any budgie owners?

Apologies if this thread has been done before, I searched and didn't find anything much.

I have two birds now - an ordinary green called Marky who is nearly 9 years old, and a lutino hen called Yellow (shush, my ex named her, very unimaginative, her official name is "Yellow Budgie") who is almost 4 years old. I had a little flock of 4, including two blues called JJ and Sebastian. JJ was pretty to look at but very badly bred (in my own opinion) and never fully "there". He died age 7 with no health issues. Sebastian was only 2 and a half when he died from a massive tumour in his gut. He was basically the Ruler of the Whole World. I couldn't do a damn thing in front of him without him landing in the middle of it to peck it and inspect it. Miss him a lot, though he could be quite mean, what with being boss of me and everything else.

Marky is singularly the noisiest bird I have ever owned, and I owned a shedload of them when I was younger. He isn't tame - he's not scared of me, he just hates to be touched. I got him straight from a nestbox, hand reared, and was handling him along with my older bird JJ, but he just wouldn't hand tame. I can pick him up if he crashlands, or I can catch him and he doesn't peck, but he doesn't like it. But he reacts to everything with a shriek and squawk. It's morning? Hello perch! Hello cage! Hello wall! Then the cage door is open. The cage door is open?? OMG THE CAGE DOOR! Various yelling. Kids playing outside... "TWEET TWEET!" I have to keep him so that he can see me at most times, because when I leave him, he calls and calls until I come back. Then ask him "What?" Just fluffs up his feathers and starts chatting to me.

Yellow is a typical hen. She's fine and friendly as long as I'm just talking to her. I dread having to catch her. She freaks out if I try to do anything inside the cage. I had to catch her today to have a look at her rear end as she appeared to be constipated (since Sebastian and the tumour I'm very wary of anything that looks like constipation). I put on a glove, which terrified the crap out of both her and Marky. I took the glove off but no, I just couldn't bring myself to catch her without it. She has drawn blood more than once. So i caught her in the glove, put a dishcloth round her and took the glove off. She is fine, just some poo stuck in the feathers. She was fine when I put her back in the cage. Later today she fell on the floor having a crash landing during flying time. (Marky did too - I think they collided mid air, they sometimes do). I picked Marky up, but Yellow? She was running away under furniture, so I left her. I don't want to pick her up any more than she wants me to pick her up!

I wont ever try breeding these two. I bred budgies as a kid and teenager, mostly cause my mother pushed me into it. She bred them in the 60s and 70s. I was never very good at parting with young birds, also, I did have one freak bird once - a hen born with a dodgy leg and half a wing on one side. I'm not prepared to keep more birds right now, and I would never pass on disabled birds, nor even substandard breeding stock, to a pet shop. I had a chat with a guy working in a pet shop in Bray about it. He bred birds, and he agreed that the stock that was being sold in Dublin pet shops was pretty horrific. And since I have no space for more budgies, I'm not inclined to try making more. I don't think Yellow would mate with Marky anyway. They were both madly in love with Sebastian, and while they're friends, it's the plastic budgie that gets most of the love in the cage!

Long story, but yeah I love my two birds. Would be great to talk with other budgie owners, whether pet birds or breeding birds, I've always owned and loved budgies

Budgese is, after all, the language that budgies speak

Dee

Sigma Force

Had budgies up till last year, we've just the one cockatiel now.
One tip that might help as you mention they crash land a lot if you can provide more perches up high in the room they fly around in that will help.

I've used a clothes horse before which is very handy because there's lots of places to perch on it and it's off the floor.

Budgies are great really chatty little birds.

There's a bird conference going on soon methinks, mainly about parrots but it's all relevent. I must post the details up on here for anyone that's interested.

They Make great pets , i grew up with them . Very social and loved to play. They can be great little talkers too. Moved onto an african grey now.

doctor evil

I had two budgies when I was younger, we got them off a fella who no longer breeds them. They are great craic.

I'm not familiar getting them in petshops, are they all poor stock?

