# Is it normal for budgies to have this kind of posture?



## fatmaguler

Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing fine! I don't want to waste anyone's time so I'll get straight to the point...

Some may already know Kiwi. She is my bonded alpha female and is very lively. I have a social media account dedicated to them and spend a lot of time taking pictures. It doesn't take too long for me to notice something is slightly off. I always feel like I get a bit paranoid and try letting things be. It still keeps bugging me though...

Kiwi's behaviour did change. She still is the alpha female but has slowed down noticeably. Her eating habits did not change but she does now spend more time sleeping. She still plays with her toys but she isn't as jumpy like she use to be. She does show more interest when her cage gets rotated every week with new toys.

My main concern is Kiwi's posture. Hopefully I can explain this very well without it being too confusing but she kind of always looks like she's always in a laying down position. She isn't hunched over but just a bit too low? This isn't something new actually, it always has been this way. My other two budgies run upright and kind of have a standing position but Kiwi does not. She never had any injuries to her legs. I also checked to see if she had swollen feet of any sort but she is also clear from that. I change their perches regularly and have plenty of natural perches. She does seem to prefer the softer wood ones. I only have the plastic green perches that came with our vision cage. I keep one in side their cage (there was a total of 4) because Kiwi always seems to prefer standing on her plastic green perch. I guess she just likes the feeling of it... I put some pictures below as a reference if you want to have a look at it.


Hopefully this pictures can give you guys an idea what I mean. She's always in this position.


This is her chewing one of her toys. Again, its the same position...


This picture is a bit blurry but it really is the best picture I can really get to show what I really mean. Limon & Snowy stand upright but Kiwi just does not...

Maybe i'm just overanalyzing things... What do you guys think?


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## Budget baby

Hi there, I will flag your thread so our experts can come on board for you. I can see she is very much in condition by the colour of her cere, perhaps this stance is a sort of mate attracting stance. Sort of like hey I am ready to mate? I am not positive of this maybe she simply prefers to stand this way, Budget will often be like this too.
As long as she is healthy, eating and otherwise normal I hope it is all ok. Of course you can always make an appointment with your avian vet and discuss your concerns too.:green pied:


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## StarlingWings

Hi Fatma  

If you notice consistent decrease in activity levels, I do agree with Cathy that a visit to the avian vet is in order to rule out any hidden conditions. 

However, just her posture is not enough to worry. Many birds prefer different ways of standing, and Mallorn is one of them. She also walks like that most of the time, and is only upright when she's got her head tucked into her wing for naptime. The rest of the time, she walks over horizontally, mostly. Since she's my only budgie, I've never considered it to be out of the ordinary and she's just fine 

I hope that helped, I know how worrying it can be to notice something that seems off about our little ones. :hug:


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## fatmaguler

Pretty boy said:


> Hi there, I will flag your thread so our experts can come on board for you. I can see she is very much in condition by the colour of her cere, perhaps this stance is a sort of mate attracting stance. Sort of like hey I am ready to mate? I am not positive of this maybe she simply prefers to stand this way, Budget will often be like this too.
> As long as she is healthy, eating and otherwise normal I hope it is all ok. Of course you can always make an appointment with your avian vet and discuss your concerns too.:green pied:


She does seem fine for the most part I guess... I will getting an appointment with my avian vet tomorrow for a general check up. All three of them need it anyway. Thank you! 



StarlingWings said:


> Hi Fatma
> 
> If you notice consistent decrease in activity levels, I do agree with Cathy that a visit to the avian vet is in order to rule out any hidden conditions.
> 
> However, just her posture is not enough to worry. Many birds prefer different ways of standing, and Mallorn is one of them. She also walks like that most of the time, and is only upright when she's got her head tucked into her wing for naptime. The rest of the time, she walks over horizontally, mostly. Since she's my only budgie, I've never considered it to be out of the ordinary and she's just fine
> 
> I hope that helped, I know how worrying it can be to notice something that seems off about our little ones. :hug:


I guess its something more common than I thought it would be... I will be calling our avian vet because they're due for a general checkup and while they get their checkups I will ask the questions that worry me.


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## StarlingWings

Let us know how the vet visit goes!


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## Jo Ann

*Is It*

Hi, Breeders of Show Budgies expect their best birds to stand high on the perch
with a particular angle across the perch when the judge looks at the budgie.
Many budgies hang low across the perch This can mean That the front chest area weighs too much for a young bird to hold it up. An alert breeder will work with a chick that drags the chest to use the body muscles to hold the chick tall and straight. we work with chicks in this manner. A heavy chest can result in a chick that does not fly as well as it should. I have never worked with and older bird, but you could encourage your budgie to sit tall with treats as a 
reward. would be good for an avian vet to check abnormal vertebrae alignment.
for your little one. The hen looks healthy. A companion budgie does not need to hold its body at a certain angle to be a wonderful happy member of your family. Please Let us know the results of your avian vet visit.

