Actually, current consensus on bird boards I’ve seen is that gravel/grit is not needed and not recommended for true parrots (“hookbills”). It is required by softbills (doves/finches/canaries), but hookbills hull their seed and don’t need gravel to digest…and it can (occasionally) get impacted in their crops.
Cite: products not recommended
Okay, I’m not trying to be mean, so please don’t take this the wrong way.
Yesterday I went to the pet store to get millet sprays and some seed. I didn’t stay long because I was in a hurry. Today I am going back to put up a notice that I found him, and get a toy or two, because I don’t want him to be miserable and bored (and bird toys are pretty cheap). But, as of right now, this is not my bird, and I’m going on the assumption he never will be. So, what do I absolutely **need ** for this bird? I don’t have a lot of money to spend on him, but I want him to be happy and stay healthy.
ETA: I’m thinking I’ll give him 6 weeks, and then either find a home for him, or adopt him, and get a “real” setup for him. So, what does he absolutely need for the next 6 weeks?
Contrary opinion here, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to find the owner. Do the responsible thing, call the local animal authorities, SPCA, Humane Society or whatever’s closest, give them your name & number, say “I found a bird,” and that’s it.
Why go out of your way to find an irresponsible owner who let the bird go?
I know, I know, this thread is filled with loving, caring, responsible bird owners who would be “devastated” to lose their little escape artist who got out due to a completey unexpected chain of accidental circumstances.
But not all pet owners are like that. I know someone who loves, loves, LOOOOOOOVES animals. Volunteers at the local pet shelter. Recently applied for and will probably get, a job volunteering at a local zoo. Loves to “save” and “adopt” pets. She’s pretty much got a list of animals she’d like to have. She’s already got three cats, and as far as she’s concerned, every animal in the world will be just like her cats. Feed them and they’ll love you. Let them out and they’ll come back because they love mommy.
IMO, she’s terrible with animals. She gets something and figures it will be just like a cat. Doesn’t bother doing even a cursury Google search on their behavior or dietary or environmental requirements. She recently “rescued” a Yellow Slider turtle from the humane Society. I found it living in a dark, filthy unheated non-working hot tub. After I got done yelling, she went and at least got a plastic kiddie pool so she could take the turtle outside on warm sunny days. What does she do? Immediately takes the turtle out of the pool and walks away. I was there.
“Uh, do you know where your turtle is?”
“In the pool.”
“You took him out.”
“Oh, he won’t go anywhere.”
“Are you sure? They like to escape.”
“He won’t go far from mommy.”
“Okay, actually, I saw him headed towards the street.”
“He wouldn’t do that. The street is dangerous. He’s here in the backyard.”
“Okay, no. I’m telling you I SAW him headed for the street.”
Long story short, as much as I wanted to just not say anything and let the turtle go so its final hours or days would at least be spent free, I gave in searched the neighbor’s yard, found the turtle and returned him to Animal Lover’s custody.
Moral of my story? Don’t bend over backwards trying to find “devastated” bird lover. Let him or her or them find you if they’re that responsible and devastated. Escaping and being found by you might be the best thing that ever happened to this bird.
Well, I wouldn’t say I’m “going out of my way”. I mean, if someone released the bird on purpose, or doesn’t care that it’s gone, or otherwise isn’t looking, it won’t be found. But, if someone is looking and worried, then they will be able to find their pet.
Ok, bare essentials:
-A cage with enough room for the bird to comfortably flap its wings about, to turn easily without bending its tail and with bars close enought together that it hurts an average adult to poke their finger through further than the first joint
-Seed formulated for budgies and/or parrakeets, a suitable feeder - ideally one that clips on the cage so it can’t be spilled or soiled by the bird
-A water container - I like the ones that have a little drinking tray that fills itself from a vertical reservoir - like these:
-Perches you need two or three perches installed horizontalling in the cage so that the bird can sit on them confortably without catching its tail on the bars, positioned so that the bird can hop from one to thre other with a wingbeat (they get some of their exercise this way). The perches need to be somwhere between thick pencil and index finger in diameter (different sizes are ideal, as this exercises the feet) - they can be cut from live hazel, silver birch or other nonpoisonous deciduous trees (although scrub them over with soapy water and rinse them if you’re going to use natural wood) - if you’re not sure what constitutes a nonpoisonous tree, use a piece of shop-bought dowel or a ready-made perch in hard plastic.
You need to site the cage away from draughts and away from things like cooking fumes, household sprays (deodorant, furniture polish, etc). many people cover the cage with an old cloth at night to keep the bird warm, but this probably isn’t necessary.
