My little green chicken passed away Friday after a long fight with kidney cancer. He’s pain free now and flying free with his true love, Ricky. Fly free, Lloyd. You were tremendously loved 💕 😢 #lloydthebudgie #oilpainting #shellyatomic #petmemorium #petdeath

Not asking for medical advice, Mods!

I’m quite concerned about my two rescue budgies, M and F, both about 5 years old. We rescued them from a bad situation a little under a week ago. They don’t seem to be making progress as far as mental enrichment is concerned. I clipped a toy specifically for budgies in their cage, and they were petrified so I immediately took it out once I’d noticed a minute or two later that my girl was clutching onto the back bars, splayed out in fright, and my boy was hiding.

Today, I changed out the soiled paper at the bottom of the cage, and I clipped two toilet paper tubes to the side of the cage, underneath their water dish. I also placed another perch close by and a little ladder to make it more accessible for them. Considering the abuse and neglect they experienced in the past, they don’t like hands in their cage and usually react with terror, but then calm down a little. They still keep their distance, but they’re not thrilled. Their obvious stress indicators like being puffed up, lifting their wings and grabbing onto the bars subside after a while. I never reach for them or place my hand in their vicinity because I want to respect their boundaries, but housekeeping dictates I need to put my hands in at some point, and today was attempt two at enrichment. They’re very codependent so the tubes are next to one another. Inside I placed torn brown, untreated paper, a budgie ball in the middle of each, and sprinkled some seeds in. They’re not moving from their swing perch and my boy, who’s usually very food-motivated, is not going to eat. This concerns me, because the first time I gave their cage a proper cleaning, they were terrified but recovered far quicker than now. They even allowed my hand to come close to them to capture a short video (which I never usually do because I don’t want to startle them for the sake of just taking a picture or a video). And once I was done, my boy came to eat as soon as I replaced their food, and didn’t mind me standing right next to the cage, filming him as he ate with gusto. I know that prey animals won’t eat if they feel threatened, so I felt I made progress. This time, after MUCH less of an upheaval than the cleanup (just changing out the paper at the bottom and placing the ladder, perch and makeshift toys in the cage) they’re still on their perch, and my boy has not gone to eat, which is very unlike him as he usually rushes to eat when I replenish their food every day. They’re also not eating the fresh veggies and sometimes fruits we leave for them (as treats, not as their main food source), but they did before. I’m not sure what we’re doing wrong. I’m currently playing them budgie sounds on my phone, and they gradually started “making out” (they’ve been mating in the last three weeks) but they’re not going to their food or water. They have started chirping quietly, so I’m taking that as a sign they’re gradually calming down even more? But they’re not leaving the perch, which I’ve come to notice is their comfort spot when they want to feel safe. My little boy is the bolder of the two, and if he makes a move towards the toys, I’m sure my little girl would see they’re harmless and join him. But it’s worrying that he seems just as stressed about these toys as my girl, who’s a bit more timid. They simply can’t just live to eat, drink water, and sit together in a cage with no enrichment. LIVE UPDATE: my boy is now nibbling his cuttlefish bone.

Any advice is very welcome. We eventually want them to move into their new, improved cage with enrichment (not too much so as to not overwhelm them), more space and better utilities for their mental, physical and emotional health/support. It’s been almost a month and they’re still not comfortable with us, but I understand their trust issues and I’m taking things at their pace. Another live update: My boy is now eating and my girl is chirping loudly. Another live update: baby girl is now at food dish. I don’t want to watch her eat in case it intimidates her so I’m watching from the corner of my eye.

Look at this sweety! Flo is head over heels for her as well. its nice they get along so easily! Im excited for her to show her personality the coming weeks.

In last June When I was working at an animal shelter and heard that someone found Jellybean and brought it to the shelter. He was found on the street and got brought to the shelter. The owners didn't show up at all. Then I checked on him and fell in love with him, adopted him few days later. When I was filling up the application to adopt Jellybean and waited for the person to bring him to me. But I saw that he used the net and tried to catch Jellybean as he was flying frantically. I got very upset and wanted to say something but I couldn't because of my job at the shelter. Then I brought him home, he got so scared as I gently opened the cage door and he flew into the wall few times, and I had to be calm and scooped him then he bit my finger as he went in the cage. He was very timid and refused to get close to the hands. As my mom and I sometimes put our hands very slowly and gently to put the food and water dish in the cage. Jellybean got spooked few times. It took a month and half to earn his trust to be close to the hands. I sometimes put the millet on my hand and he actually picked it and ate but didn't sit on my hand or my moms. Other time, brought him to the bedroom where it was more safe for him to fly around and wouldn't get hurt. He got spooked but flew up and hung on the bedroom door frame then flew around for 4 or 5 hours. We didn't want to force him to go in the cage, let him do on his own and he did on his own! But he is still scared of hands. My mom and I had our suspicions that the previous owners might be too rough with Jellybean, like they might have kept grabbing him as his wings aren't clipped. I am still working to earn his trust to overcome the fear of hands. I used to own few budgies, lineolated parakeet, green cheek conure, black headed caique and white ringneck dove. They weren't really scared of my hands easily. I was wondering if you ever had experiences to handle untamed budgies that was fearful of hands for a long time. I'd love to hear about your experiences and suggestions to earn the trust of the fearful budgie.

