Hi everyone,

 

I now have a lovely budgie named 'Stewie' added to my household. We actually found him, he was getting attacked at a local park by magpies & indian minor birds so we rescued him & he now has a lovely home.

Just a few questions about him I was hoping anyone could help me with.... First of all I am calling it a he...so is he really a he?!! I think so from some of the information I've been reading on here. & any idea on roughly how old he is?

He was very scared for about the first week since we got him (had him for about a month now) but now he's not so scared of my hand when I'm changing his food/water etc.

Would you suggest that I get his wings clipped to help with taming him? He has gotten out of his cage when I was cleaning it a couple of times-he did fly around like crazy but surprisingly didn't fly into things, just kept flying until he found a safe spot to land.

....just that the safe spot was somewhere I couldn't reach lol!

I think his colours are beautiful & I've seen alot of budgies before, but never coloured like him. Does anyone know what type of budgie he is?

I have been trying to teach him to talk (pretty boy,,etc), but nothing so far, but he does love to mimic the lorikeets that feed off our grevillea in the backyard & always seems to be happy & chirping away.

I thought of getting him a friend, but wasn't sure if thats a good idea? I do want him to be tame & be out of his cage but someone told me that if I get him a friend he won't love me he'll only love his friend!!

Sorry so many questions but I just want to raise him the right way!!

 

Thankyou )

 

I'll add some pics!....oh & one more thing... he has one eye with a white ring around it & the other doesn't, does this mean anything?

 

He's a sweetie and yes... he's a boy! I can't give you an age, but someone else might be able to help with that. If you want to tame him, don't get him a friend because as you have read, he'll befriend his bird friend and not you (as much anyway) As to clipping wings... it's very much a personal choice. I have clipped my inside budgies wings and it worked well for me. If you decided to do so, be sure to clip both wings, not one. If you only do one they become un-balanced and can hurt themselves.

 

If he's already mimicing other bird noises, I'm sure it wont be long before he starts following your lead. Just be sure to pick one thing and work on that first... before moving onto something new.

 

Check out our FAQ's for heaps of helpful info... FAQ'S

 

especially this one: Taming your budgie

 

Good luck and don't forget to ask us anything... we're happy to help!

 

 

wow cute budgie

Hi there,

 

He's so gorgeous! Same thing happened to me with the rescue budgie scenario. Now I just feel so responsible for his well-being. I found him, or rather he found me, around four months ago.

 

First, read up all you can on finger taming. Try to get him used to your hand by feeding him by hand in the cage first, then getting him to step up on your finger in the cage with a treat. (millet is good) Say 'step-up' or 'up' when you do it. Do it a few times, every hour or so. And just be patient. Sometimes it seems like you're getting nowhere. But eventually he'll get the idea. This could be a few days, a couple of weeks or a month. The main thing is never do anything that will make him not trust you. No matter how frustrated you might get.

 

Once he's got the basic idea, you can keep up the step up training outside the cage. Just a hint: don't do it as it's getting towards dusk. He'll probably want to roost and head off up somewhere high and safe where it's impossible to reach him.

 

I found it was best not to have mine out of the cage at that time for the first couple of months. He'd always fly up out of reach on the chandelier. It required ladders, long sticks and all the lights turned off except a torch to fetch him down. There was a stage where getting him back in to his cage was sometimes a bit of a drama. Now he normally heads back to his cage by himself at that time if he's out, or he's hanging around somewhere near me so I can just pop him back in. (That time of night is also dinner time - and cooking and budgies does not mix. My friend's budgie came unstuck in a pot of spaghetti bolognese, poor baby.)

 

Also, make him a little play gym on top of his cage. I made one with a bird-safe branch covered in all sorts of toys. It will give him a place to go when he's out where you can fetch him easily. Plus it stops him messing about with all those things in the house that you don't want him hanging around on.

 

i've now got mine to come and fly to me on command when I call him. As I said, it just takes patience.

 

As for the talking, one day mine just started yabbering away non stop. It might have been a month or two after I first found him. And just a word of caution: Make sure you don't have any clown around (boyfriend/husband for example) who thinks it might be funny to teach him a rude word. Mine now says: "Who's a little cutie? Rude word. Kiss, kiss. Kiss, kiss". I can never take my little toot out in polite society ever again!

 

I've got a cute little video of him talking, but I can't show anyone because of the *%^$! rude word. I might have to start a topic on "unlearning'.

 

As well as this forum, I found this site quite useful when starting out and full of questions and worry. http://www.budgieplace.com/advanced.html

 

Good luck! If you treat him well, he'll be like your best buddy in no time.

And his colour seems to be skye blue, double factor dominant pied (hence the eye differences) and the wing patterning might be spangle or dilute? Kaz will know for sure