Please help! Cage-bound budgie

[ren]

I received my parakeet Rambo from my grandpa when he passed away. Rambo is 7-8 years old. Unfortunately, his last two owners were negligent with him.
He is untrained and has never left his cage before, he has an all-seed diet, he has a mirror in his cage he's very attached to, his cage is too small, and he won't play with any toys whatsoever.
I've been trying to get him used to me and get him out of his cage so I can deepclean it, but he just won't budge.
What should I do? I really love him and I want to be patient with him, but it can't be healthy for him to be in a 7-8 year old cage that's never been cleaned.
I know this is an extreme situation, but I just don't know what to do. He does seem to be healthy at the moment, but I know birds can be misleading when it comes to their health.

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you and Rambo! My condolences for the passing of your grandpa, thanks for rescuing this hapless budgie.

Totally agree with your concerns ranging from diet to cleanliness and size of cage. Unfortunately I am not familiar with budgies and most of my larger parrot experience won't directly translate. I'm almost tempted to suggest a one-time move to a larger cage, though Rambo has been through a lot and may feel more secure in current enclosure. One thing you can immediately improve is diet - offer fresh veggies and fruits + healthier snacks. Hoping for our budgie members to chime in!!

 

[Kitekeeper]

Welcome ren,

Yes, it is a good idea to put your bird in a bigger cage and clean the smaller one. Always keep a small cage as a spare cage, for transport, hospital cage or just to keep the bird for awhile during the cleaning of his cage. So, I would buy a bigger cage, transfer him to there and clean and store the smallest one as a spare.

Don´t be alarmed that he is attached to his cage. He is attached to a confined environment where he can feel safe and the indoors of a cage is all he knows. He will eventually be brave to explore outside the cage if you offer him the option to cross an open door, just don´t rush and don´t push it.

Birds are creatures of habits, they love to have a routine and that means have understanding and mapping of his whereabouts. My budgie Bud always flew back to his cage any chance he had. He just feel safer there and I have to respect this.

Flying is great and we humans feel that if we could fly we would like to do that all the time. So looking for a bird behind bars seems to be at least sad for the bird. However, if the bird was born captive the cage is all s/he knows, it is his/her universe. Moving through air is pretty much like swimming, so imagine that after taking several year in a shallow pool, someone open a door and encourage you to swim in a Olympic pool without lines! It might be scaring and we could understand the bird´s will to stay put.

Of course the bigger the bird the less scary is the outside cage. Some medium to big birds could even not exercise if they are kept the whole time into the cage, but that´s not the case for your budgie. Regarding accommodations and room a big cage and the option to get out of it is all that I would provide for him so far.

Enriching his food as Scott said is a must do to keep him healthy.

 

[ren]

Thank you for the replies! I am looking for a new cage immediately, per your advice.
In the meantime, I will introduce him to new foods.

 

[Scott]

Some general food advice, budgies may have slightly different needs!

Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips

A healthy parrot starts with a healthy diet. Although the perfect diet is controversial, many parrot enthusiasts and experts agree on one thing; a seed only diet is a diet that is lacking in essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Studies have shown that adding fresh foods and pellets to a...

www.parrotforums.com

Bird Safe Fresh Foods & Toxic Food Lists + Sprouts

The list for the grains, legumes, veggies, and fruits are mostly from the Feeding Feathers YH-group. The list of foods to avoid is from Buffalo Parrots. List of seeds, well I just looked at a few packages of bird food to get the ingredients off of. I did add a few things to the lists but didn't...

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