Update on parakeet with slightly drooping wing

[BlinkingLizard]

My post was one of the ones that got deleted, but today I took Chicken and Peanut to the Brooklyn vet who sees birds. It was not a full certified avian vet exam, no bloodwork or x-rays. But he did examine the wing and says it's not broken and there's nothing else to do for it. They both got wing clips and toenail trims, and were weighed (33 grams each), and he listened to their hearts and looked in their beaks. From their leg bands, they seem to have hatched in 2017 and 2018. I haven't had parakeets since I was a preschooler, so I'm not sure how long to expect a parakeet to live.

 

[dhraiden]

Great news, Blizard. Glad you made some progress. Searching here and there you see that the lifespan for 'keets is btw 5-8 years, probably better with optimal care.

 

[BlinkingLizard]

So short! I am slowly transitioning them to pellets and offering fresh foods. After the parakeets my family had when I was small, my first bird was a cockatiel who was with me for 27 years. The second was a lovebird who lived for 17. Besides these new guys, I also have a 13 year old 'tiel. I think I've done pretty well by the others, so hopefully the parakeets will live to the far end of their lifespan.

 

[Scott]

Hopefully the injured wing will completely heal!

Diet and environment are big factors in lifespan, so variable in birds. Transitioning them to healthier foods can only help!

 

[EllenD]

Even if the wing was broken, which it might be, there is no way to know without an X-Ray, they still would only wrap it against his body to keep it from moving around, that's all you could do anyway...

***The average lifespan of a Budgie IN CAPTIVITY is NOT even close to 5-8 years!!! That's a common misconception (unfortunately), and it's also the reason why people buy them for their young kids, thinking of them as a "throw-away" bird or a "starter bird", when in reality Budgies are every bit the Parrot as a Cockatiel, a Conure, an Amazon, etc. are. It's important that false-information about their average lifespan is corrected, so please don't think it's only 5-8 years, even with sub-par care.

***Budgies and Cockatiels have similar lifespans, with the average lifespan in captivity (as pets) being into the mid to late teens, with the average being around 14-15 years. My first Budgie lived to be 18 years and 9 months (I got him when I was only 6 years-old and he went away to college with me!), and he was actually fed a regular, daily staple diet of a healthy seed-mix, along with a daily portion of fresh veggies and dark, leafy greens. He also had a weekly Honey-Stick as his only treat (no millet sprays). So I didn't do anything special, he wasn't even fed pellets as his staple-diet, and he lived to be almost 19. He did get a good amount of out-of-cage time every day with me and got to fly around a room with a closed door for a good couple of hours each day.

The bottom-line is that there is no reason at all that any Budgie in captivity shouldn't easily live to be around 15 years-old, usually older than that (The record lifespan for a Budgie in captivity is 29 years-old BTW)...The keys to a long life of ANY PARROT of ANY SPECIES is #1) A healthy daily diet that is low in fat and high in protein (avoid dried Corn, Sunflower Seeds, and all Nuts except as very occasional treats), and is varied, meaning they should get a daily "staple" food of either a low-fat seed-mix meant for Budgies, or an Avian pellet diet, or a mix of both, along with at least one serving for fresh veggies and dark, leafy greens every single day, with little Fruit due to the sugar content...#2)They need to be treated the same as ANY PARROT does, meaning they need out-of-cage-time of at least a few hours every day, and even though you already got their wings clipped, it would be in their best interest that after you earn their trust and get them hand-tamed/trained to step-up for you and come to you on a regular basis, that you allow their wings to grow in fully so that they can get exercise each day by being able to fly around a safe room with the door shut every day...and then #3) Just giving them as much of your time, attention, and love as you possibly can each day...

A lot of people commonly treat Budgies more like furniture than they do a pet parrot...Unfortunately this is devestating to they physical and psychological health, as Budgies have the intelligence of a 2-3 year-old human child, just like any other species of parrot. They are simply smaller in size than other parrots. That's it, that's the difference.

And while their lifespan in the wild is very low, around the 5-8 years that someone listed above due to their small size making them an easy target to predators in the wild, in captivity as pets they don't have these issues, and if given ample attention, interaction, love, and if they are treated the same as you would treat any other parrot species like a Conure, Amazon, etc., they will not only learn to do the same things that the larger parrots do, such as stepping-up, flying to you on command, talking with a huge vocabulary, learning tricks, etc., but they will also live to their full captive lifespan easily, which should be around 14-15 years or longer...

 

[Scott]

Great points, Ellen. Seems a low life expectancy is more of a parront-induced prophecy by virtue of benevolent (at best) neglect. If so, what a horrific commentary on a lack of education, empathy, and stewardship.

 

[EllenD]

Great points, Ellen. Seems a low life expectancy is more of a parront-induced prophecy by virtue of benevolent (at best) neglect. If so, what a horrific commentary on a lack of education, empathy, and stewardship.

It sounds insane, but I totally believe that it's true...

I owned multiple breeding-pairs of Budgies over the years, if I actually looked at my records I'd bet between 25-30 different American, English, and Hybrid breeding-pairs of Budgies over the full 20 years I actively bred them...And as attentive as I was with all of my breeding-pairs of birds, the Budgies, Cockatiels, Conures, etc., they typically weren't tame birds (a few exceptions), and they didn't get much direct attention from me because they didn't want it. They were all fed properly every day and kept in very clean environments, but I didn't do anything special for them and they got little attention from me, they had each other...

And I know that I never had a breeder Budgie live to be less than 13 years old, with the average being probably around 15 years old...So that tells me that as long as they don't have to deal with predators like in the wild, as long as they are fed a healthy, varied diet, as long as they have attention from either their person/people or from another Budgie they are bonded with, and as long as you give them at least an hour or two a day to come out and fly around each day, there's no reason why all Budgies shouldn't and don't typically live into their mid-teens or longer...

So why is the common answer to "How long do Budgies live?" always "Around 5-6 years or so"? Their lifespan in their natural, wild environment is around 6-8 years due to the typical factors that all wild parrots have to deal with, but in captivity people actually think that their pet Budgies will only live to be about 5-6 years old...It's scary to think about what happens when their Budgie hits 9 or 10 years-old and they're still alive...

 

[BlinkingLizard]

Huh, that's interesting since it seems like smaller parrots are frequently assigned shorter lifespans. In any case, I have no problem with a longer lifespan! My current cockatiel is thirteen and still going strong. And yes, I do let wings grow back in and only clip if there's a need (like a cross-country move where they will not be in a secure environment for a while). The cockatiel spends most of his time out of the cage, unless we have guests over. I got a playstand for the parakeets to use, and I've ordered some food from Tops and I always share healthy veggies.