The cost of keeping a budgie (veterinary bills)

For some time now I have wanted to write a post detailing the possible costs with keeping a budgie.  Compared to bigger birds & other pets, budgies are relatively cheap to buy & I think it is easy for someone to think they will be cheap to keep.  Maybe some are…  But sometimes they are not!

I want to focus specifically on veterinary bills as these can be particularly expensive & are difficult to avoid if you have concerns about your budgie’s health.

Using my own experiences, I have done some number crunching.  The data set chosen is from May 2014 to April 2022.  In these 8 years, I spent approximately £5,395!  This averages out to £674 per year.

To get a better feel for what that means, I have broken the cost down by bird.  Costs include veterinary consultation fees, various tests, e.g., blood/crop/fecal, x-rays, plus any medication prescribed.  The table below shows the breakdown of data:

This is the same data in chart form:

There are additional costs not included here:

• Supplements, e.g., Milk Thistle, Calcium
• Food, e.g., seed, pellets, cuttlefish, iodine block, grit, vegetables, fruit
• Transport to veterinary clinics
• Cages
• Cage furniture/accessories
• Toys/Enrichment
• Cremation

In conclusion, be financially prepared!

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