In September I went on a holiday to my brother’s in Arizona. He has two budgies which I quickly came to love. Since then I’d been thinking that I too, need a budgie!
I called the SPCA and sure enough one had just come in the day before. Her lady had died and nobody wanted her. $240 later I had a cage, stand and accessories.
So today I was able to go and get her. She’s super cute and started tweeting about 5 minutes after I put her in her new home and didn’t stop till she went to bed.
I’ve read that if their eyes are all black, with no white iris that they’re under 4 months and her eyes are jet black so I’ll assume she’s a baby still. I named her Budgie because it’s a fun word to say and I think it’s cute.
I have an amazing blue and white budgie named Scout. He’s about 2.5 years old and a total delight! He is the most social pet I’ve ever had, including dogs! He can say,
I’m Scout
C’mere Scout
Whatchu Doin’
Pretty Bird
Dirty Bird
I Love You
and lots of words that I don’t understand! He loves to play with his toys and his best friend (besides me) is a ten-month old baby! They chase each other around and “share” toys. I never thought that such a small creature could be such good company! Enjoy! Let me know if you want to be budgie buddies. Ok, that sounds weird, even for me…
When I went into the hospital for an extended stay, no one was here to take care of my parrot, and so she was given away. I have now thought about getting another many times. I still may one day.
Hazel Weatherfield I’d love to be Budgie buddies! Before picking her up from the SPCA, I read everything I could about budgie care, but real life experience is often better for things sometimes.
She is amazingly relaxed and comfortable. I think by getting her from the SPCA, she’s used to dogs barking their heads off, lots of loud people coming and going and other various noises. When my dogs barked yesterday, it just made her tweet louder.
She even took a few steps towards me this morning when I was talking to her. I’m really hoping that she’s into sitting on my finger or shoulder if I can tame her. I got a cage that has an opening at the top so in a while she can perch on top and survey her domain.
Congratulations on joining the rest of us servants of the screaming featherduster. Parrots are like potatoe chips you can’t stop after the first one. I know I have 8 and tommorow morning I bring home number 9, a 3 year old blue indian ringneck parakeet hen (she is my birthday present to myself). Soon you will get used to having parrot poop and seed hulls decorating your living space and getting whistled/squaked/called to every time you enter or leave the room. Of course the first time the little monster flies across to room and lands on your shoulder looking for head scratches and to hang out with its favorite person you will feel like your child has taken its first steps or said its first word.
Enjoy your new FID (feathered kid)
Peace
LIONsob
They did ask my permission, but the truth was, and this sounds melodramatic, I wasn’t even sure I was ever going to leave the hospital, so I just said to do whatever needed to be done. It was more than 6 months before I was to a point where I felt I had made a bad choice. But the truth is, there probably wasn’t any other choice - someone had to care for her.
Budgie has become my special little buddy and I just love her. I don’t let her have a mirror because they can become too attached to it instead of you but I do let her watch budgie videos on youtube while she sits on my shoulder. She just goes crazy and I can tell she really wants a buddy of her own. It makes me feel sad for her. SO!
Tomorrow I’m headed on a three hour each way drive to the SPCA in a different town to pick up her friend.
He is the one I was originally going to get but then my local shelter got one in so I took her instead. He’s still there, waiting for a home, so I’m going to go get him tomorrow.
Aww, I like a good budgie happy ending. I still miss my wee fella and would love to have another one some day (if my husband allows!).
One word of caution - don’t do what I did and agree to birdsit someone else’s lovebirds for three months! My budgie picked up all sorts of bad noises from them (if you don’t know, lovebirds squawk very loudly and obnoxiously). My budgie went from making lovely soothing twittering noises (don’t you love it when they’re half asleep and start chattering to themselves?) to getting our attention with real screeches.
Oh, a good tip to get your budgie to eat fresh food they haven’t tried before*. Sit down in front of them and start eating it. Eventually, curiosity will get the better of them and they will just have to come over and try a bit. Sometimes it does make it a little hard to eat an apple in front of them (as you end up with a bird perched on your hand trying to take bites), but it is so cute that it is worth it.
Oh, and if your budgies are anything like mine, the will go mad over some fresh basil. Bonus: it makes their breath smell really nice!
*I’m sure you’re a good budgie owner and already know all the foods that they should and shouldn’t be eating.
Actually,** Neeps**, I have a heck of a time getting Budgie to eat fresh foods. The only thing she will eat so far is celery greens. I’m hoping with two of them it will be sort of like my dogs “oh I’d better eat that so she can’t get it!”.
It’s going to be like Christmas in Disneyland for Budgie tomorrow. She’s all covered up in her cage, occasionally grinding her beak contentedly and she has no idea that tomorrow she’ll have a new friend. I’m all excited for her.
We had that problem too - the first budgie we had was probably about 5 when we got him, and had not been taken care of that well (belonged to my friend’s grandmother who was going a bit senile). He was grumpy and bad-tempered and antisocial. I worked with him for ages, getting him to trust me, and although he was never a really friendly bird, he did get a lot better. He really perked up, though, when we got him a feisty wee companion called Indy (the bird I mentioned above). Because he was a baby when he came to us, he was much happier to try new things, and that got the grumpy one interested (if only so that he could snatch it away from the younger one!).
I would start off trying as many (safe) fresh herbs as you can. Ours loved basil and rosemary. They also really loved cucumber, green pepper and apple. The best thing to do, though, is what I described above. Sit in front of them and eat a bit of whatever you are trying to get them to try (or pretend to!). They are so curious the will hopefully pick up on what you are doing. We used to have to guard our plates from them if we ate in the same room - doesn’t do to have a budgie wading through your mashed potatoes looking for a treat!
Again, you’ve probably done a lot of reading up about this, but introduce them slowly (quarantining a new bird for a time is often advised), keeping them in separate cages at first, side by side. I have to admit that when we introduced our two, we only managed to keep them separate for a few days, as Indy was desperate to meet his new friend. You should be able to judge how they are getting on by seeing them interact through the bars and make a judgement from there.
One treat that I got my budgie which they loved, was a few perches made from eucalyptus wood. I ordered them from Australia somewhere (I’m sure you can get them elsewhere) and they are much closer to what they would be used to in the wild. They loved nibbling them and rubbing themselves on them - sure beats a plastic perch!
I never would have guessed how much pleasure such a small bird would bring to me, and I’m glad you are getting to find out too! I don’t know if yours is comfortable enough to do this yet, but mine used to sit on my shoulder and preen me really gently. It was really sweet!
I’m not able to put him in a different room than she so I’m not able to do a quarantine. But he has been at the SPCA since July and was only with one other budgie during that time. So I think it will be ok. I am keeping them separated for a couple of days till I feel ok about letting them be together without any bars in between them. The link to him doesn’t work anymore, they’ve taken down his profile. But here is their very first meeting.
