Everything You Need to Know About Keeping Parrots

The phrase ‘pet parrot’ covers a lot of ground, from sparrow-sized Parrotlets to Cockatoos the measurement of a small goose. There are easy-to-keep species such as the Cockatiel, challenging characters like the Macaws, and all factorsinbetween.

Cocktail and Fischer Lovebirds - popular birds worldwide

With smaller parrots, your major issues will be those of the commonplacehen keeper - making certain none of them are bullied, giving them loads of space and appropriate food, and possibly hand-taming them to make the entire pet-keeping experience extra pleasurable. With some of the largerbirds, however, you’ll additionally be dealing with an animal whose talenthas been compared to that of a five-year-old child.

That’s one of the genuinely super things about parrots. Along with sureparticipants of the crow family, some of them can provide dolphins and wonderful apes a run for their cash when it comes to intelligence.

What this massive vary of sizes and intellects ability is that there’s a parrot to swimsuit all homes. This information looks in detail at the necessities of the most famous species, however additionally acts as a information for all the parrot species saved as pets.

All Parrots Great and Small..

We’ve categorized the birds in 4 agencies based on size. This is useful when talking in phrases of space requirements.

Rainbow Loriket

Although long, the following lists (covering small, medium-sized, massive and extra giant parrots) are a long way from exhaustive. All the birds cited here are popular as pets in Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere, and all are without difficulty accessible to would-be owners.

Note, however, that species such as the African Grey, in spite of thriving populations in zoos and aviaries round the world, are endangered in the wild, and you will want a license to maintain them. (See Parrots on the CITES List, in the Choosing a Parrot part of this guide).

Small Parrots...

Different varieties of Lovebird

• Lovebirds

Fischer’s (Agapornis fischeri)
Masked (Yellow-collared, Eye-ring) (Agapornis personatus)
Peach-Faced (Rosy-faced, Rosy-collared) (Agapornis roseicollis)

• Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) - the budgie is the most popularcagebird in the world, and has its own Omlet Budgie Guide

Bourke’s Parrot ..

Bourke's Parakeet

Lineolated (Barred, Catherine) Parrotlet (Bolborhynchus lineola)
Blue-winged Parrotlet (Forpus xanthopterygius)
Green-rumped Parrotlet (Forpus passerinus)
Pacific (Celestial, Lesson’s) Parrotlet (Forpus coelestis)
Yellow-faced Parrotlet (Forpus xanthops)

Pacific Parrotlet

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Safe Wood for Perches

If you’re sourcing your own ‘wild’ sticks, you need to keep away from any wooden that may be toxic. It’s pleasant to stick to native tree species, more often than not because not all decorative woods have been tried and tested in budgie cages. The following listing consists of native European tree woodthat’s genuinely ok for budgie perche

• Beech
• Apple
• Ash
• Birch
• Lilac
• Crab apple
• Elm
• Willow
• Hawthorn
• Larch
• Sycamore
• Spruce
• Mountain ash (rowan)
• Mulberry
• Poplar
• Maple
• Rose

Wood isn't just for perching

These common non-native species are also safe to use

• Lime
• Almond
• Fig

• Bamboo
• Hickory
• Cottonwood
• Date
• Douglas fir
• Draconian
• Eucalyptus
• Ginkgo
• Grape vines
• Hibiscus
• Lemon
• Orange
• Palm
• Rubber plant
• Tree fern
• Yucca

Lots of different woods are likely perfectly safe to use, but why danger it? The listing above includes species that most budgie owners will be able to sourceeasily.

Most shop-bought perches are made from untreated pine, of the sort used in dowels, and this is fine. But keep away from clean pine, which has a sticky resin. Balsa timber is safe, but won’t last very long as a perch: an industrious budgie will chew through in a few days!

Unsafe Wood for Budgies...

Rather than list lots greater ‘budgie safe’ trees, it’s far extra beneficial to have an ‘avoid’ list. The following frequent wild, backyard and parkland species have been implicated in budgie fitness problems, so don’t use any of these as perches:

• Yew
•  
• Azalea
• 
  
• Walnut
•  
• Buck-thorn
• Burdock
• Cedar
• Elder
• Heather
• Holly
• Horse chestnut
• Huckleberry
• Hydrangea
• Jasmine
• Juniper
• Laburnum
• Laurel
• Mango
• Myrtle
• Nectarine
• Nutmeg
• Box elder
• Oak
• Mistletoe
• Oleander
• Alder
• Peach
• Plum
• Privet
• Rhododendron
• Sage
• Tobacco
• Witch hazel
• Wisteria

Avoid any treated woods unless bought from a legit pet dealer. Driftwood observed on a seaside will continually be tempting as a cage ornament, butbecause you can’t always tell which species the wood got here from, nor the poisonous matters it might have been in contact with, it’s first-rate to keep away from introducing it to cages.

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Keeping Budgies in a Cage..

Budgies are flock birds, and they will live happily together. However, an mounted chicken may additionally nonetheless get a bit shirty if a new member is introduced to the flock – particularly if that flock consists of justone or two birds.

Any new addition will want a duration of quarantine, to make sure there are no health issues, and to get all the birds used to every other. For the first four weeks you preserve the new budgie in a separate cage, shut to the different birds. This will provide each person a danger to acclimatise. After this time has elapsed, bring the cages close together so that the budgies can make their first beak-to-beak contact.

Maintain this popularity quo until the birds appear at ease with everyother. The first bodily contact besides bars need to take vicinity in the cage the birds are due to occupy together. If this is the already the older bird’s territory, swap the fixtures and fittings round to make it a different, neutralspace. Put meals stations on each aspects of the cage, to enable the budgies to feed one at a time if they so desire.

