So, as some of you may know last summer my faithful one got loose outside, and so now I have a widowed female. Despite my efforts we still do not get along. She is "step-up" trained, but she bites if I try to take her out of her cage. I realize that she must be lonely, so I'm thinking it's time for me to get a partner for her. I have been looking for local breeders online, and I have come across some which claim their budgies are handraised. Is this a good option? I think I read somewhere that it wasn't. Has anyone gone this route? I would really like to have more of a relationship with my new budgie, so any opinions would be great!

 

Thanks!

Why Not, if you are wanting to bond more with your birds then get a hand raised one ...

 

I am sue that you will get a few good answers here ....

I would investigate each person throughly and see if they are really parent raised & handled that what you are looking for the parents raise the chicks but they have been handled at a very young age. Don't impulse buy observe the different breeders and how they interact with the chicks and also watch how the chicks interact with them you will be able to tell if they are really handled. We have a wonderful article in the FAQ section called Evaluation of a Breeder & one of a Pet Store, I suggest you read through it.

 

I also suggest if you are not looking for accidently breeding issues to purchase a another bird of the same sex, yes male and female can give together without breeding but there are those occasional ones that don't care if they have a box or not and once they start laying eggs sometimes it can't be stopped (other times it can), I felt it better to have 2 of the same sex and if down the road I wanted to breed I could always buy the opposite sex.

Don't know how much truth there is in it but I always feel that a handraised baby is more human focused. If you want it to be a friend for your other budgie and for you a parent raised bird that has been handled lots will still make a great pet. The babies I have at the moment are parent raised but they will happily hop on my three year old son's finger. They live happily with other birds (including a cockatiel in my kinder cage at the moment) but they also interact happily with humans so it's the best of both worlds. I would recommend a handled parent raised bird.

 

Oh and I agree with getting the same sex unless you will be setting them up to breed.

Edited April 10, 200817 yr by melbournebudgies

i have 2 male tame budgies, one i bought inside from my aviary when he was 3 months old and the other one i handraised. They are very close to each other, love preening each other, feeding each other . They both have bonded with me and my children. Honestly, you cannot tell which is the parentraised and which is the handraised one because i spent the same amount of time with them training them. That is just my personal experience.

I find this article very interesting about hand vs parent raised Article Click Here

I guess it probably depends on the circumstances in which they were raised- did your handraised have budgie company as a baby or was it on it's own? I have a handraised cockatiel at the moment which needs to go to an 'only child' home as it is scared of the other cockatiels. It was the only baby and now I can't get it to live happily with the other cockatiels becase it hasn't been around them enough - it just wants to live on my shoulder and be my baby for ever!

I guess it probably depends on the circumstances in which they were raised- did your handraised have budgie company as a baby or was it on it's own? I have a handraised cockatiel at the moment which needs to go to an 'only child' home as it is scared of the other cockatiels. It was the only baby and now I can't get it to live happily with the other cockatiels becase it hasn't been around them enough - it just wants to live on my shoulder and be my baby for ever!

 

i never thought about the circumstances of his raising, he was one of 4 i handraised and the parent raised one used to sit on the table and watch me feed them. It probably does depend on the circumstances of how they were raised to how they will react to other budgies and people. you have a point there i had not really thought about.

That's a great article Elly, exactly why I won't ever handraise a baby alone again like we did with this cockatiel, thankfully he doesn't scream for attention but he is very human focused, moreso than the other birds. Our lorikeet had problems with attention screaming but if she does it she gets a five minute time out (light weight sheet placed over the cage - doesn't darken the cage but she can't see us so she understands she won't get any attention by doing it) I prefer the idea of co-raising but I don't see any issue with handraised babies if they have been raised together in a creche so they are interacting with other birds lots.

I would investigate each person throughly and see if they are really parent raised & handled that what you are looking for the parents raise the chicks but they have been handled at a very young age. Don't impulse buy observe the different breeders and how they interact with the chicks and also watch how the chicks interact with them you will be able to tell if they are really handled. We have a wonderful article in the FAQ section called Evaluation of a Breeder & one of a Pet Store, I suggest you read through it.

