Budgie caging/tameness/aggression

[KeriKeri]

Sorry if this is long but opinions needed.

I have two budgies

Nugget: ~1.5yrs male pet store American budgie. I can “touch” him and he will step up in the cage but not voluntarily come out. Nice bird but timid. Prefers to play with his toys than me. I think part of his problem is that while his current cage is a decent size the doors are small and that’s where he ducks away.

Bobby: 6m male handfed English budgie. Not afraid of anything. Talks and always wants to be out of the cage and be with you. LOVES toys. Will fly to you. Bites a lot but I’ve just gotten used to it, most of it doesn’t hurt. He’s just really pushy. Nobody ever told him he’s a bird.


These boys are in two separate cages (about 15 feet apart) but I am looking to buy them new cages that will look nicer or match better. When I have bobby outside of the cage he will sometimes fly to Nuggets cage. I have watched their interactions through the bars and while Nugget immediately comes over and wants to be sweet I see Bobby being aggressive towards him. He’s never grabbed ahold of him but without the bars in between I’m not sure what he would do. I don’t want Nugget to get hurt but he does seem to enjoy the interaction.

I’m looking at a divided flight cage (pictured). Each birds spacewoulde about 18x18 and I could build a huge play area on top. I could also probably put a solid divider in between the two but would this be a bad idea?

My main concerns are:

1. Nuggets safety

2. Will Bobby lose his tameness with me and rely on Nugget for companionship instead? I don’t want two birds that don’t want to be with me. I’m continuing to work with Nugget but I don’t want to stress him out so it’s slow going.

Thank you for your time

 

[Fergus Mom]

Before I decided on a divided cage, would it be possible to move their cages a bit closer to each other day by day? Maybe for 15 days you could move them 1 foot closer, until they are side by side. I'd want to be sure they could handle the togetherness before getting a split side by side apartment! Also, if they were getting along famously, might you decide to house them in one cage with no division?

 

[KeriKeri]

That’s a good idea. I’m just worried the not so tame one will make the tame one wilder.

And yes, one big space to play would be ideal!

 

[Monica]

I'm not personally a fan of that small cage....


As far as tameness goes.... check this out!

An Experiment with Budgies | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

 

[KeriKeri]

I'm not personally a fan of that small cage....


As far as tameness goes.... check this out!

An Experiment with Budgies | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

Hi Monica, each cage is 18 x 18” which I agree is small but the hope is I can eventually pull the removable divider and they can enjoy all 36” of cage, or is that too small?

 

[Monica]

I just really like the 32x21x35 flight cages, even for the little guys. Would be a huge playhouse for two little budgies! I know they are more expensive in Canada, though...

 

[KeriKeri]

I like them too! I just can’t find one with a divider, the ones like in your picture run about $200+tax here vs this divider cage I’m looking at that is $263+tax so it would be cheaper actually.
I guess I could/should just get one of those and put one bird in it and the other bird in a cage beside it and they could get used to each other that way too.

 

[Serin]

My experience was the tame bird always stayed tame and taught others to be tame, but my tame budgie never spoke, even though he was very trusting and bonded to me. He would always just speak parakeet, and I hear that talking birds often stop when given a bird friend. A handfed bird, though, may be different since he may actually think he's a person.

 

[KeriKeri]

My experience was the tame bird always stayed tame and taught others to be tame, but my tame budgie never spoke, even though he was very trusting and bonded to me. He would always just speak parakeet, and I hear that talking birds often stop when given a bird friend. A handfed bird, though, may be different since he may actually think he's a person.

Thank you for replying. Bobby talks a lot and even from across the room I think he is teaching Nugget to speak because I’m now hearing Nugget attempt to say “Bobby” so maybe they will teach each other things?

 

[Sylvester]

Budgies, unlike some other birds, bond with their own species over humans. If you have just one budgie you have a people's bird, with two, you have a bird's bird. If you want the tame one to keep his friendly personality I would not put them together.

 

[Serin]

That's false. A tamed bird in my experience will stay tame for life, if it's well-socialized when young and allowed to develop a bond to you before introducing another bird. My tame budgie which was handled as a chick and kept singly for his first few months after weaning to train him was introduced to a flock of untame adults around 5 months of age and he stayed fully tame and loving though he was no longer needy and would come to me to casually hang out, sit on my shoulder and give me kisses while not needing to be handled every day as he now had his own species for company. He socialized with lots of untamed wild budgies over the years and yet as soon as he saw me he'd fly over to play, in the process teaching the others to trust me too and helping me to hand-train even adult fearful birds who before would have nothing to do with me. If your Bobby is already tame and bondd to you he is very, very unlikely to forget about you even if he were to bond strongly to Nugget. My Sam was fully capable of maintaining a strong bond to me and my family and also to a bird mate in equal measure.