If there is any bickering or squawking, don’t panic – this is natural, and as longas there is no chronic violence taking place, matters must shortly calm down as soon as the hierarchy has been established. Offer the birds millet, to take their minds off confrontation by using crew feeding.

If the birds fight a lot, you might also have to maintain them apart longer and attempt again in a week or so. The larger the cage, the simpler the transition need to be.

Keeping Budgies in Pairs..

A pair of budgies will, generally, be happier than a single budgie. They are sociable birds, and in the wild they stay in giant flocks. Two birds, and a couple of mirrors, will recreate the contact and noise of a flock (albeit a very small one). It would be effortless to say ‘the more, the merrier’, however this may want to be taken as suggesting that happiness increases with the size of the flock, which is neither authentic nor (for most of us) practical. All your henwishes is a companion, and its socialising wants will be met.

If you are only preserving one bird, you will have to supply all the social stimulation it needs. This means spending as a great deal time as you can with it each day – which is the perfect opportunity for finger-training the budgie, and trying to train it a few words and phrases.

How Many Budgies Can Fit in One Cage....?

To discover out how many birds you can accommodate, you will want to work out the cubic capability of your cage. This is the top x the length x the width, so that a cage measuring 90cm (35 inches) in all dimensions will be 729,000cm3 (42,875 cubic inches). Each budgie requires 65,000cm3 (4,000 cubic inches), so in a cage of these dimensions you could fit 10 birds. Note: this is the most number, and you continually furnish as tons area as practicalities allow.

If you intend retaining different species of chook with your budgies (see the sections below), adjust the calculations accordingly. Birds of similarmeasurement to budgies will require the identical space, whilst a large hensuch as a cockatiel (and you in no way introduce whatever large than that to a budgie aviary) will need three instances the cubic area of a budgie.

Keeping Male Budgies Together..

If your pair are both male, you may additionally get a lot of bickering. Having said that, arguing is all phase of the budgie’s social life, so it’s not such a horrific thing as lengthy as neither hen is being bullied. The angry noises of bickering budgies can also no longer be song to your ears, however. It is necessary to comprehend that shopping for a budgerigar skill bringing noise into the household. This is usually musical and gentle on the ear; however a couple of men with mating season hormones kicking off can be a challenge.

There is no way of telling whether this is going to emerge as an issue. When you chose your budgie he was likely in a cage with numerous other birds, and will have occupied a different social niche to the one he finds himself in as joint occupier of the cage in your house. Only when he and his accomplicehave settled in will you comprehend how contented they’re going to be. Most birds rub alongside very well; however it’s a potential issue you need to be aware of.

If you’re very unlucky, and one of the birds turns into bullied and his healthsuffers as a result, you will have to accommodate a second cage and separate the budgies. It’s worth underlining that this is a very exclusive dilemma.

Keeping Female Budgies Together..

Most of the myths about bird budgies being more aggressive than adult malesand eager to peck each others’ eyes out – you’ll meet this variety of aspect in some pre-1970s budgie literature – have been rejected for the sexist nonsense they are. Hens can cohabit perfectly well, and will really squabble barely lessthan adult males as a rule.

Factors that may upset this equilibrium consist of the later addition of a male to a pair of hens. There is in all likelihood no longer a species in the animal kingdom that would fail to fall out in these circumstances. Come the mating season, hormones will surge and three will virtually be a crowd. The equalprecept applies to two adult males and a single female. Three females? No problem.

Keeping Budgies With Other Birds...
Budgies will combine happily with other small birds, consisting of their fellow Australians the cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus), and many othersmall parrots, parakeets and lorikeets. Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) typically get alongside with budgies too.

Popular pet birds that should no longer be kept with budgerigars encompass all parrots large than cockatiels; love birds (family Agapornis), which, in spite of their name, have been recognized to chew chunks out of different species; the Common Mynah hen (Acridotheres tristis) ; and (unless you have a big aviary) canaries (Serinus canaria domestica).

One important difficulty when maintaining specific species together is space, and the availability of locations to escape from the noise and bustle. The birds will also want room to fly and explore each nook and cranny of the cage besides constantly bumping into every other or stealing restrictedperching space. Any careworn chicken desires someplace to recoil till the heat dies down – a excessive perch, a box, a quiet nook – and this, again, requires space. If your birds are being stored in an outside aviary, space will be less of an issue.

Another important detail is food. Budgies and different species of cage birdhave their very own specific dietary requirements. All the occupants of the cage or aviary need to be catered for. You will need to watch their behaviour closely, to check (for example) that a greedy cockatiel isn’t stealing one precise item of the budgie’s diet. Also, cockatiels want masses of oily seeds such as sunflower in their diet, and even though the occasional nibble isn’t going to harm your budgie, you will need to make certain he isn’t ingestingtoo many of them. Obesity and liver disorder are the risks here.

Budgies and other small parrots are smart birds. Intelligence is a double-edged sword – it makes for a very enjoyable pet, however it additionallymakes each animal different. A budgie might also be forthcoming, shy, convenient going or slightly aggressive, depending on his personality. This will constantly have an have an impact on on the equilibrium of any birdcage. Tempers tend to attain a pitch when the birds are nesting.

The nightmare situation is of an effortlessly intimidated budgie lodging with an intimidating parakeet. In these occasions you will have to intervene, for the correct of all the cage’s occupants. Have spare cages on standby. The truth is, you are unlikely to meet with any cohabiting problems; but it will pay to be prepared.

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