How to care for a budgie. How to care for a parrot at home. How much do budgies cost?

First, make sure that neither you nor your family are allergic to bird fluff, otherwise your joy from having a parrot will quickly turn into a problem of how to get rid of it. It is best to purchase a pet at a pet store or from trusted breeders. If you have the opportunity to invite a veterinarian for an initial examination when purchasing, you should take advantage of it. When purchasing, special attention should be paid to the age of the pet. Proper care, feeding and maintenance at home should begin from the early “childhood” of a budgerigar. Young individuals adapt faster to new conditions, learn more easily and will be able to give birth to offspring in the future.

You choose a bird: where to start caring for a budgie

At the first inspection, you need to pay attention to the fact that the chick is quite active, which can be determined by its rapid, springy movements, quick reaction, and desire to interact with the outside world. He should have shiny eyes, smooth plumage that fits tightly to the body, light breathing without hoarseness and clean feathers in the anus.

It is also important to make sure that the bird is young enough, this can be determined by the wax (in young birds it is always a delicate pale pink or bluish color), by the frontal feathers decorated with contrasting colored stripes (by 6-7 months of age these stripes are highlighted) , and in the eyes (in chicks they are uniformly dark, in adults a gray and later a white rim appears along the outer edge).

If the sex of the bird matters for the purchase, since there is an opinion that males are more talkative, then the “boy” chick has a lilac cere (in an adult it is deep blue), the “girl” has blue, white, beige, (in an adult it is brownish ) around the nostril openings there are characteristic white rings.

Acquaintance and taming of wavy animals

If we talk about budgies in general, then the most popular, affordable and easy-to-maintain breed will, of course, be the breed: budgerigars, whose homeland is the grassy plains of Australia. Cockatiels and lovebirds are also quite popular.

Corella is also an Australian, the smallest member of the cockatoo family, and lovebirds are native to Africa and Madagascar. Their small size makes it possible to keep these beauties in an ordinary apartment, in a fairly compact cage, without any problems. When choosing a larger bird (for example, a Gray), it is important to take into account that it needs a large, spacious cage or aviary.

Features of feeding budgies

A budgerigar needs not only careful care, but also proper feeding.

The main components of the diet are as follows:

• greenery
• cereals
• fruits and vegetables
• proteins.

The basis of the diet is grain feed. Nowadays there is a large selection of food for different types of birds on sale, so you can easily choose the one that suits your pet. You can supplement it with porridges (buckwheat, rice, millet). It is necessary to give your pet fresh greens:

• dandelion leaves
• salad
• dill
• spinach
• plantain
• wild cereals
• dried nettle.

Fruits and vegetables are also beneficial:

• banana
• orange
• apple
• pear
• mango squash or pumpkin slices
• grated carrots
• beet
• berries

Chopped eggs and stale white bread are suitable as protein foods. It must be remembered that your pet should always have a drinking bowl with fresh water, to which you can periodically add a few drops of lemon, orange or grapefruit juice.

Wavy content: cage selection criteria

When buying a cage, it is important to understand that it is your parrot's home, so he should feel comfortable in it. Keeping budgies should begin with the choice of future “apartments”. Spacious and multi-tiered, with the ability to install perches, rings, toys, several feeders, a drinking bowl, a bathing container - an ideal choice, partly compensating for being kept in captivity.

You should not place the cage too close to the window, as drafts may cause the bird to get sick. It is advisable to structure the parrot’s keeping regime so that it has the opportunity to spend as much time as possible outside the cage, fly, move, and communicate. An insufficient number of flights will quickly affect your health, primarily on your respiratory function, which is directly related to the functioning of the wings.

How often should you clean your cage? The care and maintenance of budgies at home requires a number of rules. We need to start with cleanliness. As you know, cleanliness is the key to health. That is why cleaning should be done daily.

If for some reason (departure, busyness, natural laziness) this does not work out, then you can add wood filler to the sand in the tray of the cage, as for a cat litter box, so that it absorbs the smell and moisture, but you should not abuse it.