 

[KeriKeri]

That's false. A tamed bird in my experience will stay tame for life, if it's well-socialized when young and allowed to develop a bond to you before introducing another bird. My tame budgie which was handled as a chick and kept singly for his first few months after weaning to train him was introduced to a flock of untame adults around 5 months of age and he stayed fully tame and loving though he was no longer needy and would come to me to casually hang out, sit on my shoulder and give me kisses while not needing to be handled every day as he now had his own species for company. He socialized with lots of untamed wild budgies over the years and yet as soon as he saw me he'd fly over to play, in the process teaching the others to trust me too and helping me to hand-train even adult fearful birds who before would have nothing to do with me. If your Bobby is already tame and bondd to you he is very, very unlikely to forget about you even if he were to bond strongly to Nugget. My Sam was fully capable of maintaining a strong bond to me and my family and also to a bird mate in equal measure.

I hope that’s the case! I already notice that Nugget seems more comfortable aroundme when Bobby is there.

 

[Monica]

Adult, parent raised budgies... all flighted.... hmmm

An Experiment with Budgies | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

 

[Sylvester]

That's false.

LMAO!! Oh, okaaaay....whatever you say.

 

[Serin]

@Sylvester I think the proof is in the photos of my former flock members below. Even flocks of many birds should become hand-tame if you spend enough time with them. I am just so tired of the myth of having to keep birds isolated to have them bond to you at all. The actual "trick" is just be around and interact with them and become part of their social group. The bond may be strongest between a single bird and owner but that's because it's a mate bond. I've found it works very well to socialize a young parakeet, or any bird, and introduce others once it's older with zero change in the first bird's temperament. That first one will always be the most tame but the others will copy it and also become trusting of you.

This was Sam. He was the first budgie I tamed. He was handled from a young age and kept as a single bird downstairs for 3 months during which time he became incredibly bonded to people and superbly tame.

Over Sam's life, he demonstrated that humans were trustworthy to every other bird pictured, all of which came to me untame. Sam's bond to me and my family never reduced.

It simply isn't true you have to keep a budgie alone to share a bond with it, or that a bird will automatically forget you if it has bird companionship.

 

[Sylvester]

Serin, I never said the bird will forget you or that you should isolate them from one another. I said that budgies, unlike other parrots, form a close bond with their own kind over humans if given the chance.

Your flock has proven me wrong, and what a cute flock it is.

 

[Garet]

Pikachu has been teaching Ripley I'm okay. And Morticia started stepping up for me after Gomez did. They were bonded to one another before I got them and locked in a room with minimal human interaction for a year and stepped up on the day I got the. I don't think your tame bird will abandon you just because you have a bird buddy, if you put in the time and effort.

Heck, Pikachu only started landing on me because he saw the lovebirds doing it.

 

[PoukieBear]

The divided flight cage in the first post would probably not be suitable for what you are looking for. I actually have TWO of those cages, and I do love them. However, they are only used during breeding season, since they will be too small for a permanent home for your budgies. Thee cages are designed to be breeding cages, and they shouldn't be used for anything else.

Although this isn't the greatest pic, it might give you a better idea of the size in "real life". (This was taken before I had the second stackable cage)

 

[Serin]

I said that budgies, unlike other parrots, form a close bond with their own kind over humans if given the chance.

That's true of all birds that are parent-raised though and not a strict budgie thing. The only difference is most other parrots are taken as chicks and imprinted to people in the pet trade so they view humans as their flock foremost. A hand-fed budgie like the one being discussed here is in the same camp and as a result the chance of it losing its tameness at this age I'd say is virtually zero.

 

[LSA]

My Sam was fully capable of maintaining a strong bond to me and my family and also to a bird mate in equal measure.

That was definitely my fear and assumption. I WAS WRONG! Tommy, pet shop male, is quite tame and says his name. After moving in together, JoJo, pet shop male, started saying two words ("perch" and "Tommy") and has gotten tamer. Whereas JoJo used to angrily pace on my shoulder and bite my ear at cage cleanings, now he flies off to exercise with Tommy. Instead of Tommy getting wilder, JoJo got tamer.