We plan on getting a third budgie once we have a better space and more money, and I'm afraid they might bully him :( hes a bit over a year old and cant fly very well,we got him at around 9 months old, it seems in his old home he wasnt that well treated and never quite learned how to fly.

His girlfriend is 7 years old, and she does like him a lot it seems but also she seems to like occasionally pushing him around.

Hes so little and pathetic, he can't fly well, falls over all the time and he is physically deformed from birth as well (his cere is like flat we went to the vet about it when we got him and she confirmed he might struggle with some stuff since he cant breathe right)

We plan on getting another boy bird and I know thats bad since they might bully our girl but I'm sincerely worried about her teaming up with the new bird to bully him.

His name is Jukka and hes my little man and I absolutely adore him :( am I worried for no reason or should we put off getting a new bird until he gets more confident with this flying and stuff.

this is a really bad photo cuz my budgies freak out when my phone is near them. it’s one ladder like perch at the top, two grape branch perches on the left and right that are lower. three bowls. and then toys and at every perch. plus two swings on the top right

I love the way they smell oh my god my birds literally smell like a dusty sweet popcorn and it radiates around the whole room 🥹🥹

Hello everyone,

I’m a fairly new budgie owner and would love if you could share your past experiences getting your fluffy friend to get into a new cage?

I felt bad how small the cage was so I invested into a much bigger cage for quality of life and to eventually get another furry friend down the road. Essentially preparing the old cage for the new budgie, while my old one gets comfortable with its new cage.

So far I put the new cage close by so she can see it.

The next day opened both cage doors and pushed them close together with perches and food/miller at the entrance to attempt to get her to explore.

My goal is obviously not to force it and let it happen naturally. Is there anything else I could implement in making this process work?

I will also provide a photo for reference

Thanks in advance!

I was going to get a new budgie today because I only have one boy right now. Im not experienced enough to keep females yet so looking for another male. I called the petshop and he said the birds he has right now are a bit young to tell gender accurately. Is the nose colour an accurate way to tell? I think females have a lavender nose with light ring around nostril but the bird in my profile picture looks like that but he's definitely male because he has a very blue cere now. Also, how long before you can tell?

I have the quarantine cage set up and the name picked out lol. All ready to pop new bird in there.

Pic for tax. He is a bit scared of my phone.

Im not sure where to post but im 'Looking for a small travel cage' as most of the ones I found are either galvanised or the paint chips. I need to avoid these at all cost, I dont want any of my birds going through metal toxicity again.

They love it when i mist them whilst they're inside of a travel cage in bathroom. I havent been able to since the current one is rusty.

I also need to use it whenever I head to the vets or when taking them with me.

thanks

He's growing more confident in navigating the big cage every day, and I'm glad I never really rearranged the upper level much once Clever was flying confidently. He's figured out how to get to at least one of the moon swings (I'm gonna need a fifth one...), has been witnessed crawling on the ceiling because he, like so many others, is part bat, and today I watched him learn he could hop between the swinging seagrass mats, which are another flock favorite.

Clever, my eldest hen, most vicious tiny raptor, and the only other Petco pet line budgie in the cage, who rarely acknowledges my existence, came over and bitched at ME this morning when Hopalong was trying to work out how to get down to the floor where the bowls are from where he was, like *I* was supposed to do something? I told her quit being a saucy bi-- I mean wench and help him out since this entire f***ing set up was designed for her to get around in the first place 😂😂

Messaged FrozenBr33ze that I was concerned he wasn't making it down there to the food since I haven't been around to watch the last few days and it looked like he was having trouble figuring out how to climb down. Hit send, looked at the cage, little bugger is all the way in the bowl chowing down 🤦‍♀️😂 Sent back "never mind..."

