Sunday, June 19, 2011

Do budgies smell bad?

Many people are curious if a pet budgie smells. In a way, it's the same as asking if a dog or a cat smells. If you never give your pet the opportunity to wash, then of course it will be smelly.

Photo © Bird A Day Blog
In general, budgies do not smell at all. They are among the cleanest creatures on the planet. Even their poop doesn't smell. Budgies prefer to take a bath every day. They preen themselves until their feathers shine. They don't go outside and roll in the mud, so they mostly preen themselves to remove dust particles from their skin.

What people think their budgie smells like:

In general, people think their budgie has a sweet, lovely scent of its own. Depending on what you feed your bird, it might have broccoli breath (then you have a BBB, or "Broccoli Breath Budgie") or apple breath, but never anything serious because you can't feed them garlic or fish.

Most people also seem to think that budgies smell like (creamed) corn!

Other people think budgies smell like:
  • laundry that has dried in the fresh air
  • something hard-to-describe between lavender and freshly-cut green plants
  • warm, fresh and musky
  • chocolate
  • cucumbers
  • cereals
  • rose petals
  • seeds
  • honey
  • not really anything, they are practically smell-free
Conclusion: it's clear that budgies have some kind of sweet aroma, especially when they are dry (some people say they smell a bit funky when they're wet) and have been outside in the open air. A lot of people admitted they love to smell their budgies. Too bad we can't get some Eau de Budgie in the store :)

Personally, I think they smell a bit like warm pancakes. What do you think?

19 comments:

  1. Very interesting post! I'm curious to smell a budgie now. I have no idea myself, but I can't wait to find out! ;)

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  2. I keep grabbing my budgie and sniff her like an addict! especially after a preen session. she smells like a warm cake, soaked with sugar syrup.
    I mostly feed her seed mixes, and sometimes vegs.

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  3. Haha, I think many people like to smell their budgie :D I mostly feed my budgies the same thing, I think that's what's best for them.

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  4. Buttered noodles! :)

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  5. My male budgie often smells like corn. I wonder sometimes if it's because of his diet- like he's eaten too much of something unhealthy. But he eats veggies regularly and pellets as well as seed. He eats a lot of fresh dill and has dill breath a lot. lol

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  6. new baby smell, bird version!:)

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  7. My little guy smells like baby milk formula and creamed corn. Quite a nice, comforting scent actually. Sometimes a little like mashed potato!

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  8. Sometimes when I smell my budgie after giving her a bath, she smells super bad, like rotten eggs! What should I do to make her stop smelling so bad?

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  9. mine smells terrible, like fish

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  10. Im a little late to the discussion here but I love the smell of my birds. My oldest male budgie, Icarus, smells like cucumbers. My girl, Apollo, smells like corn. My younger male, Atlas, smells like something sweet. I find it interesting that they all smell so different even though they are the same type of bird.

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  11. i have two male budgies and there is a smell around their cage sometimes iv never had that before they love brocolli so wondering if thats it. my other birds didnt eat anything but seed and there was never a smell around them. its a horrible smell wondered if it was the seed or what.

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  12. My 1st budgie smells like laundry and my used-to- be- smell-free 2nd budgie now smells like laundry

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  13. My bird smells like buttered food..is that bad because I have no idea

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