TheTenthDoctor's Bird (s)

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TheTenthDoctor

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This thread is a thread to catalog the lives of my bird soon to be birds. I have on Budgie at the moment. Kiwi. Born in April or May. (I have yet to assign him a birthday :) ) Kiwi is a loyal lovely bird. He recently went through his first molt. I was really concerned because he was loosing feathers and he looked slightly bedraggled. However in the past few days I've noticed they are growing back! He is looking fuller and a lot more colorful.

Kiwi will be joined in a few weeks by a new budgie. Yet to be named or found. However I will be running a poll to pick a name. I am planning on getting a yellow or blue budgie. Kiwi deserves the company. Anyhow any tips or suggestions for budgie care are welcome!
 

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Years ago I had a pair that would fly to me and land on my finger then move up my arm to sit on my shoulder. They would gently peck at my ear if I didn't pay enough attention to them. We had them in a cage with the door open. They would come out of the cage when I came home from work.
 
Get a blue ribbon canary mix (high grade mix of seeds for canaries) and a budgie mix and use 50/50 for the birds. The canary mix (different from plain canary seed) has a number of oil seeds in, whereas the budgie mix doesn't have any oil seeds in. The oil seeds are brown and black coloured seeds.

Make sure the birds have cuttle bone, mineral grit and clean water all the time. Change their water every day and twice a day if it's hot. You can add a vitamin mineral supplement to their water each day or every couple of days.

Budgies naturally breed during the wet season when grass seeds are available. You can grow bird seed and when it has green unripe seeds, you cut the seed stalks and give it to the birds. You can also collect wild oats and other green grass seeds from a field but make sure they are free of chemicals like herbicides and pesticides.

You can feed them green leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach, silverbeet, broccoli, etc. The dark green leafy veges are better than lettuce.

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Keep the birds out of draughts and away from heat sources or air conditioning outlets. Cold draughts will kill birds very quickly.

Put a sheet or towel over the cage at night. Have the room light on when you put the towel on the cage and leave the light on for at least 30 minutes after you cover the cage. Then turn the lights out. The birds use this time to settle down for the night and they can't do that if it's completely dark.

Keep the birds out of the kitchen if cooking food or preparing spicey foods like chillis and onions. Spicy food and the fumes form onions can kill birds. Birds have also landed in pots of boiling water, in woks and flown into hot open ovens and been killed. Keep the birds cages when cooking food.

Keep the birds away from cigarette smoke, bug sprays, deodorants, hair sprays, air fresheners, paint fumes or anything else that creates fumes. Birds die really quickly when exposed to fumes.

If the weather is fine and warm, put the birds outside in a shaded area. They can have morning and afternoon sun but keep them out of hot midday sun. If the weather is really cold, keep the birds indoors. Don't move the birds into a warm room and then put them outdoors in the cold. Give them a stable temperature because sudden changes in temperature will stress them and they get sick.

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If the birds get sick they will puff up their feathers and their tail might pulse (move up and down a bit). They get poop on their feathers around their butt and they might sneeze or have a discharge from their nostrils. If the birds show any of these symptoms, keep them warm (32-36C) and humid and contact a bird vet.

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Male budgies have a blue cere (the nostril area above the beak) and the females have a brown cere. Female parrots bite much harder than males. This is because they have to defend the nest from snakes, lizards and other birds. If you pick up a bird and it latches onto your hand and tries to draw blood, it's probably a female.

Budgies can breed when 3 months old but it is best to wait until they are 6 months or older. They lay around 3-5 white eggs that hatch after about 3 weeks and the babies fledge (leave the nest) about a month later. A standard wood budgie nesting box is suitable and you can put a thin layer of course sawdust or fine wood chips in the bottom of the box. Budgies make good parents and will breed readily in cages and aviaries.
 
I can't edit my post so adding a bit here.

Budgies will also eat most fruits but won't take citrus. Apples, carrot, peaches, nectarines, watermelon, rock melon (cantelope) are readily taken.

If you have Australian native plants like bottle brush, gum trees or grevilias, you can cut branches from these plants and put them in the cage for the birds to chew on.

Let the birds fly around each day. Close the curtains or have some sort of fabric over the windows to stop the birds flying into the glass.
 
I had several birds over the years some were rescues like a set of love birds but my Budgies were my favorite. They laid several eggs but my wife would always get rid of them:(
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I keep cuttle bone and pineapple mineral block in my cage. Kiwi gets to spend a few hours in my room alone or with me. Kiwi also is quite spoiled. He has a plethora of toys, which get switched around so he is never bored
 
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to introduce a new budgie to an old budgie in the same cage? Kiwi seems to be longing for company, and based on my research I have come to the conculsion that Budgies do better with company. So How do I go about this? Do I just put the new birdie in the cage or is it more complicated?
 
When I had two they were rescues that came together, I usually only had one at a time. I read that they do like company but the downside is that they may pay more attention to each other than you. I didn't have that problem when I had the two.
 
I don't mind if they dont pay attention. However I can see Kiwi is quiet. Compared to other budgies that have company. More over I am going to be working more so I think a companion might be nice
 
This thread is a thread to catalog the lives of my bird soon to be birds. I have on Budgie at the moment. Kiwi. Born in April or May. (I have yet to assign him a birthday :) ) Kiwi is a loyal lovely bird. He recently went through his first molt. I was really concerned because he was loosing feathers and he looked slightly bedraggled. However in the past few days I've noticed they are growing back! He is looking fuller and a lot more colorful.

Kiwi will be joined in a few weeks by a new budgie. Yet to be named or found. However I will be running a poll to pick a name. I am planning on getting a yellow or blue budgie. Kiwi deserves the company. Anyhow any tips or suggestions for budgie care are welcome!
Is a budgie the same thing as a parakeet?
 
Yes budgie (short for budgerigar, an aboriginal name for the bird) is the same as what is commonly called a parakeet in the US. However, there are some other small parrots that sometimes get referred to as parakeets by the Americans. But normally if someone in the US says they have a parakeet in a cage, it's a budgie.

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When I had two they were rescues that came together, I usually only had one at a time. I read that they do like company but the downside is that they may pay more attention to each other than you. I didn't have that problem when I had the two.
They are social birds that naturally occur in groups of thousands. They pair up and usually remain together for their entire life.

If you have one bird on its own, they bond to the human and when you leave the bird alone (to go shopping or wherever), the bird stresses out and can develop psychological problems and start plucking feathers. Having 2 birds together is much better for them because they can keep each other company while your away.

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When putting 2 birds together, look for another bird that is similar aged. Young budgies have faint black lines across the feathers on the forehead just above the cere (nostrils). These are age lines and as the birds get older, the black lines recede/ disappear and old birds have a larger patch of feathers that are all the same colour with no black lines. If you google pictures of baby budgies and then adult budgies, compare the feathers above the cere and you will see what I mean.

Try to find one that is the opposite sex to what you already have. Males have a blue cere, females have a brown cere.

Monitor the birds for a few days and see how they get along. Sometimes there are arguments and if they continue then separate them and find another partner.
 

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