New Member

[Lulu10766]

Hello!! I recently got my first and only bird- a budgie!

Meet Birdie !! Although I’ve only had him for two or so weeks, he’s incredibly friendly, sweet, and smart. Birdie likes to sit on my shelf or fly in circles around my room. Mostly, he enjoys looking outside through the window ( I always have the shades down and turned so he won’t fly into it but can still see outside. ) I call him my little watch bird because whenever he sees somebody walking outside, he squawks angrily at them.
He’s very bonded to me already, which has surprised me since I heard how aloof budgies can be at first. He loves it when I scratch his head, and will even ask for me to do so. Sometimes, he’ll sit with me for up to an hour at a time watching videos with me or watching me play games. After being gone for a couple hours, I came home and walked in my room to say hello to Birdie. I left for only a moment to let the dogs in, and he kept chirping until I came in the room. To see what he would do, I left the room again and he immediately began chirping for me to come back.
He’s very smart aswell! He can understand some phrases like when I ask him “ Do you want out of your cage, Birdie? “ he usually hops down to the perch closest to the door. He also understands, “ Time to go in your cage. “ because he’ll either avoid me after I say that or excitedly hop on my hand and into the cage ( usually if he’s sleepy and it’s later in the day. )
He’s such a precious little bird!

 

[Jexnell]

Welcome to the feathered family!

 

[Cottonoid]

Welcome! He sounds absolutely delightful and I hope you share lots more stories and photos

 

[Lulu10766]

Welcome! He sounds absolutely delightful and I hope you share lots more stories and photos

Thank you!

 

[Terry57]

Welcome to the forum!
Birdie sounds like an amazing friend, and he obviously feels the same about you
That's great progress in only 2 weeks, I'm so happy you found each other.
I'm looking forward to hearing about your journey together!

 

[onamom]

Welcome! Birdie is so cute and sounds like such a sweetheart.

 

[wrench13]

Welcome and be welcomed LuLu and Birdie. SO some cautionary comments for you. FLighted parrots and dogs. Flighted parrots especially small ones like budgies - they are so fast and small its sometimes hard to keep track of where they are, so always keep in mind where he is when he is out of the cage. DOgs some dogs, like my 15 yr old Cairne terrier, could care less about them and even be afraid of them. Others like my daughters mix breed terrier is so fixated on Salty, she is not allowed ofer my house any more, the dog spent the entire time jumping up to try and get Salty , even in his cage. It only takes a blink of an eye for tragedy to occur, so also be aware of that too.

 

[HeatherG]

Welcome and be welcomed LuLu and Birdie. SO some cautionary comments for you. FLighted parrots and dogs. Flighted parrots especially small ones like budgies - they are so fast and small its sometimes hard to keep track of where they are, so always keep in mind where he is when he is out of the cage. DOgs some dogs, like my 15 yr old Cairne terrier, could care less about them and even be afraid of them. Others like my daughters mix breed terrier is so fixated on Salty, she is not allowed ofer my house any more, the dog spent the entire time jumping up to try and get Salty , even in his cage. It only takes a blink of an eye for tragedy to occur, so also be aware of that too.

Terriers and bird dogs can be scarily intent on catching your bird. This is what they were bred and trained to do for centuries. It’s not likely that your individual dog can always ignore or think better of that instinct.

 

[Lulu10766]

Thank y'all for the warnings! I'll keep that in mind. Whenever I have Birdie out whenever I'm home, he's only allowed in my room and during this time I keep the door shut so that dogs won't come in. But like you said, he could always feel adventurous one day and decide to escape.
I have two dogs- a German Shepherd and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. The German Shepherd isn't much of a killer at all, but she does like to '' play '' with small creatures. She never harms any squirrels- she mostly just chases them or snaps at them. Even if she doesn't mean to, I do know she could very easily hurt Birdie. I remember when I had the chickens outside when they were two or so months old, my GSD went to smack a paw down on one of them to play, luckily she didn't hit them, but she could have easily hurt them. By now since they're bigger she leaves them alone and basically ignores them. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel definitely would kill Birdie in a heartbeat- I've always had to be very mindful to watch my rodents when I have them roaming in my room to make sure they don't get out. The Cavalier has already killed three chipmunks in our yard, leaving them on our porch.
Thankfully Birdie is scared of the dogs- whenever the dogs come in my room when Birdie is in the cage, Birdie will start squawking and sits in the highest, furthest corner of his cage away from them. That way if he does accidentally slip out one day, hopefully he'll steer clear of them. I'll still be extremely careful though, keeping a close eye on him when he's out. Thanks again for the warning!


Also, I just realized the way I phrased my text might have been confusing. I meant let them back inside the house- not inside my room. I'm very, very sorry if that was confusing!!

 

[HeatherG]

That WAS the confusion. At least for me.

Have budgies gotten more varied and colorful? I see the striping on your birds wings and head is broken. It’s pretty.

 

[Lulu10766]

That WAS the confusion. At least for me.

Have budgies gotten more varied and colorful? I see the striping on your birds wings and head is broken. It’s pretty.

Ahh, when I read over my first text again I figured that could be really confusing. I’d be very concerned to if someone posted that! Thanks for looking out for my little Birdie

I’m not sure if they’ve gotten more varied or not. I figure the striping on his head will disappear to just all yellow since he’s a baby- but I could be wrong though. I’m very new to budgies. Thank you for the compliment! I picked him because of his bright yellow since yellow just looks like a very happy color to me !

I
Here’s a better picture of his wings and back I know there’s a specific name for his markings, but I’m not sure what it is. Maybe pied for his body? I’m not sure. It seems that I could really deep dive into markings and colorings At one point I did that for gerbils.

 

[HeatherG]

I don’t know the names for all the budgie mutations. But as I look at him it seems he’s pied for whatever causes thrr egg lack of melanin making the “waves” or “stripes” on the back and wings.

And he’s not just yellow; he has green tail feathers. So not lutino…

 

[Lulu10766]

I don’t know the names for all the budgie mutations. But as I look at him it seems he’s pied for whatever causes thrr egg lack of melanin making the “waves” or “stripes” on the back and wings.

And he’s not just yellow; he has green tail feathers. So not lutino…

It is unusual. I did try looking it up to find his specifically, but I didn’t really see anything. Perhaps it’s a newer variation. There was others in the pet store that looked identical or very similar to him.