sick budgie

Question
hi, sorry if this is a bit long...
i have a male budgie, i got him last year and he was quite young and a few months later i got a female for him. her cere was never pretty smooth etc so i didnt notice at first when she became sick (it looked like scaly mites im not 100% sure) and she died soon after (july) even though it didnt look very serious. i disinfected everything and moved the male back into the cage but i noticed this month it looks like he's starting to get the same thing.
his cere is no longer smooth, it has like a crust an tiny little hole type things, its starting to spread to the skin around the beak. he also has a crust on his feet, he tucks his head back as if he is sleeping (in the middle of the day), he shivers slightly and he tends to hold one foot up, his feathers on his head arent sitting nicely, they look like theyre wet and stuck together, hes not eating very much either an he smelt a bit odd yesterday even though he has a bath(reminded me of that stinky fake chicken flavouring that gets put on chips). i bathed him myself and wiped him down with a cloth to try fix the feathers and smell but he still smells a little and the feathers still look the same as yesterday. i also re disinfected using boiling water, bleach an miltons(used to clean baby bottles etc...). i want to take him to a vet but it costs like 150 rand(i live in south africa) and thats really expensive, i cant afford it. im very attached to the little guy and i dont want him to die so could you please tell me whats wrong and how to fix him?
and a small side question: his claws and beak are getting a bit long but he doesnt seem to want to use the cuttle fish, what else could i do to shorten the lengths?
thank you so so much:)

Answer
It does sound like scaly mites to me. I have always taken any birds with mites to the vet for medication as the medications they have definitively works the best and are the safest.

There seems to be a product you can buy online called SCATT. People swear by it. I can't personally attest to it, but I have thought of tying it. You can also buy an over the counter mite spray, this will not kill the eggs, so you will have to treat the bird and sanitize the cage for weeks on end, I would try the SCATT.

Vaseline will help you to remove the scales, but you must be careful to not get it into his nostrils.

Here is the link for SCATT. I believe that if you cannot go to the vet that this is most likely the best product available right now.

http://www.allbirdproducts.com/newproductpages/scatt.html

Happy Holidays,
-m

P.S As far as the beak and nails, they will need to be trimmed by someone who can trim those for you ....to help keep the need for this down to a minimum put a perch in the cage that can be used to trim nails and beaks. They have really nice sand perches/branches and things like this that work well!

My birds all love their sand perch swings. Provide lots of foraging goodies that keep beaks busy and trim!