Considering a Budgie

[LiveLaughLove]

Hi all!

My youngest daughter wants a budgie. I am an animal lover and obviously I'm the caregiver. I love budgies but to be honest the love of my life was a tiel so I am partial to them.

She is amazing with our tiel, very gentle and very respectful toward the bird. The bird is tame and sits on her shoulder and enjoys hanging out with her.

Do you think that a budgie would be calm enough for her? Be okay with just hanging out with her? I'm not sure really want I'm asking haha. I guess I would like to know if experienced budgie owners would think that a budgie would be interested in hanging out with a young child. I'm not sure of their natural temperment.

 

[MyAussieFriends]

How old is your daughter?

Budgies can be really awesome pets. However, the majority of budgies out there will come to you untame. If you are lucky, you may be able to find a hand raised bird. A hand raised bird will be more likely to want to spend time with your girl and want to be held and handled. That being said, it is quite easy to tame a "wild" budgie. It just takes a lot of work and patience, which some young kids don't have.

Budgies are pretty high energy, and even the hand raised ones will not want to stay on your for that long, as they will want to fly around and play with their toys.

I think if your daughter is looking for a bird to be her best friend, that maybe she look into cockatiels. As you probably know, they LOVE being with people.

 

[LiveLaughLove]

MyAussieFriend, that is exactly the info I was looking for. I was looking into breeders that had hand fed english parakeets in the tampa area and they are all priced more than handfed tiels. I was shocked at that!

My youngest daughter is 3 and a half. A mature 3.5 year old (as mature as a 3.5 year old could be lol). She has a hamster that she takes amazing care of but craves something that will interact with her a bit more. Her two older sisters (5 and 8) will both be in school starting next week and I think she could really use the company.

That and it's a good reason for me to convince my husband we need another bird just so I have another bird to love on lol!

 

[BirdBrained]

We got a hand tame budgie when I was just a rug rat. He was really good with us kids unless you did something he didn't like, obviously. He used to attack my hand when I played Mario paint which which course we found hilarious. He also loved playing with Lego and would steal pieces to take back to his cage. Some of my fondest childhood memories were of or little budgie and I was heartbroken when he died. I would try to get a hand tamed budgie though, taming them takes a lot of patience.

 

[camelotshadow]

I think you have a great situation already with a tiel that loves to interact with your daughter.
I don't see the need to add a budgie which are harder to get tame & will more likely want to be on there own then sitting on your daughter.
I fear the budgie just won't fit it.

I think your daughter should be happy with what she has in a great cockatiel. She will certainly loose interest in a budgie who will just want to fly around & is not comfortable with much or any interaction at all. Single budgie would become lonely & 2 will less likely want anything to do with your daughter.

Budgies are active cheery independent birds whom for the most part do not show much interest with there human. They rather be off chirping to each other & we have to be happy hearing there sweet sounds & watching them doing there budgie thing which for most part is not physical contact with human.

I love my budgie but as a pet it has certain limitations it can't satisfy.
I long to cuddle & hold her but that's not what they want.
You have to learn to be happy with a bird can offer & your tiel seems to offer the most for your daughter.

I don't want to seem unsympathetic but I am thinking reasonably whats best for both your daughter & perspective budgie you might want to add to the family as a budgie just might disappoint.

Perhaps others will have some advice who know more about budgies.
I have a real sweet one I tamed currently but I do long for a deeper contact bond...still I accept her for who she is & she does bring some joy to my life


Let us know what you decide & how it goes.

 

[Lady Jane]

English buddies are more tame than American. If you could find a hand raised one it would be nice. Why don't you just get another cockatiel for your daughter. They live longer than buddies. I agree buddies are not cuddle birds and most do not like to be touched.

 

[LiveLaughLove]

What you guys are saying really makes sense. To be clear, the tiel is my oldest daughters bird and a new bird would be for my youngest (my middle daughter, 5 year old, has a bunny that she is attached at the hip to).

