Talking champions

Our budgie friends are considered one of the top five talking champions amongst parrot species.

Their competitors are the African Grey Parrot, the Amazon Parrot, the Eclectus Parrot and the ring-necked parakeet.



A budgie with the name Puck holds the world record for the largest vocabulary of any bird (1,728 words!)

I'll get back to him when I have found more information :)

How to hold a budgie

There are a lot of reasons to hold a budgie. They're so adorable and they love it when they can rest in your warm hand. Also, it's always a good idea to check on your budgie's claws, beak and eyes. If the claws get too long, you can clip them. Some budgies get an overgrown beak - when the beak grows faster than usual - and then you have to trim it a few times a year. Most budgies never get problems with their beak, though :)

This is how you can hold your budgie (pictures from adorablebudgies.co.uk)

Picking up your budgie from a perch

Talking to your budgie


Inspecting nails and beak


Holding head still to inspect eyes (if they're moist, it can mean that your budgie has a cold)



Holding your budgie to comfort him. They love it when you caress their little featherhead :)

Amazing senses

(photo: guardian.co.uk)

Budgies can register 150 images per second and hear sounds from 400 to 20 000 Hz. They have an amazing ability of storing sound sequences in their memory - this is why they can mimic human speech.

Humans can only register 16 images per second and they hear sounds from 16 to 20 000 Hz. Budgies have a more accurate sense of hearing, which allows them to distinguish certain signals very quickly - in the wild, this could mean life or death. This is why their hearing is in fact better developped than the general hearing of a human.

Budgie Breakfast Recipes

Wild budgies barely eat anything else than grass seeds, but for a pet budgie it's best that you supply their diet of seeds with food such as fresh fruit or vegetables, pasta, bread and minerals. It's all good for humans too!

I found some budgie breakfast recipes to give your budgie a great start of the day:

Sweet Potato French Toast

2 eggs
1/2 jar sweet potato baby food
4 slices whole wheat bread

1. Mix eggs and sweet potatoes together
2. Dip bread into mixture and cook in a frying pan til both sides are golden brown
3. Cut bread in small pieces and sprinkle sliced almonds on top. Mmmmm.

Birdie Waffles

Waffle battergrated apples
carrots
broccoli
veggies + fruit of choice

Mix everything together and freeze in for later, or pop in toaster for breakfast!

Eight Grain Cereal

1 part oats
1 part brown rice
1 part corn
1 part soybeans
1 part hulled millet
1 part barley
1 part sunflower
1 part flaxseed

Mix the grains together.
Heat three cups boiling water and add one cup for the mixture.
Cook the mixture til consistency of oatmeal.
Sprinkle avian vitamins over cereal to make it extra good for your budgies.

(photo: parakeetcare.com)

More recipes on Budgie Recipe Cookbook!

Body language of a sleeping budgie

When a budgie sleeps, he usually rests on one leg. The other leg is hidden somewhere in the bellyfeathers and sometimes budgies put their beak in their backfeathers as well. If a budgie sleeps on two legs, it could mean that he is getting ill.

Picture © parkietenfun.nl

If a budgie is resting during the day, he usually rests on one leg with his eyes half closed, making a soft crunching noise with his beak and twittering to himself (maybe some kind of lullaby?). This means that the budgie is completely relaxed and happy. You should not disturb them then :)

Other posts in this series:
Body Language of a preening budgie (Budgie Body Language 1)
Budgie Body Language (2)
Budgie Body Language (3)
Budgie Body Language (4)

Introduction

A budgie (short for budgerigar) is a small parrot, originally with green and yellow colours. After the 1850s, people started breeding budgies to obtain different colours. As a result, some of the budgies you see today are different kinds of blue or violet or greywinged. A budgie can even be entirely white - there are countless combinations. The most common is still green and yellow.

(Photo: Wikipedia)

As some of you may know, budgies are native to Australia, where they have survived for the last five million years in harsch conditions.

Many people like to keep a dog or a cat, but nothing beats the company of these sweet little feathered friends for me!

This is how my blog is going to work: every day (or two days, if I'm busy) I'll tell you something you might want to know about budgies, to convince you that they are awesome.