Buying a Budgerigar

If you are looking out for a bird as your pet that has attractive colored feathers and has the ability to talk, you may go for buying a budgerigar. Budgerigars are good adapters to the captive status and must be properly maintained to take care of their health. As an owner you have to keep a close watch on the physical and behavioral appearance of the birds as they rarely show up any symptoms of being attacked with a disease until they are at an advance stage. So, as a bird lover your job is not only to marvel at their brilliant appearance but also to take effective steps to maintain their health.

Buying a Budgerigar Tips

While buying a budgerigar you are advised to follow the following tips to recognize and purchase a healthy variety of budgerigar.

• A healthy budgerigar would have close knit feathers with bright and clear eyes. The birds would also be very active in nature. Do not buy the birds that have scaly appearance around the regions of eyes, cere, legs and feet. If the bird has discharges around the nose and under the feather, you should not buy the bird no matter how beautiful it looks. The birds that are sick would be characterized by rapid breathing as well.

• Budgerigars are prone to many diseases. Since sick budgerigars are very hard to detect, after buying a budgerigar if you find that the bird is attacked with a disease you are recommended to take the little creature to the veterinary doctor the moment you detect its illness.

• If you are buying a budgerigar for its excellent talking abilities, you should buy a male bird. Male birds are quite quick to learn mimicking of human speeches. Unlike the male the female has the tendency of pecking if they are held in hands. So, purchase a male cock if you are a beginner pet owner.

To identify the gender of the bird you should know that male birds have blue colored cere while the females have brown. The color of the cere gets dark in appearance during the breeding season.

Birds trained for talking should be taught at very young age. So, to recognize a young bird you should take into account of the eyes and the color of the plumes of the bird. Young budgerigars have slightly mauve colored feathers and the eyes are black. The eyes of the adult birds are black and are encircled with the white ring.

Tips on Caring Budgerigar

• Before buying a budgerigar, buy a suitable cage for your bird. The cage should be as wide as possible. Purchase a cage which would be ideal for a bird like budgerigar. Big cages of large sized birds have wide spaced bars while your per budgerigar needs a bid cage with bars spaced at a gap of at the most of 1.5cm. This would not enable the bird to squeeze through the gaps.

• If your bird is young, provide a shallow bowl in order to allow the beak of the bird to reach at its base. Give fresh and uncontaminated water to your bird as well on a daily basis.

• Budgerigars can also be kept in open perches if they are tamed to that extent. Wait for few days for the bird to get accustomed to the new surrounding and start taming the bird with gentle lessons.

• For food give your bird to eat fresh foods ideal for bird feeding along with the addition of cuttlebone for calcium content, iodine block and a little amount of millet.

To maintain health and hygiene keep the cage of the bird germ free by cleaning it on a regular basis. Make sure of antibacterial agents that are safe for the bird as well as effective in keeping away the microbial infections.