It's tough to get a budgie

[Frank Cox]

I've had a budgie all of my life. My grandmother gave me a budgie when I was five years old and I've never gone more than a few days "between budgies" ever since. I only have one at a time, I've never tried to breed them because what would I do with a whole lot of budgies, and I usually try to get a male since they are more sociable (more aggressive) and sing better than females.

With all of that for an intro, my budgie died last week. He was fourteen years old and yes, it was a terrible experience.

Pretty much any time I've ever walked into a pet store there's a bin-o-budgies somewhere in there with a few dozen birds in it. So we went to "the city" today with every confidence that we could walk into a pet store, get a new budgie and bring him home in short order.

To my surprise, there's a shortage of budgies. Who knew? After much phoning around, in the whole city there were only two budgies available for sale. A young female and a smaller male. Everywhere else we asked we got told, "Yeah, there's no budgies. Haven't had any for some time, probably won't have any for a while, no idea why."

So we went to look at the only two that were available and fortunately they turned out to be what we were looking for in terms of age and attitude, so I said we'll take the little male.

At that point the seller pulled out a four page exam on how to care for budgies and I had to complete that before he would sell me the bird.

List at least four household items that are toxic to budgies. Name four signs that a budgie is sick. Why should perches be different shapes. Where do you plan to place the bird in your home and how many hours per day will he be left alone? Do you have kids and if so how will you protect the bird from the kids. And so on, for four pages.

I've been looking after a budgie my entire life so the exam wasn't really difficult to complete but I guess if you can't pass the exam there's no bird for you.

I was really surprised that the seller would want a buyer to write an exam before selling the bird, but now that I've had time to think about it I think it's a good idea. You don't want to sell one of those little characters to someone who knows nothing about them or think it's a kid's toy so that's a good way to be sure you're sending the bird to a good home.

Anyway, meet Sid:

sid-20230517.jpg

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I hope you also tweeted this!!!

[Randy Stankey]

Anybody who can keep a budgie for fourteen years deserves a feather in his cap! Literally!

You should have told the guy that your last bird was fourteen years old when it passed away. I've always thought that five or six years is a good, long life for a budgie. I'd say that fourteen is about as long as a little bird like that can live.

When we adopted our first cat, we had to go through a similar thing. We had to give references and everything.
I grew up around animals. My father bred hunting dogs when I as a kid and, before I was born, he was the animal keeper for a petting zoo at a local amusement park. When I was growing up, we had all kinds of animals from dogs and cats to birds and snakes. (Yes, we had a budgie, too! ) So, it's not like we don't know how to take care of a cat!

I would expect an animal breeder to ask for some kinds of information on a potential buyer. Sure, check the person's ID to make sure they are who they say they are. Fill out some papers and stuff like that. The seller needs to write up a bill of sale and, maybe, a contract. If we ever have to rehome the cat, the seller (in our case, a privately run animal rescue) should get right of first refusal.

Filling out a four page exam to adopt a budgie? For the birds!

The guy probably spends a lot of time breeding and raising budgies and I respect his sense of ethics. He doesn't want to spend all that time and money to raise birds only to have them end up being abused.

If I was that guy and you told me that your last bird lived almost fifteen years, I would have pulled out that test and showed it to you then watched your face as you read through it, maybe asking a few questions. If I saw a look of non-comprehension I might have asked you to fill it out but, if I saw that you were an honest person (which I believe you are) I would have put the papers aside.

When my father was selling hunting dogs, there was some paperwork to fill out like a bill of sale and the forms for AKC registration but it was mostly a handshake deal. If he didn't like your looks or thought you wouldn't take care of the dog he would just tell you to take a hike.

[Mike Blakesley]

My grandparents always had a budgie or sometimes two. I didn't know that was their name - we always just called them "parakeets." I remember a time or two they got out of the cage and would fly around the house.

[Frank Cox]

What the rest of the world calls a budgie Americans call a parakeet. However, while they are all the same family, budgies are parakeets but some other small breeds of parrots with long tails are also parakeets but are not budgies.

A monk parakeet, for example, is a parakeet but it is not a budgie. So all budgies are parakeets but not all parakeets are budgies.

