Budgies don't chirp at all

[rknol]

Hi everyone!

Since 3 months now we have a pair of beautiful girl budgies (unfortunately from a pet shop as there are no breeders around where we live). They are now anywhere between 5 and 7 months old.

They're active little creatures, play with their toys, forage, fly around the room and they're hand tame since ~1 month. Their diet consists of pellets & chop with every few days a treat of seeds, and they've seen the vet quite recently for a checkup and got a clean bill of health

What I'm a little bit puzzled about is the lack of noise. They're pretty much completely quiet all day long, except for when music is playing (they will sing along). In pretty much all videos on the internet they chirp/make noise all the time (all the ones I saw living with other people did so as well), so I was wondering if anyone has experienced this before? Is it something I should be concerned about?

 

[HowdyDoDee]

Are they getting enough sunlight? Do they have perches set up near a window? And in other areas where they can fly to from their cage? These are my first thoughts.

My budgies are very vocal. We have a large cage for the three of them, a feeding station next to the cage, and two areas in the room where they can perch and fly around to and from. I have looked up safe wood types and made my own perches for the most part as they enjoy the irregularities of natural wood, including the knotty and relatively sharp points that they use for preening/scratching.

Wash the wood with water and a scrub brush, and if the wood is not super hard (like dogwood) or the bark is flaky, remove the bark. I’ve used a mason jar with sand and stones to place branches in, creating a little tree stand in front of a dresser mirror. Line the top of the surface with material you might use to line cupboards for easy clean up. You can use paper on top of that. Or dog potty pads work well on surfaces too, but that can get expensive and wasteful.

I also have an Ole Kabob hanging from the ceiling by a window. They have devoured this pithy soft wood toy, and now I’ve set up a swing perch of sorts by inserting and securing a straight, knotty wood stick through the hollowed out base. Wish they sold these kabob toys in bulk, and that they were easier to find!

As for food, I mix it up with my keets. I always have the *classic* lafebers Nutri berries on hand for parakeets. Also getting harder to find. They like avi cakes too, but don’t care for the fruit flavor Nutri berries. I add a nut/seed blend to the dish along with the forage-able Nutri berries. (These I often don’t put in the food dish, but place them alongside in little nooks and crannies for them to find).

you can offer a low dish with a blend of veggies. I have read to offer fruit sparingly. Try a pie pan, a salad mix, a spritz or two of water, and see if they “bathe” a little and nibble at the greens and other colors.

Offer them a real bath too. I keep one on the cage, but have caught one of my gals taking dips in the stainless steel water cup. That was when I decided to get a mountable bath, rather than using the pie pan in the afternoon sun as I had previously. I chose not to get a covered bath so that they can spread wings in the bath, if they chose to do so. Just keep a towel under the bath to catch a rare splash. I mounted a dollar store wooden soap/crafting ‘roof’ above the bath to try to prevent poop from quickly soiling the water.

Seems to be a good set up for my birds. Hope that helps. 😊

 

[HowdyDoDee]

oh! I almost forgot! You can supplement their sunlight with full spectrum lamps. Happy lamps, for example, that people use for seasonal affective disorder.

Birds can see UV light exposure. They use this vision when choosing a mate in nature. From what I have read, they can actually see how much sunlight a potential mate has been getting. A good amount of sun exposure- vitamin d, etc.- indicates strength and vitality.

🌞 🙏 😊 ✨

 

[rknol]

Are they getting enough sunlight? Do they have perches set up near a window? And in other areas where they can fly to from their cage? These are my first thoughts.

they are and they have plenty of toys (bird kabob is their favorite) of different kinds e.g. shredding/kinetic/climbing. i offer them several types of bird baths but they always prefer to bathe in their water bowl (which i switch out each time they do it)

 

[HowdyDoDee]

they are and they have plenty of toys (bird kabob is their favorite) of different kinds e.g. shredding/kinetic/climbing. i offer them several types of bird baths but they always prefer to bathe in their water bowl (which i switch out each time they do it)

Any changes to their environment? One of my gals is, or used to be, very sensitive to changes in the environment. Moving anything around, whether it be in the room or cage, it didn’t matter. She’s become less so now that she’s not the only feathered friend, or maybe she’s just gotten used to occasional changes.

Females can be especially territorial, from what I’ve read. I believe that to be true, at least with my eldest gal. She’d go through less vocal stages when stressed, or molting, for example. My male budgie is easygoing, and my eldest female (I have two females) is boss lady.

 

[rknol]

Any changes to their environment? One of my gals is, or used to be, very sensitive to changes in the environment. Moving anything around, whether it be in the room or cage, it didn’t matter. She’s become less so now that she’s not the only feathered friend, or maybe she’s just gotten used to occasional changes.

Females can be especially territorial, from what I’ve read. I believe that to be true, at least with my eldest gal. She’d go through less vocal stages when stressed, or molting, for example. My male budgie is easygoing, and my eldest female (I have two females) is boss lady.

None at all, but the thing is that they are very active just not vocal (they were never vocal, from the beginning since we had them)

 

[HeatherG]

My apartment is much quieter than it was when I had room mates, and my Willow is generally quiet, too. When I play music my birds are louder and when I was singing my birds were louder, too.

If you don’t have a lot of traffic or noise going on maybe your birds just don’t need to make much noise, or maybe they aren’t competing with the noise?

Are girl budgies quieter than boys?

 

[rknol]

My apartment is much quieter than it was when I had room mates, and my Willow is generally quiet, too. When I play music my birds are louder and when I was singing my birds were louder, too.

If you don’t have a lot of traffic or noise going on maybe your birds just don’t need to make much noise, or maybe they aren’t competing with the noise?

Are girl budgies quieter than boys?

even when i play music, only sometimes do they sing along or try to compete. but it's worrying me a little bit as my friend's budgies pretty much non-stop make noise even when there is no sound