Sigma Force

Only my opinion but I have found that an awful lot of budgies and a lot of other birds sold in pet shops aren't great some are even ill. Some shops stock so many they don't even pay attention to the one wheezing on the floor or the one with a bad case of scaley face. What annoys me even more if across from the birds they often stock a cure for scaley face or something to help with the runs etc.

I'm sure there are some shops that know exactly where their birds come from and some breed them themselves so they know what the story is.

It can be pot luck sometimes though.

There might be more info. on that parrots.ie site on where to get responsibly bred budgies. They just seem to be one of the birds that suffer the most perhaps because they are so easy to breed that they are sadly regarded as cheap to replace.

Lexie_Karas

We had a pet budgie, Ceasar, growing up.. he was 15 when he passed away (no idea how long they usually live). He was a great pet, super tame and friendly If you were lying on the couch watching telly or whatever he'd snuggle up to your neck and chatter away to you quietly or sit grooming your hair and he loved to have his neck and the back of his head petted.

He had a hilarious love/hate relationship with our dog. She was a large collie x lab and the budgie was most definitely the boss. How the dog never made a swipe for Ceasar is beyond me. Our dog wasn't allowed on the couches but regularly hopped up if no one was in the room... the bird would kick up such a fuss about Gypsie being on the couch that someone would go investigate and of course the dog would get into trouble and I swear that's why the bird would kick off in the first place. At the same time if the budgie was in his cage and no one was in the room he soon learned that calling the dogs name would bring her running so he'd have some company in the room,

He had an obsession with matchsticks... leave a box lying around and he'd bother it until he got it opened and grab a match, fly off and drop it somewhere and then come back for another one. He used to play fetch with them aswell... matchsticks or any ball that would be lying around... throw it across the room and he'd run after (never flew after them for some reason) and bring it back for us to throw again. Think he thought he was a dog at times.

I could keep going about how much fun he was Haven't had a bird since and don't know if I'd be as lucky again as I was with Ceasar, he really was special

Sigma Force

Awww Lexie that's so sweet, budgies can be so much fun really underestimated. Some people haven't a clue with them and think all they are for it sitting in a cage talking to themselves in a mirror and they don't get to see how much fun they can be.

Last lot of budgies I had had at least one other budgie for company and prefferd the company of another bird than me but they knew which side their bread was buttered on.

My first budgie I got when I was 10, Sandy, was on her own so she saw me as her buddy. She had a little friend which was a mini cabbage patch kid ..you know those tiny dolls that hands clip on to things so they can hold on. So the doll could be clipped on to the size of the cage and Sandy would talk away to it.

I had these dolls kitchen unit things barbie size things, and I would hide the cabbage patch mini doll thing in the cupboards and Sandy would come along and find it and pull it out of the cupboard. Or she'd chat away to my my little ponies lol.

She wouldn't talk though sometimes she would say pitty pitty which wasn't her name but my aunts budgies name I think she found it easier to pronounce, and she'd make the sound of running water.

We had to move back to Ireland so I wasn't allowed to take her with me but she went to a friend of the families home with their budgie so at least she had company. I was gutted :-(

ziggy23

I had 2 budgies a few years back I thought they were great pets. Thinkin of getting 2 more now and I'm lookin for some advice on where's best to get them. Would people generaly think it's not a good idea to get them in pet-shops? Any advice would be great.

Cheers

Sigma Force

Try parrots.ie they might be able to put you in the right direction.
If you are looking for a cage check out zooplus.co.uk we got one for a our tiel that that's also suitable for budgies and it seems pricey but for the size it's cheap compared to what you'd get in a shop. It's on castors as well and various ways of opening it so the birds can pop in and out of it if you want.

Can't think of the name of the cage but pic attached to give you an idea.

ziggy23

Thanks a million Guineapigrescue

Just out of curiosity what are cockatiels like as pets? I've heard they can be more affectionate as pets?

Thats a great cage by the way!