bored bird

[tonybird]

my budgie sits in his cage and stares at his mirror all day long! everybodyis always saying there birds love to play and shred thigs and sit on perches and eat exotic foods!! my bird will only eat plain seed only sit on one perch and he never likes to come out of his cage!! i always try to take him out i give him new toys i give him new food but he won't try any if it!! what shall i do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tonybird]

Originally Posted by tonybird

my budgie sits in his cage and stares at his mirror all day long! everybodyis always saying there birds love to play and shred thigs and sit on perches and eat exotic foods!! my bird will only eat plain seed only sit on one perch and he never likes to come out of his cage!! i always try to take him out i give him new toys i give him new food but he won't try any if it!! what shall i do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he does like to whistle and chirp though!!

[felisdomesticus]

okay, so take the mirror out of the cage for starters. Buy some new perches and put them in different parts of the cage. (definitely remove the old one too!) place toys in new spaces of the cage for the bird to investigate.

Too much stagnation does lead to a very boring and sad bird.

If your bird is fixated on seed you can remove the food bowl and twist a few pinches up in wax paper and place those packages all around the cage. That'll get him moving around.

My bird loves to demolish whole foods. I have been giving her baby pumpkins and whole tomatoes and she will spend hours tearing them apart and feasting on them.

[Buteo]

Sounds similar to our budgie, Petey.
When he first came to us, he never played with any toys, didn't like to eat anything but his seed & spray millet.
In the last 2 months this has started to change. We managed to find some toys that he likes. They're a bunch called Polly Wanna Bird Toy
His all time favorite is the 7" Zig Zag (it's the one in the middle column, middle row.) The PetsMarts in our area carry this line of toys.
He's already destroyed every single millimeter of the wicker braid parts of 2 of them so far this month.

He doesn't like any fruits I've offered so far, but just in the last 2 weeks, he's started to nibble on cooked carrot, greenbeans & very thin slices of zucchini.

[grandma]

Definately get rid of the mirror. He is relating to it like it is another bird.
Try mixing a little bit of plain yogurt in his seed.
Try this with other foods later....tiny pieces of corn, apple...