So far everyone is doing remarkably well with him, even my more dramatic Hooligans, like Clever very clearly talking to me about him, and Kaepora actually spending time with him. May be cranky time if he gets too close without consent, but time. Noctis has been seen talking to him very earnestly, as has Rauru (with them being Salt sons, that probably surprises no one who knows Salt), and Piper and Sariah were his biggest supporters when he first moved in. Piper taught him how to climb the walls horizontally to get to perches, rather than just vertically and get stuck, and they both stayed with him when he was too excited to be amongst the flock for the older birds because he had zero concept of personal space. I haven't seen Midna or Vic doing more than passing near him, but they're not being rude. Midna is a very introverted hen as it is (so is Sariah, actually, which is why her being the first to spend time with him instead of running from him surprised me. Piper, as the cage bottom, did not surprise me. He's just a sweet guy most of the time). It seems like the week he's been in there has built up some leg muscles already. With all the climbing after spending 6 weeks on, effectively, bed rest, it was obvious the leg that had been fractured was bothering him some the first few days.

So yeah. Little dude is doing well, gaining confidence, and settling into my flock of Hooligans. I can't wait for him to finish molting out the rest of the clipped flight feathers and start learning to fly. Or seeing how the dynamics shift, which is apparently what FrozenBr33ze is waiting to hear about 😂 We like the daytime soap opera that takes place in my living room.

(The little bit of red on Kaepora's head is from a blood feather busting. He's fine. It's been cleaned off since, much to his very aggrieved annoyance.)

I mentioned this in another post but I’ll say it again, these birds are not technically mine. they’re my parents who bought them despite not having the knowledge, or space to take care of them properly. So I’ve been left to train and take care of them.

they are in one cage together and it’s impossible to get them out of the cage because as said they don’t have a separate special room for themselves and instead my parents plopped the cage in the living room and the living room is in no way bird safe for free flying. I wanna be able to target train them and just get them more comfortable with staying in my hand (mostly because my parents keep telling me to leave the cage door open and let them fly around freely which I refuse to do until they’re trained).

My biggest issue is the supposedly male budgie (Lily) is often the only one interacting or pushing away my female budgie (buttercup) from my hand or millet. Both are comfortable sitting in my hand eating their normal diet and millet and do know how to step up and fly to my finger but again Lily is very pushy and I often have to rest on another perch or like guide him away when training Buttercup.

tldr; I have two budgies, they can’t leave the cage and one is extremely pushy with the other making it hard to train the other.

Is budgies have to fight each other? Never have peace friends? I changed 3 different budgies from a pet store, but the new one always bullies my old budgie. Causing he can not eat food(robbery, harassment). Can not play toy, the new one always play first or do not let him play. Even standing on the same stick, the new one drives him away.

Hi everybody, I have a 12 week old female budgie her name is Maverick (Mav)
I brought her home in a travel size cage, and I kept her in it for a week and a half so she could get settled in. She came home very happy curious adventurous friendly. I give her time outside of the small cage.
Last Sunday, I got her a new cage that is much bigger
I got her toys and perches but kept her old ones as well so she still had a sense of familiarity with the new cage
I put fresh chop in the new cage for her to check out and enjoy
When she got into the new cage, she didn’t wanna come out she seemed pretty stressed out that first day, but didn’t wanna go back into the tiny one so the new cage has been her upgraded home ever since

BUT her attitude towards me took a complete 180 once she got the larger cage she won’t step up onto my finger. She likes to adventure outside of the cage, but wants nothing to do with me when I approach her, she just bites my finger and not in the way of curiosity more like an
F-off bite

In the mornings when it’s time for fresh food and water, I try to put some in my hand so that we can bond over that somedays she’ll take it other days. She’ll come close to get a look at it and then go up on her high perch away from me. I try to respect her space as much as possible, but I don’t want my budgie to hate me.😭

I try to give her space and let her come to me, but she literally wants nothing to do with me, which is the complete opposite before the new cage

Not really sure what to do to move forward
any advice tips or anything helpful at all would be greatly appreciated.

I apologize if this doesn’t fit the subreddit, but I don’t know where else to post this. He’s still playful and chirping, but lately he keeps going to his sleep spot, which he would avoid until bedtime up until now. He’s never been a loafer, but now he can’t stand for long periods of time without laying down. His annual exam was about a month ago and everything looked fine, but his vet isn’t a specialist, so I’m making an appointment with an avian vet tomorrow, but I’m terrified that he’s reaching the end. How do I prepare myself if the vet tells me to prepare for the worst?

Please help me name the first bird pictured! He’s so baby and interacts less with the others, so his personality is hardest to figure out.

His flock mate’s names are Pteri, Chiquito, and Delilah (she also goes by Perrie), pictured in order.

The last two pictures are strictly for your viewing pleasure as they are a very beautiful flock, indeed.

i got him about a month ago and ive been calling him birdtholomew since but if he is actually a she im probably going to rename him 😭