Anyone Have Parakeets?
Not REAL parakeets, but budgies.
Dawnie got two from her aunt who died. They are apparently fairly young, but unused to human contact and skittish. What is the best way to gentle them?
My grandparents had one, and the area above its bill, where the nostrils are, was blue. They said that blue indicated that it was a male. Is that true? Both these birds have yellow bills and nostril areas.
Dawnie got two from her aunt who died. They are apparently fairly young, but unused to human contact and skittish. What is the best way to gentle them?
My grandparents had one, and the area above its bill, where the nostrils are, was blue. They said that blue indicated that it was a male. Is that true? Both these birds have yellow bills and nostril areas.
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a little unfiltered sunlight on mild days is good for them . their wings are clipped to prevent flying but i wouldn't. they need fresh seed and a varied diet to stay healthy 0 -
Wife's uncle used to raise and sell birds wholesale.
Let us pick a Cockatiel out of a flight cage of about 100.
He grabbed the bird and the thing was eating his hand like a weasel, bloody mess.
On the way up stairs I said no way we can handle that wild bird, he says "I'll finger tame it for you in 5 min."
We went to the living room where he closed the drapes (so the bird wouldn't hit the window) then he clipped off the flight feathers from ONE wing.
He put the bird on his finger; bird takes like crazy off only to end up on floor.
He goes to bird puts his finger on birds chest (gets a chunk of finger removed) till the thing finley gets on.
Stands up, bird on finger, bird takes off like crazy, ends up on floor.
Same drill.
By the 4th time as he goes to pick up the bird it hops right on his finger with no biting.
Birds do not like being on strange ground (snakes, rats ect) and would rather be up (insert finger here)
than on the ground in danger.
You become the good guy by picking it up (taking it out of danger).
Almost took as long for me to type this as it did to tame the bird !!
ONE WING, FLIGHT FEATHERS ONLY0 -
The flight feathers will grow back so you'll need to trim them about every 3-6 months.
I have a oockatiel, easy to train also, mean and aggresive when she is laying eggs.0 -
We had a yellow Cockatiel named baby...she was funny and could say "baby"...we had her about three years and were very suprised when she laid and egg....and even more suprised when she died when we took it out of her cage. 0 -
I raised them (and cockatiels) several years ago.
The males have the blue above the beak an the females are kind'a brown,but sometimes they have to get some age on them to turn color.
Been awhile,but that's what I recall.
Never tried to tame a budgie.Just raised them as fast as I could and sold them wholesale.Had a couple hundred budgies and a few dozen cockatiels.
Really enjoyed it,but the bottom fell out and my buyer retired,so I gave it up.[:(]
BW0 -
Bobby is correct. The cere (the area of flesh with the nostrils) is blue in sexually mature males and brown and often a little crusty in females. juveniles do not display the difference. Males have larger skulls and correspondly larger eyes. The difference is very subtle, but real. You may be able to detect a difference in eye diameter.
Budgies are colonial breeders and a pair in a cage is less likely. If you want to try, you will need a nest box.
They eat seed, but here are better pelleted diets out there: http://www.lafeber.com/Products/premium.aspx They need fresh clean water daily, and they need cuttle bone. They occasionally need claws clipped, and some may need a bit of a beak trim. There are literally hundreds of books out there on keeping budgies. Here is one good cheap one: http://tinyurl.com/2akpbx
Here is a better out of print one: http://tinyurl.com/yvhcu9 with budgies as only part of the contents.0
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