What a lovely story about how charismatic a female budgie can be and how an owner can be a trusted friend to their bird. I hope you enjoy the share!
Photos of Lucky: Stephen Kenny (my brother-in-law)
The years after my divorce were pivotal ones for me. I came out of my shell and into my own. It’s not really that I learned to stand on my own two feet, so much as I learned that I had always been able to take care of myself.
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Hi everyone! Whew, it has been a minute since we’ve published much from the perch! Over the last year, we have flown to another home and have been adjusting to changes in jobs and family. However, 2018 promises to be bigger and better than ever for the birds. Their new bird room has lots of space for add-ons, so stay tuned for some exciting new surroundings for the birds and some new additions of other kinds (shhhhhh…it’s a surprise). Thanks for continuing to share our journey with us. We love you all!
Siri, Sunny, Segoe, Sydney and Sophia
Here at the perch, I often get asked whether parakeets make good pets. Although I think they make awesome pets, there are both pros and cons to owning this sweet little parrot. So….you know, since I am a youtuber and all, I decided to make a video to help those folks who want to know more about budgies as pets. Check out this fun little video, featuring me, Sydney, Siri, Segoe and Sunny!!!
How appropriate! Just a year after filming our budgie cage tour of the Prevue Hendryx flight cage, we have landed a brand new cage for our birdies. Check it out in our newest YouTube video!!!
Whew, it has been a while since we’ve blogged here at the perch! Busy schedules, a planned move to the city and new pets have all played a part in the absence, but we just had to take some time to share the exciting news. We have added a new budgie to our flock named Sunny! This little bird is full of fun and adventure, and we named her Sunny because she has a “sunny” disposition (you’ll see).
Here she is when we first got her…
As you can see, she looked a little rough! Notice how she sits low on her legs and doesn’t stand on a perch properly? We adopted Sunny, and our avian vet thinks that she probably had a birth defect in her legs that was never taken care of when she was a young chick. She may have also been picked on by other birds because her feathers looked so rough and misaligned.
Fast forward a few months, and look at her now!
Her feathers are looking much better, and she has a blast exploring things in her cage or flying around the bird room. She has also become a really strong climber, has the cutest birdie swagger when she is walking along, and loves to hang upside down!
Stay tuned to our YouTube channel for upcoming videos featuring Sunny and the rest of our flock!
I am so excited because I recently received some stainless steel skewers I ordered for my birds.
These things are AWESOME!
They can be used to skewer different fruits and vegetables so that they may be hung in the cage and enjoyed by birds as they get in the mood to snack. Since it’s very important to include fresh foods in birds’ diets, this is a great addition to any birdie lovin’ household.
As far as what can be placed on the skewers, the possibilities are endless. You can add a big chunk of one type of fruit (like papaya) or cut fruit into smaller chunks and make a fun, colorful kabob (apples, pears and bananas are a fun combination).
Just make sure to remove seeds from the offerings, as these can be very bad for budgies! Here is Soma, enjoying his first kabob!
Make sure the food on the skewers stays fresh in the cage. Once it gets brown, wilty, gooey and/or yucky, you’ll want to toss the fruits/veggies in the trash (or better yet, the compost pile…your flowers will thank you). It’s also important to clean skewers properly in between uses to keep things santitary!
If food becomes boring, you can also try adding some toys or things for your budgies to play with. Paper, wood and other things can make great toy components, as long as they are safely used!
It’s so important to give our birds a variety of things to keep them healthy and entertained. Skewers can be a large part of this…how creative can you get with them?
One of the questions that we keep getting here at the perch is how to determine the sex of a budgie. Well, and occasionally we get pictures of budgies, ceres (fleshy part around a bird’s nostrils) front and center, with a plea to deliver the news to the owner…is it a boy or a girl? And we didn’t even deliver the baby budgie…it’s pretty amazing.
