Budgie Hygiene
Good hygiene is very important for your parakeet. Regular baths help keep your budgie clean and prevent pests from getting in her feathers. A small spray bottle works well; just fill it up with lukewarm water and spray your keet until her feathers are wet. Some parakeets enjoy their baths, while others will run away when they see the spray bottle. A good time to spray your budgie would be about every 1-2 days, preferable in the morning so she will have lots of time to dry off before bedtime.
Parakeets love to preen their feathers; it is their way of making themselves look pretty. Sometimes you will see your feathered friend running her wing feathers through her beak, combing through her belly feathers, scratching her head with her claws, or even fluffing out her feathers to shake out all the dust. During molting, your keet will spend even more time preening, sometimes gently removing the old feathers from her body. However, a word of warning, if your keet is actually yanking out the feathers, or if she shows signs of it, she is probably stressed or upset about something. After my grandma clips Clarabelle's wings, she will start plucking out her feathers to show that she is upset about it. But after a while, she becomes happy again and eventually stops plucking. If your keet does not stop, however, it is time to talk to a vet about it.
It is crucial to keep not only your budgie clean, but her cage clean as well. Using a wet rag (no soap, please!) wipe off all the perches, toys, etc. Then, empty her food and water dishes and clean those too. Clean the bottom of her cage (I use a cleaning wipe for this part) and wipe the table that her cage sits on. Wait until everything dries and then put it all back together. You should repeat this process every other week at a minimum, depending on how dirty your parakeet's cage gets. Always change out the newspaper on the bottom of her cage every day.
Here are some pictures of Clarabelle preening.