One of my Budgies was Missing!

[DonnaBudgie]

This afternoon I had left Joey and Cora, the two girl budgies that live in our bedroom, out in the room for a couple hours while I napped. When I woke up I couldn't find Cora. There was no way she could have gotten out of the room but she was completely silent like she had disappeared. I looked everywhere she could be and after about 30 minute my eye caught the almost full roll of paper towels on the dresser. It was standing on end as it had been all day. I recalled seeing her perched atop the roll earlier in the day so I picked it up and out flew Cora! She had crawled into the roll from the top and was trapped in the cardboard tube unable to back up the length of the roll and unable to get out the end resting on the dresser. Strangely, she made no noise in there. No sounds of struggle at all. If I hadn't picked up the roll she would have died in there!

 

[onamom]

Oh no! I personally never leave the birbs unsupervised because it makes me too nervous. I’ve gotta know where they are at all times. I’m glad she is ok!

 

[Jcas]

Oh no! So glad you found her. Birds are so good at getting themselves stuck in the craziest places. I had the windows open A few days ago as the weather was very nice and I walked into my room to find that Buster had somehow climbed down in the gap between the two windows! Then it was too slippery for him to climb up. When I carefully lowered the window for him to get out, he had to wiggle a little to fit through. Which means he didn’t just fall down, he had to have climbed in there on purpose! Over a decade of having budgies in that room and none of them have managed to get between the windows that way. Now there is a towel in the gap so that can’t happen again. Little birds get into crazy places! So glad Cora is okay

 

[wrench13]

Any parrot has that capacity! Salty is driven by more curiosity and has gotten himself trapped between the big leather couch (so no beak or claw holds) and the wall. But our old parrot, Max, was a tiny BeeBee parrot and with him he was just so crazy bold that he would not ever give danger or consequences a second thought. He wanted to go somewhere, he would - no studying the situation, no scoping the lay of the land - just DO it. ANd that applied to everything. You had to see this tiny bird beat up on a cockatoo one time. No fear, no regard for a beak that could literally chomp him in half. Most times I tell folks that the common perceptions of a parrots species can differ quite a bit from that , on an individual basis. But those Beebee parrots, man I seen and read about too many individuals to say that about that particular aspect of their personalities. Them and parrotlets - they all think they are frigging EAGLES or Macaws!

 

[GivemeSeedsorgivemeFlesh]

This afternoon I had left Joey and Cora, the two girl budgies that live in our bedroom, out in the room for a couple hours while I napped. When I woke up I couldn't find Cora. There was no way she could have gotten out of the room but she was completely silent like she had disappeared. I looked everywhere she could be and after about 30 minute my eye caught the almost full roll of paper towels on the dresser. It was standing on end as it had been all day. I recalled seeing her perched atop the roll earlier in the day so I picked it up and out flew Cora! She had crawled into the roll from the top and was trapped in the cardboard tube unable to back up the length of the roll and unable to get out the end resting on the dresser. Strangely, she made no noise in there. No sounds of struggle at all. If I hadn't picked up the roll she would have died in there!

Ollie did this but thankfully I was right behind him to immediately rescue him. He slid down in the toilet paper with his wings up, like being in a small tunnel with your hands above your head.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

It used to make me nervous too but I got over it. We started letting them stay out when I got tired of chasing them around to get them back in their cages before we went work from 3pm to 9pm. I would chase them around the room for up to an hour and finally we just let them stay out and when we get home in the evening after dark they cooperate much better because theyre tired and ready for bed. I even keep up their routine when we're out of town for more than a day. My bird sitter comes in the morning ro service their cages and let them out and returns in the early evening to put them all back in. It's well worth the $50 a day to know they're safe and happy.
The seven budgies in my living room fly free all day regardless of whether we're home. All of them are tame enough to fully cooperate when it's time to go back in the cage and go to bed They never get into trouble. Perhaps it's because none of them are the "explorerer" type.
Three male budgies fly free all day in my enclosed adjacent porch. I can't keep them with the other seven because two of them are sexually aggressive, won't leave the girls alone and harass the other males. The third one is their best buddy. These three boys also never get into trouble out there.
The two female budgies in our bedroom, Joey and Cora, can't be left out for more than a hour without supervision because they both like to explore and I don't trust them to stay out of trouble. They're let out as much as possible while I'm home to supervise. I wish I could let them stay out but both of them are proven troublefinders. Maybe if the room had less clutter and fewer temptations. We're building a master suite addition onto our house and they will be moving into it when it's finished in a couple months. I believe the new room will be a much safer place for them.

I realize that leaving 10 budgies out unsupervised is a potential problem but these birds have had this freedom for over a year now and I don't think they would adjust easily to being caged most of the time. They live like wild birds except they're tame. They love their freedom and we love watching them enjoy it. We would be devastated if any of them got injured or killed but I'd rather take the risk than go back to caging them.

 

[nkrbkr]

Any parrot has that capacity! Salty is driven by more curiosity and has gotten himself trapped between the big leather couch (so no beak or claw holds) and the wall. But our old parrot, Max, was a tiny BeeBee parrot and with him he was just so crazy bold that he would not ever give danger or consequences a second thought. He wanted to go somewhere, he would - no studying the situation, no scoping the lay of the land - just DO it. ANd that applied to everything. You had to see this tiny bird beat up on a cockatoo one time. No fear, no regard for a beak that could literally chomp him in half. Most times I tell folks that the common perceptions of a parrots species can differ quite a bit from that , on an individual basis. But those Beebee parrots, man I seen and read about too many individuals to say that about that particular aspect of their personalities. Them and parrotlets - they all think they are frigging EAGLES or Macaws!

lol. Button is 100% too big for his britches.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Yeah you're 100% correct if you hadn't found her she would have died.

When I was young I had a budgie pass *exactly* that way while I was away at school. That was the event that led me to stop free flight unsupervised in their room. I used to never lock them in their cages before that. The cages were just furniture in the room they could come and go from as they pleased.