Budgie "blankets" And Snugglehuts

[**KAZ** 0]

I have a "friend" who just phoned me to ask what to do.

 

She is one of these people who baby the budgies with silly things like snugglehuts and mini blankets for her budgies and baby budgies.

 

She put a piece of blanket in the bottom of her cage for the babies to snuggle into. We are talking fully fledged baby budgies here.

 

EMERGENCY call to me then about how to treat a baby budgie who now has a broken leg or pelvis due to being caught up in the thread of her baby blanket.

 

I have asked her now...has she learnt anything by this

 

WHY for goodness sakes do people use human behaviours on their birds............I could gleefully wring the neck of the person who invented snugglehuts, and I certainly dont believe in babying budgies by providing them with either snugglehuts or blankets.

Whats wrong with a tub on the floor of the cage with seed in it for any babies newly fledged ?

 

Birds ingest the fibres of snugglehuts and they also are a great source of bacteria. They would have to be cleaned very often. They cause budgies to breed thinking they have a place for a family.

 

How many snugglehuts or budgie blankets are seen in the gumtrees of Australia to keep wild budgies warm ?

 

Sorry...........had to vent.

 

This is an "accident" that should not have happened and did happen because someone tried to "baby"a budgie using human behaviour and practices.

 

Not impressed

 

 

PS I know a few people will say they use snugglehuts, but I truly wish people would look at those things with a more practical mind and rethink the need for them at all.

Edited July 7, 2010 by KAZ

[RIPbudgies 0]

I am completely with you on this Kaz.

 

I always thought those snugglehuts and things were for things like rats, ferrets etc. Kaz are they marketed for birds?

[**KAZ** 0]

I am completely with you on this Kaz.

 

I always thought those snugglehuts and things were for things like rats, ferrets etc. Kaz are they marketed for birds?

 

 

Marketed for birds ? Yes.

 

http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_kw=birds&_kw=snuggle

 

Stupid stupid idea. I think some budgie owners are going soft in the head if they use these..........

 

 

now see that statement get me in trouble

Edited July 7, 2010 by KAZ

[Dean_NZ 0]

The number of times I have heard people say "I bought a snuggle hut for my budgie and it started laying eggs!" followed by "why?".

 

Ugh. Im with you on this one Kaz.

[Ratzy 0]

Same here. I have had a person asking me what to do when their budgie laid an egg. (Friend) I asked, where did it lay it? They either have a nest box or 'snugglehut' in there. The egg wasn't fertile as no male. Recently I had somebody telling me all about these budgies she was going to adopt. The cage was second hand, had holes in it big enough to strangle a budgie. She proceeded to tell me she had a comfy 'box' on the floor for them to sleep in. I replied that budgies will not sleep on the floor unless they are seriously ill most of the time. She said she would put one off the ground then. I told her that birds sleep on perches, not inside boxes. She said, okay, I have some metal poles lying about. Gasp! She had no idea of what to feed them either. I gave her a list.

I would help you throttle the guy who produces 'snugglehuts', Kaz. Gladly!

[**KAZ** 0]

and these things

 

couldnt look more like nests if they tried either

[maesie 0]

and these things

 

couldnt look more like nests if they tried either

 

I bought one of these... it was soo cool and fitted in the cage perfectly...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for my RATS!!! lol I would never use it for birds, but the rats had a lovely time chewing extra entrance and exit hole in it

[Jodie 0]

Things like this make me so angry, sometimes...well acually when ever I hear about them. Even before I knew about these problems people have had with budgies breaking legs and getting stucking inside the huts and whatnot. Me and my mom were in a huge pet shop and in amongst all the budgie toys there was this snuggle hut, I took one look at it and saw a millon hazzards for the budgies. But I happen to check myself with every toy I see or may buy for them what hazzards could happen. Because frankly I dont want to be a person stuck in a bad place because my beloved budgies have been injured in a preventable accident, caused by me.

 

These things are absolutly useless.

