My hen ... she plays. First thing in the morning she gets off her swing & goes right to a hanging toy she likes & bangs the beegeesus out of it. Clang Clang bang bang Whomp Whomp Clang ! She then does her rounds of the cage & beats up everything else in the cage that is a TOY. She touches all the toys & makes a considerable amount of noise. I couldn't care less about the noise. It's fun to watch her being so interested & goofy. She has such a great time doing this each & every day.

 

Then .... she eats some seeds & pellets ... drinks some fresh water & goes back up to the swings where the Weebil is still sitting on his swing & watching all this action from the hen. Then the hen calmly feeds the Weebil. Like he is her little baby boy. It's the same routine every day. She baby's this guy & feeds him daily. First thing every morning.

 

The Weebil does not play. At or with anything. I thought a few times I saw him touch some toys. But I think he was just brushing by them by accident. He touches NOTHING. I have tons of hanging toys & chewing toys & all sorts of interesting things for them both to enjoy. But the Weebil touches NOTHING.

So ... do you have birds that are not players ? They don't touch toys you give them ? Are they more interested in interacting with the other birds you might have & forget about toys ? I am curious to see if this is a behaviour others have seen with their birds.

 

Or perhaps ... my Weebil is too good to play ? Persnickity little Bug !

 

 

Nick

I noticed that too Nick, Pretty never played with anything and Merlin does play more then Pretty did. I wonder why, I have seen such playful budgies and then mine sit there

Well then ... I will wait for more replies & see if others have seen this with their birds too.

i wonder if it has something to do with the age of a budgie.Tweety used to play with his bell and hang in all silly positions from the top of his cage but now he is 18 months old he seems to have stopped playing with his toys and Runt who is 4 months old plays with his bell and hangs upside down from the swing.Tweety stopped playing before i put Runt in his cage.in my avairy i have 10 budgies , the 6 older ones sit up on the perches all day but the 4 budgies i have that are 6 months old and younger play on the floor alot with the twigs, leaves and feathers.

l have noticed with mine, that my female budgie Clarie will play around the cage but my boy Hobbes would rather sit and watch Claire. the only times l have seen Hobbes get excited is when he is flirting with Claire

my budgies are both around 2 years old.

Gee's Deb .. that's different. Age might be a factor.

 

But my hen is a year or more older then the Weebil. So that doesn't apply to my 2 boids. Now I'm curious to who would play more between the sexes. Hen or Cock ?

 

I guess its also a little more difficult to see which birds in the outdoor aviarys are playing or not. You would have to sit there or stand there for a while to watch them closely.

 

When you have birds in your house & they are next to your computer or dining table or wherever you hang out. You notice things a little more with them, like who is playing or with what etc.

mine in the house are both males and one plays and one does not. in the aviary the young female and males both play, i watch my birds in the aviary alot. it is next to my kids cubby house and during the day me and my kids will still on the verandah of the cubby house just watching the budgies, i know it sounds weird.

Sherbet loves to play, Fizzy isn't all that fussed :hap:

 

Mainly because he knows that Sherbet will "kick his butt" if he goes and plays with a toy that she particularly wants to play with, or was thinking of playing with it etc.

Well then ... I will wait for more replies & see if others have seen this with their birds too.

 

Yep.. Charley is the same, gives everything a good old whack, the minute he wakes up, goes from one toy to the next... throws those around that he can, some go into his water dish, others are thrown around willie nillie!! I have a little container i put some of his small toys in, no sooner do I put them in, he starts throwing them around one by one, cursing and swearing at them as he goes. Thats the time when he uses his real budgie speak, the squawking and cursing!! None of the "give us a kiss sweetie"!!! He's so noisy that if i need to speak on the phone I have to go into the other room!

 

I have Maxie in the other room, the hen, she is as quiet as a mouse. I've NEVER seen her playing. Occasionally i hear a tinkle of a bell and I peek around, she's accidentally moved it as she's not paying attention to it. I thought what a boring life... so got her a few little mirrors so that she has "friends" to talk to. She never chats but sits and snuggles up to her "friends" now and then. Occasionally I hear an accidental "tweet" and she does do the squawking and budgie yell first thing in the morning when I take the cover off the cage. .. and of course when I turn on a tap! Other than that she will walk up and down her ladder but thats about it. If I put anything new in her cage, even millet sprig, she will eye it off for hours, sometimes never going close enough to eating it, other times will peck at something after the initial couple of hours when she's sure its not going to bite her!

 

She has never been even close to tame or friendly, just doesnt like human contact. I thought it may be because Charley was from a breeder who handled his budgies constantly, whereas Maxie was from a petshop where I presumed she may have had bad experiences perhaps with children poking their fingers in the cage, or maybe worse (who knows!). Or... perhaps budgies are like people and I have struck a "loner"... an anti social little hermit. She has always been extremely timid.

 

I still love her though but feel sad that I cant ever get close enough to handle her. I virtually have to tiptoe to her cage, whispering softly all the time so that she doesnt freak out.. and NEVER make even the slightest sudden movement (that includes coughing, or clearing my throat!!!!). SHe's a pretty little thing, much smaller than Charley but oh so frightened.

 

I wonder why she is like this????

All 3 of my budgies are very different about how they play.

