Happy in a flock

Are you interested in budgies? Or would your child like to keep budgies? They are wonderful birds and it's a good idea to find out about their needs first. After all, you are taking responsibility for ensuring that the birds have a good life with you - a responsibility that a child cannot bear alone.

In the wild, birds living in flocks have a large habitat at their disposal. Keeping them in small cages in captivity is in stark contrast to this. It is therefore extremely important to give budgerigars in human care as much space and freedom of movement as possible.

It is now illegal to trade in wild-caught birds in the European Union. However, budgerigars are among the birds that have been bred in a wide variety of colors for a long time.

The natural life expectancy of ten to 15 years is no longer reached by captive-bred birds due to the health problems caused by inbreeding. However, even in captivity, the colorful birds live to be five to ten years old on average
. Your budgies will accompany you as animal roommates for many years. Therefore, check your living conditions carefully before you acquire these birds. Do you have enough time in your everyday life to look after the animals and do you know who can look after the birds you have left at home while you are on vacation? It is also important to consider their compatibility with other pets
. Living together with a cat for example, would be permanently stressful for the birds.

The budgerigar got its name because its plumage has a wavy pattern. Zoologically, it belongs to the family of true parrots (Psittacidae). Budgerigars are native to the grassy steppes and open woodlands of Australia. There, the small parrots live in large flocks of up to several thousand birds without a distinct hierarchy. Budgerigars travel thousands of kilometers a year in search of food. They are only sedentary when breeding and rearing their young. They breed in colonies.

Budgerigarsfeed on mature seeds of ground-covering plants, which they dehusk before swallowing them. Their beaks are also adapted to this behavior - the animals are extreme food specialists. The birds communicate with each other using body language and a variety of vocalizations. Partners like to touch each other with their beaks - when greeting each other or as soon as one has been asleep for a long time or otherwise occupied. During partner feeding, one budgie gives food to the other. Same-sex partners also show this behavior. The small parakeets are active during the day. At dusk, they often groom each other's feathers. A parakeet sitting with its plumage fluffed up and eyes closed is dozing. If an animal has turned its head back and tucked its beak into its plumage, it is sleeping deeply. Many birds also put one leg up.

Budgerigars can only live out their complex social behavior in the company of their conspecifics: grooming each other's feathers, feeding, playing with each other, but also settling disputes. The sociable flock birds should therefore be kept at least in pairs, preferably in groups of four or more birds. A plastic bird or a human can never replace their missing conspecifics. In the wild, budgerigars live in large flocks with thousands of birds at times. As diurnal birds, budgerigars need a night's rest of at least ten hours. If necessary, you should therefore darken the aviary for this period. You can buy your budgies from an animal shelter, a reputable breeder or a pet store. We generally advise against buying them online. You cannot check where the animals come from, whether they are healthy and under what conditions they have lived.

We recommend that you always check with your local animal shelter first to see if such birds are currently waiting for a new home there. You should choose breeders and pet shops carefully - with a critical eye on the conditions in which the animals are kept. The birds are often kept individually in cages that are far too small. The way in which the breeder or pet shop provides you with information will also tell you a lot. Were you given detailed and competent advice?

When choosing the birds, make sure that they are not already in a pair. You should not separate these birds, but bring them into their new home together.

You can tell how old the birds are by their physical characteristics. Adult male budgerigars have bright blue wax skin on their beaks. In young male birds this skin is still pinkish-purple, in young females it is pale blue-pink with a white ring around the nostrils. As adults, the wax skin of females is then beige to brown in color. If you want to keep two birds of the same sex, it is particularly important that they get along well. Their age and sex usually only play a subordinate role. If you have enough space available and want to keep a larger group of budgerigars, you should aim for a balanced sex ratio. It is important to avoid too many females, as they are often very dominant. Budgerigars are generally easy to socialize with other birds of the same species. Nevertheless, they should be acclimatized slowly. Initially, place the birds in two cages next to each other. This will allow them to get used to each other. Once they are beaking through the bars and behaving in a relaxed manner, you can bring the budgies together under supervision - preferably on neutral territory first, for example on a climbing tree.

Socializing with birds of other species cannot replace the company of a budgerigar's conspecifics. Keeping different bird species together is not recommended anyway. There is a risk of the birds seriously injuring each other. You can only keep several bird species together in a spacious bird room. An aviary is unsuitable for this. Species that you want to keep together must be of a similar body size and have the same requirements in terms of housing and feeding. In addition, there must be sufficient retreat options available for all animals. Budgerigars can be socialized with related parrots, for example cockatiels, if the bird room offers retreats for all birds. As budgerigars are smaller, they should be in the majority. For example, you can keep eight budgies together with four cockatiels. However, you should always keep a close eye on the birds to make sure they get along.