[splat 0]

Gee I must lead a very sheltered life as I have never heard on them Whta's the world coming too

But then I never look for bird products other than the every day real bird things

[meeka 0]

My bird has a plush bird buddy that I tie on the side every night.

 

This is it here:

http://www.worldforpets.com.au/products/pr...ail.asp?ID=1228

 

Its not something that he actually sits in, but he sits beside it and snuggles into it. Its like sitting to another bird.

He waits for me to put it in at night, and he loves to "preen" it lol.

 

As his cage is downstairs and its tiled, it gets pretty chilly during winter at night.

 

Everybody is different, but we like to pamper our pets.

[Squeak_Crumble 0]

I think it is okay for larger birds. Some birds like conures, IRN's, Macaws etc like to snuggle into snuggle huts. Just like a sun conure may snuggle into some-ones top, or crook of elbow. And some birds do sleep in them. So I wouldn't say I approve of them for budgies or finches, but they aren't the worst thing in the world someone has pampered their pets with.

[ijustlovebirds.monti/pixie 0]

i reckon you don't know untill you try them but if you buy one and they dont like it just leave it at there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOVE YA M,P,T,C,T

[emerald 0]

I have a "friend" who just phoned me to ask what to do.

 

She is one of these people who baby the budgies with silly things like snugglehuts and mini blankets for her budgies and baby budgies.

 

She put a piece of blanket in the bottom of her cage for the babies to snuggle into. We are talking fully fledged baby budgies here.

 

EMERGENCY call to me then about how to treat a baby budgie who now has a broken leg or pelvis due to being caught up in the thread of her baby blanket.

 

I have asked her now...has she learnt anything by this

 

WHY for goodness sakes do people use human behaviours on their birds............I could gleefully wring the neck of the person who invented snugglehuts, and I certainly dont believe in babying budgies by providing them with either snugglehuts or blankets.

Whats wrong with a tub on the floor of the cage with seed in it for any babies newly fledged ?

 

Birds ingest the fibres of snugglehuts and they also are a great source of bacteria. They would have to be cleaned very often. They cause budgies to breed thinking they have a place for a family.

 

How many snugglehuts or budgie blankets are seen in the gumtrees of Australia to keep wild budgies warm ?

 

Sorry...........had to vent.

 

This is an "accident" that should not have happened and did happen because someone tried to "baby"a budgie using human behaviour and practices.

 

Not impressed

 

 

PS I know a few people will say they use snugglehuts, but I truly wish people would look at those things with a more practical mind and rethink the need for them at all.

 

Im sure your friend only had the best intentions in mind and made a silly mistake = totally human. SO many pet stores sell them, would they if they were harmful? What can we do to keep the budgies warm in the dreadfully cold winters? Ofcourse there are no snuggle huts in the wild, but wild budgies are more prone to sickness and death at a younger age due to environmental pressures.

[**KAZ** 0]

I have a "friend" who just phoned me to ask what to do.

 

She is one of these people who baby the budgies with silly things like snugglehuts and mini blankets for her budgies and baby budgies.

 

She put a piece of blanket in the bottom of her cage for the babies to snuggle into. We are talking fully fledged baby budgies here.

 

EMERGENCY call to me then about how to treat a baby budgie who now has a broken leg or pelvis due to being caught up in the thread of her baby blanket.

 

I have asked her now...has she learnt anything by this

 

WHY for goodness sakes do people use human behaviours on their birds............I could gleefully wring the neck of the person who invented snugglehuts, and I certainly dont believe in babying budgies by providing them with either snugglehuts or blankets.

Whats wrong with a tub on the floor of the cage with seed in it for any babies newly fledged ?

 

Birds ingest the fibres of snugglehuts and they also are a great source of bacteria. They would have to be cleaned very often. They cause budgies to breed thinking they have a place for a family.

 

How many snugglehuts or budgie blankets are seen in the gumtrees of Australia to keep wild budgies warm ?

 

Sorry...........had to vent.

