How Old Did Your Budgie(s) Live to Be?

[MC_Hahn's]

I'm just curious since I've heard many average lifespan expectancies and am wondering if our own birds reflect them. My vet said the average pet budgie lives to be 6-8, but I've heard 10-15, 15-20, and 2-4. In a lot of older books, budgies are said to live to be 15-20, but that number has dropped significantly over the past 30-40 years.

Also, what do you think has caused this decline? Improper care, not enough education for buyers, bad diets, pet stores, poor breeding practices, increased demand for color mutations, etc.?

Do you believe certain factors make for a healthier budgie? Are the standard green budgies healthier (I've heard that before)? Does cage size affect the lifespan? What other environmental factors?

On a side note, I apologize if this has already been asked/posted.

 

[.........]

The only bird I really remember how old was Blizzard (5) , I had Blue another budgie when I was very small but I honestly don't remember exactly how old he lived to be, I don't think it was very long though.
I think improper care on my part was the reason that Blizzard died that young, improper diet and too small cage ect. I feel bad about the poor budgie, but I can't go back in time and fix my mistakes sadly.
I improved the care of my birds significantly about 2 years ago and I still have one budgie who is 7 still going strong.

Edit, my 7 year old is a standard green unlike the others, I don't know if I believe that is is because of his colour but I thought I'd add it

 

[Lady Jane]

The longest lived budgie i had was as a child in the 1950's. It was 10 years. The other English budgies i have had were short lived to 2 and 3. Seems a bit backward.

 

[Shezbug]

Poor breeding practices has to be a biggie as far as I’m concerned.

Nature has worked things out pretty well but just like every other species out there that humans regularly breed they seem to need to change what nature perfected often causing deadly health issues.

I can remember as a very young child (under 10) that my step grandad and his bird breeder friends never bred budgies to get certain colours- they only bred for healthy birds and whatever colours the birds were hatched is how it was because health and strength were the preferred traits not looks. Then I remember as I got older hearing so many at the bird swap gatherings (dog and poultry shows too) focusing on colours and other certain traits like size more than anything because people were asking for bigger birds or rainbow budgies.
I don’t think selective breeding is a good thing if done for the wrong reasons or by the wrong people. I do also remember there were certain breeders who most in the area would no longer swap birds with as their budgies all died very young and were well known to have numerous health problems or physical deformities but they had pretty colours, most of them I believe had started breeding for pet stores. Growing up there were places you went for pets (chooks, ferrets, budgies and other small birds, certain dogs, rabbits etc) that were just ordinary peoples homes and it was all through word of mouth- many of them stopped selling to the individual buyer when pet shops became more common and they could off load their whole clutch or litter with only one meeting time instead of having numerous strangers visit their homes.


Poor breeding practices has to be a huge factor I think.

 

[Kassiani]

I can't vote because the only budge I have had who died was Kuiper. We don't know how old he was because he was found outside. When I discussed this same topic with my vet, he stated that budgies, like my blue boys, who are bred for color have shorter life spans. He said maybe 8 years for my boys--they turned 5 about a month or two ago. He also said that many budgie breeders just leave all the birds in one large aviary to do whatever they want and have babies. The problem with this is that they don't have large enough flocks to keep the genetic pool broad enough. There is a lot of inbreeding that happens (mothers/sons, fathers/daughters, siblings, etc.). Inbreeding has been shown to shorten lifespans.

 

[Skyler]

When my Skyler died, I had a necropsy done. The vet called up and asked if he could show him to his students---- that he had cancer and that was due to inbreeding--- since Australia hadn't allowed the exportation of budgies in decades-there wasn't any new genetic material.

 

[ParrotNuts]

Can't vote now, both my budgies are still alive....
Neelu's at least 3 and a half, but I think he was at least a year old when we got him.
Peelu on the other hand, is about to turn 2.

 

[FeatheredM]

There are so so many factors that play in
First is whether a budgie is wild or not, it is proven that captive birds live longer than wild birds
Then it depends on where you get your budgie from, a good breeder, or a chain petstore that has unhealthy breeding tactics.
Then it depends on how well you take care of your budgie/veggies and pellets and seeds or a seed diet with little or no veggies. Or how sanitary your budgies conditions are, and even the amount of exercise and attention you give your budgie

 

[Lady Jane]

Inbreeding of budgies I believe to be the cause of early death, especially if your budgie is from the show world/breeder as mine were. Same goes for other animals. I had an Occicat named Goldie for 16 years I purchased from a breeder at a cat show. Over the 16 years I must have spent several thousand dollars at the vet. She had asthma, heart murmur, very poor teeth, weak bones and often broke a few, jaw was the worst because her mouth was wired shut for healing. Crossing fingers with Inky. Now people are doing DNA testing on their pets to see what the ancestry is.

