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IN THE WILD

Budgerigars (budgies also called parrakeets) originally come from Australia.  They are usually found in large flocks along with cockatiels and rosellas.  The true wild budgie is a small (by captive standards) green parakeet that thrives in the colony that it lives in, nesting in hollows in tree branches and trees.  The female is usually the one who looks after the chicks and protects the nest, while the male is out looking for food.  It is not uncommon for the male to travel many miles is search of food for his mate and the chicks.

IN CAPTIVITY

It was 1960 when Australia closed its borders to all exports and imports of animals.  Since that time all budgies have been captive raised.  This wasn’t too much of a problem with the budgies as they had been popular in aviculture and as pets for many years and had been bred successfully for many years.

There are many colour mutations and sizes of budgies available.  There is the typical “pet stock” or “American” budgie, which is small and racy in shape, and there is the “English” budgie, which is quite a bit larger and much fuller of body.  The “English” budgie has been selectively bred to produce the “ideal” budgie for showing, whereas the “pet stock” budgie is closer to the wild type.  Average life span for a budgie is 12-14 years, they have been known to live upwards of 20 years.

AS A PET

Budgies are the most popular of the parrot-type birds to be kept as a pet.  When a young parent-raised budgie (6-9 weeks) is worked with, it will tame quite quickly and easily.  Immature budgies are almost impossible to sex, (except with certain genetic mutations).   We sex budgies by the colour of their cere (the budgies nose).  A females cere is tan to dark brown in colour and a males cere is either light to dark blue, or pink if the bird is a lutino (yellow), albino (white) or a pied (basic body colour broken with white or yellow).  This colouring of the cere is affected by hormones and since an immature bird has not yet gone through puberty (this happens at 6-9 months) the colour of the cere is not necessarily accurate.

If you are interested in a bird that can talk, then a budgie is a good choice. Both male and female budgies can talk (the females are quite often better talkers).

CAGING

A minimum size cage for one budgie is 19”*11”*19” high.  This gives the budgie plenty of room to move around with toys and dishes in the cage.  The perches in the cage should be 5/8” diameter to spread his weight evenly on the perch. If the perch is too small it can cause sores on the bottom of the feet.  Budgies can be trained to use covered dishes, but most budgies will only use open dishes.  Keep this in mind when looking at cages, the cages with covered outside dishes will not work for most budgies.

DIET

Budgies do best on a seed mix that is at least 2/3 “canary” seed (that’s the name of the grain), such as Feathered Friends Budgie/Cockatiel Mix.  A diet too high in white millet can lead to obesity.  Quite a few “commercial” mixes use filler seeds such as red millet, which has no nutritional value.  The same “commercial” mixes use food colouring on some of the seeds as well as pellets.  Budgies colour vision is remarkable and they will usually ignore these coloured seeds.  Thus you end up paying for scatter on the bottom of the cage.

Budgies require gravel in their diet to grind up the seed in the gizzard.  Budgies also require vitamin supplements, such as Feathered Friends Aqua-Vite^TM and mineral supplements, such as Complete Mineral Supplement, as a seed diet alone is deficient in both.

Budgies enjoy having “treats” in their diet.  A treat is any food that is not a staple and it should be fed to them accordingly.  Spray millet is a favorite of all budgies.  There are many good treat mixes, such as Feathered Friend Budgie/Cockatiel Treat Mix.  Most budgies will also eat greens, such as broccoli, kale, spinach, carrot tops, dandelion and chickweed.  Lettuce should be avoided, as it is mostly water.  Always feed greens in small amounts and if you hang the greens in the cage, the budgie is more likely to try it.