Considering Replacing my Budgies with Cockatiels

[LoyalOrange503]

Hi,


I love my budgies, they're awesome. they have a really unique personality, although it's not really the personality that i've been looking for in a bird.



i got 2 birds,

Coco.

Coco is really nice, but can sometimes be a bit too much for my other bird, Witje. He can try to climb onto her chest and bring both to the bottom of the cage. I don't know why he's doing this. He recently did it more often after he found out that his bells in his cage where really fun to look at and after reading a online post of someone on another website saying that he might be trying to impress the bells and being mean to Witje because of this i've removed the bells. he does it less often now. But he's doing it for the last 2 years and despite wishing i could stop making him do that, i've got no clue why he's doing it in the first place. Not to say that he can't handle her calmly though, there are (and is as i am typing this) peaceful interactions between the 2 birds where Coco doesn't handles witje roughly. Coco is usually really wistle-y and really likes to talk to me while i talk back to me.


Witje
Witje is really calm. Sometimes i don't even think she's in the room. I got a shared space with a lot of toys for her but the only toy she chases is the toy with the destructable paper on it. She usually just sits and sleeps or relaxes. She can make some noice ocassionaly but doesn't does it often (not daily). She's a angel, not harassing anyone and (unlike Coco) Witje does allow me to kiss her on the belly. (yeh, i'm careful with spit and everything and my lips are always dry when i do this). She handles my finger carefully when i bring it to her beak and she's an absolute angel.


and have had them for the last 2 years. they've both turned 2 at the beginning of this year.

So, i've been having the urge to get a 3rd bird, a cockatiel. i read they're really cuddley and lovely creatures.My partner however, (moving to england to him at the end of the year) does not wants a third bird and wants to keep it to 2.


i've been really wanting physical contact from a bird. a bird that would let me scratch him/her and just ask for it when i'm home.


Witje just sits there most of the day. She does comes to me sometimes, but always stays on a distance of like half a meter. She does likes to cuddle, but yeah. not behind the neck or something. she does enjoys it though, closing her eyes while doing it.



Coco is deffo not a physical type. i found a guide posted in december of 2018 which explains that you can best try to start cuddling with slowly scratching their beaks, which i'm going to try this evening when they're all tired from the whole day and about to go to bed.



but yeah, physical interaction....



i'm just going to copy that what i've send to my partner,


i really want to get a bird that i can get a really, really close connection to. physical, like in, a bird that wants me to scratch him/her, one that would ask for this. coco's great but no cuddles and he's making it clear by softly biting me. he's wonderful when whistling to, but this is the only kind of contact that i got with coco besides the shower (which consist mostly out of sitting on my hand and showering or wistling) and playing with the ball once a week a 2 weeks (last time was 2 or so months ago though). coco doesn't really wants to play with me. Witje is wonderful, a absolute angel, but she's so quiet i keep thiking like 4 times a week that she's escaped



I feel like i've got to take care of the 2 birds now, like i've got a duty. i do feel like i've got a bond, or at least that they like me. coco does comes to me, and wants to be near me, closer than witje, but still no cuddles. i also understand this is personality specific and yeah....



i don't want to come off as a bad bird parent, i love my budgies and i've put my heart so far into our realtionship.



i have got so many conflicting feelings right now and i have no clue what to do.


one one hand i want to get rid of both my budgies and replace them by cockatiels to get a more cuddley personality, although i'm scared ****less for the thought of regretting it and not being able to get them back. like, on a anxiety scale of 1 = ooh, that's freaky, 10 = PLZ I CANT LIVE LIKE THIS, it's like a 8-9,


on the other hand i want to keep caring for them since i feel like i've got the duty and since i do still love them and their personality although when thinking about their personality the first thing that pops up into my mind is ''i wish they where more cuddley''...


it's all really conflicting feelings and i've got no clue what to do.



what would you guys recommend me doing?