Larger parrot species are not suitable for socializing with budgerigars, as the risk of injury to the latter would be too great. Although most parrot species are peaceful and their natural habitat overlaps with that of budgerigars, it is clear from their size, beak and claws that budgerigars are clearly inferior to parrots. Injuries do not have to be inflicted deliberately, an accident is enough. Light pecking with the beak, for example, is part of the normal social behavior of birds. It is harmless within the species - but not when a small budgerigar is pecked by a large parrot. These two bird species therefore do not go together.

It is not advisable to keep budgies together with canaries due to their different food requirements. There is also too great a risk that the canaries will be injured, as the budgies are superior in size.

Due to legal regulations on parrot disease, every parrot in Germany, including budgerigars, had to wear a ring until 2012. Since then, only species-protected animals have to be marked with a ring or transponder. However, some budgie breeders still issue rings as proof of origin. If one of your budgies has a ring, make sure that it fits correctly. It must not become ingrown and the leg must not swell. You can register the ring number and some details about your bird with FINDEFIX, the pet register of the German Animal Welfare Federation. If you also enter your contact details there, the bird can be quickly returned to you if it escapes.

To ensure that the budgies do not suffer, they should live in a spacious aviary, as this is the only place they can fly properly. Basically, the bigger the better. Commercially available cages are generally far too small for the birds. Round bird cages are absolutely unsuitable, as the animals have difficulty orienting themselves in them. Narrow, high aviaries are also unsuitable. The birds need so much space that they can flap their wings several times. If the budgies are given several hours of free flight every day, the aviary for two to six birds should be at least one and a half meters long, 80 centimetres wide and one meter high. If free flight is not possible, the aviary must be larger so that there is enough free space to fly. For up to six birds, it should have a base area of at least four square meters and a minimum height of two meters, for example: length x width x height = 3 x 1.5 x 2 meters. If you want to keep more than six birds, you should increase the floor space by at least half for each additional pair.

Shiny, galvanized bars or bars covered with white plastic are not suitable because they can dazzle the birds. In addition, budgerigars often gnaw off the plastic coatings, which can be harmful to their health. Dark blue, green, gray, matt silver or black bars are well suited. Stainless steel is ideal, but very expensive. Some companies offer a special coating that is explicitly declared to be free of zinc and heavy metals and is affordable in price. With metal coatings, you should not rely on the information "non-toxic". It must be ensured that the coating is free of zinc and heavy metals. The bars should run horizontally so that the budgies, who love to climb, can scramble. You should thoroughly clean the aviary and its contents with warm water at least once a week, or more often if necessary.

To provide the birds with some protection, the best location for the indoor aviary is a bright, draught-free, quiet place against a wall. The aviary should be positioned so that, if possible, it can only be seen from one side. As the birds quickly become frightened when someone approaches from above, the aviary should also be slightly raised and not directly on the floor - this way no one can bend over it. The room temperature should be 18 to 20 degrees Celsius. As the birds are sensitive to overheating, temperature fluctuations and electrosmog,
the aviary should not be placed directly by the window, next to the heating or in the immediate vicinity of electrical appliances. The kitchen is also an unsuitable location, as cooking produces vapors, especially Teflon gases, which are toxic to the birds.

You should also make sure that the birdhouse is inaccessible to other pets such as dogs or cats. Once you have chosen a location, you should stick to it if possible so that the animals are not unnecessarily stressed by a change of location. In contrast to the human eye, the bird's eye includes UV light. It also has a higher spectral sensitivity compared to the human eye. This means that birds perceive their environment in different colors than humans and see the light from fluorescent tubes as flickering light, for example. The birds should therefore live in daylight if possible. If the birds are kept indoors only, all light sources in the room should be made flicker-free using ballasts and UV lamps (with UVA and UVB components) should be added to illuminate the bird house. As the UV radiation loses its power over time, you should change these lamps regularly according to the manufacturer's instructions.

A visually appealing alternative to an indoor aviary that is recommended from an animal welfare perspective is to set up a spacious indoor aviary. The ideal combination is with an outdoor space that the birds can reach through a window or door and where they can enjoy the sun and fresh air. If the outdoor aviary is large and the birds have access to a frost-free room, it is also practicable to keep them exclusively outdoors. The birds should be able to visit the indoor area independently at any time. In summer, it protects them from wind, rain and heat. In winter, it should always be at least ten degrees Celsius. Natural ground is recommended for outdoor areas. Every aviary must be both burglar-proof and burglar-proof so that the birds cannot escape and cats or wild animals cannot get in.

The interior of the aviary should include a drinking water dispenser or bowl and several food bowls or hangers for grain, fresh food and fruit as well as perches of different thicknesses. It is advisable to set up separate food and water points for each animal. These should be placed in the aviary in such a way that birds sitting above them cannot soil them. As feeders are easily blocked by empty seed pods, you should blow them out every day. In general, you should clean all feeders and drinking bowls once a day.

Commercially available plastic and wooden sticks with a uniform diameter often cause ball ulcers in the animals. Replace these with natural wooden poles of different thicknesses. These poles are springy and also allow the birds to exercise their feet due to the different diameters. Branches from non-toxic, unsprayed trees such as maple, elder, poplar, willow or fruit trees are suitable. Attach some branches to one side only - like the branches of a tree. When attaching the branches, make sure that the birds have enough air space to fly. Suspended cuttlebones or limestones provide calcium and whetstones are for the beak.

Perches covered with sandpaper or coverings on the floor are cruel to animals. They act like sandpaper and cause skin injuries. Germs can penetrate through the small, painful cracks in the skin and cause infections.

To avoid dust in the aviary, you should not cover the floor with bird sand, but with paper such as kitchen paper or cellulose.

If they live in small indoor aviaries, budgies need several hours of free flight every day. It is important to eliminate sources of danger. Windows and doors should be closed or secured with fly screens. Glass panes should be visibly marked for the budgies - at least during the first few outings - so that they don't fly into them. For example, hang curtains made of a material that the birds cannot get their claws stuck in. Containers with water in which a bird could drown, such as watering cans, should be removed from the room. The same applies to cigarette butts, alcohol residue in glasses, lit candles and sharp objects such as needles or prickly plants. Cupboard doors and drawers must be closed. Narrow gaps, for example behind cupboards, in which birds can become trapped, should either be closed or sufficiently widened. Birds can get their claws caught in deep-pile carpets and net curtains. These sources of danger must also be eliminated. As birds like to nibble on green plants when flying freely, there should be no poisonous plants or flower bouquets or arrangements containing poisonous plants in the room. Budgerigars will happily accept a free-standing climbing tree in the room. They can easily build it themselves from branched, larger branches of non-toxic and unsprayed trees. As a bird owner, you must accept that budgerigars like to nibble on furniture and room decorations and that they can defecate anywhere and at any time.

With good care and loving treatment, budgies can become trusting. The calmer we are with them and the more we spend time with them, the quicker they get used to us humans. For example, you can offer your birds food in your hand. However, if a bird approaches and accepts the food, you must not try to grab it. Just let it be. Otherwise it will immediately lose the trust it has just gained. As a general rule, you should only pick up birds if it is absolutely necessary - for example to check their health. For a bird, being held in your hand is like being caught by an enemy. It is an enormous burden for him.

If it cannot be avoided and you have to catch an animal, you should darken the room in which the aviary is located. The birds will then be calmer and you can avoid them all flapping around wildly. You can then use a light towel to catch the bird by hand. To minimize stress, you should cover the bird's eyes. However, you must ensure that the nostrils remain uncovered. As birds are generally very sensitive to stress, you should only hold them for as short a time as possible.

Obesity is one of the most common problems in birds living in human care. In the wild, budgerigars spend most of the day looking for food. In doing so, they move around a lot. As pets, they can easily become obese if their bowl is constantly filled with grains. Although the commercially available grain food for budgerigars consists of a balanced mixture of seeds, it is still advisable to give the birds other food that contains little energy - such as green food. A level teaspoon of grain food per bird per day is sufficient. Don't always just offer the food in a bowl, but in such a way that the birds can work for it. Scatter the grains on the floor of the cage or spread the bowls around the bird's room. This helps against boredom and lack of exercise and also prevents obesity. Although treats such as millet are popular, they are also very high in energy. To prevent excessive weight gain, you should only offer them to your birds very rarely. Fatty seeds such as hemp should also be fed sparingly. Energy-rich treat sticks, which often contain honey or sugar as well as high-fat seeds, should not be offered to your birds at all.

Obesity is a common problem with budgies kept indoors, especially females. It can seriously endanger their health and cause illness.

Causes of obesity:

• too little exercise or free flight
• wrong food
• too much food
• a tumor or lipoma
• diseases
• a gender imbalance in the flock or feeding male birds

You can buy special diet food from specialist retailers for birds that are too fat. It contains a higher proportion of grass seeds and less oilseeds. You must proceed very carefully when reducing weight. Your pet should lose weight slowly and in small steps - a maximum of one gram per week. Good and effective measures for losing weight are more free flight and a change in diet. The animal in question should be given less food containing sugar and fat. Another option is to supplement the feed with cocksfoot grass. This seed is bulky and low in calories. You can mix it with the normal feed and give the mixture in the usual amount. You should not offer high-calorie fruit to an overweight bird. Ideally, he should only be given vegetables, culinary herbs and wild herbs. If you want to be on the safe side, ask an avian veterinarian for advice.

Green fodder should always be free of pesticide residues and come from nature. This improves the birds' supply of minerals. Feed it fresh every day and, if possible, hang it up so that the birds can chop it up themselves. Offer your birds a variety of fresh herbs and at least three types of vegetables every day. Fruit should only be given to the birds in small quantities because it has a high sugar content. To prevent the birds from eating spoiled food, you should always remove leftover green food, vegetables and fruit from the aviary in the evening.

As a general rule, as soon as a bird appears ill, you should take it to a vet immediately. This will give it the best chance of recovery. A healthy bird has shiny, smooth plumage and makes a lively impression. If its feathers are fluffed up, its plumage is shaggy outside of moulting, it is sleepy, has no appetite or has diarrhea, it may be ill. However, a disease is often only externally recognizable at an advanced stage, as birds only show that they are ill at a very late stage (so-called symptom poverty). Unfortunately, just because a budgie eats regularly does not automatically mean that it is healthy. Even when they are ill, birds often continue to eat until the day they die. Therefore, always pay attention to the overall behavior and appearance of your birds and, above all, observe them daily. This is the only way to detect the first signs of illness as early as possible.
Claws that are too long can be professionally trimmed. When doing so, you must not damage the blood vessels running through the claws. If you are not yet familiar with cutting claws, you should ask a vet to show you how to do it the first time.

The annual change of plumage is a physiological process in which the entire plumage is renewed. How often a budgerigar moults depends on many different factors. Two to four moults per year, which may be more or less frequent, are considered normal for a healthy budgie. Depending on environmental factors - food supply, season or temperature of the environment - and state of health, age and hormone status, moulting can also be reduced or increased, without this necessarily being pathological. In general, it can be said that a moult lasts around seven to twelve days - measured from the time the feathers fall out until the new feathers grow back, which are pushed through the skin while still protected in the keel. During this time, the birds need more rest than usual and should be given the opportunity to bathe every day. A particularly balanced diet of green food, seedlings and possibly some animal protein, such as boiled eggs, is important at this time. The birds should also be allowed to fly freely on a regular basis during the moulting period. As the birds never change all their wing feathers at the same time, they can fly as usual during moulting. If a bird continues to moult at an unusual time, you should consult a vet.

Budgerigars reproduce all year round. In mixed-sex groups, the females look for cavities in which to lay their eggs. To avoid unwanted offspring, you should not offer the birds nesting opportunities such as nest boxes or cave-like structures. This will usually prevent them from laying eggs. However, parakeets are inventive. For example, they can also regard open drawers or baskets as suitable nesting cavities and lay their eggs there. In the event that they do build a nest and lay eggs, you can buy artificial eggs from a pet shop. Artificial eggs are available to match the bird species. Mark the artificial eggs so that you can distinguish them from the eggs laid later. When a hen starts to lay eggs, replace them with
marked artificial eggs. As the bird embryo develops quickly, this should be done as soon as possible. Eggs that you want to exchange for artificial eggs should not be older than 24 hours. Instead of artificial eggs, you can also use eggs from your budgerigar that you have removed and boiled immediately after laying. Leave the replacement eggs in the nest for as long as the hen is incubating. The bird does not mind if no young hatch. This also happens in nature. When the mother bird stops breeding, remove the fake clutch. In this way, the birds can lead a normal sex life and still not reproduce. As the reproduction rate of budgerigars is high and it can be difficult to find good homes and responsible new owners for all the young birds, we advise against breeding. In addition, extensive specialist knowledge about breeding budgerigars is required in order not to put the parakeets in danger and to be prepared if problems arise. Apart from that, numerous wonderful budgies are already waiting in animal shelters for a new home.