Top Five Reasons Budgies Are the Perfect Pet Parrot

I think you all know that I am a
budgie fiend. Even though Einstein is my companion, my favorite species of bird
is the budgerigar. In my opinion, they are the perfect pet bird.


A lot of people find them to be disposable,
boring, small, stupid, and unimportant. When people think of parrots, the first
thing that comes to mind is the Macaw, Cockatoo, and Grey. Everyone seems to
forget the tiny budgie. They disregard them. They are a “starter” bird. Once you learn how
to care for a budgie, then you graduate to a “real” parrot. They are not a bird
in their own right. They are pushed aside, neglected and ignored.


When I talk to people, and I mention
that I keep parrots, they always ask what kind of birds I own. At first, I
would say with pride that I keep budgies and a cockatiel. That would
immediately stop the conversation. No one cares about them. Everyone has had a
budgie. I find myself now saying that I keep budgerigars or shell parrots.
People are always fascinated by them then.


So, I’ve constructed a list of
reasons why budgies make the perfect pet. They aren’t in any specific order or
anything.


1- Intelligence


I’m sure most
of us assume that the smartest parrots or African Greys (Alex). But budgies
have their own intelligence. They have complex interpersonal relationships with
each other. They can be taught pretty much any trick that a big bird can learn.
They are very keen to learning new behaviours


Looking at my
own flock, they are not person oriented. Though I have taught them basic
commands, they don’t really do “tricks”. However, by watching their behaviours
I can see great intelligence. They are problem solvers. If they don’t
understand something, they try and try until they’ve mastered it. They are also
fantastic at finding the faults in stuff. Bonnie in specific is great at destroying
something. In the past she has figured out how to bring down perches, toys, and
food bowls.


A showcase of
some of the tricks that a budgie can be taught is seen in Michael’s budgie
Duke:




2- Beauty


One thing
about budgies that everyone knows is how many colors and mutations they come
in. Unlike some of the other big birds, you can pretty much get a budgie in any
color except for reds and oranges (though I’m sure in the future they’ll figure
that out too).


3- Initial Cost and Cost of Care


Budgies are a popular pet and are
basically available everywhere. Go to
any big name pet store, and they are guaranteed to carry budgies. Though, this
can be a downfall for them. A lot of budgies are inbred and poorly bred. They
may be neglected and sick. That being said, there will always be a store that
does care and carries healthy, happy birds. Most pet stores will sell untame
budgies for around 25$ and tame budgies for 50$.


Even
breeders have reasonable prices for their budgies. I’ve seen many breeders sell
hand raised babies for less than what the big stores will sell them.


Compared to the bigger birds,
budgies are quite inexpensive. Which means, you save more money for spending on
supplies.


All parrots are expensive. I
mean, I find that you will spend more money on keeping a parrot than you will
ever spend on a dog or cat. It doesn’t matter the size of the bird, expect to
pay a pretty penny for them.


On my budgies and
cockatiel, I know that in the three years I’ve owned them, I’ve invested
thousands of dollars in their care. Medical care, cages, toys, food…it actually
makes me shudder to think of all the money I’ve spent. But, they are totally
worth every penny.


Now, looking at
budgies, they are significantly cheaper to keep than big birds. They require
smaller cages, less room, go through perches and toys at a very slow rate, and their
food is very reasonable.


4- Quiet


A downfall of owning parrots is
they can get loud, very loud. See how loud they can be: http://www.mytoos.com/


Budgies are quiet. They very
rarely scream. And when they do, it’s still quiet. Even groups, they are still
quiet. They make sweet chittering and
chatterings. It is actually very soothing. And a real benefit of them being
quiet is the ability to keep them in many different household settings. They
are fantastic for apartments. They never get loud enough to be a problem to neighbours.
Many birds it would be a problem to keep
in an apartment or townhouse settings. Even if a bird has a quiet disposition, they
naturally make noise; it’s a part of who they are. At sunrise and sunset,
expect your bird to get loud.


