Feathers falling off my parakeet

Question
I have a two year old parakeet. I feed it with bird seeds, white bread, and some cakes of fat also from time to time. The cage is large and comfy, so it should be wellfed and have plenty of room. But now the feathers have now started to fall off its tail. This has been going on for the past three months.
What could be wrong?

Anders, Denmark

Answer
Hello Anders,

Does your budgie have missing tail feathers? Or does his tail look fine, and you are finding feathers at the bottom of the cage?

If your bird doesn't have a tail (or is missing part of his tail/feathers)... then you should call an avian vet to get advice. This could be something as simple as he is falling on his tail, and the banged up feathers are falling out. If this is the case, they probably won't grow back until his next molt (birds molt twice a year, usually spring and fall). Or this could be a warning sign of something more serious.

Unfortunately, I do not know any avian vets in Denmark... so you will need to call around and see if there are any board certified vets in your area.

Also- the diet your feeding your bird could use some improvement. An all seed (or primarily seed) diet will kill a bird eventually.  White bread is also not that great for birds (just like for people), it is much better to offer wheat/whole grain breads.  As far as the cakes of fat... I'm not sure what these are, but high amounts of fat are not good for birds either.

Here are a few articles on the proper diet for a parrot (even if they are as small as a budgie/parakeet):

http://www.geocities.com/pionusparrots/ProperParrotDiet.html

http://www.epah.net/birds/convert.html

http://www.epah.net/birds/smhookbilldiet.html

And here is another article I thought you might find useful:

http://www.geocities.com/Conures123/EssentialBirdBasics.html


I hope this all helps! :)

-Maggie