Re: Male and Female companion parakeets

Question
I purchased a male parakeet; he seemed very sad so I coupled him with a female parakeet.  They both are inseparable; they eat out of the same seed cup (which I know is wrong, but I'm having problems training them to eat out of separate cups;) also I'm trying to teach the female to go on my finger, but the male nips at her when this is done. He flirts with her and they end up "all over the cage" while she squalks at him.  Is this normal.  Would a larger cage help them destress?

Thank you very much for your reply.

Answer
Hi Jessica,

First, I don't know where you heard it is bad for birds to eat out of the same dish.  It is fine for them to eat out of the same bowl... however, it worried me that you said "seed cup".  Budgies cannot eat just seed. They need a mixture of seeds, pellets, whole grain cereals (brown rice is good too!) and lots of fresh fruits and veggies in order to stay healthy and live long lives.

When you are trying to tame your female budgie, remove her from the cage and take her away from the male (into another room or something). This will make it easier to tame her, since she won't be able to see her birdie friend or the cage.

I don't know how big the cage you have them in now is, so I don't know if a bigger cage would help them "de-stress" or not. However, for two budgies, the minimum cage size I would recommend is 20 inches wide by 18 inches deep by 22 inches high. If your cage is smaller than this, you definately need a bigger cage.  Or if your cage is right around the minimum size... you might want to upgrade, since that is the minimum recommendation and some birds will need more room than others to stay healthy and happy.

Here are some links to information on taming and proper diet:

http://www.budgies.org/info/taming.html

http://www.mickaboo.com/aviancare.html

http://www.parrotchronicles.com/departments/faqs.htm#EAT (there is a question about parrot diet in this link)

I hope this helps.

-Maggie