In budgerigars, today one can find more than 100 colour mutations and also birds of different size and build. Breeders in many countries of the world have tried to "improve" the wild budgerigars to achieve the ideal of the English budgie or some more different colours. During the last 200 years, they have bred (and regrettably also inbred) their breeding animals. Thus their attempts to create a "better" and more beautiful budgie was not always the best they could do to their birds. Inbreeding and the reduction of the genetic diversity (no wild budgies has been exported from Australia since 1894) have led to a terrible genetic defect: the so-called feather duster syndrome.
This term describes a severe disturbance of feather growth. In general, the feathers stop growing after they have reached their natural length. But in feather duster budgerigars, they continuously grow and grow. Some birds also suffer from excessive claw and beak growth. Because the formation of feathers, claws and beak requires a large amount of minerals and micro elements, the unnatural growth exhausts the bird's organism. Most feather dusters have a damaged immune system and their life expectancy is quite low: Nearly all of these birds die before they get one year old.
Since this disturbance of feather growth is caused by a genetic defect, it is incurable. The only things one can do to help an affected bird is making his life as liveable as possible and use food supplements that contain vitamins, minerals and micro elements in high doses. Also you have to take care of the plumage by trimming it regularly. One big problem is that the head feathers can grow so large that they cover the bird's eyes. To prevent this, they have to be trimmed once a week. Please ask your avian vet about more tips and high quality food supplements to keep a feather duster budgie as healthy as possible in his short life.
Link tip: Do you want to discuss with experts and other bird owners about your bird's health? Then please feel free to visit the English forum 
of 
. Of course you will meet me there, too. My nickname is "Feenseeschwalbe".
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