Dear all,

Im seeking advise on putting my budgie (named Chip) outside at the back of our garden. He's just under 2 years old, very healthy, active and playful. He is also hand trained and quite often when I walk into the room we have him in now, he will fly to me and sit on my shoulder waiting for me to kiss him on his belly.

Although I have a love for the bird I feel saddened that he is alone with no company. My idea is to move him from his 2 foot high cage to an outside avery which will be at least 6foot in hieght so plenty of room to fly around. Also want to purchase 2 more birds so Chip will have some company.

My questions are -

 

1) Is it okay to put Chip from the warm indoors to outside? Obviously his cage will be sheltered and I will purchase all the extra's like weather shields etc. I know budgies come from a warm climate (Australia) but do I need to purchase a kennel heater or something simular for winter seasons? Or will the normal avery suffice?

 

2) Chip is okay with other birds as from time to time I take him over to visit my fathers birds and he loves playing with them. So would it be okay to introduce him to other species like Cockatils etc? Or shall I just stick to Budgies?

 

3) Chip has started to mimic my whistles also some of my words (which are very robotic and broken). He often does the wolf whistle (god knows who taught him that!!). However will he loose all this vocabulary once with the other birds or will he teach them his vocabulary?

 

Im going to introduce Chip to the outdoor aviary on the same day I purchase the other 2 birds as I do not want to give Chip the chance to settle in beforehand and start thinking its HIS environment, so once the newbies come along there should be no one dominating. Is this a good idea?

 

Apologies for all the questions, you guys seem to be experts and I seem to be getting different advises from different places which is very confusing.

I would love to leave Chip where he is in my gym but the wife is getting very annoyed with Chips chirps. Yes I have thought about moving the wife outside but I cant find a big enough kennel! (Laughing out loud).

 

Thanks in advance for the advise.

Question as most welcome on here, we all learn something in the responses.

 

1 - I would try for a warmish day to move him but they seem to cope with ease at the differance. You will have to watch closely for signs of sickness either from the colder weather or simply from stress from the move.

 

2 - It is best to keep to the same species, budgie can bully other birds even if they are the small bird. And a little fight over something in the aviary can turn into a huge problem with larger beaks of teils.

 

3 - This depends on the bird and your interaction with him once he has other birds around. When I got my second bird Pie he made a phone ringing noise (different from mine) but stopped it quickly. I didn't try to tame him since he was company for my other bird. A member here has three inside birds that talk (at least the first two do) to each other and to her, all of them are super tame.

 

It is always a good idea to do a quarantine period of at least a month so you can monitor they behavior for sickness.

 

Also is there a reason you want Chip to be out with others rather than having the bond between just the two of you? At the moment he sees you as his flock and might not even be missing interaction with others.

 

Are you wanting to start an aviary full of birds? Are you wanting to breed?

Nerwin's advice is very good. Especially the need for once month quarantine for the new birds. It would be heartbreaking to put the new birds in with Chip, only to discover the new bird(s) have a contageous condition that could mean illness or death for any or all of them.

 

I have just moved 20+ budgies from an indoor environment to a new aviary outside. They are all looking very happy and healthy 3 days on. They also seem to be thriving with the freedom to fly whenever they like instead of waiting for their out of cage time inside.

 

Feathers.

Edited February 16, 200718 yr by feathers

If all you want for him is company why not get a second to tame and live indoors with him?

Dear all, thankyou for your advise.

Sure I want Chip to have company but I also do want him to have a bigger cage, more flight room and I want him to be outside for many reasons (most important one is he loves it outside, singing with the other birds etc).

Him staying in my gym was just a temporary solution until we get the aviary.

 

I understand what you're saying about monitoring due to bird flu going around. So what I would probably do is get the aviary with 2 other budgies and leave them in there for a month or so. Then once I can see no signs of illness from either 2, then I can introduce Chip to the aviary. Is that an okay idea??

 

Also are you guys saying I do not need a kennal heater for the aviary, especially in winter seasons?

 

I do not want to breed budgies, just want to keep a few of them for pleasure.

 

Regards