Anyhoo, we would like to shed some light on budgie sexing, in hopes that budgie owners everywhere can enjoy a little certainty about the gender of their bird. And, to a lesser degree, we would love to help you not name your female bird Larry (yes, we know of one).
Let’s start simply. Remember the cere we talked about earlier? That is a very important component of determining budgie sex. In many cases, if the cere is blue, you have a boy. If it remains brown or pink, it’s a girl.
Here’s and example of a handsome budgie boy:
And here is a girl:
Not too hard at all, right? Well, there are a few other things to consider. First of all, age of the bird is important. Budgies can take up to a year to mature. and it can take that long for the cere to take on its final color! One way to know that you have an immature bird is to consider the barring (lines) that the bird has on the top of its head. If the lines are almost all the way to the cere, you’ve got a young bird (much like the blue one below):
Also, some color mutations can throw all of the aforementioned theories out of the water! According to http://www.birds-online.de:
“Examples for these difficult mutations are albino, lutino or fallow budgies . Also some pieds derive from the above mentioned rules.”
If your bird has a color mutation, a boy could look like a girl because the cere color is “washed out.” Oh boy….literally! Here is my budgie Segoe, a young male with a color mutation:
So how do I know (reasonably) that he’s a boy? I have determined it behaviorally. Male budgies tend to talk more often than females and they like to flirt with the girls. So if your bird does these things, you most likely have a boy!
A final note. You can have a budgie’s sex determined by a veterinarian surgically or genetically. Visit here for a great article about that process! It is a little more involved and does cost money, but it is also fairly accurate and very helpful if you are trying to breed your budgie(s).
We are so excited here at the perch because the holiday season is in full swing. In an effort to include the birds in all the festivities, and to get you guys excited about celebrating the holidays with your birds, we are going to share some holiday themed enrichment ideas over the next few weeks!
This first one is both simple and fun. Remember those cute little folded snowflakes you made around this time of year in elementary school? Let’s bring those back…this time for your birds! If you don’t remember how to make them, stay tuned for some instructions. Then it’s up to you to let your imagination soar from there.
Materials Needed:
White paper (do not used colored paper, as dyes can be bad for your birds)
Scissors
Let it Snow:
Cut the paper into squares roughly matching the size of snowflakes you want. I used 8.5 x 11 inch computer paper, folding down 2.5 inches from the top and cutting the extra section off so that I could get perfect squares! These can be folded again, for smaller squares.
Next, I folded the squares in a series of triangles. Here are all the steps:
After you have your small triangular shape, cut the excess top off (so that it’s straight along the top and includes all layers of paper). Then trim to create a pattern of your choice and unfold carefully.
The possibilities are endless, so let your imagination flow! You can also click here for some easy instructions and patterns you can print out and just cut (how easy it that). The patterns with holes near the top are best, since you will then be able to hang the snowflakes in your bird’s cage! Speaking of hanging, some things you can use to secure the snowflakes include carabiner clips and screw links. 
If you have some toys around that aren’t being used, you can take the hangers from them temporarily to save time and money. You could also hang the snowflakes on toys, prop them up in the cage (I just don’t recommend putting them on the cage floor, as they’ll get pooped on), or attach them to perches. Again, let your imagination be your guide.
Depending on your budgie(s), you might be able to put your decorations right in the cage and allow them to be enjoyed, or you may have to put the snowflakes near the cage a few days to let your bird(s) get used to them. If your bird seems frightened or won’t go near the decorations, definitely try option #2!
We hope you enjoy adding some holiday cheer to your bird’s environment this season. If you do try this project, please share your pictures on our Facebook page in response to this post…we can’t wait to see what you come up with !!!
One of our first, and still most popular, videos on YouTube is the one below. In it, we show how to teach a budgie free flight to a hand. So much fun! Budgies are quick and eager learners, so this can be used as a starting point for other flight tricks including retrieves! Enjoy the video, and be sure to check out some of our other fun budgie videos.
The Parrot Perch 