Hi All,

 

Thank you all for your help to my previous post...it's been great!

 

We picked up our new budgie tonight...& he/she is gorgeous!!! Pale yellow, & very pretty. He/she is only 3 weeks old, so is still a real little baby. For the sake of the post, I'll say he's a boy.....I'm not really sure.

 

My kids just said to me - "How will he sleep?? What will he sleep on??" Good question....I just figured he'd sleep on the perch...isn't that what birds do?? But because he is only 3 weeks old, is he still used to the nest to sleep in at night? I didn't think to ask the lady that we bought him from...I just assumed. She said that he is out of the nest & eating seed, so she said he was fine - but I didn't ask her about his sleeping arrangements.

 

Also, is tap water fine to give him - or should I give him bottled water? All these questions I didn't think about until I bought him home.

 

As soon as I work out how to post a picture, I'll take one & show you all. He really is a beautiful budgie. My daughter is thrilled with him & is in the process of trying to come up with a name. She originally said "Monte" (or Monty), but I think now that she's seen him, she's trying to come up with a prettier name. I'll let you know, as soon as I know!

 

Thanks again for you help guys.....this forum is great!

 

Tracey

hi there, most budgies just sleep on their perch but i know of some that hang on the sides of the cages. are you sure that he/she is only 3 weeks old? i didn't think they were ready to leave their mum until 6 weeks? im not sure though so one of the experts here will probably tell you. I always gave my birds tap water but with my new one ive started given him bottled water. only because the last time i was at the vets he mentioned that a lot of owners give their birds bottled water - thought their might be a reason for it but i don't know what. Can't wait to see pictures!

Does he have all his feathers? If he doesn't he is waaay too young to be away from his parents. A baby budgie isn't ready to leave it's parents until it's 6-8 weeks old. I was told when i got my first budgie that she was only 3 weeks old too but i'm now guessing she was about 8 weeks.

 

He will sleep on a perch or swing if you have one and he'll probably tuck his head by his wings. Don't worry if he clings onto the cage bars though, like Cheeky said. I've always given my budgies tap water but if you live in an area where you need to boil water for yourself to drink you'll also have to boil water for your budgie. I can't wait to see photos of the little cutie!

Thanks Cheeky! I appreciate your reply. I just wanted to make sure that by giving him tap water I wasn't doing him any harm. I've given him tap water now, but might change to bottled water....I don't know.....

 

Sitting on a perch doesn't look comfy, but I guess that's what they're used to!

 

Thanks again....

 

Tracey

I hope your baby isnt 3 weeks as it is far too early to leave home. But possibly the breeder meant 3 weeks out of the nest which would make it about 7 weeks. If it were 3 weeks it would still be missing a few feathers as it takes 4 weeks to fully cover with feathers. If it can hang onto a perch then again it must be older than 3 weeks. Some of my babies like to hide in little boxes or hollow tree logs at ground level of the cage or aviary to sleep, but I remove those again for daytime. They have to learn to perch sometime. Some budgie babies would stay babies forever if you let them If you feel it is warranted, a little cosy corner to hide in is fine ( a little box set up cave like ), but remove for daytime. Enjoy your baby. Everyone here is only too happy to help you. Monte is a good name. Love to see photos when you can ......Cheers karen

Thanks Bea...I was typing my message when you were replying, so I didn't see it til I'd already posted my reply to Cheeky.

 

Monte (That's his name at the moment!), seems to have all his feathers. He lost some of his tail feathers when he was caught in the cage, so he's looking a bit bald there (the poor little guy), but he looks like he's got all his other feathers. What will happen if he IS only 3 weeks old? I thought it sounded young when she told me, but just trusted her as she had many other birds in aviaries so figured she knew what she was talking about. She has some gorgeous colours in budgies....cinnamon ones, lutino, spangles....some gorgeous bright, bright blue...just gorgeous!!! (Thanks to budgietalk.com for helping me name the colours!!).....

 

I don't need to boil water here, so will just continue to give Monte tap water too...thanks for the help!

 

Cheers,

Tracey

Here's a photo of a 3 week old budgie:

 

I'm guessing though that Monte looks a little more like this in the way of feathered-ness:

 

The second photo is a 7 week old baby. A baby younger than 6 weeks old probably wouldn't know how to eat on it's own yet and would starve without hand feeding.

Awww Bea... that's so cute.

 

 

Tracey, you could always post some pictures for us to see, that way we could probably give you a good idea of how old he actually is.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Bea....I was so concerned that we had a baby that was going to die without it's mother....& I was going to kill it! Yes, Monte looks like your 7 week old picture....you have no idea how relieved I am now.

 

I'm such a worry wart by nature, that I would have been stressing for ages until I was able to get him to the lady I've lined up to clip his wings. She would have been able to tell me what age he is....well, roughly anyway.

 

Thank you everyone....this forum is such a relief......you're all angels!

 

Cheers,

Tracey

Glad we could all help! I'm a worry wart too when it comes to my budgies so i know how you must be feeling. I worry about the tiniest things.

Hi All,

 

Just an update for you all on Monte......who we have just found out is probably a girl! Oooops...

 

She bites SSOOOO hard!! OMG....she hurts! I had to try to get her out of the cage to get her to the pet shop to get her wings clipped. She was okay....a bit freaked out (which in turn freaked ME out!)....I felt so sorry for her. But she didn't bite me, & went into her box okay. The lady at the pet shop got her out of the box & started clipping her wings. She was pretty good....didn't make a sound when the 'procedure' was being done...but then when the lady moved her around, she bit. Even the pet shop lady squealed! It was hard, & left marks.

 

I asked her how old she thought Tixie (formerly known as Monte! ) was. She guesstimated about 10 weeks old. Her cere is turning brown she said, so she's probably a girl. Unless it changes to a blue, I guess we have ourselves a girl. I really wanted a boy, 'cause I'd heard that they are friendlier & that the girls are moody. But, Trixie is still beautiful....we're going to love her no matter what.

 

When we got home, I got her out of the box & she tried to fly away. I picked her up off the floor, & she bit me & wouldn't let go!!!! OMG....it HURT! The kids were laughing at me 'cause they thought it was funny....but I ended up yelling at them & telling them that it HURT! When I yelled at the kids, that's when Trixie let go.....wow...she left some pretty serious marks!

 

I'm thinking that I'm going to need gloves when I/we try to train her. What do other people do with biters? Do you recommend gloves, or is that scarier to the bird? Also.....I want to get another baby later on....what happens if we get a boy? Will they mate without their nesting boxes? Seems like I'm a little naive when it comes to picking a specific sex! :ausb:

 

I'll wait til Trixie is a little less freaked out before we get a photo of her....once we have a picture, I'll post it for you all to see.

 

Thanks everyone, for your help!!!

Cheers,

Tracey

okay first off. Go read my new topic, "does your budgie bite"in budgie behaviour.

Secondly budgies are unlikely to mate with out nest boxes, unless of course they belong to Phoebe or Me

Even if they do mate, they don't always lay eggs. This is what is happening with my budgies (not with Phoebe's though).

But usually they never even think about it. I have a girl who for 4 years has always been arounds boys, no nest box and has never mated.