The sentence „All birds smell“ is a sentence that we often hear. But that common belief is far from the truth. Also, all of us who have these beautiful birds know that all the budgies have different smells that are unique to their species.
What are the reasons why your budgie smells?
The first reason why your budgie smell is poor hygiene, the second reason is hormonal changes, the third reason is diet, then bad breath, and in the end illness. Those are the reasons that can cause un unpleasant budgies odor.
If you notice one or more reasons that we mentioned on your budgie, that is a warning to take your budgie to the veterinarian. When a budgie is completely healthy, he will have that unique smell, which you barely noticed.
If your budgie has poor hygiene those are the thing you should do.
First of all, if you do not keep your budgie’s cage clean, and you do not bathe him frequently he will for sure become smelly. Also, your budgie’s poop won’t smell repulsive if you clean it regularly, but if you don’t clean it for several days, it won’t have a nice smell. It is also common to the budgies, that odor attaches itself to your budgies wings, and makes it smell really bad. You can prevent that by putting the newspaper on the bottom of the cage, and changing them weekly. You can change it often if your budgie creates more mess. Of course, if you want, you can use another bedding for your budgie instead of a newspaper.
It is very important that you properly disinfect the whole cage once a month. If that is too expensive for you, you can use vinegar, it will do the same job, and you can save some money.
And if you did not know, it is also possible to clean the birdcage with a mix of baking soda and lemon water, and it will smell real nice.
Furthermore, the poor personal hygiene of your budgie can make your bird smell stranger than usual. You must remember that birds need to take a bath frequently, otherwise they will start to smell “dirty” after some time.
Your bird can also pick up odors from cooking or cigarettes if you are a smoker which will settle onto its feathers and create a rather unpleasant odor especially in combination with poor hygiene.
If you want to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke, it can be very difficult, and you will have to bathe your budgie a few times before the odor is completely gone.
So, for all the reasons we previously said, you should bathe your bird no less than twice a week. Some of the budgies love to be bathed so much that they don’t mind doing it every or every other day, and you should consider yourself lucky if your budgie is one of them.
When batting your budgie make sure that you do it with lukewarm water because your pet can become ill. You also need to dry him afterward, especially during the winter. You should do that during the summer months also if you have an AC on.
Persuading your budgie to take a bath can be a big challenge, but in the end, it pays off, although you have to be very persistent because you will probably have to offer your budgie more types of bathing before he even decides to accept either way.
Offer your budgie a bath
You can offer your budgie the hanging bath, which means that you can put hanging wet greens inside the cage, and a lot of budgies love that bath. In that way, you provide your budgie safety of their own home, and the wet greens make it a very natural way to bathe.
The other way of bathing your budgie is misting, which means that you need a little misting bottle, and very gently spray your budgie with water. When we talk about it this way, you can try to spray them directly or lightly above their heads so they barely notice, it also depends on how your budgie reacts to it.
The other way of cleaning your budgie is putting the entire cage in the shower, of course in case you have a small cage or a large shower.
When we talk about taking shower, for those whose pet birds don’t like bathing, they will have to mist their feathers if they want to keep them clean. Also, if you want to prevent your bird from developing a strong odor, drinking water in most cases should do the trick.
It is also very important that you clean the cage of your budgie, and your life is going to be way easier, and you have to make it part of your day. In that case, you keep your budgies physical and mental health in good shape.
In the beginning, you should have a soft cloth or brush, and of course, water, and a disinfectant nearby that can be used to kill any germs that are very possible to start growing on the cage. We do not have to remind you to use an eco-friendly organic cleaner or a pet-friendly disinfectant cleaner.
Sick Budgie can smell bad
Illness is the second reason that can make your budgie smells really bad, actually, it is not the budgie that smells bad, but its poop.
Generally, if you clean your pet’s poop regularly, bird droppings don’t have a bad smell, but if they are left to sit and accumulate for a couple of days or longer, they will start to stink really bad. That is a very good way to find out if your pet bird is ill, because it will not smell bad, but their poop sure will. If you see that sign of illness, you should immediately take your budgie to an avian veterinarian and have him checked out.
Hormones are the third reason that makes your budgie smell bad.
A change of hormone levels can elevate its normal scent and make it stronger, and when we are talking of the hormones, male budgie will smell a bit stronger during the mating season.
Also, some budgies smell differently when they are happy or excited, but when they are happy their smell isn’t unpleasant at all and is most often described as being fruity.
On the other hand, a budgie can smell really bad when anxious or stressed out, which we can also say for humankind. And if your pet starts to smell bad because of hormones, it usually takes a couple of days for bird smell to go away, and that is something you will just need to accept. We do not have to remind you if you find out that your bird is stressed out, you need to figure out what is stressing your feathered pet and try to remove the stressor.
Bad Breath of a Budgie
Bad breath also might be the problem for your bird to smell bed. It is not commonly seen in birds, but it can still happen. In that case and of course, depending on a type of crop problem, your bird may need antibiotics. Also, an infection in the mouth or throat or candida can cause your budgie to have stinky breath. To cure your little bird, you can try many home remedies to get rid of the bad breath, but it is best if you take your pet bird to a vet, where your budgie can be properly examined and treated for the right condition.
It is very interesting to know that your budgie’s diet can affect the way he smells. For example, pet birds who eat fresh fruits and vegetables can smell a lot like the last thing they ate. If your pet doesn’t eat the same fruits and vegetables again, this type of smell usually clears a few hours after the meal. And of course, if you want your dear pet to smell good, you should try to feed more fruits because the result in that case will be a sweet and pleasantly fruity smell of your budgie.
So, if you want to keep your home smelling nice, you will have to keep your budgie’s cage and bowls clean. If you don’t get rid of wet bird food after each meal, it can rot and stink up the entire house.
In conclusion, your budgie’s normal scent should be minimal, but if you start sniffing your budgie on purpose, you will definitely notice a bad smell. You can tell that for the humans too.
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