Sunday, July 1, 2012

Budgies and paper shredding


Photo © the Talk Budgie forum

Shredding of newspaper is actually very normal behaviour for any parrot. Budgies need to shred things in order to be happy. You can even buy your budgie shredding toys. Actually eating the paper would not be good. However, newspaper ink is non toxic and budgies don't usually eat the paper; they only shred it to little pieces. If you're in doubt or if you want to have this confirmed, you can always contact your local newspaper agency.

Paper shredding can be seen as nesting behaviour and would indicate that your budgie is no longer a baby. Budgies are considered adults by the age of 9 months. The behaviour of shredding paper means that your budgie is sexually mature or close to adult age.

Why am I writing about this? Our budgies, Frodo and Isla (both young adults), are often sitting on top of the book case. It's one of their favourite hangout spots in the house ... which means they poop a lot there, too. So we decided to put newspaper on top of the book case. They were curious about the paper at first, then Isla started nibbling the paper, which was the start of some crazy kind of shredding marathon. We found at least one thousand pieces of shredded paper on the floor!!!

8 comments:

  1. My budgie Billy and I 'read' magazines together... well I read and she chews the edges and corners!! I end up with a lap full of tiny pieces of paper and a very happy budgie.

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  2. Wow I found this nice shredding toy for my budgie Kiwi it's a cardboard box inside there's a treat so he shreds up the box into pieces and gets the goodies inside it also has holes in it to make it easy to start shredding!! He enjoys it:)

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  3. If only I could cut out Russell Richardson shredding and buy a budgie to do my shredding instead! Although I think he'd kick it with the reams we go through here!

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  4. Eating the paper is really inadvisable. LOL, but seriously, you know what, Bika? Over 73 percent of all newspapers are recovered for recycling. For my part, I use shredded newspapers on my garden beds as part of the compost pile. :)

    Ruby Badcoe

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  5. My hen shreds the newspaper is this normal??

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  6. Way do my budgies eat paper for

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  7. Wonderful read! Priority 1 Shredding is the key to secure document disposal, offering unparalleled Shredding service in Bowie MD .

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