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View Full Version : BUDGIES!!!! (advice needed, HELP!!!)


Sheri
9th February 2007, 02:45 AM
Hey guys, First let me say, THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA lol. So anyways, I got the new cages in and set up. And had the old cages sitting in the bird/computer room on the floor and hubby got a bug up his butt and decided we needed to go to the Bird store ASAP. I figured out why when we got there. He wanted a budgie. *sigh* Ended up walking out with 3!!!

#1-Blu- is a handtame Male?? White in color with smudges of blue on its chest and the black stripes on its head and a little on the shoulders.

#2-Sky(he looks like he has clouds on his butt lol) is not handtame definately male(blue nares) and is Yellow, white and tourquoise(sp? lol) VERY pretty I love this little fellow.

#3-Em-son named her- is also not handtame and female. She is a dark lavender color or mabey its a dark blue?? I have no clue about budgie mutations.

Anyways, I am NOT planning on breeding them. But need to know ALOT more about them and fast. Hubby thought he would get away with just buying the birds but I taught him a lesson about that real fast. I picked up food and new perch's and toys and more toys and food and perch's LOL. Thankfully the cages I had been useing for my tiels and conures are plenty big for now I think. I got them budgie sized seed and pellets and they will get the same fresh foods all the other Fids get. Do they have anything else in their diet that I wouldnt normally give my Tiels and Conures? The store had some egg mix that looked good but I wasnt sure and the owner/breeder wasnt in the store when we were there yesterday.

I know its stupid to do impulse buys and the budgies are in quaranteen but there is no way I could have stopped hubby. I'm not happy that we went in and walked out with more birds but I cant change that fact now and just want to learn everything I can. I think Hubby had it in his head that budgies would be easier to handle and wouldnt bite him(he wont touch my other birds that MIGHT bite him). BUT I've allready been bitten by the 2 untame Bugs. The handtame is a real sweetie and I think I can get the other 2 on the level as well. Given time, and ADVICE PLEASE lol. HELP!!!!


P.S. I'll take and post pics as soon as hubby comes up with the camera cord :pissed:

Archive
9th February 2007, 04:35 AM
Congrats on your budgies! :woohoo: And your husband will learn soon enough that budgies can definitely bite! :angeldevil: When they aren't tame, they require LOTS of patience in order to become tame. And they are very stubborn little buggers, so you're in for quite a ride!

About the cage they are in, make sure that the bar spacing is no wider than 1/2 inch.

Jerry's diet is the following:
- Base diet of Lafeber's Avicakes and Nutriberries (these have both seed and some pellets in them - ya know the deal here, everyone has differing opinions about pellets. But these are recommended by my certified AV as the base diet, and my guys LOVE it).

- I add in a little extra seed mix (also recommended by my AV) as I believe that seed is a very important part of their diet.

- Daily fresh foods. As with almost any parrot, a variety of fruits and veggies are needed to supplement the diet. Dark greens are especially good for budgies, and they tend to like grassy things (although Jerry doesn't :rolleyes: ).
A friend has recommended a certain type of pasta that is good for budgies, I want to say it is vermaselli - I plan on making up some new things for the fids and will be trying this.


Taming the two who are not tame:
It might be best to work with each of them daily on an individual basis. Budgies have a very strong flock desire so if they are constantly around other budgies they might not care about human interaction at all. So it requires a lot of work and a lot of patience to get and keep them tame. But I'm only speaking from what I read, since I've never had multiple budgies.

I'm a believer in taking things slowly and working at the bird's pace and not forcing them into anything they are not comfortable with. Some people are a fan of the "tough love" approach, but I think the long term benefits of taking things slowly will pay off more. Just my opinion. It took about 2 months to get Jerry hand tame, with short every day sessions - and LOTS AND LOTS of time simply spent talking to him, or reading or singing to him (he was very afraid of humans when he first came home with us).

Archive
9th February 2007, 04:39 AM
Congrats...make sure he does the work ;)

Pics...patiently waiting for pics

Tiki
9th February 2007, 06:38 AM
Congrats, Sheri! :applause: Yeah, we want pics!

Amanda
9th February 2007, 07:02 AM
Sarah gave you great advice. Not much more I can say. Congratulations, budgies are great birds!! Hubby has another think coming if he doesn't think budgie bites hurt, they can get a grip and draw blood and it does hurt!!

tielfan
9th February 2007, 07:13 AM
Budgies and tiels have basically the same diet - in the wild they live in the same areas and have the same food choices available to them. But tiels can handle some items that are too big for budgies, like sunflower seed. If you're feeding fresh peas, you might want to squeeze each pea between your fingers until it cracks to give the budgies a better shot at it.