Big box budgie vs. hand raised

[Remmy04]

There are two Petsmarts near me that have some very young budgies (the banding goes all the way to the ceres on some of them). But, there is a breeder who hand raises her budgies about two hours away from me. The rest is just my current thought process on the choosing.

At the apparent age of the PetSmart budgies would it still be significantly more work to hand tame them than to just pick up from where a hand tamed budgie (some born in Sept. apparently already know how to step up)?

Part of me likes the idea of taking my time and winning over the PetSmart budgie while the other part is thinking that the breeder raised budgies are probably healthier and might be easier to care for, at least initially.

In the long run is there that big of a difference between hand raised and non-hand raised budgies?

 

[Tami2]

Welcome.

I believe so, I would take the two hour drive for sure.

But, I’ll let the more knowledgeable answer.

Very exciting. :heart:

Good Luck.

 

[SilverSage]

I would ABSOLUTELY go with the breeder!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[itzjbean]

Yes there can be very big differences between non hand reared and hand reared budgies. You'll find that the non hand-reared ones are much more flighty, wary and often times frightened of human hands and contact. They can still be tamed but it will take effort to gain trus. Sometimes, though, there are birds that are just more birds-birds than people-birds. The hand-raised ones are much more comfortable with human contact and are often hand-tame by the time you get them.

Go with the breeder!

 

[chris-md]

Check prices too. Petsmart churches $600 for a sun conure. Breeders are often half that, give or take.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

My first "parrot" was a little blue budgie my mom got me when I was 14 (A VERY long time ago) and we got him from a Kmart ( not sure if the even exist anymore) and Mom paid $4.95 for the little guy.
"Wally" was just a baby...maybe three months old.

It took me all of three days to get him finger trained. Every day,after school,I'd sit by his house and talk to him,and put my hand inside with a piece of millet.
I sat with him for 15 minutes every "session" and do this four or five times before bedtime.
Maybe it took more than three days,but not long at all.Not even a week I am sure.
Wally became the sweetest,friendliest,cutest,funniest,little bird and even learned a few words.
He'd fly to anyone,walk on Moe (an indoor kitty) back..bathe under the kitchen sink faucet,or in my cereal bowl in the morning ,at his greens...ok I'll stop lol..
So,in my opinion,a pet shop budgie can be a great budgie.
Whats the going price now for a pet store budgie? $20
If you can get a young one,the sky is the limit,as long as you take the time (like all creatures big and small)


Jim

 

[MonicaMc]

If you do it right, a budgies trust can be earned at any age.

If the breeder is a good breeder and raised the birds onto a healthy diet, I'd go with the breeder. If, on the other hand, they are raised onto seeds, it might not matter as much...

 

[IndySE]

I would probably go with a breeder just in terms of health of the overall bird. Budgies obtained from petsmart probably weren't carefully and selectively bred to minimize health defects. A good breeder, however, will take care in selecting the parents of their chicks.

Best of luck ! I love budgies.

 

[reeb]

As someone with many budgies (from both breeders and pet shops) I will always recommend going with a breeder. It is rare to find a truly tame budgie at a pet shop, and taming the budgie yourself requires lots of patience. Not only this, but petshop birds can sometimes have health problems or are not bred ethically. As long as the breeder you have found is reputable, the 2 hour drive will be far more worth it.

Good luck and enjoy your new baby!

 

[clark_conure]

I would go with the breeder, but the little secret is the budgies in the pet store might have came litterally from the same breeder. The pet stores don't have their own "pet factory"... they buy from local breeders and re-sell. They don't make a lot of money off selling the pets, they make it off food and toys and cages etc.

But in a pet store there is a period of time before the bird is sold it's kind of in isolation or at least around only other birds without to much human interaction....the breeder probably handles them everyday so training would be easier.

 

[Teddscau]

Actually, while many stores get their budgies from local breeders, many get them from bird mills.

Anyways, most of my birds were adopted (and likely originated from pet shops). I adopted Noah from a family who bought him from a breeder. Anyways, most of my budgies are actually pretty trusting of me (all it took was to build them an indoor aviary and to keep them in a mixed species flock). Ju, Ziggy, Rumi, and Samantha will often come over to talk to me, and everyone (except the kākāriki) will eat from my hand. Rumi and Pollo are a bit of a pain because they like to bite me while eating from my hand, since they're little brats who want to see how much of a chump I am.