 

This is an "accident" that should not have happened and did happen because someone tried to "baby"a budgie using human behaviour and practices.

 

Not impressed

 

 

PS I know a few people will say they use snugglehuts, but I truly wish people would look at those things with a more practical mind and rethink the need for them at all.

 

Im sure your friend only had the best intentions in mind and made a silly mistake = totally human.

 

My friend is not the "sharpest tool in the shed" unfortunately and I am on call to rescue her birds so many times its not funny. I teach her stuff and it goes in one ear and out the other. She doesnt retain information.

SO many pet stores sell them, would they if they were harmful?

Because they are clueless about anything that happens after they sell a product that gives them a profit margin. They dont ask for feedback from purchasers and the purchasers dont usually complain to a pet store if things go wrong. Like the many many birds hung by the fringing on rope toys and they are still for sale in pet stores. Like the sandpaper sold in pet stores that shouldnt be. The "mite protectors" sold in pet stores that give off vapours harmful to birds and dont work for mites and so on. Toys and items being safe for birds is NOT REGULATED. If its was baby toys it would be different .

 

What can we do to keep the budgies warm in the dreadfully cold winters?

 

Believe it or not they grow feathers

 

Ofcourse there are no snuggle huts in the wild, but wild budgies are more prone to sickness and death at a younger age due to environmental pressures.

What has that got to do with snugglehuts ?? Its more to do with predators and breeding deaths

 

 

[Maddy 0]

I bought one of these when I was still a newb budgie owner.

 

And I have to say, it was in a cage with two budgies for about 4-6 months with no problems and they loved running through it.

 

However, what Kaz has said about them being bacteria greenhouses and the budgies ingesting the fibres I have to agree with. It was only after spending weeks trawling through topics on here (unlike your friend Kaz, I love to find and retain as much information as I possibly can lol) I started to think logically about it and removed it.

These are synthetic fibres, so definitely not suitable for digestion in any way (Its like feeding your bird bits of plastic). They also hold a large amount of bird dust, so no matter how clean you keep the cage, there is always the hazard that they will breath in whatever is caught in fibres.

 

They're just dangerous is general, and the more we educate people that fall victim to the hype of spoiling budgies unnecessarily (like I once did) the better off pet budgies will be.

[Jabberwocky92 0]

I have seen them to and the first thought I had was 'The chickens would love that if it was bigger!" I don't think it would be good for a budige at all! Even though it is sold through the RSPCA doesn't mean that it should be used. They can get lied to just as much as we can.

 

I mean seriously, that's like giving your dog a sleeping bag and zipping it up, it's all kinds of evil to a budgie!

 

I just hope people learn that birds are birds, and they like perches. Even the chickens sleep on their perches instead of nesting boxes. It's just a bird thing.

[Guest K&M Breeding]

and these things

 

couldnt look more like nests if they tried either

 

I was about to say not only are the happy huts/ snuggles what ever they want to call them very dangerous but most birds see them as nests

I've read too many stories where a bird(not just budgies) have chewed up the happy huts and had strings loose and got caught One if i remember right was a parrotlet The owner wasn't home - got home found her precious baby(it may of been an adult i can't remember but it was her "baby" ) dangling from the hut - The leg had to be cut off , Most I've read about however was NOT so lucky they strangled their self and died

 

but I do have 1 female who has a happy hut its 100% fleece and isn't sewn together like most - it does not cause her to lay eggs (she only lays one egg every several months) - oh and she's a Quaker She ignores it all day long come 10:30 at night she'll go in and go to sleep and come out at 7 am when she wakes up she lives in my living room and my b/f sleeps in there so it is mainly so she can go to sleep and not be bothered by the lights or t.v glare Also my 1st Quaker came with a Home made tent His is just 2 pieces of fleece over top of a perch he sleeps on and is held on the cage with clothes pins.. He has slept under it his entire life his previous owner had him for his entire first 13 yrs of life and didn't Change anything in his cage So now I have him (have had him since 07 and he'll be 16 this year) I can't change anything including getting rid of the Tent Even though he's chewed a hole through it so he can keep an eye on his chosen"mate"(my b/f) while he's in his bed and my b/f is on the couch (talk about control issues LOL) but I did not know this at first and when I first got him the 1st week I washed his cage and put it all back together and nice and neat and OMG this bird went mental I swear he had a break down screamed his head off shook kept flying away from the cage like it was attacking him it took me 4 very long hours and a massive migraine to figure it out! I did NOT put his stuff back the way it had always been! Thank GOD I took a picture of his cage the day I got him Every time i remove everything to clean his cage(which he flips out about anyway) I have to look at the picture to make sure everything is right where its always been or he dang near gives his self a heart attack freaking out over this