It is necessary to clean the perches of droppings, pour boiling water over the drinking bowls, and remove husks and remaining food from the feeders. Sand and absorbent paper must be changed once a week. You should also disinfect the cage with a 1-2% manganese solution.

Communication with your pet as an important component of care and maintenance

In addition to the nuances discussed above, it is important not to forget about communication. After all, when purchasing a parrot, you want to get a friend or home decoration, so you should not reduce the care and maintenance of budgies to cleaning the cage, but you need to devote time to the bird itself.

The first rule is not to force yourself on the bird, give it the opportunity to get comfortable, to understand that it has everything it needs for a comfortable existence (including peace).

After your pet gets used to you and the new environment a little, it is necessary. It makes sense to wear clothes made of thick, easy-to-wash fabric for these cases if you want to train your feathered friend to ride on your shoulder like a pirate, but don’t want to be scratched by claws or marked.

The effectiveness of the process of learning to pronounce words and phrases and taming will depend on many factors. For example, on the breed, age, on whether the parrot is kept alone or in a pair (in this case, the birds are usually busy with each other). Grays, for example, are considered the most capable and susceptible to remembering human speech.

There is an opinion that the more often you repeat the same phrase or word, the faster the bird will remember and reproduce it. This is not true, but sometimes a pet can remember a phrase it has heard only once. Particularly talented ones can even convey entire dialogues and quotes from films verbatim, as well as imitate various sounds - car alarms, dog barking, mobile ringing, and even maintain some illusion of a conversation with the owner, which greatly amuses both owners and guests.

Budgerigars are more predisposed to reproducing human speech; it is almost impossible to teach a cockatiel or lovebirds to speak. There is no point in turning the process into training, just talk to your winged counterpart every day, as if you were communicating with a family member, then the need to answer you will come on its own.

Parrot diseases and precautions

Keeping a parrot at home is a responsible task also because you need to monitor the pet’s health and understand how to care for it. To eliminate the possibility of drafts, so as not to chill the delicate tropical creature, install additional protective nets on the vents and windows to prevent accidental flight outside the apartment.

Closely monitor the behavior of the "wavy" - lethargy, drowsiness, photophobia, refusal to eat may indicate the onset of the disease. Some of the diseases, being infectious, can be transmitted to people, we are talking about diseases such as:

1. Salmonellosis. Salmonellosis is difficult to detect; often birds are only a carrier, a reservoir of the disease.
2. Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is characterized by deterioration of plumage, the appearance of ulcers and enlarged lymph nodes. There is practically no treatment for birds.
   
3. Arizonaosis. With arizonosis, anorexia, weakness, and tremors develop, but timely measures taken give a positive outcome.
   
4. Chlamydia. Signs of chlamydia in parrots: diarrhea, cough, nasal discharge. It happens very quickly, often with a deadly ending.

Most of the listed diseases are transmitted by bacteria in the droppings, therefore, if you suspect an infection, it would be a good idea to clean the cage wearing a protective mask and medical gloves.

Breeding at home

If your plans include increasing the population of flying pets, then this will require the creation of a number of conditions for reproduction. Breeding parrots in an apartment is not a difficult task, but it is troublesome.

The most difficult thing is to choose a pair and understand how to properly care for a budgie if it lives with a “family”. Breeders who have several individuals and, accordingly, room for choice, do this by observing the parrots in a large aviary.

If they mutually care for their plumage, treat each other, feed each other, and “kiss”, then they have every chance of having offspring. Then, if necessary, you need to artificially increase the daylight hours to 14-16 hours, equip the cage (preferably with two doors) with a “nest” - a house closed from prying eyes, where the female could calmly lay a clutch and hatch the chicks. Proper care and feeding of budgies during this period is especially important!

During this period, along with the usual grain mixture and juicy additives, they should be fed with sprouted grain, soft, easily digestible food. The quality of the masonry can be checked after a week using a flashlight or an ovoscope. If the female has settled stably on the eggs, and the male has taken care of her, there is hope that the pair has taken off.