Anyways, Rumi used to preen my hair all the time, but now that she's lost her ability to fly (neurological problems), she's gotten a bit skittish around me. A lot of them enjoy running over to my hands to steal bits of veggie while I'm attaching them to their branches. They also enjoy bathing while I hold their bath for them. If I hold a mahogany pod up to them, they really enjoy shredding it and will gently poke at my fingers (well, "bite" in the case of Rumi). I've also target trained Rumi, Pollo, and Ju.

Budgie's are really amazing creatures. Just be aware that they're prone to obesity related illnesses (fatty liver disease, lipoma, heart disease), as well as cancer. I'd recommend giving all budgies that liver detox made from dandelion root and milk thistle made by Birds Rx, Avian Rx, or whoever the heck it is that makes the stuff. I've had three budgies with cancer, including little Alice who would've turned three this Halloween if it weren't for her gigantic kidney tumour (size of a loonie). Ju and Lara currently have cancer (testicular for Ju, and hip and abdominal for Lara). I give them the dandelion root extract in the hope that it will fight the cancer (look up the Windsor dandelion root research). Ju's had testicular cancer for about three years now, so I think it's been working. Dr. Morris only gave Lara a few months, but it's been over a year now, and she's still doing quite well.

Anyways, from my experience, I'd reccomend against getting an albino or a yellow budgie. The albinos are prone to neurological problems (strokes, seizures) as well as physiological problems (weak organs, poor immune systems, deformed bones, bad eyesight, etc.). As for yellow budgies, Maria died when she was only three from organ failure, Simon was less than two when he died suddenly for no apparent reason (I'd only had him for six weeks, and he also had problems with bleeding from the slightest touch), and Rumi has neurological problems (she's had two bad episodes, leaving her flightless). When Rumi has an episode, she becomes unresponsive, extremely weak, disoriented, drowsy, affectionate like a chick, and she has to be cared for by Pollo and Noah for several days until her brain starts working properly. When this happens, I have to lock her inside the cage for her safety, since she becomes confused and falls off branches and tries to fly.

Right, so my first choice would be to adopt from a shelter. My second choice would be to buy from an experienced, knowledgable, "responsible" breeder.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

There are two Petsmarts near me that have some very young budgies (the banding goes all the way to the ceres on some of them). But, there is a breeder who hand raises her budgies about two hours away from me. The rest is just my current thought process on the choosing.

At the apparent age of the PetSmart budgies would it still be significantly more work to hand tame them than to just pick up from where a hand tamed budgie (some born in Sept. apparently already know how to step up)?

Part of me likes the idea of taking my time and winning over the PetSmart budgie while the other part is thinking that the breeder raised budgies are probably healthier and might be easier to care for, at least initially.

In the long run is there that big of a difference between hand raised and non-hand raised budgies?

In the long run, no. I've had both young big box budgies, hand raised ones, and hand raised my own baby, and all can make excellent, tame pets. The process will be quicker with the hand raised baby However it may be kinder for you to get a young PetSmart budgie and give him a great forever home. So many people want a "cheap" bird as a "toy" for their children that lose interest quickly, and the poor little bird has a miserable life alone in a small cage. Consider it a rescue of sorts, and select a healthy young budgie from PetSmart and be a hero!

 

[ravvlet]

This thread is from 2017 so I figure OP has already long since made their decision!

I did want to note though that I used to work at a Petco and had friends who worked at Petsmart, and their budgies don’t receive vet care & employees are given warnings about checking for signs of psittacosis if they are in charge of handling the birds - at least, I definitely remember it being part of the training. That was over ten years ago but I can’t imagine that the vet situation has changed any.

It’s a bit of a gamble if you’ve already got birds at home. Quarantine any new bird, but especially one from a big box store, is important!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

This thread is from 2017 so I figure OP has already long since made their decision!

I did want to note though that I used to work at a Petco and had friends who worked at Petsmart, and their budgies don’t receive vet care & employees are given warnings about checking for signs of psittacosis if they are in charge of handling the birds - at least, I definitely remember it being part of the training. That was over ten years ago but I can’t imagine that the vet situation has changed any.

It’s a bit of a gamble if you’ve already got birds at home. Quarantine any new bird, but especially one from a big box store, is important!

I know this is an old thread but people still read them because they give good advice from both angles so I wanted to resurrect it There are so many ways of looking at issues with pet birds and people struggle a lot when making decisions for themselves and their birdies. Personally, I try not to go into big box type pet stores that sell budgies because I always want to take them ALL home with me!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

This thread is from 2017 so I figure OP has already long since made their decision!