5- Ability of Speech and Mimicry


According to Wikipedia
(which really isn’t that reliable), Puck, a male budgerigar owned by American
Camille Jordan, holds the world record for the largest vocabulary of any bird,
at 1,728 words. Though their voices aren’t as clear as an Amazon, they have
cute little squeaky voices. Not all budgies will learn to talk, but even if
they don`t they still make beautiful sounds.


My budgies favorite talking
budgie is Mitso:

I totally agree! Budgies are actually my favourite too! *sigh*

I had budgies as a kid, and years ago I had a pair. Those budgies to me were high strung, insane, and all they did was bitch at each other. Then I got Sushi. Gentle, regal, and extremely interested in everything everyone did. She won me over, and I have a whole new take on budgies. Before, they were in the "cute, but not for me" group. Now, I find myseld wanting a tame male English budgie.

The downside is that it seems they're so inbred they drop dead way prematurely. Just on our little limited forum, how many have dropped dead within 1 year of acquisition? Statistically, it seems a very high percentage. Very sad and heart breaking to bond to a beloved little pet and have it die so soon.

patdbunny wrote:

The downside is that it seems they're so inbred they drop dead way prematurely. Just on our little limited forum, how many have dropped dead within 1 year of acquisition? Statistically, it seems a very high percentage. Very sad and heart breaking to bond to a beloved little pet and have it die so soon.

I wonder if that happens as often with birds from private breeders?

I tend to think not, though I'm sure there's bound to be some depending on the breeder. At the store where I work, I know they make it a point to try and "breed out" the bad genes that are inevitably going to come from some of the PetBox stores.

Roz, this is my exact problem with budgies. I have bought 3 Budgies from the same Petsmart, 2 several years ago and then recently Sushi. 2 of the 3 literally dropped dead. It is SO awful. It makes me terrified to add another budgie to our flock.

I'm really starting to think that the Canadian breeding stock is better than the American. I haven't heard any budgie horror stories here in the great white north.

Bonnie and Clyde came from a petsmart in Ottawa. I will of had them for three years in April. I've never had any health problems with them.

Madoc seems just as happy and just as healthy. But I guess who never know...

zazanomore wrote:

I'm really starting to think that the Canadian breeding stock is better than the American. I haven't heard any budgie horror stories here in the great white north.

Bonnie and Clyde came from a petsmart in Ottawa. I will of had them for three years in April. I've never had any health problems with them.

Madoc seems just as happy and just as healthy. But I guess who never know...

That could very well be. Also - is it easier to import birds to Canada from other countries? Some of the US inbreeding issues (in addition to indiscriminate mass production), not just with budgies, is the lack of diverse blood lines due to the difficulty in importing them into the US. There's european stock of various parrots that aren't wild caught, but the hassle and expense in importing them make it hard to get them into the US.

Oh - and budgies are reputed to be the Typhoid Mary's of the bird world in terms of carriers for polyoma virus.

patdbunny wrote:

zazanomore wrote:

I'm really starting to think that the Canadian breeding stock is better than the American. I haven't heard any budgie horror stories here in the great white north.

Bonnie and Clyde came from a petsmart in Ottawa. I will of had them for three years in April. I've never had any health problems with them.

Madoc seems just as happy and just as healthy. But I guess who never know...

That could very well be. Also - is it easier to import birds to Canada from other countries? Some of the US inbreeding issues (in addition to indiscriminate mass production), not just with budgies, is the lack of diverse blood lines due to the difficulty in importing them into the US. There's european stock of various parrots that aren't wild caught, but the hassle and expense in importing them make it hard to get them into the US.

Which is another reason that I'm strongly considering an EB/AB hybrid. Does anyone know if the EB/AB offspring are fertile? I'd think that they are because they're so closely related, but I really have no idea.

Is there anyone else in the US who's seen some EB's near them?

I suppose something else I need to think about is the ethics of cross-breeding these two lines.... Anybody have any ideas on that? (Here's a whole new can of worms!)