 

[Casper223]

IMHO... Not meant to offend you.... You have the two parakeets.... and it's incomprehensible to give them up. To me it's a lot like children, if they don't act, or feel the same way you do, a parent can't just put the child up for adoption. The parakeets have bonded to you, Their personality may not be all that you want, and really I do understand the feelings for more interaction, and cockatiels are famous for that, But then leaves the question of the parakeets. Biggest question, is anyone else going to love and care for them like you do. How is rehoming them to another family going to effect the parakeets, their trust and ability to bond, is it fair to them. I think your in a bad situation, and really I don't have an answer for you, I can say, as a good parent, He/She is mine, and I'm just happy he/she's healthy. I can't fathom what your going through. But the obvious answer to me is they are yours, and you can't break that sacred trust to them. I would add another bird if it were myself, but I wouldn't entrust another to supply the care and love to the two parakeets you have now. I guess thats my recommendation. I wish you the best of luck in your thought process, but you can't blame the parakeets for their personalities.

 

[T00tsyd]

Is it possible that you have this a bit upside down? It is well known that when you have 2 birds they are likely to bond with each other rather than you. At the same time all birds are individuals and there is no promise that another, even a different brand, will develop exactly as you want. We all have to learn to take the good with the bad, that goes for humans too.

You don't say how long you have felt this way but perhaps there is a danger of rushing in. If you really want to rehome your budgies then nothing anyone else says will change your mind. However are you just fitting in with your partner's will?

At the end of the day we all have to live with our decisions so think very carefully before you jump. With an imminent move perhaps you should re-home them ASAP but then I would recommend you wait some time before committing to another. You need to be ready to be a parront for a lifetime.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Has your partner ever met the budgies or any other birds?



Honestly once you and your parakeets are settled in over there, start working on him for the tiel. Perhaps he just doesn't understand how awesome birds are?

 

[charmedbyekkie]

I'll just put this out there:

Some people acknowledge the fact that most parrots have the emotional/mental capacity of a toddler, and treat them as such. Rehoming is not taken lightly by those people, even when the parrots don't meet expectations/hopes/etc. Some people have even reported how birds who have been rehomed often show the trauma of being repeatedly taken from 'their flock'. There are a few threads in this forum about how happy people are with their birds and how they struggle to accept the birds as the unique individuals they are.

Other people see parrots as simply animals - they give away birds that don't talk or don't act like they were expecting. Buying and selling/giving away is considered normal to those people. It's not seen as cruel; just a fact of life in a way.

Ultimately, it's up to you how you feel about your birds, whether the former or the later group.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Ohhhhh MAN, wish I could thank you more than once for that, Ekkie. Mr. Bug and I the other day had a chat about Freedom's fate. It is here with us no matter what. If she is my bird only, his bird only, nobody's bird only. Doesn't matter. She is here and ours. She will decide when and who to bond with, if ever and anyone. We will love her and take care of her regardless.



Now, a budgie is not the same as a macaw IQ wise, but emotionally? The same. The level of a small human child. My breeder budgies will be here forever. One day they will be too old to breed. Yup, even then they stay here. This is their home and their flock. We have 1 male who has yet to breed and has had disagreements with 2 different hens. We have a 3 strike policy(with certain things being worth more than one strike). He gets one more chance to breed either in the fall or next spring. Even if he is a snot to a 3rd hen(hasn't hurt them or anything), Blue Beard the Pirate Budgie is here forever.



But then sometimes rehoming is what is best. I had to rehome a lovebird and an amazon when fleeing a dangerous living situation, and Freedom was rehomed(several times, but most recently) by a family who loved her and really tried, but couldn't make it work. Sometimes rehoming is the best call, but it really isn't one that should be taken lightly. Not that I think the OP is taking this decision lightly.

 

[PiccoloSauce]

(I’m new so please take my advice with a grain of salt)

I think that, if you can pay for things like new accommodation and additional vet fees, food, toys etc, I think you’d be ok getting a third bird (cockatiel). The reason I think this is that it seems you spend a lot of time with your budgies but they’re not the cuddliest birds, and this is clear throughout the species.

If you don’t feel like you’ve got your hands full with the two budgies, then you can consider getting a cockatiel as a third bird. If you feel you can take on a third bird on top of the two you’ve got then, yes go for it, the and main part it’s you shouldn’t neglect these budgies, as you’ve already made the commitment to look after them, and even if you are paying more attention to a new cockatiel, they have each other for company, assuming they enjoy each other’s company and witje doesn’t mind coco’s boisterous personality.

