My new English Budgie, Kirby

Question
Hello! My boyfriend bought me a English Budgie 2 days ago for one of my Christmas presents, and i absolutely love him! He seems like a very healthy, beautiful bird. Today i noticed his droppings were getting stuck on his bottom. Because he is new, and not tame we didn't want to put any more stress on him by grabbing him and cleaning him off. I called my vet but today is new year's eve and they are closed:( Oh, and he didn't eat anything yesterday so we hand fed him millet and he ate quite a bit of that. Tonight we noticed he finally ate bird seed! So that's good. We tried hand feeding him carrots, apples, and broccoli today but after a while of holding it in front of him he tried to get to another perch. We also don't think that he pooped tonight. We saw him squat but nothing happened. I'm just afraid that there's poop that hardened outside of his vent therefore blocking any poop to exit. He seems in really good spirits though. Whenever we put Maroon 5 on he goes crazy jumping from limb to limb and chirping loud. (my boyfriend thinks its an annoying chirp, but i think its a happy chirp, they like music right) It sounds like a budgie just chirping. Well thanks for your time:)

~Budgie lover

Answer
Hi, Cassandra,

Happy New Year!

Droppings stuck at the vent is called a "messy vent."  Usually, this indicates some type of digestional/intestinal medical problem.  However, since this bird is a new bird, this could be the result of stress from being moved to a new environment.  I think you may be moving too quickly with this bird and not allowing him to settle down in his new environment and get used to you first.  Allow the bird some time to get used to its new environment.  The messy vent problem may resolve on its own if the bird is given some time to "destress."

An all-seed diet is not a healthy diet for any bird.  Visit my website for more info on diet:  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html.  www.birdchannel.com is also a good website.  Birds won't eat foods they don't recognize as food.  This is most likely why the bird didn't eat the carrots, apples and broccoli.  You have to keep offering new foods every day until the bird eventually tries them.  

Yes, most birds seem to enjoy music, however, your bird may be reacting to the movements it sees rather than the noise...hard to determine.  

If the messy vent problem doesn't clear up within a few days, I'd consult your avian vet.  You probably should try to clean off the poo on the bird's vent if you can do so without causing too much stress for the bird.  Often times, this glob of poo will fall off by itself as the bird moves around the cage.  DO NOT allow this problem to exist too long without consulting your vet.

Chrys