Sid had a long day today getting used to all kinds of new and different stuff. He's about six feet away from me right now but he's curled up on his perch and his day is definitely over until tomorrow..

[Randy Stankey]

Ours could imitate the doorbell and, sometimes, bark at the dog. One time, my mother went running into the living room to answer the phone but nobody was on the other end of the line. A few minutes later, it happened again only, this time, the budgie was sitting in his cage chirp-chattering to himself in a way you would swear sounded just like laughter. My mother came back out with her hands in the air, "The damn bird imitated the phone!"

Never heard it talk much but they say that budgies don't talk as well as other kinds of birds. Do they?

[Frank Cox]

Like other parrot species, budgies are very intelligent birds. They need a great deal of mental and physical stimulation to remain healthy and happy. Boredom is the cause of depressed or psychotic budgies, where they start tearing out their feathers, just sitting and doing nothing at all and/or acting crazy. It's like you or me sitting in a jail cell with nothing to do or to read; it wouldn't take long to go round the bend.

So I make sure my bird has interesting toys to play with and I play games with him and make sure he gets lots of attention. Every bird has his own personality and interests so it's important to learn what he likes and what he wants to do. I'm just starting that process with Sid, of course. In general, birds like bright colours, shiny things and stuff that makes noise.

My previous bird was a rocker. He loved music of all kinds and he would dance and be-bop along with anything that had a heavy beat. He even had his own rhythm section with some stuff. Pat Benatar's Heatbreaker was his favourite song; he would rock and hammer on his bell in time with the lyrics. "Heartbreaker *smash* dream maker *smash* love taker *smash*" His timing was pretty much right on and it was cute as anything to see him doing stuff like that. If he didn't feel like dancing around he would sometimes just tap one of his toes on the perch in time with the beat of whatever was playing at the time.

Sid seems to like music too. Which is good since he'll get lots of it here. He's been doing a bit of singing along this morning, and when I played my piano a bit for him yesterday he came out from where he was hiding to run over and listen right away so that's a good start.

A talking bird is very cool in theory but no so much when you have to live with it. I taught a budgie to talk once and he got so he would repeat the last three words of anything I said so it was like having a constant echo in the house. He also liked to ring so I would get up to answer the phone. He always thought that was a great joke.

Budgies can be ear-splittingly loud when they want to, far louder than you would expect from such a small bird. A few years ago I woke up in the morning and my bird was screaming. I thought he was stuck in something or under some kind of attack so I raced right into the living room to rescue my bird, wondering what could be attacking him or maybe I'll have to cut the cage to get him out of whatever he's stuck in or who knows what. I got there and he immediately went quiet and pointed to the air conditioner. He just thought it was too hot and wanted me to switch it on. But the way he was screaming sure scared the hell out of me. He only did that once, thankfully. He was smart enough to realize that it had been definite overkill.

[Lyle Romer]

Thanks to this thread I have now added "budgie" to my vocabulary. My first pet was one and for 40 years I have thought I had a "parakeet."

[Marcel Birgelen]

The Dutch vernacular name of the bird in the picture would be: Parkiet. According to Wikipedia, the species is officially known as "Budgerigar".

When I was still young and still lived with my parents, we had one very similar to the one in the picture. It actually flew into the appartment we rented while we were on hollyday in German Bavaria. He immediately bonded with us and didn't fly off. My mother bought a bird cage and I still remember her going from door to door in the neighborhood, visiting the local animal shelter, but nobody was missing a para... sorry, budgie. So, after the vacation was over, we brought "him" (according to the vet it was a he) home with us. He spent most of the time during the day outside his cage, flying around in the house. Even if you accidentally left a window open, he didn't make any moves to fly off. It was a very playful and tame animal. Sometimes, when neighbors were on vacation, we had another male staying over. They also had a special bond. And yes, those birds imitate all kinds of sounds. The most recognizable one was the vacuum cleaner, but I'm not sure that was out of affection.

We never knew what his exact age was, but we had him for about 11 years. It's always hard to lose a beloved pet... better not think about it too much...

[Frank Cox]

20230625_155943.jpg
Syd was so little when I got her that I didn't know if she was male or female.

She turned out to be a hen.

Anyway, here she is today. She's about three months old now and quite a bit taller and wider than she was when I got her.