To get a budgie or not

[userofthiswebsite]

This is for myself (no kids). Have kept fish thus far (5 yrs).
Am tempted by getting a budgie or two. However, I have one big concern about the mess involved.
Those who keep budgies, how bad is it?
Honestly, my worse fear is the budgie going to the loo over everything when out of the cage particularly if it hit the sofa or similar.
Is that the reality or am I unnecessarily worried?

[SilentShadows]

Hi User, I don't have recent experience but as no-one else has posted thought I'd join in. My mother always kept budgies when I was a child and a teenager - she'd grown up with them herself.

Ours were kept in an indoor aviary, and occasionally allowed to fly around the room - I don't recall them making any particularly huge mess on the furniture when flying to be honest, but this was a few years ago, so may have forgotten!

Cleaning their aviary every week was the worst job for the mess, but it was just the usual that needs doing.

Hopefully someone else will be along to give more recent experience. You're inspiring me to think about getting her another pair, I know she'd love it.

[chickenfeathers]

We have had budgies for years - and we have children too. They tend to be messy when they moult, and the seed husks tend to fly everywhere when they flap their wings in the cage - but it is soon sorted with a vacuum. In between full clean outs I just put the vacuum nozzle in the cage to suck up the loose feathers and seed husks.

As for their droppings, you do find the odd ones scattered about, but they are soon cleaned away with a baby wipe. Ours tends to sit on the window, so we do get a few deposits if he sits there for any length of time!

We love our budgie! We had him as a baby and he is very tame. He loves the kids - especially when he is sitting on DS's shoulder watching TV!

[FrogsLegs33]

My beloved budgie lived in my bedroom from (my) age 10-18. I loved him very much but I would never keep a bird in a bedroom or in anything smaller than an aviary again.

• He would throw half of the seeds in his dish out of the cage sides when I refilled it. (He wanted to collect the seeds from the floor really)
  

• Whenever he flapped at all in his cage seed husks, dust and feather fluff would fly everywhere.
  

• He was very, very loud. He would joyfully chirrup and sing away from the second it was light outside. Teenage me did not enjoy this
  

• He would poo when nature told him too, no matter where he was. If you let him fly out at all then everything and anything in that room could get pooed on. (I let him fly freely whenever I was in the room)
  

• He was kind of like a cat - I.e: he loved to play with my hair and nibble preen me, but on his terms only. He would hop on my finger or arm if I pushed it under his belly, but he didn’t especially like being controlled by me.
  

He was a wonderful little character though

[BrokenWing]

I had two budgies as a teenager in a large box cage which dad built for me with a nesting box (breeder told him they would never breed in a bedroom environment so he did it to humour me). They became 5 then 8 budgies a few years later which was fascinating to watch!!

They did fly free, but dm décor was post 1970s dark and patterned so hid a multitude of sins, the bigger problem (for a teenager anyway) was keeping on top of the seeds and empty seed husks over spill which would be blown out of the cage constantly. We had mice in the house at one point due to the seed.

You need to handle them very frequently so they become tame, and budgies have great amusing little characters but are messy.