 

I also suggest if you are not looking for accidently breeding issues to purchase a another bird of the same sex, yes male and female can give together without breeding but there are those occasional ones that don't care if they have a box or not and once they start laying eggs sometimes it can't be stopped (other times it can), I felt it better to have 2 of the same sex and if down the road I wanted to breed I could always buy the opposite sex.

 

Thanks for the information. I can't seem to access the website, but I hope to soon, when it is back up to read that article. Unfortunately, I am a bit limited in my breeder options. I have contacted a breeder about 5 hours away, which claims he is preparing his birds for breeding, so I will try contacting him in the future. So a good breeder will know when his birds are fully weaned?

 

i have 2 male tame budgies, one i bought inside from my aviary when he was 3 months old and the other one i handraised. They are very close to each other, love preening each other, feeding each other . They both have bonded with me and my children. Honestly, you cannot tell which is the parentraised and which is the handraised one because i spent the same amount of time with them training them. That is just my personal experience.

 

Did you find that the handraised bird influenced the other bird to trust you? I'm afraid that if I purchase a bird, my current bird will influence him/her to not trust me, since she doesn't.

Not sure what you mean here is the link, it worked for me http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=12931

If I decide to go with a pet store bird, I would probably bring my other bird back home, and keep the new one with me, for quarantine purposes...so I guess this would give us time to bond. But I guess I would prefer to go through a breeder.

Not sure what you mean here is the link, it worked for me http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index....showtopic=12931

Oh, I was referring to that FAQ article.Oh geez, nevermind...I found it!

i had my parent raised bird for 12 months before i introduced the hand raised one.i also had a female handraised baby at the same time but she started biting so i moved her to the aviary but even though she would bite me when i put my hand in the cage, the other 2 used to still step up.when the 3 of them would sit on my shoulder, 2 of them would sit and talk to them but the female would bite my ear and neck but even though the other 2 saw her they never copied her behaviour. no matter where the budgie comes from it will need to be quarintined so that gives you time to bond with the new one.if you find a baby that has been used to being handled and then read a article in FAQS that Elly wrote about taming a budgie. The article might also give you some ideas to help with the budgie you have.

Thanks for the info guys. So I kind of went bird shopping today -- limited pet stores here unfortunately. I did go into one today that I had never been to. A ma and pa joint. Can't say I was particularly impressed. They actually had quite a few birds, including some "handfed" parakeets for 15 USD. I was kind of excited to see that they had some, but on further inspection and questioning, I don't think I would dare do business there. He said that he handfed them, meaning "He took them from their parents before they even had feathers and fed them himself." Some of them appeared to have some french moult or something, as their tail feathers were a real mess. The biggest issue I saw was one male who was short of breath -- perhaps some respiratory infection. I kind of wanted to take a lysol bath afterwards!

 

I'm kind of sad there are so few options here...maybe I will have to go to a different state to find a good breeder.

not sure where you are in the US but you can do a google for budgie breeders and see if you can find more in your area too...

not sure where you are in the US but you can do a google for budgie breeders and see if you can find more in your area too...

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm in South Dakota, so I am a bit more limited I would say. But I am trying to make some contacts. I'll keep you guys updated. I hope I can find a good breeder...I'm finding a few breeders that claim their birds are "handfed" so I am wondering what that all means...I want to avoid these birds, correct?

Here is a website of one of the local breeders. What do you guys think?

 

http://towaslovebirds.com/price_and_availabilities

You don't need to avoid handraised birds, just make sure they are well socialised with other birds and healthy. The main problem I see with handraised birds is when they are raised alone without other birds for companionship, this is when they may have socialisation problems- much the same as a puppy that hasn't met enough other dogs and is then scared of them or won't play with them when it gets older.Just going by the site that breeder seems pretty good, wants to make sure the babies are properly weaned, etc before they go to new homes. Just make sure when you go that the place is clean and check that the babies are raised together as a group which it looks as though they are.Erin