 

Scooter - LOVES toys. Bells in particular. He loves to ring them and slam them against the sides of the cage. He loves to flirt with all of them too. :(Laughing out loud): However, I have noticed that he doesn't play with his toys nearly as much as he did when he was younger. I don't know if that has to do with age, or with him having 2 other budgies to play with (he was a lone bird for the first 9 months that I had him).

 

Sweeney - Loves toys too, but isn't that interested in bells. He'll make a toy out of anything. He likes things that he can pick up. He likes to carry little things around (balls, earrings, etc.) and then throw them. He also likes toys that he can shred.

 

Bella - Never been too crazy about toys. Every once in awhile she may ring a bell one time, but that's about the extent of it. She loves to destroy things. That's way more fun apparently. :(Laughing out loud): Rope, palm shredders, wood...anything she can chew on and shred to bits!

Edited March 8, 200817 yr by luvnscooter

In my house it wasn't age because Pretty was 1 1/2 when he died and the only thing he finally played with was the plastic balls and then when Merlin he didn't play again he was attentive to Merlin .

Wow ... this is more & more interesting. It seems that we have some strange birds. They are either players or NOT. It's not important which sex they are as it seems either or can play or not.

 

So ... to those who have lone budgies.

 

Do you find your bird more attentative to its toys in its cage ? Or if its a hand tame budgie will it come out & bother you for you& your toys ... such as eye glasses or earrings, necklaces or pens or anything laying around that catches its eye ?

 

i watch my birds in the aviary alot. it is next to my kids cubby house and during the day me and my kids will still on the verandah of the cubby house just watching the budgies, i know it sounds weird.

 

That doesn't sound weird at all Deb ... It sounds amazing !!!!! If I had an aviary I'd have a sofa & a large patio umbrella over top of it parked smack in front of the aviary & I'd live on that sofa watching all my birds. ( while eating cake ) I would LOVE an aviary full of colorful budgies. But alas .... can't do that in Cold Miserable Toronto.

When Pretty was a lone budgie he didn't play with anything but again that plastic ball. When Merlin was a lone budgie during quarantine he loved playing with shiny bells but when he found Pretty (Laughing out loud) the ignored them so it shows that they do long for budgie companions. Now, that he is a lone budgie again since Pretty passed away he plays with mainly the plastic balls and his bells. I find he likes toys that make noise vs quiet preening toys.

I bet if I gave my hen quiet toys she would still be able to smash & crash them & make noise with them. She is a MAD BUDGIE ... I love watching her go nuts. I just find it so odd the Weebil doesn't play at all. He doesn't even like preening from the hen. He prefers to preen her.

 

Strange boids ain't they ????????

he probably scared of her I would be if I was in a cage with someone who smashed up toys :fears:

he probably scared of her I would be if I was in a cage with someone who smashed up toys s:

 

Funny that you say that Elly. Saucy has her own special spot she likes to sit & he never goes near that spot. When she is on the far side of him & wants to go to her spot ... he will jump up & hang on the cage bars & allow her to pass & go to her place. He then jumps back. She doesn't peck at him or try to hurt or intimidate him to make him move ... but he moves like his life depends on it.

 

I wonder if the hen is sending PMS Psychic signals with her beady little eyes ... " MOVE IT OR LOSE IT WEEBIL ! I AIN'T PUTTING UP WITH YOU TODAY ! "

Some of my budgies play with toys and may bash them to extreme, others are more gentle but do play with their toys, and others basically ignore them;time for me to wash and rotate toys between cages, they have had the same ones for 3 months now. My 2 lovebirds and the one I am fostering have never seem particularly interested in toys at all. However, ALL the cockatiels I have ever had have been interested in 1, 2 or more toys and still are. Especially the 5 year old one I adopted last summer that lived in a finch sized cage all her life with none, she enjoys ALL of her toys and everybody else's too!!!

Edited March 9, 200817 yr by Phoebe

My budgies aren't really interested in too many of thier toys. Some of them (generally females) like to shread their paper one, and occasionally touch their other ones... but mainly they prefer to play with branches. My tiels on the other hand LOVE toys!!! Anything and everything... sometimes they be walking past one and accidently knock it and then go... wow... a toys... and then play with it. Very funny!!!

This is a very interesting post. I love that all our birds are not the same & all a little strange about their toys !

This is a very interesting post. I love that all our birds are not the same & all a little strange about their toys !

 

Kind of like us Humans hey??? All a little bit different, interested in different 'toys' and some of us even get a little funny about them too :hap: It's what makes the world an intesting place...

Kind of like us Humans hey??? All a little bit different, interested in different 'toys' and some of us even get a little funny about them too It's what makes the world an intesting place...

 

You got that right Maesie !

 

I am just thankful none of our birds have oposable thumbs & an interest in gameboys, nintendo, xbox, or wii ... I wouldn't have a chance against them.

Funny thing about budgies and toys. Even the biggest and most dignified looking show budgie loves to sit ona swing and swing back and forth. They look funnier on a swing than a pet type budgie you expect to play on them

They must get some pleasure out of being on a swing. Like in nature being on a branch & the wind blowing it under them.

 

I like seeing them on the swing ... like little ole lady & men birds being old & contented. At least they don't spit tobacco at you.