 

[Sparkles99]

My budgies are all alive. Pistachio & Marzipan are of unknown age. Winston will be 3 some time early next year. Aurelius will be 1 around February. The others are under a year.

Inbreeding is bad no matter the species. I don’t doubt that it’d be so for budgies too. And there’s a difference between a long life & a long, healthy life, as Lady Jane’s post highlights!

 

[Lady Jane]

I am having a DNA testing with health/dental report done. The company is for cats. Will get the kit in USPS mail. Basepaws

 

[Lori D Pert]

Strange..I posted a whole reply that vanished. No matter. I had a little boy as a child that lived to be 7 yrs. old. Came from a pet shop and admittedly we didn't know enough about his needs as he got only seeds and what he ate from our plates. But he was fully flighted and loved. He had the run of the house but my parents were heavy smokers. He passed of a tumour at 7 and I miss him still. I had a little hen many years later who was clipped when I got her and never learned to fly despite her flight feathers growing out. She was a solitary hen but a chronic layer. She passed of egg binding at 3. I have also worked in an avian rescue for many years and seen budgies live to many varied ages. Some from peet stores and some from reputable breeders. Their longevity seemed to be linked to genetic, home envirornment, companionship (other budgies or a human who was there most of the time) , a good, varied diet and ability to fly. Like humans, there is no guarantee to longevity. A bird that is happy and loved is the best scenario...always. My present budgies are 2 yrs 8 mos and 1 yr. 2 mos..

 

[Kassiani]

Strange..I posted a whole reply that vanished. No matter. I had a little boy as a child that lived to be 7 yrs. old. Came from a pet shop and admittedly we didn't know enough about his needs as he got only seeds and what he ate from our plates. But he was fully flighted and loved. He had the run of the house but my parents were heavy smokers. He passed of a tumour at 7 and I miss him still. I had a little hen many years later who was clipped when I got her and never learned to fly despite her flight feathers growing out. She was a solitary hen but a chronic layer. She passed of egg binding at 3. I have also worked in an avian rescue for many years and seen budgies live to many varied ages. Some from peet stores and some from reputable breeders. Their longevity seemed to be linked to genetic, home envirornment, companionship (other budgies or a human who was there most of the time) , a good, varied diet and ability to fly. Like humans, there is no guarantee to longevity. A bird that is happy and loved is the best scenario...always. My present budgies are 2 yrs 8 mos and 1 yr. 2 mos..

From what I understand, the forum got moved to a new server. That move has caused a few errors so far....

 

[RipTweety]

My baby girl Tweety (Rip ) was just over 6 & a half years old when we had to put her down because of the seizures she started having that got worse. No clue how old she actually was since we found her in our front yard

I have had Bella & Leo for a 1 year & almost 4 months (on the 4th) The people that had them had Bella for at least a year or so & only had Leo for 2 ish months. I have had them since September on 2020

 

[Elysian]

Ack this thread is a little scary.. sounds like no one here currently has one that's even 10.

My little boys are around 2.. I do believe their breeder was a good one, but Cypress is not a naturally occurring color

Also the dog being a large breed, and Oggie already being 27 .. guess I better really appreciate these next 8 years.

 

[Miss_sj]

As a teen, I had a budgie who lived to 11. He was pretty hardy- when he was 10 years old he developed an infection and the vet kept him overnight to administer antibiotics to reduce his pain and symptoms, but we were told he would pass through the night. Then in the morning we were phoned- the antibiotics seemed to kick his infection and he was eating and running around like the crazy boy he was! We were given a follow up script and he was completely recovered a week later!

 

[Ripshod]

The oldest budgie I've had lived to 14 years. That surprised even me, especially as she came to me as a 3yr old seed junkie who enjoyed a little burger meat now and then.

 

[Sparkles99]

That’s incredible, Ripshod! What was the more typical lifespan of your budgies? I imagine this was an outlier.

I think JLCribber has an older budgie right now, but could be wrong.

As soon as I know what happened with Moss the baby, I’ll post here.

 

[JLcribber]

Whitey came here when she was about a year old. English budgie. She lived for16 years. A number of those last years with a pretty big tumour. She was the boss of the littles.

 

[Kori]

I grew up with a green and yellow budgie that lived until he was 13 years old. I remember George as a happy boy... despite living in a small cage on an all-seed diet. He spoke 150 different words. I feel like I read that green and yellow budgies tend to have healthier genes?