I guess I felt bad getting another tiel and keeping it seperate from the tiel we have. I don't want them housed together because I've done that before when I was a kid and both birds preferred eachother and wanted nothing to do with me.

There are English budgie breeders near me and they want 70 to 100 each for a handfed one. I can get a handfed tiel for $40 to $50. Is that crazy or what?!

I know there are keets who are affectionate and sometimes it's just luck of the draw. I have most my experience in tiels and it's probably safer for me to go with a tiel. But the darn kid wants a purple bird! That will be an interesting battle to have with her, I'm trying to sway her to yellow birds haha

 

[MyAussieFriends]

I spent 60$ plus 90$ shipping for a handed regular budgie, so the price really isn't that shocking

 

[LiveLaughLove]

I spent 60$ plus 90$ shipping for a handed regular budgie, so the price really isn't that shocking

I guess you really can't put a price in a well bred handfed bird!

 

[camelotshadow]

Cost & time involved hand feeding a keet or tiel is not all that different & breeders should get paid for there time & expense as formula isn't cheap.
Handfeeding is not 2 or 3 meals a day if done right they should eat every few hours or least 4 times a day. They can only eat so much at one time & need a constant source of nutrition.

trouble finding hand fed keets is that most people who buy them are not willing to pay for a hand fed one.
These birds are like wild untamed birds.

English seem to be calmer than re keets.
I tamed mine quite easily but was told by petshop that usually it takes alot of work.
I guess I got lucky.
I can pet her head & back & turn her on her back which she will stay a bit for but is not at all used to.

I want to her not to fear hands & for the most part she does not.
Shes a steady bird but I would say thats rare in keet world.

I get a wing opening greeting when I engage with her.
No run over & fall in my arms but its something.

A keet is unlikely to be pleased with the handling provided by a 3 yo. A 3 yo will quickly become frustrated, saddened & disappointed because they can't understand why there bird is not like the others bird.
Personally it would have been better to teach your kids to share there pets.

Lucky they all don't want horses.
That's what I wanted as a kid.


Go to the tiel forum.
Inquire about 2 tiels housed in seperate cages losing there want for human contact.
Maybe a all yellow or white face gray or cinnamon tiel so it is different than the other siblings

Well, good luck in your search to satisfy your child's wishes.

 

[Birdlove]

I think it can work if you get a handfed budgie. And I do believe there is a variety that is purple-ish of sorts. I don't know ANYTHING about this breeder BUT someone mentioned them on here so I looked up their page because budgies fascinate me and the little guy on the right looks a little purple-ish. Violet Budgies -               Cute Little Birdies Aviary But I think the question is will he/she stay this color? And do remember that budgies, if well taken care of, live a while.

We had a non tame budgie that we inherited. And at the time I didn't know much about birds. I, personally, got some nasty bites from trying to handle her. She was very scared any time she was out of her cage, but she was nice to my 2 year old. We did have a hands off policy because we didn't want our child to get bitten so we would go as far as (and I'm going to sound C R A Z Y) putting a raincoat on our kid and the budgie would perch on the hoodie-the hoodie wasn't on our kids head it was just behind them. Anyway, it worked. Eventually, though short lived, they were the best of friends and they spent hours together painting (perched on easel), exploring (walking on carpet to find next perching spot), and watching movies (perched on little makeshift stand). To this day my child will still ask me why the budgie passed and can we have another.

I do think that it would be good to let your child know that birds can sometimes be standoffish until they get comfortable, or that it may never want to be cuddly, etc. But according to that website they can pair you with the right budgie. Worth looking into. And handfed birds really are worth the money. We have a tiel that was handfed, rejected by parents, looooooves humans and then our Amazon rehome that I don't think was handfed, she only wants to be handled when she wants to be handled.
Anyway, good luck with your search! Let us know how it goes

 

[camelotshadow]

Love Violet budgies & that site is cool.