I did want to note though that I used to work at a Petco and had friends who worked at Petsmart, and their budgies don’t receive vet care & employees are given warnings about checking for signs of psittacosis if they are in charge of handling the birds - at least, I definitely remember it being part of the training. That was over ten years ago but I can’t imagine that the vet situation has changed any.

It’s a bit of a gamble if you’ve already got birds at home. Quarantine any new bird, but especially one from a big box store, is important!

A friend of mine used to work a a PetCo several years ago. I just sent him a message asking him if the birds they sold ever got vet care. I wasn't expecting that he would respond the way he did but he said "Yes. All animals were taken to a vet if there was a problem". My friend is a serious animal lover. He used to train marine mammals at several tourist attractions but hated the commercial exploitation of the animals.
I don't know whether the PetCo where he worked was typical but I suppose they had a corporate policy about it or the critters would never get any medical care. Makes me feel a bit better about PetCo at least.

 

[ravvlet]

A friend of mine used to work a a PetCo several years ago. I just sent him a message asking him if the birds they sold ever got vet care. I wasn't expecting that he would respond the way he did but he said "Yes. All animals were taken to a vet if there was a problem". My friend is a serious animal lover. He used to train marine mammals at several tourist attractions but hated the commercial exploitation of the animals.
I don't know whether the PetCo where he worked was typical but I suppose they had a corporate policy about it or the critters would never get any medical care. Makes me feel a bit better about PetCo at least.

They get taken to the vet if they’re sick, but birds don’t usually show symptoms until they’re seriously ill, so they rarely go in.

 

[Terry57]

Petsmart here also takes their birds to the vet. They are vetted when they come in as well, one of my rehomed birds came with the paperwork from that.
Honestly, I've seen a couple of breeders set-ups here and would trust a budgie from Petsmart more than I would theirs. One of them had 6 dead budgies sitting on the table he used for feeding. I couldn't believe it.

 

[ravvlet]

Petsmart here also takes their birds to the vet. They are vetted when they come in as well, one of my rehomed birds came with the paperwork from that.
Honestly, I've seen a couple of breeders set-ups here and would trust a budgie from Petsmart more than I would theirs. One of them had 6 dead budgies sitting on the table he used for feeding. I couldn't believe it.

Woah!

That’s good to hear though! Maybe it was a regional thing? This was in south Louisiana.

Edited to add: we had… a lot of issues at our store. I was not a manager so I did not have clearance to bring animals to the vet. We had a lot of small animals die and it was really stressful to work there; it’s why I eventually quit. People would forget to give meds to the critters in the hospital cages in the back, and I was only part time!

It’s also where my experience hand feeding mice came from. We had fancy mice who somehow got loose in the store (wild mice do NOT come in “fun colors”, no matter how much the management wanted to pretend otherwise) and were breeding and nesting in the bedding and getting into the dog food. The manager found a nest and threw the babies in the grass outside. I took them home and hand raised them.

I am so glad to hear this kind of thing is not the norm, I’ve been kind of avoiding Petco when I can ever since because of that. I have a lot of horror stories…

 

[DonnaBudgie]

They get taken to the vet if they’re sick, but birds don’t usually show symptoms until they’re seriously ill, so they rarely go in.

I know. But at least they DO get care for them if they don't look well- its more than I thought. I didn't expect my friend to respond so positively. Realistically, most of us parronts don't bring their fids to the vet unless they don't seem well. Well-bird check ups are ideal, of course, but since birds don't have vaccination and de-worming requirements like dogs and cats, and avian vets are hard to come by in many areas, most parrots don't get them. I took Rocky for his first well-bird check up at three and a half weeks old. It was a challenge to get him there in December in Maine when he was still hand feeding, half-feathered, and his incubator doesn't have a car charger. My husband held little Rocky in his sweatshirt pocket for the ride so he would stay warm and safe. He was a real hit at the vet's office- their cutest, littlest patient that day!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Petsmart here also takes their birds to the vet. They are vetted when they come in as well, one of my rehomed birds came with the paperwork from that.
Honestly, I've seen a couple of breeders set-ups here and would trust a budgie from Petsmart more than I would theirs. One of them had 6 dead budgies sitting on the table he used for feeding. I couldn't believe it.

OMG! I can't believe (but I do) that an experienced budgie breeder would lose that many chicks! It is not THAT difficult to take care of and hand feed baby budgies. I don't recommend people do it unless they have to or are experienced (the only way to get experienced is to do it, right?) but with the right equipment, knowledge from studying, and help a phone call away, there's no excuse for a breeder to have that many dead chicks. So sad!