BTW, if you let it out of the cage, make sure you’ve checked and double-checked any windows and if you’re in a room with an external door, lock it in case soneone opens it from the outside. If you can’t get the bird back in the cage (usually it will go back on its own eventuially for food or water), a good way to catch the bird is to wait until it gets dark, move to within arm’s reach of the bird and have an accomplice turn off the lights - they won’t usually fly in the dark or near-dark and you should be able to carefully take hold of him (hav your accomplice standing ready to turn the lights back on in case he does try to fly, so that he won’t injure himself.
Does the bird make sounds other than trills and chirps? Budgies are quite good mimics and can be trained to talk - it might even be the case that this one will say his own name, or if you’re really lucky and the owners had foresight, his address.
You can have my keets. I made the mistake of buying 2 birds. They have never bonded with me no matter how hard I tried. After a year and a half they are little more than decorations that need feeding.
This makes me incredibly sad since I’ve never met an animal that didn’t like me. 
Good job on the rescue miss elizabeth. I hope you can locate the little peeper’s owner.
Letting the bird go may not have been their idea. A friend of ours once gave us his two cockatiels, we kept one and passed the other on to another friend. The other friend was also good with birds but one day her boyfriend decided to let the 'tiel out, in spite of our friend’s protests. Idiot boyfriend subsequently went outside. :mad:
Might want some nails as well - just in case.
I was going on the asumption you wanted to invest the minimum in a bird you don’t know if you’ll keep. You need carboard on the floor, newspaper with out color print on the floor, seed, water, and a cuttle bone. Get a a couple wood twigs and put them throgh the cage. Anything else is for later when you keep the bird. Keep the bird out of etreme heat and drafts. The room without a window airconditioner is best. You may wish to cover the cage with a cloth if the bird gets too excited.
I wouldn’t go to extremes to post notices. Get the pet stores, put up some notices. It really is something the owners that want it back, need to do. They need to spend money advertising in the papers and such.
Thanks! I’ve alway been pretty good with birds. Perch on my finger, taught them (well I think that was his idea really) to methotically knock small objects off the table one at a time. I also taught my cat to fetch. And yet my dog won’t come when I call. Go figure.
He didn’t stay in the cage all that much (it puts all of heaven in a rage). But it’s possible he just hung off my hair to see his refection in my eyes. And the only thing he ever learned to say is “pretty bird” so I guess the mirror did something to his ego 
That was my main bird (as in my main man), I haven’t had a lot of birds at a time, just several over the years. And now I want one. But too many cats…
Now that’s interesting, because of the several birds I’ve owned, the two tame ones have both demonstrated an obsession for methodically dropping objects off tables. I use halves of the plastic pods inside Kinder eggs and plastic beads (pea-sized ones that the bird couldn’t possibly ingest) - both my tame birds picked them up one by one, carried them to the edge of the table, dropped them and cocked their heads to look at the item on the floor, before pattering off to get the next one. I think it must be driven by some natural instinct such as nest cleaning.
Hee. I used to just uses stuff like an old thread spool. Or a thimble.
He just went down the line knocking things over and looking very proud of himself.
Like some kind of little feathered bowler.
This is the same birdiy who felll into my glass of water. And spent the rest of the day making it clear that “I meant to do that!”
As sailboat mentioned, budgies are true hookbills and hull their seeds. The hulls will commonly fall back into the food dish and cover the seeds beneath them, giving the appearance that the food dish is still full or that the bird is not eating. It is important to check the food dish for chaff and to make sure it has fresh seed.
That’s very good advice - I often find a quarter-inch layer of husks has accumulated on my budgie’s feeders during the day - I take them outside and shake them gently while blowing on them, then top off the seed - I do this once or twice, but once it starts looking dusty, I chuck the contents out on the lawn for the wild birds and refresh the whole seed tray.
What’s odd is that my bird goes through phases when he drops all his husks on the floor of the cage - he’ll reach into the feeder, pick one up and stand back up again to eat it, leaving the feeder clear Other times it seems he just can’t be bothered.
Ah, well…then I stand humbly corrected. It’s been close to 30 years since I had my parakeet, and at the time gravel was considered essential.
Evidently, knowlege has progressed.
Man, am I old.
My 'keet did ingest some of the gravel I provided, and threw the rest around the cage; so it’s not something they will avoid if it is present. But, yeah, they DO tend to hull their seeds; so don’t listen to me. I’m an old fart, evidently…
Thirty years ago, it was thought that grit was essential for all birds.
Today, the consensus is that (for the caged bird) grit will prob’ly do more harm than good.
Update please.