Budgie & Parakeet Guide

Health

Birds have a tendency to mask illnesses. To ensure your bird’s good health provide plenty of good nutrition. Keep his cage and accessories clean and sanitized. Keep the budgie bird out of drafts and sudden temperature changes.

Clean the cages daily sanitize the cage weekly. Food and water dishes should be sanitized daily. Most harsh disinfectants are dangerous to birds. Never use piney oily smelling stuff like Pinsol. The safest disinfectant is Chlorhexidine.

If you observe your bird displaying symptoms such as hunched over, droopy, wet droppings, or uninterested in his environment he is sick. Take your bird to an avian veterinarian.

Your house has many dangers to the bird. He may get hurt on a ceiling fan. He may drop into a pot of boiling water or an open toilet. He could ingest poisonous plants. The fumes from overheated non-stick cookware are poisonous to your birds. Aerosol can be harmful; an example air freshener. Use extreme caution when letting your bird fly in your home.

With proper care and safety measures the parakeet lifespan - lifespan (people spell it both ways) should be up to fifteen years.

Parakeets need 10-12 hours of sleep a day. He should have darkness and quiet. Cover his cage.

Birds can suffer from Coccidiosis. The symptoms of Coccidiosis are blood in the droppings, a soiled vent and the bird will look huddled up. This must be diagnosed with the use of a microscope. Take the bird to a veterinarian for diagnoses and treatment.

Parakeets should be kept in temperatures of no lower than 68-70F to no higher than 90F. During the day if they can’t get some direct sunlight (make sure part of the cage is shaded and watch that the bird doesn’t overheat) it wouldn’t hurt to expose the bird to a full spectrum light for a part of the day. Any animal with a skeleton structure needs vitamin D3.

Ornithosis: Psittacosis is a disease in birds that can be passed on to humans. The symptoms are runny eyes and blinking. Take the bird to a veterinarian for diagnoses and treatment.

Birds can suffer from mites and lice. Birds will act lethargic and become anemic.

Play and Training

The first thing you should train your parakeet is how to perch on a finger. Remain calm and speak in a calming voice. Gently press your finger into his chest until he learns to step up on your finger. Offer him praise and a treat. Parakeets can learn to mimic words. Repeat the word or phrase repeatedly. Male birds are much easier to train than female birds.

Birds enjoy sounds and music in the background. Keep the volume low. Birds suffer from boredom too! They love for you to talk to them. Even while doing your daily chores the budgies will enjoy the interaction. Parakeet or budgerigars can learn to talk.

Provide your pet with toys and treats. Pet stores have a great variety of toys available for parakeets. Put some of the toys away for a couple weeks and bring out new ones. Rotating his toys will provide him with new mental stimulation.

There are much healthy fun treats available for the parakeet. They will enjoy millet sprays, egg biscuits, seed sticks, fruit sticks, and seed bells.

You might consider purchasing a bird playpen. The playpen has perches, swings, and ladders. Your parakeet will have a great deal of fun with a bird playpen.

Parakeet actions can be a bit strange to a first-time parakeet owner. The ultimate of a show of affection toward you would be for the parakeet to regurgitate, and if you’re not quick you will end up with a mouth full of goo. Don’t pull back in revulsion while your bird is showing love you would be turning down that love. Just do your best to keep your mouth closed, and then shower your baby with affection. This goo is what the mother parakeet feeds their young. It is only partially digested food.

Parakeets make a noise when content much like a cat purrs. It is a cute noise like a warble. Parakeets are not loud like many parrots and you can easily keep them in an apartment or mobile home park.

Summary

The parakeet is a brilliantly colored small parrot that makes a delightful companion pet. Their antics are fun to watch. They can be trained to talk and mimic your words. Keep his cage and accessories clean and disinfected. Spend time playing and talking with your bird. Provide him with plenty of mental stimulation with toys. You will have a good friend for many years to come. Above all else enjoy your pet budgie.

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Behavioral Training Pets and Children

There is little difference in behavioral training a child or an animal; either common domestic companion pets or domestic companion exotic pets. I am going to use the word parents or parent to refer to the guardians of a human child or an animal or pet child.

If one parent tells the child, they can or cannot do one thing, and the other parent turns around and tells them the opposite that can cause serious confusion in a child. Their heart breaks. One, it makes the person that said yes a liar. It makes them the "bad person," and makes them look weak to the child. Tell me, what kind of role model does this give the child to follow? Exactly, certainly not a role model I would ever want my child to follow.

The same thing holds true when a parent tells a child no to a question, and other parent turns around and then says yes. The child learns nothing positive. If you disagree (and you will), you NEVER disagree in front of a child.

The child's mind literally tilts (my word for higher brain function overload), and they do the only thing they know what to do when dealing with utter confusion...they cry. Of course, some men are hard-wired to believe any crying is aimed at them - a plot against them. Only because most men have never learned to deal with emotion. The angrier a man gets, the more the crying gets to them, the more they yell, the more hurt the child becomes and therefore, cries more. Have you ever noticed countries or large corporations on an average are more efficient with a woman at the head than a man? More and more men are learning to use their hearts in combination with their brains to make decisions. More men are spending larger amounts of time with children and pets, they learn what emotion is. Not a sentiment to destroy the world or their little black and white world where they understand no evolution or change. So there is a chance the species may survive. If they don't blow mother earth to kingdom come with nuclear weapons.

Every single word of this holds true when you have an animal. Especially during the training process. If you don't think the animal doesn't understand these basic concepts you're dead wrong and probably shouldn't raise an animal. At least an animal that will need to survive a human world with social skills.

The child or animal will eventually use these disagreements to cause discord in the family. The child has then gained control.

Before you have children or acquire exotic pets or a more common pet, agree how that pet is going to be raised and FOLLOW through. As you go through the processes you will find just through experience you will need to make some adjustments that are fine and perfectly normal, and is human nature. We learn and improve. However, these changes are discussed privately, never in front of the animal or child.

A child has a hard enough time dealing with the oddities of people, can you imagine what a poor little animal goes through when they don't even speak the same language? Training and behavioral training children are pretty much the same as training exotic pets and common pets.

If you are planning a special day with your pet or child, don't start it out with a power struggle! Facebook Diana Geiger

My Ferret Book Guides and Exotic Pet Books Guides

Exotic Pets: Family Guide Paperback and Kindle. Available on Kindle Unlimited!

Ferrets: A Complete Guide is available in Kindle, paperback and Kindle Unlimited!