Otherwise, when the partners quarrel, the mother often leaves the nest, abandoning the clutch to the mercy of fate, or deliberately breaks the shell (which happens with young, inexperienced birds), it makes sense to replace one of the parents. By observing all the criteria for proper maintenance, it is quite possible to get beautiful, colorful, healthy offspring from your couple.

Temperature and humidity, comfortable conditions for keeping a parrot

A decrease in temperature for a short time is tolerated well by many parrots. Despite this, you should not allow the bird to stay in a cold room for a long time or expose it to noticeable changes in degrees.

The recommended temperature for optimal keeping of parrots is from 18 to 20 C. Under these conditions, a favorable atmosphere is created for full life activity, but during breeding it should be lowered by 2-3 units.

You should not allow indicators above the established norm, as this can lead to a deterioration in the bird’s well-being, decreased appetite and impaired reproductive function. It is known that when the temperature regime is violated, a large percentage of unfertilized eggs is observed.

Lower temperatures have a positive effect on the processes of reproduction and fertilization. The level of air humidity should also be given enough attention. For the room in which the bird is located, the humidity should be in the range of 70-80%. The temperature is kept at 15-20 C.

Control of humidity levels is necessary when changing degrees. High humidity can cause hypothermia in a parrot.

Keeping small domesticated parrots in an apartment has many advantages, but without knowing how to care for a budgie, you should not rush to buy such a pet. Improper maintenance, care and feeding of budgies can lead to serious illness and death of the birds. At the same time, for residents of large cities, keeping a small bird has many advantages, because you don’t need to walk with your parrot, and if you have a well-equipped cage and the ability to purchase high-quality food and supplements, taking care of the bird will not be difficult. So what will it take to keep this bird? Let's see what the experts recommend.

Rules for caring for budgies

With proper care, the lifespan of birds is about 20 years, but many common mistakes lead to a significant reduction in their life to 6-8 years. And in order to provide your pet with a full life, the following rules should be followed:

How to care for a budgie in the autumn-winter period?

During the heating season, in addition to the above recommendations, you should especially carefully monitor the humidity and temperature in the room. Wet cleaning should be done in the morning and evening. In order to compensate the parrot for the lack of sunlight, you should use light bulbs of at least 100 W. To boost immunity during this period, it is recommended to add 2-3 drops of fresh lemon juice to the water. Also, strictly following the instructions, you should use vitamin and mineral supplements.

How to care for a budgie in the hot season?

In the summer, you should pay special attention to hygiene, clean the cage more often, and keep the feeder and drinking bowl clean. It would not be a bad idea to carry out wet cleaning of the premises every day. You should also protect the bird from exposure to direct sunlight. Keeping, caring for and breeding budgies can be an interesting hobby for both adults and children, because observing and communicating with these wonderful pets gives many positive emotions and new impressions.

When a person wants to have a pet, he simply goes to the market and chooses the one he likes. But before you make such a purchase, you should decide in advance on the animal or bird. We need to collect as much information as possible about him. If you have to choose a parrot, then you should find out everything about its contents. After all, once the bird is home, it won’t be so easy to give up on it. Therefore, you need to find out in advance how to care for a parrot. The life and health of the bird will depend on the owner.

First stay in a new place

The question “How to care for a parrot?” quite popular in our country. A lot of people have them in their home. After all, proper care for a parrot is the key to a long and healthy life for the bird.

The main components of keeping a pet are certain items. For example, perches and a feeding trough, a bathing area and a drinking bowl. It is also important to know the diet of parrots.

When a purchased bird is brought into its home, it should not be placed with other birds. She needs to be alone for a few weeks (two or three). It is worth maintaining a close relationship with your parrot at all times. Have nice conversations in a pleasant voice. So that the bird gets used to its new owner and sees him as its patron. If you know how to properly care for a parrot, your beloved pet will always be happy.

