How To Read A Budgies Mind!

Question
I had 2 budgies since august of '07. One of them flew away this weekend. Are budgies really independant and can live alone? My mom also loves to grab her, rub her and squish her and bebe screams, does the budgie like this or it hurts her? Bebe (her name) is not very active. Rarely she leaves her wheel, she just sits there and makes seldom noise unless shes being attacked by my mom. I want my bird to be happy, she doesn't play with her toys (mirror,plastic bird, decoration,cutterfish) She just sits all day and I feel sorry for her and when I do let her out the cage she just flies over to the shelf and sits there. Maybe its her personality I dont know but my bird that flew away was very active and bobbing his head. How can we make a budgies life more pleasant as I see she is very depressed.

Answer
Hi,
thank you for your question.
Budgies usually die soon when they fly away, especially during the winter. They rarely find their home again since budgies are nomadic in the wild and don't have a nesting site to return to. You can try to attract the budgie by putting an empty cage with some food outside, but since it's already a few days since he escaped, the chances are not good. Try calling animal shelters near you, someone may have found him.

Grabbing a budgie is not a good idea, they are afraid of that and screaming almost always is an expression of panic. If the bird comes to you by itself, it's okay to preen its feathers or scritch it gently, but never grab it. That will just destroy the bird's trust in you.

Please get her a new friend if you cannot find the other bird again, budgies are very social and need company. She misses her partner now, which probably makes her even more quiet. I guess that the other bird was a male, who are sometimes more active and vocal than females. But it's really a question of personality, females can be just as active as males. A male and a female get along fine, two females very often bicker.

I recommend taking out both the mirror and the plastic bird. Budgies try to feed those toys and keep regurgitating fiood, which can cause a crop infection. They also don't need those toys, especially when they have a partner. Often birds don't like to fly if they have only their cage to land on. If you have the room for it, you can build a budgie tree. Use a widely branched piece of hazel, beech, oak, poplar, apple or pear tree (mustn't be treated with pesticides) and either hang it from the ceiling or put it in a bucket with sand to keep it upright. Here's a picture of my budgie trees:
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/80/94180/1280_6366366161646635.jpg

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer