Budgies!!!

[Ladychaos]

Considering getting 2 budgies naming them Amadeus and Mozart. Need alot of information on how to keep them healthy and happy! ^.^ any info is much appreciated.

[Monica]

You should look into a cockatiel sized cage (square or longer than tall), or even a flight cage. Lots of various toys, a good seed mix that doesn't contain artificial colorings or ethoxyquin.... look into various types of perches such as wooden, rope, etc. Budgies seem to like dishes that they can get into, especially if they enjoy taking a bath in their dish water! Be sure to get lots of fresh foods too to start your budgies on a healthy diet!

[Ladychaos]

thank you monica! I got a cage for free but its much to small only 10 1/2 X 8 X 15 1/2 so I have to get a bigger one.

[homebird]

You could keep the small one for a travel cage or if you get more budgies it could be used for quaranteen.
There was a really fun thread not long ago showing a water fountain I think you'd really get a kick out of it.
In the Intro Forum: Presenting Sky - the swimming parakeet! by nyanyar

I was at a pet store [i tend to haunt them if allowed] recently & at first i didn't think there were any birds in one cage until i noticed the toys moving. two budgies were inside - like they were in the tree-tops! Very cute. So what I'm saying is that a big cage is good to house all the toys etc that you will probably buy.

[Ladychaos]

lol! I will check out that post ^.^

I was gonna keep the smaller cage for trips to the vet and quarantine ect ^.^ lol! I found a pretty good sized cage would this be big enough for 2 budgies? 30 X 18 X 18

[Monica]

I'll assume that 30 means the length and not the heighth??? It sounds good actually.

IMO, the minimum size cage for any bird (well, one the size of a cockatiel or smaller) should be 2' square (give or take a few inches!), even if it were only housing one finch.... Having that much space provides extra room for perches, toys, and dishes.

[Ladychaos]

yep L X W X H I hope so. The bar space is good it is a finch flight cage from petco. Hoping to pick it up tomorrow. I want to have everything BEFORE I get a budgie. I'm going to get 3 perches, 2 wood 1 sand, 3 dishes, 2 for food (1 seed 1 veggies/fruit/ect), and 1 for water they are going to be stainless steel, Then 6 toys 3 in 3 out depending on the space, then a cuttle bone/millet spray holder, then 1 cuttlebone to go in the holder. Then some kaytee parakeet seed mix. Sound good so far? I already froze rasberries, blueberries, and blackberries ^,^

[Monica]

I'm no fan of Kaytee food products (for you to research and choose what you think is best), but indeed that sounds good!

[Ladychaos]

may I ask why you are not a fan of them? Not trying to be rude genuine curiousity! glad the rest sounds good :D

[Monica]

Some of the Kaytee products have carried ingredients which didn't go over too well with the bird comunity... Of course they are "cleaning their stuff up", so to speak... but a lot of their products still contain artificial coloring in the food, which IMO can cause quite a few problems.... First off, some artificial colorings are not good for birds, and second, it can change the color of the birds poop and make it hard to determine the correct color, which then can mask any possible problems a bird could be having that could be most easily seen in it's droppings. This is why I'm also against colored pellets, but some birds may not eat plain pellets, and some may be stuck into a specific type of seed that they refuse to eat anything else....

But, it is up to you to do the research into the foods you think would be best and decide for yourself what the best diet would be! I know there are plenty of people out there who feed Kaytee products, I'm just not one of them!