What do you think about budgerigars?

[Racingsnake]

We were given two unweaned white doves in the autumn, weaned them and they live in a cage in granny's sitting room, where they make a horrendous mess.

Trouble is, dd, aged two, loves hoding them when I catch them for her and granny loves watching them.

Was thinking of rehoming them into the greehouse, where they would presumably no longer be catchable, and replacing them with more suitable birds for an indoor cage.

We do have cats, but they can be shut in for a couple of hours each day (we do that anyway when guinea pig comes out to play).

What birds might be suitable? ie fairly tame/placid, reasonably easy to keep and not to ££ to buy initially. (I have always fancied a parrot, but have heard of lots of behaviour problems and rather ££) What about a budgie/two budgies?

Didn't like to see your thread go unanswered RS! Not that I really know anything about caged birds - OK on hens, but that's about it. I do always love the quails though - am quite tempted, and I think that they do OK in a run.... There are some tiny doves that you can have which would probably reduce the mess!

I think cockatiels are sweet, but I'm afraid I don't really agree with birds in cages.

Oh yes, tiny doves. What a good idea. Very sweet. We already have chicken and quails and pigeons (obviously).

I hear what you say about birds in cages, Pesto, and would never want to have anything to do with capturing wild birds, but I feel that caged birds are a bit like farmed animals - it's going to happen, so I just want to make sure that they have as good a quality of life as possible. Companions, large interesting cages, good food, lots of company and time to fly out of the cage. Most wild birds, according to Spring Watch, live for very few weeks before being eaten. Often alive.

RS - have you seen those tiny doves? probably blackbird size or even smaller.

I once read an amazing book about someone who bought a baby parrot - turned out it was ill and nearly died - she kept it warm down her jumper and nursed it back to health - it was even housetrained.

Of course, small birds would be more fragile for WS to pick up... and you'd need to try to get young ones again to get them really tame...

Don't get a cockatiel if constant high-pitched whistling is likely to drive you insane.

I've had quite a few budgies over the years and they are lovely little characters as long as you play with them a lot. Mine used to fly to me when I called them and try and drink tea out of my mug when I wasn't looking. Very cute they were. The only reason I haven't got any now is because I like them to be out of the cage a lot and it isn't really practical now. Ds (ASD) wouldn't understand and would be bound to let them escape, plus our present cat is a real hunter, unlike our previous ones who were quite good friends with the budgies. I haven't managed to part with the cage though, cos you never know...

The downsides of budgies, well they are very messy. They seem to be able to get seeds and feathers everywhere. Also, if you want to let them out they can be quite destructive. For instance if they can sit on a pelmet or curtain rail they are likely to start having a go at your wallpaper.

If when you first let them out you have trouble catching them again, try turning out the light.

Pixel - sounds as though budgies are the chincillas of the bird world!

Our chins like skirting boards, doors, the bottom of the table lamp shade (all the way round!) the spines of books....

So budgies might be more fun than tiny doves, although tiny doves are very sweet ...

I think our cats would have to be firmly incarcerated for a couple of hours a day, although I did once recently find one of the cats alone in the sitting room, nose to nose with the miniature rabbit. I don't know if they had declared a non-aggression pact or if I arrived in the nick of time.

We are not terribly houseproud (if I listed the pets I dd already has, that would be obvious.

I think budgies are great fun - though can be messy and certainly not always that quiet. If you do get one choose a young one (under 3 months) for your best chances of making it tame. Males are usually better tame pets than females and more likely to talk too, but it can be very hard to tell the sex before 3 months old when the cere colour (fleshy bit over the beak) develops properly - basically all are a blue/purple colour when young and then females turn brown, males go a proper blue.
Please ensure you get a substantial catproof cage though. I have seen a number of birds with injuries from cat attack whilst still in the cage - anything from the cage falling over to the cat actually getting hold of the bird. Generally I wouldn't encourage them to be in the same room unsupervised. Perhaps not that practical but for the sake of any budgie you have think it through well before you find out the hard way.

Budgies are birds which mean they should fly, I think it's really cruel to ever keep a bird in a house, in a cage. Why would anyone who loves birds prevent them from doing the thing they do best. [search me emoticon]