Budgies are smart

[Laurasea]

Just a quick post to say I'm proud of my budgies! They are free flight in house during the day when I'm home. If I have to go out, I put the other birds up. Then the budgies go right to their cage!!! Or I point to their cage and they go right in! Just so proud of that at 530 every puts themselves in their cages for the night. I would like them to stay up a little later, but the flock has decided that's night night time, we get up about 530 in the morning so I guess that's perfect.

 

[LaManuka]

Budgies are a much underrated little birdie - unfortunately many people underestimate just how smart they are. And yours are clearly top of the class!

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Yes! I wish more people would take the smaller parrots more seriously. They're clever and have unique personalities. It's always so unfortunate when people act like because they're small they mean less. I know a few people who don't bother to take their budgies to the vet when they're presenting as ill They just assume small bodies mean small brains and short lives.

We need more people like you to keep sharing these kinds of stories!

 

[Laurasea]

Yes! I wish more people would take the smaller parrots more seriously. They're clever and have unique personalities. It's always so unfortunate when people act like because they're small they mean less. I know a few people who don't bother to take their budgies to the vet when they're presenting as ill They just assume small bodies mean small brains and short lives.

We need more people like you to keep sharing these kinds of stories!

Well said! I do want to Cellibrate their lives. Even though I can't pet and snuggle them. They still want to be near me, and fly after me squaking if I leave the room. I take that as them saying, hey the flock has to stay together, silly!!

They were rehomed to me , and I see hundreds on Craigslist every day...

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Budgies are such under-appreciated little birds. They’re so much smarter than people give them credit for. Yes they can be skittish at first and it might take some patience to hand-tame them, and they aren’t very cuddly birds, but they’re just as intelligent than any other parrot. My Pearl has a great vocabulary and she’s the only one of my birds that talks!! Pearl says “Ducky wucky wucky”, “Kermie bird”, “Gimme big kiss!”, “I love you”, “Pearl’s a pretty pretty bird”, “sweet baby bird”, “I’m super smart”, “I’m so cute”, “who’s a good bird?”, “talk talk talk”, “I’m a parakeet”, “Pearl the bird”, and others... She even made up her own phrases like “what is it bird?” and “where’s the bird?”. When I talk to her, she sits on my finger and leans in as close as she can to my lips, listening with incredible focus. Budgies are amazing!!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Budgies are wonderful. They're common, yes, but that's BECAUSE they're such fabulous, smart, social little birds. Add a few (?) centuries of selective breeding and domestication, and... voila! I'd have a rainbow of 'em if circumstances were different. Budgies are great.

 

[Laurasea]

Budgies are such under-appreciated little birds. They’re so much smarter than people give them credit for. Yes they can be skittish at first and it might take some patience to hand-tame them, and they aren’t very cuddly birds, but they’re just as intelligent than any other parrot. My Pearl has a great vocabulary and she’s the only one of my birds that talks!! Pearl says “Ducky wucky wucky”, “Kermie bird”, “Gimme big kiss!”, “I love you”, “Pearl’s a pretty pretty bird”, “sweet baby bird”, “I’m super smart”, “I’m so cute”, “who’s a good bird?”, “talk talk talk”, “I’m a parakeet”, “Pearl the bird”, and others... She even made up her own phrases like “what is it bird?” and “where’s the bird?”. When I talk to her, she sits on my finger and leans in as close as she can to my lips, listening with incredible focus. Budgies are amazing!!

I need to see pictures of Pearl!!!!!! She needs her own thread!!!!! Or you can post them here! I need more Pearl stories!!!

 

[EllenD]

Well said Laura!

It is such a shame that Budgies are thought of in-general as being a kind of "throw-away' bird, or a "starter/beginner" bird...Most people don't even think/realize that Budgies are a species of Parrot!

Just the other day I was looking through a different forum that I'm not a member of (I had Googled something and the search took me to this other forum), and this was a thread posted in their "Budgie" forum (sad) that was posted in 2017, so it's not like it was an old post...And one of their "senior" members with thousands of posts had posted a response to a question that the OP had about their 6 year-old Budgie acting lethargic and suddenly sleeping at lot, with some patchy feather-loss...And this "senior" member in their Budgie forum, with thousands of posts, responded to this OP by telling them that "The average lifespan of a Budgie is 5-8 years, so he is an elderly bird, and he is probably just slowing-down due to his advanced age"....I almost signed-up and made an account just to post a correction to this post, in-fact I might actually go back there and do that today since it does come-up as one of the top Google search-results!
I was screaming at my laptop..."5-8 year lifespan"???? Seriously? My first Budgie died at 18 years and 9 months old!!! The record for a Budgie is still 29 years-old I believe, and while that's unusual the "average" lifespan for a captive/pet American or English Budgie if they are fed a low-fat, varied diet that includes lots of fresh veggies and dark, leafy greens, and if they are not just locked-up inside of a little tiny cage all day long every day but allowed to come out every day and exercise is around 13-15 years-old!!! In-fact, a captive/pet Budgie's lifespan is just about the same as that of a captive/pet Cockatiel! The other factor is treating your Budgie like you would treat ANY species of parrot! Getting the out of their cage every single day, spending one-on-one time with them, giving them affection and love, making sure that their brains are not turning to mush by providing them with different foraging activities, puzzles, games, etc., all of this psychological/behavioral enrichment is also crucial to their physical health and their lifespans...Budgies do have the intelligence of a 2 year-old human child!

I think a major part of the problem are the misconceptions of the general-public about Budgies, because most people think that if they buy their child a young Budgie as a pet, they are only going to live for about 5 or so years, like a hamster or gerbil would, so they literally think they are a "throw-away" pet...I don't know if that is mostly due to their small size, their inexpensive price, or a combination of both, but the only reason that Budgies are so inexpensive is because they are so plentiful, not because they are small...Look at the price of a Parrotlet, they are about the same size as a Budgie and they usually cost between $100-$200, simply because they aren't plentiful (and probably because the word "parrot" is in their name)...It's just sad...