The number of people who keep budgies as pets has been steadily increasing over the last couple of years as more and more people add a budgie to their family.
Thankfully, budgies do tend to be relatively easy pets to keep that generally have minimal problems but one common thing that we have noticed people reaching out and asking questions about recently is how to treat a budgie with a crusty cere.
The two most common causes a crusty cere on a budgie are due to an infection of mites, usually the knemidokopte mite or due to hormonal changes in females when they reach breeding age.
The hormonal crusty cere is totally natural and will usually fade in time and the knemidokopte mites are usually easy to treat provided you get the correct treatment.
There are some less common reasons that your budgie can have a crusty cere with an upper respiratory infection being the main less common cause.
You can book a video call with a veterinarian to have them assess the condition of your budgies cere and provide you with a professional diagnosis if you wish though with this being a good plan if you are worried about your budgie.
Video calls with a veterinarian tend to be much cheaper than a trip to a local veterinarian’s office and you can book the video call around your schedule and get the same high-quality, professional level of information.
Is It Normal For A Budgie To Have A Crusty Cere?
It can be normal and natural for a female budgie to have a crusty cere that will usually turn a brown color when she reaches breeding age.
This is due to hormonal change in the budgie causing the cere to temporarily crust up and this will usually return to normal over time and is generally nothing to worry about for most healthy budgies.
In some very rare situations, drastic hormonal change in a male budgie can also result in a crusty cere that will also return to normal in time but this is so rare it is doubtful that this is why your male budgies cere has crusted up.
It is far more likely a crusty cere on a male budgie is due to a mite infection, respiratory infection or some other potential problems.
If there is an injury such as a cut or a scrape to the cere of a budgie then it may crust up as part of its scabbing process as the injury heals.
This does tend to be more obvious though as you will usually be able to see the cut or scrape on your pet budgie for a day or two prior to the scabbing starting to form helping you diagnose this as the cause of the crusty cere with this being a part of the normal healing process and to be expected.
Why Does My Budgie Have A Crusty Cere?
The most common reason that your pet budgie may have a crusty cere is due to having an infestation of the knemidokopte mite.
A less common cause that is still relatively regular is an upper respiratory infection that is cause problems with the cere of your budgie and the final cause is hormonal change but this tends to only be common in female budgies.
There is a quick and easy way to try and get an idea of if your budgie has a crusty cere due to a mite infection but you will need good eye sight.
Look very closely at the cere of your budgie and try to focus on the surface area as the mites will give the cere a sort of fuzzy, fluff like look compared to the other causes.
If your budgie has a crusty cere due to having problems with a respiratory infection then you may be able to hear a slight wheeze as the budgie breathes.
This is not always the case with a respiratory infection though so it is not a fool proof problem so you may have to book a video call with a veterinarian to have a professional confirm the diagnosis for you.
How Do You Treat Crusty Cere On A Budgie?
You can treat a crusty cere in a budgie due to having a respiratory infection or due to having a mite infection with relative ease provided you get the correct medication to treat the issue that may have to be issued via a veterinarian depending on your location.
If you have a female budgie with a crusty cere due to hormonal change then in time it should return to normal without you having to do anything.
We have seen a number of home remedies shared online with various household items that people say they have successfully used to treat a crusty cere on their pet budgie.
We would never recommend that you use any of those home remedies though unless a vet recommends them to you as they are unproven and the official treatment options from a vet are usually cheap anyway.
Some people have reported that their pet budgies crusty cere managed to get better without having to use a treatment but we would guess that the cause of the crusty cere was simply due to hormonal change and it was highly likely that it was always going to get better.
Problems with mites or respiratory infections in budgies are far less likely to go away and allow the cere to heal and return to normal without treatment so keep that in mind.
Should You Use A Budgie Crusty Cere Treatment?
The official treatments from a veterinarian for whatever is causing a crusty cere in your pet budgie is always our recommendation and should be your primary treatment choice.
Not only are these treatment options cheap but they are also clinically proven to be able to help the situation where as the home remedies are not and may cause additional problems for your budgie.
Not only are the official treatments that a veterinarian issues better options that the home remedies as they are safer and have a much lower chance of causing unwanted side effects but they also work much quicker too.
An infection of knemidokopte mites on your budgies cere can cause irritation and cause frustration in your budgie so the quicker the problem is treat the better.
Some people who have never used medical treatments on their budgie may be worried about potentially making a mistake at first but this is very unlikely.
Most treatments that treat a knemidokopte mite problem are cream based and the treatments for a respiratory infection are anti-biotics that are often in some sort of budgie treat that will make it easy to get your budgie to eat them.
Do Only Female Budgies Have A Crusty Cere?
It is far more common for a female budgie to have a crusty cere when going through hormonal changes as she reachest breeding age but in some rare situations, hormonal changes can cause a male budgie to have a similar issue with their cere too.
In time, a crusty cere due to hormonal problems will almost always return to normal in time and not have to have any treatment applied to it.
We go into more detail on this in our article going over the female budgie cere changing color as it will usually turn brown as the cere crusts up.
As we mentioned earlier in the article, this can occur in male budgies if their hormones spike but it is so rare that it is usually not worth even considering if you have a male budgie with a crusty cere as it is far more likely to be due to other problems.
This is why it is such a common belief that only female budgies will usually have problems with a crusty cere due to hormonal change. For the most part, this is correct due to how rare it is to occur in a male budgie but it can happen over time.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how to treat a budgie with a crusty cere and unlike some other problems with budgies, a crusty cere is usually much easier to treat. Provided you are able to get the correct medication from a veterinarian that has been specifically designed to treat the reason your budgies cere is crusty, you can usually have it treat and back to norma within weeks.
