Should we add a budgie?

[Sunnyclover]

So as you might remember I have a sun conure, Ollie, who I absolutely adore and fawn over all day and miss him when he sleeps at night...what can I say I am in love.
Anyways....we want to get my 11 year old son a budgie because he has been wanting his own pet forever and we think he is finally ready for the responsibility. Of course I will be watching over his shoulder every step of the way and know if he tires of the budgie I will be the main care taker of the little birdy. I hope that doesn't happen but I am prepared for it. I have some questions about the little guys because I want to make sure this is a good pet to add to our household. Please help me!
1. Do budgies scream like a sun conure would if they were alone while my son is at school?
2.Could a budgie sleep in my son's room and not get woken up when my son goes to bed at night? I ask this because my baby Ollie basically stays up all night if he is in our room because I think he is scared a predator will eat him or something but I know budgies are less picky.
3. Are budgies the kind of bird you NEED to spend hours a day with or is an hour a day okay?
4. Can a budgie be potty trained?
5.If the budgie is not able to be hand tamed can it still live a happy healthy life if we were to get it a big cage?
6.On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult is it to keep a budgie? Keep in mind I have a sun conure already.
7. Is this the worst idea ever?

Thank you!

 

[SilverSage]

1) budgies chatter constantly when happy. A happy budgie is a loud budgie.

2) whether or not the bird would feel safe in your sons room depends on the individual bird and what your son does to make him feel safe or afraid.

3) my honest opinion is that an hour a day isn't enough for any pet. A budgie is still a parrot and has a huge brain that needs tons of activity and social interaction. In the wild they live in flocks of hundreds or thousands. I think a budgie would need to be kept in the main house area and treated as a family pet with lots of interaction just like a sun conure.

4) yes they can be potty trained. Keep in mind though that budgies can be more flighty than conures, not really based on fear just from pure ENERGY and training one will be very different than training a conure.

5) Budgies are almost never sold tame at stores but there are breeders out there who sell them tame. EllenD may have contacts since she bred them for so long, and may be able to direct you to a breeder who raises them tame. That said they can be tamed, but I wouldn't count on an 11 year old having the patience for it. As for being happy wild, yes they can be happy in a HUGE cage, but I would say you should have a few, or at the very least two, if you are going to leave them wild. If they can't interact with you, they need other birds.

6) I would say the effort required is the same as a conure. Different challenges, similar effort level.


Just my personal two cents; I ADORE budgies, but when it comes to a pet for a child, I think cockatiels are a much better fit. Budgies have insane energy levels, are small and easy to injure, and are just a bit more challenging in my opinion. A tame cockatiel is likely to be more steady, an easier size to handle, etc. just something to consider. Like I said, budgies are AMAZING, I would just take a moment to consider cockatiels as well.


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[Sunnyclover]

A cockatiel you say...interesting. I wouldn't have thought to get one of those guys for a child. I am going to look into it. Thanks. My dad has a budgie and it's not tame and it's alone while he is a work. I don't live near my dad but from what I have seen the bird seems pretty happy and loud with happy noises and is named Tiki-torch. I figured that if my son did not tame the bird we's add a birdy to the mix. My concern isn't about having the new bird, whatever it may be, out in the living room during the day but I am scared that the birdy will bond with me and not him while he's at school. I love birdies and I might just have to help myself to his birds love. Hmmm this is difficult. I am not sure what to do on this one.

 

[SilverSage]

Budgies and cockatiels both do great as whole family birds in my opinion much less likely to be "one person birds" than say, conures and macaws.


I had a whole flock of budgies as a kid and we all loved them and they all loved and/or tolerated us on different levels.

One in particular, Saphire, chose my two year old sister as her favorite human! Oh she loved us all but Ellene was her favorite! Here are some pics of two of my sisters and one of my brothers with some of my budgies, circa 2002

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[Sunnyclover]

So cute! Yeah my Ollie really does NOT care for my son. He sees how much fun and love we enjoy with Ollie and wishes to have a bird to love of his own. To be fair my finance and I even fight over spending time with Ollie, in a playful banter of course. There was never much opportunity for Toby to bond with him much. I just hope I make the right choice...I'd hate to steal his bird and if it's a cockatiel I don't think I will be able to resist. I am the kind of person who puts Ollie to bed and then sneaks a peek at his cute face an hour later because I can't stand it when he goes to bed! I don't do it every night but sometimes... I can't help but think how upset my son will be if I steal his bird. We were also considering a hamster for him...hmmmm

 

[SilverSage]

A hamster might be the best choice although my cockatiels will take love from whoever is on hand to give it with no prejudice lol


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[Sunnyclover]

Would an English Budgie be better for him? I know they are bigger and easier to tame.

 

[Inger]

Hamsters stay awake all night making noise and die frequently. Well. I mean they only die once but if you get 2 years out of a hamster it's an amazing feat. Great way to teach kids about loss. They also aren't really usually very tame. Try a rat instead. Or maybe a bearded dragon.


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[SilverSage]

That is a great question; I have no idea. I've never met one. EllenD and Ravensgryf would be good members to ask.


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[Sunnyclover]

My babysitter has a strict no reptile rule if we want her to go onto our house so that's out. I thought about a rat but they love to pee on everything especially their humans to mark what is "theirs". Also they are better in pairs and I am not sure I am ready to take on 2 giant rats just yet. I am not excited about getting a hamster but if a bird is not a good fit for him I think we will have to get him the hamster. Such a hard choice! Gah! I am going to have to investigate that English Budgie idea.

 

[SilverSage]

What about a guinea pig?