Choosing a place to live

The main detail in keeping birds at home is the presence of a cage. It is sold in pet stores or markets. The cage in the room should be placed in a place where there is a lot of daylight, but there is no direct sunlight (this is very harmful for parrots). It is also impossible for it to be in drafts. Before caring for your parrot, you should buy and install the cage correctly. His house should be at eye level. This approach will help bring the pet and owner closer together. Also, heating devices should not be installed near the cage.

At first, parrots may have indigestion or poor appetite. There is no need to worry about this. This behavior is associated with a change of environment and getting used to it. Also, at first there is no need to create conditions that will act as an irritant. For example, you should not listen to loud music, let other pets get close to the bird, or intrusively try to pet it. You need to wait a little while the adaptation period passes. It is not only important to know how to care for a parrot, but also to communicate with it correctly. The voice should be gentle and quiet, you can call by name. Especially when cleaning the cage or changing the water.

Symptoms of diseases

In the first days of your budgie's stay in a new place, you do not need to immediately start raising it. First you need to establish close contact with the bird. It should take a little time. Also, for several weeks after purchasing a parrot, you need to carefully monitor its general behavior. Some actions may indicate that the bird is sick and needs professional help. Then caring for the parrot will require more careful care.

So, what behavior can tell an owner that his pet is unwell? Firstly, if he doesn't eat well. Secondly, he drinks fluids very often. Thirdly, he moves little around the cage, mostly sits in one corner. Fourth, he looks sleepy. Fifthly, it is in a sitting position with its wings lowered and ruffled.

If such symptoms are noticeable, it is better to consult a veterinarian for advice. After all, its future life will depend on how to care for a parrot. Animals and birds are not things; they cannot simply be thrown away the first time you don’t want to keep or care for them.

Cleaning the cage

Cleaning a parrot's home is an essential part of caring for them. Some things need to be done every day, while others need to be done once every thirty and ninety days. Now in this article, existing cleaning options will be discussed.

Every day it is worth removing litter and food debris. They can be on the floor of the cage, under the bedding, on the sides. The tray must be pulled out and wet cleaning done under it. It is better to replace the litter daily. It is important to wash the drinking bowl and feeder well, using soda or detergent. Then the dishes need to be wiped with a dry cloth.

Once a month, after regular cleaning, the parrot's house is disinfected. You need to soak a sponge in an infusion of chamomile or wormwood and wash the cage well. Then wipe it dry.

Once every three months, you must first wash the bird’s home, then wipe it with a soda solution (3 teaspoons of soda per 1 liter of water), and then with chamomile (wormwood) infusion. After all procedures, wipe with a soft cloth. Caring for budgies is not very difficult. The main thing is to know what actions need to be performed. Then healthy and happy birds will live in the house.

Food for budgies

The diet of budgerigars does not contain refined wheat cereal, but millet. There are also oats in the grain mixture. These two grains complement each other. Thanks to them, budgies receive useful amino acids. In addition, birds can be given sunflower seeds in small quantities. Also green types of herbs: dandelion and clover, spinach and alfalfa, lettuce and sprouts of young plants. Some other budgies eat fruits and berries. They are useful, but not all birds want to eat them. In addition to all these ingredients, you need to place a container with river sand and crushed eggshells in the cage.

Precautionary measures

Caring for a boy budgie is no different from caring for a female bird. All birds require attention and special conditions for living at home.

Drinking for budgerigars should be fresh every day. You can add a few drops of lemon juice to the water. It will add beneficial substances to the bird’s body. Also important for budgies is the ability to fly. All sources of fresh air in the room should first be closed. Otherwise, the birds feel it and fly towards it. It is better to curtain all windows and the balcony so that the parrot does not break against the glass. You can place a tree branch in the cage, on which the bird will sharpen its beak. The suitable temperature for staying is about 20 degrees Celsius.