 

it took me 2 1/2 yrs to get him in a new cage - his was very old (only cage he's ever had) and the paint was coming off and Well in the end I had to use the Tough Love method, Got the new cage Took him out of his Put him in a different room Put all his stuff in the new cage set up exactly the way his previous one was and put his previous one out on the porch where he'd never see it again It took him 2 long weeks to step foot in this new cage! I sure hope I never have to change cages again with him lol

[Sunnie 0]

I too have a Quaker who loves his Happy Hut. I have a conure box for my new baby conure, which he used for a few days, then shared the happy hut (tails sticking out of both ends) until the quaker gave up and moved out. I then had to buy a 2nd happy hut, so they could have one each. These larger parrots naturally like to sleep in this type of environment, but no, I would never give one to a budgie. Even though my parrots chew their toys, they seem to realise that the huts are for sleeping in, whereas, I would imagine a budgie would chew them to bits and as long as your indoor pet isnt in a draft, it is perfectly fine, just covered over at night for sleeping

[Vicky 0]

Doh...

I'm glad I checked on here... was about to get one of these because I don't want my little baby to get cold, all alone in his little cage

 

 

I prefer him being a little cold more than dead

[**KAZ** 0]

Talking about cold Vicky.............its been 1 degrees centigrade at night here lately and the birds in the aviaries look just as happy and chirpy as usual when the sun comes up. They are desert birds in their genetic makeup..........extremes of temperatures from high to low. They adapt.

[Vicky 0]

Yeah, but they have other little budgies to snuggle up to!

 

 

So I completely forgot that we have a small reptile heat mat and I found posts online saying "Not for babies" and to make sure they will not be in direct contact (although the internet is misguided!)

 

For now we've turned the tray at the bottom of the cage upside down and put the heat mat on top of it. There is about a 1 cm gap between it and the bottom bars of the cage so he can't nibble through to it and so the metal bars at the bottom of the cage don't get hot. It's a little smaller than half of the cage so he has a choice as to "cool" side or "warm side" and it's not putting out too much heat. Also it's on the water dish side not the food side as wasn't sure if the added heat would effect the food. Monitoring it closely at the moment just in case though.

 

Can you guys see any problems with that set up? or does it sound okay?

 

I know you said Kaz that they are built to handle low and high temperatures, but this makes me feel a little less guilty for him having no snuggle buddy I just hope it wont make him sick or anything so please let me know!!

 

Thanks

[**KAZ** 0]

The heat mat sounds good Vicky

[maesie 0]

I'd just make sure his cage is not in a draft, and if it's really cold you can keep the cage covered (leaving the front open). He'll be fine... really

[Finnie 0]

Yeah, but they have other little budgies to snuggle up to!

 

Mine don't snuggle up to sleep at night. They are jealous of their favorite sleeping spots, and don't share!

 

Do you guys who have outdoor aviaries know whether yours snuggle up on cold nights?

 

Vicky, is your little guy an outdoor budgie?

[**KAZ** 0]

 

 

Mine don't snuggle up to sleep at night. They are jealous of their favorite sleeping spots, and don't share!

 

Do you guys who have outdoor aviaries know whether yours snuggle up on cold nights?

 

Vicky, is your little guy an outdoor budgie?

 

Mine dont snuggleup to keep warm either Finnie