New poll: when do your budgies like to fly around?

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who voted on my last poll! I got a nice total of 350 votes and that gives me a good view on what you would like to see here. My blog is originally all about budgie facts, but it's good to provide some variety, like artwork and pictures, videos, health tips and newspaper stories. At the end of every month, I'll try to prepare a quiz to test your knowledge :) this will be fun!

Photo © sakurabana on tumblr

I've created a new poll about "preferred flight times" for your budgies. For example: my budgies are bursting with energy every morning, so then they want to come out to fly. In the afternoon, they like to take a nap and play with their toys. In the evening, mostly one or two hours before bedtime, they like to come out to explore a litte before going to bed. That's their daily routine :) Do your budgies have something similar? Feel free to vote!

New poll: room for improvement

Hi everybody!

As some of you may know, I'm planning to add some extra features to my blog soon. This time, I'm moving the ball into your camp. What would you like to see more of in the future? It's a multiple choice poll, so you have the option to pick more than one answer :)

Image © juststfubro

Have fun!!!

Poll results: how old are your budgies?

 

The results show that a lot of people own young budgies. In pet stores, the demand for "nest-leavers" is high. People can't resist the sweet babyface of a 5-month old budgie, and they often make the mistake of only buying one of them. Another fact is that budgies don't often get older than 10-15 years. You buy a budgerigar, knowing that you want to spend as much time with your bird as possible. This is all perfectly understandable; I also bought two budgies that were between 4 - 8 months old. I figure that this is as young as they're allowed to be sold in a pet store.
My point with this poll is that I want to encourage more people to choose for older budgies. Try for once to ignore what they say in all the budgie books: "pick a budgerigar that looks young, healthy, with shiny feathers" and so on. Rather think of this: pick the weakest or the oldest budgie you see. Turn things around for once and if your intentions are good, you will probably give that budgerigar the best life he could ever dream of. 
I'm actually planning to start doing this, as soon as my husband allows me to have another, bigger cage!

Image © Wikipedia

I also wanted to see if there are actually people who own any budgies that are older than 15 years - which is very old for a budgerigar! As I'd expected, there aren't many, but those 12 people who voted deserve a major thumbs-up! Keep up the good work! :)

What's your favorite color for a budgie?

Budgies come in over one hundred different kinds of colors. The primary color is green, which is typical in the wild as camouflage. There are various shades of blue, opaline, grey, white, yellow, pied (mixed colors), cobalt, violet and many more.

The poll that I set up at the beginning of July has revealed that a lot of people have a soft spot for blue budgerigars. Why do so many people prefer the color blue over all other colors? Does it remind you of the sky, the sea, and all the calm things in the world?

Photo © Undulater i fokus

A bit of psychology:
Blue is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is in many commercials also used to promote cleanliness.

Personally, I like blue budgies because it makes them look even more like creatures of the sky. But not all blue budgies have a calm personality, although I have seen a lot of wise blue budgies in my life. It all depends where they grow up.

Over to the results:

Ta-dah! Blue budgies all the way across the sky! A lot of people also like pied, green and yellow budgies. The reason why grey budgies are at the bottom of the list might be because it's a rare mutation. Only white-based budgies with a grey factor turn out to be real grey budgies.

Now, you could ask yourself the question: what do budgies actually think of their color? Are they just as crazy about blue budgies as we are?

Answer 1: budgies don't only see the colors that we can see, but they are also able to see ultraviolet light. All budgies that have yellow pigmented feathers will glow in the dark. Wow! This makes it somewhat easier for green and yellow budgies to find a mate, because female budgies really like those shiny feathers. Blue budgies, however, don't glow in the dark because they lack yellow pigment.

Answer 2: blue is not exactly a good camouflage color in the Australian wilderness. Blue budgies that are born in the wild, will lose the protection of blending in with their flock. Other flock members will chase them off because blue budgies look "weird" and attract too much attention.

Image © The Aywas Wiki

Luckily, blue budgies who are kept together with other budgies don't have such a bad life. They are not a target to bullies, as opposed to budgies who are ill. When there's a good balance of males and females, blue budgies will most likely still find a mate. So don't worry! Take good care of your feathered friends and help them whenever they need it!

Poll results: how many budgies do you own?

A month ago, I set up a new poll to find out how big a typical "budgie family" is, when it comes to budgies that are kept as pets.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who voted, I didn't expect to get such a wide response so I really appreciate it! Here are the results:

30% voted they only own one budgerigar.
24% voted they have two budgies.
17% voted they have three to four budgies (a cozy, small family)
10% voted they have five to ten budgies
5% has 10 - 20 budgies, another 5% has 20 - 50 budgies and I was surprised to find a good number of people (5%) who own over 100 budgies. Wow!
Only 1% owns 50 - 100 budgies.

I was glad to learn about this, but please keep in mind that keeping only one budgie can cause a series of problems: your bird becomes bored, frustrated and lonely and may have nightmares more frequently than budgies who sleep together in a group. It also leads to a reduced lifespan. I recommend every budgie owner to have at least two birds together. Thumbs up for the ones who keep over 100 budgies, as long as your aviary is roomy enough :)

As from today, I will set up a new poll, to find out which budgie color is more "attractive" to people than other colors. I will compare this result to the actual "beauty norm" among budgerigars (just like humans, budgies prefer a certain kind of budgie) with a word of explanation. Can't wait to see how it turns out :)

Have a nice Sunday and take good care of your feathered friends!

Budgerigar food health week: day 7

Vegetable poll results

What vegetables are considered the best among our feathered friends?

Long before I closed the poll, I already thought it might be carrots. They are the absolute top favourite of my budgies as well! Let's have a look at the remaining top 5:

1. CARROTS
2. LETTUCE
3. BROCCOLI
4. BEANS / CUCUMBER
5. PAPRIKA / TOMATO

What I learn from this, is that a lot of budgies are crazy about carrots, lettuce and broccoli. I remember trying out lettuce on my budgies last week, and they were queuing up in front of it! It might be a good thing to know what vegetables are most popular among budgies, if your budgie is a so-called "seed addict" (a budgie who doesn't want to eat fresh food). You can most likely convince them by offering them small portions of carrots or lettuce to start with. In any other case, it's good to know how you can pamper your budgie in a healthy way! ;) Thanks again to all the people who voted! You helped me a lot!

Vegetable Poll

A healthy, balanced diet is good for everyone, also for budgies.

Today I put up a poll, to remind all budgie owners in the world to give their budgies at least one vegetable a day, and to find out which vegetable your budgie likes best. You can find the poll on the top right of my blog.

Can you help me?

TIP: if your budgie doesn't want to eat his vegetables, you can mix it with the seeds. YUM!