Cockatiel care

If a person takes a cockatiel parrot into his care, then he must understand that these birds require special attention. Birds are very proud, it is more difficult to establish close contact with them. You need to communicate with cockatiel parrots very affectionately, without raising your voice.

Birds love to bathe, so having a bath in the cage is necessary. Spraying can be used. Caring for a cockatiel parrot involves proper food, free flight and regular cleaning of their home. It is recommended that birds have their wings trimmed (the procedure must be carried out by a specialist).

Corella parrots need to be fed with a grain mixture, dandelion and plantain leaves, birch and willow branches, cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits, and bread.

Caring for lovebirds

Different types of birds differ slightly in maintenance and care. Lovebirds have a very cheerful character. They are responsive and freedom-loving. Birds love to fly, so in a cage the birds only eat, drink water and sleep. Caring for lovebirds involves feeding them properly, choosing a strong iron cage and creating room for flight. Birds often suffer from obesity due to lack of exercise.

The cage must be constantly cleaned, this must be done in the same way as in the homes of other parrots. The water for bathing should be warm; you should not be forced to undergo bathing procedures. Food for lovebirds is no different from food for budgies.

If you have information about the proper care of birds, then communicating with them will be a pleasure for a person!

Wanting to keep an ornamental bird in the house, many people prefer budgies. It’s not surprising, because these are beautiful, bright birds that can make the atmosphere in the house more cheerful and cheerful. However, before you bring your pet home, you should carefully study the features of keeping birds. Improper care of a budgie can lead not only to serious illness of your feathered friend, but also to its death. Before bringing a bird into the house, a person should think about whether he can provide the parrot with decent living conditions?

Choosing a cage for keeping a budgie and placing it in an apartment

The cage is chosen in such a way that the parrot can fly if desired. In this case, one feature should be taken into account - the bird flies exclusively horizontally. Therefore, the length of the cell is more important than its height or width. To keep one individual, you should choose a “house”, the minimum dimensions of which are 50x25x30 cm (length, width and height, respectively). For a comfortable stay for a couple, a slightly larger cage is suitable - 70x30x40 cm.

The cage should be rectangular in shape. You can often find models with a dome on sale. Experts do not recommend purchasing them, since the space under the dome remains a “dead zone”; birds do not use it, but such models are somewhat more expensive than simple cages with a flat roof.

Budgerigars - care and maintenance begins with choosing a place allocated for the cage. It should be located at a height of no more than one and a half meters, ideally approximately at human eye level. To make the birds feel protected, it is recommended to place their “house” near the wall.

The cage should not be placed near heating devices, in a draft or in the sun. For normal development, birds need to bask in the sun, but these should be the first morning rays of the sun, or, conversely, the soft evening rays.

To create comfortable living conditions for the bird, it is necessary to take into account some features. Keeping and caring for a budgerigar depends, first of all, on temperature and humidity, and the length of daylight hours. The pet will feel comfortable at air temperatures from +21 °C to +25 °C. The main thing is to avoid sudden temperature changes. If there is a need to ventilate the room, then it is better to move the cage with the birds to another room and securely cover it with thick fabric. Air humidity should be moderate. During the heating season, place a container of water on the windowsill to slightly humidify the air.

The duration of daylight for budgerigars should be no more than 12 hours a day in winter, and 14 hours in the spring and summer months.

Feeding a budgie

Good care for a budgie requires a high-quality and varied diet. The basis of the diet should be grain mixtures. For example, oats, millet, canary seed. This mixture can be purchased at any pet store, but preference should only be given to trusted manufacturers. The grains must be clean, without traces of mold. Usually, high-quality mixtures contain all the necessary microelements, but even in this case, additional supplements cannot be avoided. Experts advise not to limit yourself only to grain crops, but to periodically offer the bird granulated feed, which is rich in proteins. By eating only grain every day, the parrot will eventually gain excess weight, which will negatively affect its health.

To ensure good care for your budgie, you need to add the following foods to its diet.

