Choosing And Caring For Your New Budgie
If you've decided to get a new budgie you have to do all you can to choose the right one. You'll have to decide on the age and sex and where you're going to get the bird. Here are some tips on choosing a budgie and ensuring that it gets the best care once you bring it home.
Training the budgie is important especially if you have children at home. You can begin training your budgie at six weeks old if you purchase a younger bird. If you purchase a bird six months and older you will have difficulty with training so keep this in mind when making a decision. Male birds take training a lot faster than female birds.
Identifying Sex and Age
Identifying the sex can be difficult even for experts. Young males have a cere that starts off pink and turns blue as the bird matures. Females have ceres that start off blue and turn brown with age.
The age is a bit easier to determine than the sex. The bars of colors that run from the cere to the forehead disappear around twelve weeks so you’ll know if the bird has passed three months by looking for these bars.
Signs of A Healthy Budgie
I probably won’t need to stress the importance of bringing home a healthy bird. Your new budgie should come with a written guarantee of health. It should also have all its toes with no signs of abnormal scaling, clear nostrils that are free from mucous and clear breathing with no signs of wheezing.
A healthy budgie will have complete wings with all the feathers intact. It should be alert and playful and should have a neat beak that is not overgrown. Finally the budgie should not be overweight as evidenced by an indented line down the breast nor should it be underweight with keel bones sticking out.
To increase your chances of getting a healthy bird you should purchase from a recognized breeder or reputable pet store.
Setting Up At Home
Your bird will spend the majority of his life in his cage. It will keep him in and away from your valuables and keep any potential dangers out. Place the cage in a room where your family does most of its activities. It should be somewhere against the wall so that he can see clearly what is going on in the room. Keep him away from areas where there are likely to be noises that startle him.
Do not place the cage in the kitchen where possible harmful fumes can harm the bird or against a window where sunlight can come in and cause him to get too hot.
Leave the bird in the cage when you bring him home so that he could adapt to his new surroundings. The time for play will come later after he adjusts so give him at least three days to settle in.
You can talk to him during this time making eye contact as you do. Give him clean food and water and make sure you’re slow and calm as you feed him so that he begins to trust you.
Choose the right budgie and treat him well at home and your new budgie will be a joy to your family for many years.