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[Sunnyclover]

I used to have 10 of them and since have become extremely allergic to the little guys. They were my 1st love before I had a bird. Now I could never go back. In my mind they take a lot of care also, definitely more then a hamster. If we are going to get a pet that needs a lot of attention it might as well be a bird. Plus I will go and get the piggy and love on it and then I will die, leaving my fiance with all the Ollie love....not fair.

 

[SilverSage]

There are always puppies


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[Inger]

Oooh Guinea pig is a good idea. Longer life span, diurnal which is way more fun than a pet that sleeps all day, also very cute


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[Inger]

Also puppies are good [emoji190][emoji190]


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[Sunnyclover]

We have allergies to anything with fur and plus...I do not have a specially spot in my heart for dogs. There is a hole in that part of my heart and it's shaped like a bird. Also, Ollie is terrified of dogs. :-(

 

[SilverSage]

Well then it sounds like a bird is in order

I think cockatiels are ideal for kids, but budgies second.

I see a lot of people getting lovebirds and parrotlets for kids and I do NOT suggest those two species as they tend to pack a much harder bite and be more willing to use it.


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[rescuebird]

Female rats don't scent mark as males do, are usually easy to potty train, and are often more playful with their human. They also are smaller at maturity. Of all the small fuzzies, they generally make the best first pet for youngsters.

Hamsters tend to be nippier, are non-social by nature, and IMHO one of the smelliest small pets.

 

[Lacewing]

I recently added a second English Budgie because a single budgie is a lonely budgie. Life now is so much better. They bonded right away. A for getting a budgie for a child I am not as convinced this is good. Budgies are just as much care and responsibility as any other bird with all the expenses of care and feeding. My two were very easily tamed because they both were hand fed and taught the basics beginning at 4 weeks of age by the wonderful breeder.

[ame="https://youtu.be/LA75G3yMA9E"]Mickey and Murphy first meeting march 26th 2017 - YouTube[/ame]

Video of their first meeting. It went so well there was no need for a second cage. Because they were from the same breeder there was no need for quarantine.

 

[EllenD]

I have owned both English and American budgies for 31 years and bred them both for almost 21 years. I currently have 7 English/American crosses that are going on a year old now, in addition to my retired breeders who are now living their retirements happily in a huge indoor aviary that I built for them. My 7 tame, pet budgies were the last clutch I bred and hand-raised and I decided to keep them all since I had decided to stop breeding. They live in a huge flight cage in my living room, are all fully-flighted, and get at least 3-4 hours out of cage time to fly around the house, play on their massive bird gym, and play with me every day.

First of all I must completely disagree with the statement made of "A single budgie is a lonely budgie". That is simply just not true! Keeping pet English and American budgies is absolutely no different than keeping any other pet bird, whether it be a cockatiel, a parrotlet, some species of conure (Green Cheek, Sun, Nanday, etc.), A Quaker parrot, any of the Poicephalus, any Pionus, I could go on and on. I have come to the conclusion over the years that the reason people think that English and American budgies are "Beginner" Birds" or "Starter Birds" and are thought to require less attention or less out of cage time is simply because they can be bought at pretty much any independent or big-box pet stores for $20-$30....So what? You can get a puppy for free on any day, in every town and city in this country, at any time you want, with little effort required to find it...Does that mean that a free puppy requires less attention or different care than a puppy you have to pay $1,000 for? Is a free puppy less intelligent, require less exercise, or require cheaper, less healthy food than a $1,000 puppy? Will a $1,000 puppy not become shy, skiddish, and unsocialized if you lock it inside a cage 24 hours a day? Will a $1,000 puppy not become mean, aggressive, and start biting if you neglect and abuse it? You see where I'm going with this...

My mom bred and hand-raised my first American budgie and I chose him from one of her breeder's clutches. I was allowed to "help" her hand-feed him and after he weaned he was mine. I named him Keety and I was 6 years old. Keety lived as my bird for 18 years, and he was a single budgie the entire time. I had no other pet birds during that time period and he was kept separate from my breeders and my mom's breeders. He lived in our living room and later my living room in my apartment when I went to college. He was never put in my bedroom or a spare room, he was always in the main living room of whatever house I lived in, always right in the middle of all the action. I took him out and about with me everywhere, shopping, on vacations, to the beach, everywhere. He was out of his cage at all times whenever I or my mother was at home, either sitting with one of us, sitting on top of his cage, or playing on one of his play stands. He was treated exactly the same way I treat my Green Cheek Conure, my Quaker parrot, my Cockatiel, my Senegal parrot, and the exact same way my mom has always treated her Congo African Gray...And guess what? Not only did Keety live for over 18 years (I got him when I was 6 and he died when I was 24), he was every bit as socialized, talkative, friendly, happy, tame, and entertaining as any other bird I've ever owned, known, or worked with at the rescue I volunteer at, and all of these birds include everything from parrotlets to Moluccan Cockatoos and Macaws.

The bottom line is that an English or American budgie may be a small, inexpensive pet bird, but if you treat them exactly the same way that you treat any other species of pet parrot, train them the same way, socialize them the same way, let them out of their cages the same amount of time, feed them the same diets, etc. they will be exactly the same type of birds! They are every bit as intelligent as other birds, can talk just as well if not better than other birds, and are as affectionate, cuddly, loyal, happy, and entertaining as any other species of parrot out there.

You absolutely do not need a second budgie if you treat the first budgie like you would your pet Cockatoo or Macaw!

In my life, "A single budgie was an awesomely happy, healthy, loving, affectionate, interactive, socialized budgie"...

"Dance like nobody's watching..."