Pet Corner (+ budgie tips

Budgie Care 101

with Abdullah Al-Sheikhly (804)

My budgies

I’ve owned a lot of budgies over the past three and a half years and I wanted to share how to care for this very interesting, playful and unique parakeet species.

What is a budgie? For anybody who does not know, a budgie is a small, long-tailed bird in the parakeet family (which is in the parrot family).

Are budgies parrots? Even though budgies are small, they are parrots. What this means is that budgies are very intelligent and they require a lot of attention and enrichment.

Are budgies low-maintenance pets? Budgies are often advertised as lowmaintenance pets but that is not the case because that’s not a thing. All pets require care and attention, even fish! So it’s unsurprising that budgies, who come from one of the smartest animal families (parrots) can’t be locked in a cage and stuffed in a corner of a room all day. Are budgies easy to tame? Since budgies are prey in the wild, they are naturally skittish and you have to put a lot of effort into taming them.

How many budgies should I get? Budgies are flock animals so they prefer to live with other budgies. However, you can own only 1 budgie if you give it a lot of extra attention to make up for the lack of budgie friends but if you notice they are lonely (lonely budgies do things like singing to their shadow and reflection) then get them a friend.

Can budgies talk? If you put in a lot of effort by constantly and frequently repeating phrases you want them to learn, then yes. Also, it is easier to teach budgies how to speak human if they don’t live with any other budgies because budgies mimic those around them and when there are lots of budgies around them they mimic the other budgies, but when it’s just humans, they mimic the humans.

Are budgies loud? Budgies are quite vocal and while sometimes they sing beautifully, other times they scream at the top of their lungs (usually for a reason though). If you cannot handle chirping becoming basically a permanent background noise in your home, then don’t get a budgie.

Do budgies bite? Some budgies do occasionally nip fingers but only if you are annoying them (by doing things like touching their feet, back and tail or grabbing them) and because budgies are so tiny, their bites can’t hurt you. Do budgies need toys? Yes, budgies need toys and not just plain old plastic ones. They need engaging, enriching toys that help them forage and shred because as I mentioned before, they are intelligent.

How to tell a budgie’s sex?

This sometimes doesn’t apply for mutations but generally, male budgies have a blue cere and female budgies have a brown cere.

How can I tell the age of my budgie? It’s really hard to tell once they turn 6 months old but you know they’re under 6 months if they have a pinkypurpley cere rather than their gendered cere.

What type of environment do budgies need? Try to buy the biggest cage with ½” bar spacing you can afford. A cage size of 20 x 18 x 18 is the minimum for 1 budgie. Try to keep the cage clean by scrubbing the entire cage (including perches) with warm water and soap weekly and changing the material you put on the base (black and white newspaper, paper towel, or scrap paper) every other day. Budgies prefer the same temperatures as humans (20℃ to 24℃). Also make sure you have an environment that is safe for budgies to fly in since they need daily flying time out of the cage.

What type of food do budgies need? This a highly debated topic, but in my opinion, try to feed them a 60:40 ratio of pellets to seeds and make sure

to also give them lots of vegetables. As a more infrequent treat, give them spray millet, fruits and natural peanut butter. out after that as this is the only way you won’t neglect your budgie. After that, you can clip them.

Should I clip my budgie’s wings? This is another highly debated topic, but in my opinion, you shouldn’t. It’s cruel to remove a bird’s freedom to fly. However, it does make taming your budgie easier and I know many people neglect their budgies because they get bored of trying to tame them. So if you get a professional clip your budgie’s wings when you first buy your budgie, let its wings grow Extra tips:

 Don’t be worried if you don’t see your budgie drinking water. In the wild, drinking water puts them in a vulnerable situation and that’s why they won’t drink in front of big animals like humans.

 If your budgie is losing a lot of feathers, don’t get worried! They are just moulting. They do this  Try not to buy budgies from big box stores. These budgies were often bred in bad conditions and thus have many health problems and shorter lifespans. Adopt from a shelter or buy from a local pet store you trust.

Check out this video about budgie body language!

Pet Corner

Stimpii and Pippin (my dogs)

by Niamh Mercer, 705

When I was eight years old, I really, really, REALLY wanted a pet. One day, my sister found a beetle in my garden, and I fell in love. I named him Rodney. A few days later, my best friend came over for a visit, and I showed her Rodney. We agreed that we could share him as our pet, as she wanted one too. But then I started thinking that maybe Rodney wasn’t a Rodney at all. So, I pulled up a tutorial for how to check the gender of a beetle on my laptop and we took Rodney outside to get a better look. Well, he escaped. That night, my mom and I hatched a plan: we were going to try to convince my dad to get us a rabbit.

It didn’t work.

We pushed at him for a very long time; up until nearly my ninth birthday; until he finally broke. Well, he didn’t exactly agree to getting a rabbit. He told us we could get a dog instead.

After a lot of research, the day that we got our dog finally arrived. We drove to Wellandport (near Welland) and picked up our new puppy. His name is Stimpii. He spends most of his day sleeping and playing with Pippin, our other dog, but mostly sleeping. He is a black-and-tan short-haired miniature dachshund, and like most dachshunds, is intensely bonded to one person (my mom). However, I wouldn’t recommend visiting him; he loves to bark at strangers. ly to strangers. Often his tail wags so fast that his entire body wags with it! He is intensely bonded to my dad and loves to sleep and play with Stimpii.

Both of them love sleeping in the sun (in fact, they often cry if we don’t move their bed into it) and they both love their food. I love them both very much and I think they are absolutely adorable!

Fun Facts: Stimpii and Pippin, though we call them ‘brothers’, are actually cousins. Pippin is a little smaller than Stimpii, who is large for a miniature dachshund, and therefore we can call him ‘Pipsqueak.’

My other dog, Pippin, is also a black-and-tan short-haired miniature dachshund. We got him because we were tired of playing with Stimpii and thought it would be nice for him to have a friend. We got Pippin from the same place in Wellandport, only we got him three years later. He is still a puppy, meaning that we still have to deal with accidents and whatnot. Unlike Stimpii, he is very friendP.S. The one with the tongue out is Pippin. The other one is Stimpii.