Best wishes, Jo Ann:Love birds:


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## fatmaguler

Jo Ann said:


> Hi, Breeders of Show Budgies expect their best birds to stand high on the perch
> with a particular angle across the perch when the judge looks at the budgie.
> Many budgies hang low across the perch This can mean That the front chest area weighs too much for a young bird to hold it up. An alert breeder will work with a chick that drags the chest to use the body muscles to hold the chick tall and straight. we work with chicks in this manner. A heavy chest can result in a chick that does not fly as well as it should. I have never worked with and older bird, but you could encourage your budgie to sit tall with treats as a
> reward. would be good for an avian vet to check abnormal vertebrae alignment.
> for your little one. The hen looks healthy. A companion budgie does not need to hold its body at a certain angle to be a wonderful happy member of your family. Please Let us know the results of your avian vet visit.
> 
> Best wishes, Jo Ann:Love birds:


This was VERY informative. I do understand what you mean by show budgies. English budgies tend to be larger in general but Kiwi isn't an English budgie. In fact all my budgies are fancy Australian Budgies... Last time I went to our avian vet he suggested me to have my birds between 30-35 grams. Kiwi is 32 grams so she isn't heavy either... Kiwi also flies perfectly fine but if the other birds makes three laps around my living room Kiwi will just do about 1 or 2 before landing back on her cage top. She does eat her millet with a bit of an standing like position and when playing with toys in the same manner but she typically prefers staying low rather than tall. Tomorrow is Monday where I live and I should be able to call in for an appointment. Hopefully we will get booked in soon..


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## RavensGryf

Best of luck for Kiwi at the vet Fatma, I hope they're able to answer all of your questions! Looking forward to hearing what they have to say.


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## fatmaguler

RavensGryf said:


> Best of luck for Kiwi at the vet Fatma, I hope they're able to answer all of your questions! Looking forward to hearing what they have to say.


Hopefully everyone else can see this post but I did get an appointment in for this Friday at 10:30am for my birds. I'm very happy and a bit scared because I've never took all three all at once. At least they won't be scared since all of them will be together! I'll post here on how our vet appointment goes & definitely will take lots of pictures for you guys! Wish me luck


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## FaeryBee

*We'll be sending positive thoughts your way that the vet appointment goes very well and will look forward to your update after the appointment. :hug:*


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## RavensGryf

Well wishes will be with you Friday for your flock of 3  :hug:


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## Jo Ann

*Is*

best wishes on your budgies avian vet visit, I pray They all have a perfect bill of health. They are each one beautiful/ It would be a dull world if we all looked exactly the same and behaved the same as well. Blessings, for you and your wonderful flock. Jo Ann:Love birds:


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## fatmaguler

We are ready almost. I will have them inside and settle down for 15-20 min before taking off. I'll let you guys know how it went when I get home


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## FaeryBee

*Best wishes for the vet visit! :wave:*


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## fatmaguler

*The vet visit went really well*

Hey guys! The vet visit went really well!

Kiwi's legs were fine. Our vet was a female. She said it can be due to her being in breeding condition. Few things she did for Kiwi was give her a nail trim and scrape off the excess skin on her cere. She said although her nostrils wasn't blocked I should bring her every 6 months so they can clean of the excess dead skin if its needed. She looks a lot cuter now without that ugly brown patch :001_rolleyes: Her weight was 41 grams which surprised me a bit. Before I thought they had to be between 30-35 grams. She said that every birds proportions would vary and for Kiwi she should be between late 30's and early 40's for her body type. Lastly she had her beak and nails trimmed 

Snowy was next and she hated it :lol: She kept angrily squeaking at the vet and hated every moment but she had no place to run. :001_rolleyes: I'm very happy to say that Snowy has gained an extra 2 grams. She is now 32 grams. She also had her nails and beak trimmed. My vet said Snowy looked very young and small 

Limon was very jumpy as he was waiting for his turn. The vet was a bit concerned because the sides of Limon's beak was bruised. Limon flies very well and doesn't crash so we think it's due to bickering that happens inside the cage. She did give him a nail trim but didn't really want to do much on his beak. She did a light file. Limon is 36 grams.

Overall, the vet visit went really well. My brother dropped to me to the vet but I had to use the bus back home because he will be camping for the weekend with his guy friends. I was crowded with people wanting to take pictures of the birds. Also because Snowy was chirping very loudly and got a lot of people attention. even the bus drivers were very curious of them. Limon and Kiwi just snuggled together and slept. They also preened each other on the way back. :001_wub: The pictures are from my snapchat because my camera decided to break down last minute... 

When my brother was bringing me to the vet (Inside car)


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## FaeryBee

*I'm glad to hear the vet visit went well and everybudgie is OK aside from the brusing on Limon's beak.

I'm sure both you and your babies are happy to have the event behind you. Now you can relax and enjoy your weekend! *


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## fatmaguler

FaeryBee said:


> *I'm glad to hear the vet visit went well and everybudgie is OK aside from the brusing on Limon's beak.
> 
> I'm sure both you and your babies are happy to have the event behind you. Now you can relax and enjoy your weekend! *


Thank you Deborah! I'll definitely be enjoying my weekend


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## StarlingWings

Fatma, thank you for the update! That's great to hear and I'm so happy that the birdies did so well on their vet visit and they are in great shape :clap:


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