Budgie saved from cat.

Question
2 days ago we saved a male budgie from the mouth of a neighborhood cat.  We put him in a cage that we had with fresh food and water.  He looks to have suffered no physical damage, but has not made a sound and when we near the cage he starts panting heavily.  He is eating and drinking, but not chirping.  He looks to be an adult.  We have 2 untamed male budgies in an aviary, but have kept this one separate as we are unsure how they will take to him.  We have not been able to locate an owner, and suspect he is from the wild. He is not hand tame.  He looks very sad and we are wondering if we should set him free.  What is your advice?

Answer
Dear Sonia,
thank you for your question.
I would recommend seeing an avian vet with the bird to rule out any health problems. Injuries made by cat teeth usually get badly inflamed, even if they are very small and if you want to introduce him to your own budgies, he should have a clean bill of health anyway.
You can find avian vets here (I assume that you are in Australia?):
http://featherz.proboards33.com/index.cgi?board=helpline&action=display&thread=2...
http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/vets.htm

Usually, introducing budgies is not a problem at all, especially males. Put the cage of the new bird next to the aviary for two or three days so that they can get to knwo each other and then put the cage in the caviary and open the door, most times there will be no problems at all. It may be a good idea to rearrange the aviary a bit so that it's new territory for all of them.

If you really think that he is a wild bird, it would indeed be better to set him free again. But I'm not sure if he would be able to find his or another swarm again and alone he has very little chance to survive.  I would recommend contacting a wildlife rescue organisation in your area to get expert help with this. This websites lists such organisations:
http://www.wildliferescue.com.au/
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer