You can recognise a budgie in moult not only by the fact that it loses feathers, but also by the feather pods, which look somewhat like quills without feathers.
Commercial products
If you take a closer look at the commercially available products for moulting aid, you will quickly realise that you can safely save the money for this.
Even though most products do not necessarily harm the budgies, they are often rather unhealthy (e.g. bakery by-products) or can easily be replaced by more natural things.
Here are some examples:
Useful aids for molting
Even though the molt is a natural process and not a disease, it is still quite exhausting for the budgie and they therefore have an increased need for energy and nutrients during the molt.
In addition to the usual vitamins and minerals, silicic acid (cf. hair & nails in humans) is required for plumage formation.
Thus a meaningful assistance with the Mauser would be to offer the budgerigars apart from a high-quality budgerigar fodder on the one hand increased piston millet for the energy need and on the other hand much vegetable, green fodder (e.g. wild herbs) and also fruit.
Here are some particularly suitable foods:
Vegetables
- Cucumber (especially silicic acid)
- Carrot, broccoli and fennel (important minerals)
Herbs
- Field horsetail , plantain and bird’s knotweed (esp. silica).
- Chickweed and dandelion (minerals & vitamins)
Other
- semi ripe or ripe millet (silica & energy)
- Golliwoog (Minerals & Vitamins)
- Sprouted food (rich in vitamins)
Feed supplement
In case of problems during moulting or just as a precautionary measure, a suitable feed additive can also be administered.
- Korvimin – ZVT+Reptil
- Primus Vital (sugar-free)
Make moulting help yourself
Instead of spending money on more or less useful commercial products, you can easily make a moulting aid yourself in the form of a nibbling snack.
All that is needed is a suitable grain feed that provides the extra energy needed and some (dried) wild herbs that contain silica for feather growth and some other minerals.
Suitable wild herbs
- Field horsetail (silicic acid, potassium and flavonoids)
- Ribwort (silicic acid, vitamin C, flavonoids)
- Chickweed (vitamin A & C, iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicic acid)
- Bird’s knotweed (silica, flavonoids)
The corresponding recipe can be found at Budgie snacks .