If you think they don’t enjoy each other’s company, you may want to separate them, as I don’t think budgies bond as well with each other than some species like lovebirds or mating species. This is just a suggestion and I’m sure they get along fine.

All in all, if you think you can handle it without neglecting the budgies and going completely broke, then go for it!!

 

[Flboy]

Something else to consider.. I have a GCC, JoJo. They are known as Velcro birds! Someone forgot to tell him this though! He is always on my shoulder, will let me grab him any which way! Cuddle? scritches? He will give one warning, one! I am allowed to give him beak massages!

 

[Betrisher]

Some of the cleverest and funniest birds I've ever known were budgies! They're *so* quick and so ready to learn tricks if you approach them in the right way!

You don't say how much time you spend with your birds, bonding, playing, training and showing them how you'd like them to be. Have you taught them how to do small tricks for you? Have you shown them how to work for a treat? Do you spend hours with them, speaking, singing, reading? This is the way to help a bird develop a more human personality (which is, after all, what pet-owners want, isn't it?)

My galah was a neglect case. He sat in one spot on a perch for about ten years and had no human interaction beyond 'Hello' if anyone passed by. When I inherited him, I went to work, watching and trying to learn what caught his attention. He *hated* me! He would cross the room to bite me and really loathed it if I even came near, let alone tried to handle him. It took hours and hours of just sitting near him, gradually inching closer and offering treats (at the risk of getting bitten).

After about a year, we reached a point where he no longer bit me and would accept a treat from my hand without fuss. He even learned to do a bit of targetting and was beginning to learn how to put a bead into a cup on command.

What I'm saying is, you get out of a bird (or any animal) what you put in. You don't just buy a snuggly pet from the shop. You *make* your pet snuggly by teaching it. That takes hours of work and commitment and patience and, yes, getting bitten. You could quite easily buy a cockatiel and have it turn out to be exactly like your budgies unless you take a more active role in its life. Why not concentrate on the birds you already have?

I keep singing the same song, but target training is such a good place to start. (Do a search in the forums to find out about it - or try YouTube). Once, the bird learns to touch the target stick and get a reward, he's primed and ready to work for more rewards. You have his attention! Why not start with that? Once you see your little budgies flying to a target stick just because you asked them to, I bet you'll feel differently about wanting a 'better' bird!

 

[Smerft85]

Let me be honest before my opinion is stated, I did not read thru this entire thread, I skimmed and read a few posts and gathered a few things along the way. My opinion is based solely on my personal beliefs and experience with animals in general as pets, not just birds. Before I recently returned to the bird life I was a breeder of ball pythons, redtail boas, and bearded dragons. About 11 years ago I had a clutch of eggs from my very sweet bearded dragon couple, one egg caught my eye from day one, it was different, I picked that baby as an hour old egg, she lived EVERY breathing moment of her life with me, and only cared for me. She unfortunately passed from old age about 3 months ago.

My male iguana has been with me since he was a hatchling, and that is one critter that I put up on similar levels of macaw care, they can be very territorial, very aggressive and not for the faint of heart, he is almost 9 now and could possibly have another 20 years to live.

Any dogs I've had were generally from puppy and lived with me till it was their time, and the two cockatiels I had when I was a child were with me until my parents split up and my "father" traded my birds away for drugs in the mid 90s.

I guess my point is, when I make a commitment to an animal that they will not go home to home, or passed around, I do everything in my power to see it to the end, till death do us part. The one exception and hardest decision I ever had to make was giving all of my constrictors to a fellow reptile lover when my first child was born, I couldn't live with the risk of a powerful snake breaking out of an enclosure in the middle of the night. My full grown male iguana, who happens to be starting his puberty comes with a standard set of rules, if you aren't mom or dad, don't touch.

My current zoo has many many different personalities, and I have adjusted to each and found a way to love each of them as it suits them best, and like has been said, rehoming an animal hopefully would be a last resort, I think of how even my iguana might react with someone new, and all I can imagine is a super violent lizard for the rest of his stressed out days, if I keep him home with me, he will ask for his scratches and loves for the rest of his days, as his (split personality) happy self. Sorry for rambling, but maybe hearing someone else's experiences, regrets, and the I'll never turn backs, it may help in a different way than saying what you should or shouldn't do. Personally I'd get the 3rd bird, better to ask forgiveness than permission. ����