VickiNumbers wrote:

patdbunny wrote:

zazanomore wrote:

I'm really starting to think that the Canadian breeding stock is better than the American. I haven't heard any budgie horror stories here in the great white north.

Bonnie and Clyde came from a petsmart in Ottawa. I will of had them for three years in April. I've never had any health problems with them.

Madoc seems just as happy and just as healthy. But I guess who never know...

That could very well be. Also - is it easier to import birds to Canada from other countries? Some of the US inbreeding issues (in addition to indiscriminate mass production), not just with budgies, is the lack of diverse blood lines due to the difficulty in importing them into the US. There's european stock of various parrots that aren't wild caught, but the hassle and expense in importing them make it hard to get them into the US.

Which is another reason that I'm strongly considering an EB/AB hybrid. Does anyone know if the EB/AB offspring are fertile? I'd think that they are because they're so closely related, but I really have no idea.

Is there anyone else in the US who's seen some EB's near them?

I suppose something else I need to think about is the ethics of cross-breeding these two lines.... Anybody have any ideas on that? (Here's a whole new can of worms!)

I see EB's at the bird mart all the time. Some are touted as show quality. Dunno. Dunno about showing budgies. As for the ethics of cross breeding - even pure EB's if they're not "show quality" they really have no "value" other than for a pet. By that line of reasoning - you're breeding for improved pet quality, therefore, I don't see how it would be "unethical" to cross the two. I'm pretty sure AB/EB crosses are fertile as they're the same species, not even subspecies of each other. One's been selected for larger stock and the other's not (I may be wrong on the selection aspect as I'm not a budgie expert).

I'm breeding FOR PETS english/american zebra finch crosses. I'm of the opinion the american zebras seem "unhealthy" and so I'm pairing with english show zebra blood to try to improve the health. These crosses are fertile.

Zaza - yours were probably bred at the Hari Institute (aka Hagen) in Quebec...I'm assuming PetSmart logically would purchase from the same place that Super Pet did. We never had sick budgies when I worked there - they were always perky, no difigurements, and none ever came back sick/deceased - a pretty good track record considering I was in two larger stores in my day...and I saw hundreds of budgies over this time.

I bred tiels, as my first "adult" parrot purchase was one from one of my co-workers/friends who bred...then I bought one of her pairs & bred them until I started working in an office. I'm sure had she bred budgies, I would of taken one home as well, as she did such an excellent job with her babies. And I kept to the Grey theme until Rosco came around.

My 6-year old neice has a budgie, and Mesi (aka Messy) has a hoot with her - she has the cutest big personality in a little body I'm hoping she keeps the Avian desire within my neice (they have no other pets, and wouldn't of had Mesi had we not given her to my neice as a gift).

I like your reasons

I love your arguments and very professional post. I have to argue with you a bit

I love budgies, I started "being a bird person" from Mango-budgie and look at me now... I don't think that any alive creature is disposable, boring or stupid. Nature is so fascinating!

1. Intelligence- agree
2. Beauty - agree
3. Initial Cost and Cost of Care - agree
5. Ability of Speech and Mimicry - agree

4. Quiet
My limit is 3 budgies. My bf's is 2. When I had 4 of them, they seemed to always be loud. Of course another birds are louder, but budgies never stop. Lucky is a perfect alarm clock: there is no possible to sleep, when he is calling. Budgies for example are perfect watching movie intruders. It's like the small dog syndrome: the smallest, the loudest. Now I realized, I'm getting older. Couple of years ago, small and non stop barking dog didn't bother me

But on the other hand, why can't I have in the future only 2 budgies, agree with this one too after all

patdbunny wrote:

The downside is that it seems they're so inbred they drop dead way prematurely. Just on our little limited forum, how many have dropped dead within 1 year of acquisition? Statistically, it seems a very high percentage. Very sad and heart breaking to bond to a beloved little pet and have it die so soon.

Agree, like I said: I blame the mass production...

But I guess the level of "quiet" can be subjective.

zazanomore wrote:

But I guess the level of "quiet" can be subjective.

My husband doesn't think budgies are "quiet" as they're so incessant.