same living quarters as another accident like this could happen again and injure Skyblue further. 

For his safety, it's best you get him his own cage


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*StarlingWings is correct. :iagree:

You are going to need to get a proper cage for each budgie and keep them separated from now on.*


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