• Vegetables. You can offer your pet half-cooked carrots, zucchini, corn, and green peas.
• Fruits. They contain a lot of sugar, so they should not form the basis of the diet; grapes are a favorite treat for budgies. You can also offer apple and pear slices.
• Mineral and vitamin supplements. To keep and care for a budgie, it is recommended to purchase a special mineral block or put cuttlefish cartilage in the cage; it is a source of calcium.

You should know that before offering vegetables or fruits to your pet, they must be washed thoroughly. You should not feed your budgie the following foods:

• avocado (for many birds the fruit is poisonous);
• spicy, salty and fried foods;
• wine and vodka products;
• candies and chocolate;
• tea, coffee, carbonated drinks.

In addition to the feeder, you need to install a drinking bowl in the cage. Water should be poured at room temperature. It is not recommended to use boiled water. If tap water is of questionable quality and contains a lot of rust, it is better to give preference to bottled water. The drinking bowl needs to be washed daily to prevent mucus from accumulating on the walls.

Features of caring for a budgie

In order for the bird to feel comfortable, it must be periodically released from the cage. This can be done at the time of cleaning. The cage is cleaned at least once a week. In this case, it is not enough just to remove the garbage; the pet’s “house” should be thoroughly washed. Typically, a gentle detergent is used for this purpose. Cleanliness is the key to the health of a feathered pet; this should not be forgotten. Dirt and debris can cause worms and various infectious diseases.

Budgerigars are real clean people and love to splash in the water. It is recommended to immediately purchase a “bath” along with the cage; often its design involves attachment to one of the walls of the cage. This is very convenient, because you can fill the container with water without opening the door.

Parrots need to rest periodically, so you need to place several perches in the cage. It is better to choose them in different thicknesses. Natural tree branches are considered the best; they look natural and have a rough surface, which is much healthier for bird legs and claws. For this reason, experts recommend abandoning plastic and concrete perches, or placing them in the lower part of the cage, where birds sit less often.

When caring for budgies, special attention should be paid to their rest. In order for the birds to fall asleep, it is enough to cover the cage with thick fabric, so that light will not penetrate into it. It is advisable to do this at the same time so that the feathered pets have their own routine. The cage should be covered in such a way that natural ventilation remains and the birds do not die from lack of oxygen or heat. It is not recommended to use fabrics that have a loose structure, as the parrot can get caught in the claw and get injured.

Birds should be examined every day in order to promptly identify the first symptoms of any diseases. If you notice weight loss, breathing problems, or discharge from the eyes or nose, you should immediately contact your veterinarian.

Video on how to care for budgies

It’s not at all complicated, the main thing is to keep the cage clean, give the bird the proper food and drinking water on time, and also maintain an optimal microclimate in the room for the pet.

Cage for budgies

Eating budgerigars

The basis of the diet of budgies is grain food, which can be purchased at a pet store. If there is no ready-made cereal mixture, then give the bird oats, soaked in water for 24 hours, and then washed under running water or millet. By the way, these grains can be sprouted in a small container and placed in this form in a cage with a parrot. Spikelets of wheat, which will also prevent excessive growth of the bird's beak, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, wild herbs, corn, nuts (of course, additives must be dosed and not mixed) will diversify the diet.

A necessary component of the parrots' diet is finely chopped greens - dill, St. John's wort, knotweed, dandelion, plantain, chickweed, but it is better to avoid parsley and basil. By the way, be sure to give your pet fresh branches of fruit trees - they will help him clean his beak.

Don’t forget about proteins, which are abundant in boiled chicken eggs, cottage cheese and cheese, stale white bread soaked in milk. From time to time, the parrot needs to be fed fresh vegetables and fruits.

But fatty, fried and spicy foods, smoked foods, raw meat and meat products, animal fats that are difficult for the stomach, black bread, strong tea, coffee and alcohol are contraindicated for budgies.

And lastly. Get used to a varied “menu” initially, since the bird quickly gets used to a certain diet and it will be quite difficult to retrain it later.

Was last modified: September 29th, 2013 by admin