# New Budgie Question



## Noxiousted (Aug 4, 2018)

I recently decided to get Mercedes a friend. He is lonely most of the time because I'm busy. I went to the store and picked up the most active, loving bird in the cage. Though I have questions about the way he is acting. 

He is skinny, as if he is sucking his feathers in. Sometimes he holds his wings open. Most of the time he is also blinking and keeping his eyes closed. I've never seen this in a new bird I've gotten. I'm just wondering if he could possibly be showing signs of sickness. I'm half a week into quarantine and I took him out and put Mercedes in the bedroom. He is active and can fly a bit and moves around normally. He has a slide to his feet though as if he is still getting used to walking. He is calm not flying around like crazy more as a terrified calm though. I haven't really touched him only to get him to where he needs to go. I've tried putting him in the cage and he never touches the food or water. He only eats and drinks outside of the cage. He preens normally and I've noticed he actually preens a lot and does it over and over. As if he wants it done right. He also lets out squeaks and sqwabbles. Mercedes and him communicate back and forth from both rooms. I haven't tried introducing them though. I plan to keep to the quarantine.


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## RavensGryf (May 8, 2015)

Congratulations on your new budgie! Remember that during the entire quarantine, you need to keep Mercedes away. Do not have them in the same room again until after 30-45 day quarantine is finished, and you are confident your new guy is well. 

He is pretty, and looks normal by the pics. But we can only tell so much by photos. If you say he’s active and eating, then that’s a good sign. If you have any concern about his wellness, the best thing to do would be to take him in to your avian vet for a new bird exam. 

Have you thought of any names yet?


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## Noxiousted (Aug 4, 2018)

RavensGryf said:


> Congratulations on your new budgie! Remember that during the entire quarantine, you need to keep Mercedes away. Do not have them in the same room again until after 30-45 day quarantine is finished, and you are confident your new guy is well.
> 
> He is pretty, and looks normal by the pics. But we can only tell so much by photos. If you say he's active and eating, then that's a good sign. If you have any concern about his wellness, the best thing to do would be to take him in to your avian vet for a new bird exam.
> 
> Have you thought of any names yet?


Not yet. He is moderately active. He chirps, eats and drinks a lot, he will react to noises and look around, I even found him wandering around on the floor this morning. He sleeps in the living room so he isn't around Mercedes in the bedroom. The only problem is he won't eat/drink from the cage and only does outside of it. When he does he'll eat a lot and drink a lot. I'm just worried he's sick because of the condition of the pet store. There were a few sick birds on the top display and they refused to remove them even though they were tail bobbing horribly and their feathers looked gross. I picked from the bottom and they are separated off. Everyone on the bottom looked really good and were chirping and eating and moving around well. I just don't know if while he was in the back with the rest he caught whatever the top ones had. Hopefully not, though he doesn't seem to have anything noticeable wrong apart from him having his eyes closed all the time like he is sleeping. He barely fluffs up though about as much as Mercedes when he sleeps. He has also been beak grinding. I think most of the reason he looks sick is because of him being scared. But he is slowly opening up and not being so scared.


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

It is always a good idea to take a new bird to the vet for a well bird exam and given the fact that you said this bird was in with sick birds I would do that before you introduce him to Mercedes. Excessive preening can be a sign of stress and given the fact that he is in a new place and not 100% comfortable you can be sure that it is a stressful situation for him. It is usually not advisable to let a new bird out until they are acclimated to their new surroundings. You might try giving him a piece of spray millet in the cage and see if he will eat that, you don't want to establish a habit of eating only outside the cage. Do you have a gram scale, if so weigh him and keep a record for a time to make sure he is not losing weight.


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## Noxiousted (Aug 4, 2018)

Cody said:


> It is always a good idea to take a new bird to the vet for a well bird exam and given the fact that you said this bird was in with sick birds I would do that before you introduce him to Mercedes. Excessive preening can be a sign of stress and given the fact that he is in a new place and not 100% comfortable you can be sure that it is a stressful situation for him. It is usually not advisable to let a new bird out until they are acclimated to their new surroundings. You might try giving him a piece of spray millet in the cage and see if he will eat that, you don't want to establish a habit of eating only outside the cage. Do you have a gram scale, if so weigh him and keep a record for a time to make sure he is not losing weight.


I'm not really worried about him eating outside of the cage. I don't mind feeding him and giving him water. Once he gets out of quarantine he will be in the big cage with Mercedes. I don't think he will have a problem eating and drinking in there. Since Mercedes will probably teach him. I'm going to buy a gram scale in the next week to weigh both of them. I know Mercedes is a good weight since he has no problem eating or drinking. With the 3 birds I have gotten from the pet store I've noticed they all come lethargic and skinny. They leave food and millet in the displays at the store but only the biggest can get food and the smallest get pushed to the side. I've compared pictures of Mercedes when I first got him till now and I can definitely tell he has gotten a lot bigger. Fingers crossed he isn't sick so I can get Mercedes the friend he has been wanting.


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## SnowySugar (Aug 25, 2016)

He's cute and he's a baby (stripes all the way down to his nose.) You have a good 4 months to get him hand trained. After that the stripes will be disappearing and he'll be older and harder to train. Good luck!


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