I'd like to get a budgie or two

[hypnoctopus]

Hi there!

I need some advice.

My 8 year-old has been asking for about a year now if she could get a bird, specifically a budgie. I've always been interested in birds, although I've never owned one. She already owns a corn snake (which are low-maintenance pets) and she's very good about taking care of him.

I'm strongly considering getting one for her (although I know that I would be the main caretaker of it). However, we do have a fairly busy schedule and I wouldn't want the bird to get lonely on days where we didn't have a lot of time to play with it and give it attention. I also think that because they're so social, it would definitely benefit from having a little birdy buddy, so I was thinking it would be a good idea to get two.

The breeder that I would like to get the bird(s) from hand-rears the babies as well as lets the parents raise the chicks, so I'm assuming that any bird we got from her would already be at least semi-tame.

So my questions are: if we got two birds at the same time, would they ever be fully tame? I keep reading that you can't tame two birds. And if we got two birds, what gender pair would be best, e.g. two males, two females, or one of each? (I keep thinking I'd like to get males, but would they fight in a same sex pair?) I would be concerned about breeding if I got a male/female pair. Would it be better to buy one and get it nice and tame and then add a second?

We also have 5 dogs (one is at death's door from cancer, so we're about to go down to 4), and although none of them have a high prey drive, I still wouldn't want them to be alone with the bird(s), so I was thinking I would put the cage in one of our bedrooms - do you think this setup would be too seclusive? And then my other concern is that the bedrooms are carpeted and surely the birds would poop when we took them out for playtime. Does bird poop come off carpet fairly easily? (I don't mind vacuuming up seeds, shells, and feathers.)

We're not going to rush off and buy a bird or two any time soon, but I wanted to get a ton of research done before we make a decision.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

(She loves the normal green budgies and I'm partial to yellow-faces. )

 

[DebsFlock]

I think the snake is at least as much of a risk to the bird as the dogs FWIW. Should it get loose, it could actually get into the cage! That said, we have 3 cats and 3 birds and the worst incident we've ever had is the Green Cheek Conure jumping of the cage and chasing the cat, yelling "Pretty Scoo-scoo!" Not to be encouraged, but it is a good thing the cat ran, because it was hopelessly funny. We don't allow the birds out unsupervised and they are trimmed so that they can't get too far away from one location too fast. I think multiple pets is a manageable risk.

Bird poop cleans up pretty easily, Poop-off wipes are a good friend. The room the bird cages is in currently in our house is carpeted. Not my choice, but ti will be a while before the flooring is replaced. I have smaller washable rugs around the door area so that when the birds are out and on the cage, they mostly poop on the throw rugs not the carpet. Scooter is reasonably well potty trained, and the other two are more likely to poop on me or my chair than the carpet, so that's probably not such a big deal.

The bird or birds will want to have plenty of interaction time. Ours have cages in a spare bedroom that serves as my office and I spend plenty of time in there when I am home. The door can be closed when we are out. We also have play stands that can be moved into one room or another if we are hanging out there. You might, in your situation, consider having a "day cage" in the main living area and another cage in the bedroom for sleeping and when you are out.

I'm new to the more classic pet birds -- no budgies and we've only had our 'tiel, a foundling, for a couple of months. But it is my understanding that 'tiels and budgies are much more large-flock oriented and that they can get along with a same-sex companion in the same cage and also remain friendly to people as long as they are regularly handled. This is not typically true of other pet parrots. So you might get a pair of males (less worry about egg-laying complications) and see how it goes. Maybe one green and one yellow-face? LOL. Good luck!

 

[hypnoctopus]

Thanks for the reply!

Snakes are notorious escape artists, but our cage is very secure (and the snake is only taken out with my supervision). And the snake is still much too small to do any damage if he came in contact with the bird.

I've seen Poop-off sold in some of the exotic bird stores here and so far everyone I've talked to really recommends it, so I'm sure we'll be well-stocked in that. I was also thinking washable throw rugs or maybe even a sheet. The rest of the house is all tile, so I would just have to put the dogs away if we wanted the birds to hang out 'loose' with us (at least until we could be sure that our dogs wouldn't bother them and obviously making sure the house was reasonably bird-proof).

I've also heard that the males are usually more apt to talk - do you know if that's true? We'd love to hear them chattering. (We've watched some videos on Youtube and I had never known that budgies could learn to talk - I'd always thought it was only the larger parrots!)

 

[Mayden]

I believe that budgie actually holds a record for the most words able to be spoken!

Everything sounds fine. Budgie poop is so easily maintained compared to larger parrot poop. I miss my Wonsy woo for that because Merlin's are just... unpleasant to say the least

Males are also only more likely to talk with lots of training and if they're a solo bird. However, I've had males who have never spoken, so please don't get a male hoping that that is what will happen!

I would recommend two males, I find they seem to get on the best. I currently have a male and female and they squabble a lot, but they're also mates.