Do you want to take really good care of your little Parakeet companion? These genuine parrots are amazing, intelligent birds, generally good natured that make really neat, fascinating and entertaining pets. Here's how to keep yours happy and healthy!
Step 1
Prepare the cage. Line the cage with paper towels or copy paper, a better choice than newspaper, and change them regularly. Set up the cage with perches, water and food dishes and toys. Bring the bird home to quiet place and play soft music for a few days. Toys are needed to keep the bird entertained (boredom can cause screaming) and healthy.
Step 2
Acquire a parakeet. Find a reputable bird dealer where the birds are known to be very well cared for. Try to verify the quality of the dealer or pet store, and, if possible, learn who their breeder is. Make sure the birds aren't overcrowded on the perches, and check to see that they are being fed good, clean, quality food, including fresh fruits and veggies. Make sure the birds look content, vigorous and in optimal health. You may need to visit at different times during the day, as parakeets take naps and look drowsy at times during normal waking hours. Avoid birds that stay on the bottom of the cage or have unclean vents or crusty nostrils.
Step 3
Change the food and water daily. Keep the water fresh and clean! Let the bird get used to you and the surroundings, doing nothing but maintaining his food/water and cage, before trying to train the bird to perch on your finger.
Step 4
Convert your bird to a healthy pellet diet. Seeds are a very common source of bacterial infection, and can easily lower the health and lifespan of your bird. Bacteria can build up and overwhelm your bird over time. Some seed may be acceptable as a treat for birds that don't exhibit susceptibility.
Birds adapt to pellets at various rates, and initially may reject them, perhaps vigorously. However, usually 90% of Parakeets will convert within two weeks using the following plan:
- Leave pellets in a food dish in cage at all time.
- Give birds seed for only one hour in the morning and one hour at night.
- The rest of the time they have to snack on pellets.
- Generally, the 10% of parakeets which don't switch in two weeks will switch after a short period of reverting to a seed diet.
Step 5
Add fresh food frequently. Feed fresh vegetables such as kale, beets, peas, carrots, parsley, cooked yams, sliced apple, mandarine oranges, citrus, and the like. Food can be clipped to the bars of the cage or chopped small in a food processor and put in a bowl.
Step 6
Offer treats. Millet sprigs or "sprays" are a favorite treat, but don't feed too much of it (about 1/2" per day), as it is fattening like junk food. Avoid sweets or excess oats, both of which are fattening.
Step 7
Try to interact with your birds daily for at least 30-90 minutes. Without regular and sufficient attention, they will lose interest in human interaction. A pair will tend to bond with one another (regardless of sex) and ignore humans, but through interaction, you can be considered part of the flock. A way to interact with your bird is to sing together, give it baths and if it seems to be rapidly dropping a mobile toy, pick it up. There is a chance it is trying to play a game with you.
Step 8
Let your parakeet exercise. Think about how your bird(s) can get exercise. Many people assume they can just leave the birds in a small cage all day, where the birds, which in the wild fly and exercise a lot, otherwise get fatty and fat related illnesses. If trimmed, just have a decently big cage with good toys and give the bird some play time out of a cage every day. Manual exercise can be achieved by a sensitive toss or holding it in your hand and sensitive dragging down until looks tired, shown by heavy breathing.
Step 9
Be conscientious. Parakeets are a lot of work but you will find them an affectionate and funny companion. Most will talk and how much they learn is really up to you. Be prepared to do some daily care, maintenance and offering of attention and time to talk and play with your birds, or consider getting another hobby.
Step 10
Talk to it. Sometimes Parakeets get lonely. a good way to get them happy again is to talk to them. Also, to get them to climb up on your finger is to push a little bit on their stomach, and say "Step Up." By continuously saying that, they will start to say it by themselves, and will "Step Up" whenever they say it (which will usually be when they come to a stair/ledge).
Tips
- If you're gone a lot, be sure the bird has a companion Parakeet, otherwise they get lonely, and it just isn't fair to these very social animals, which live in large interactive flocks in the wild. You can play music when you're gone, maybe even on a timer. Soft music helps ease the transition into a new place.
- Parakeets need 10 hours of sleep a day. They get most of it at night, and nap during the day at times. A low TV is okay. Keeping the cage covered helps them feel safe and sleep better.
- You can build a rope lattice in the windows and/or give them a playpen, or build a buy things to climb on and play with outside the cage. A play gym is also highly recommended and will provide them somewhere to play while you go about your business in that room - but remember not to leave them unattended ever.
- Never allow your bird to see out a window- it could fly into it and injur itself.
- Let them climb and play on safe things.
- Keep the floor vacuumed and be careful no one steps on the bird.
- There are many varieties of "pellets" available for parakeets and they can taste different. You may need to offer variety or try different ones and see which ones your birds like. Some look like rabbit food, some look round and seed like, some are powdery, some look like crumbles. Some come in various sizes. You can always crush larger pellets down to various sizes all the way to powder to see if different sizes are more appealing.
- Have your birds checked up by a vet initially and at least annually and get a baseline health reading when you first get the bird. Keep new bird separate at first so that older bird doesn't get disease until you know new bird is healthy.
- Clean the cage bars with soap and water regularly, particularly after you've clipped food to the bars.
- Trim the bird's wings but just so that it cannot fly away when full feathered. Be careful of blood feathers, feathers with coverings and blood in them.Trim the toe nails when sharp. Beaks can be trimmed with an emery board. See your avian vet for details.
- If on a budget, clean branches will make good toys. Be careful that they are not toxic to budgies.
Warnings
- Parakeets get very cold, very quickly. Make sure you keep your pet in a warm environment. Be careful when hanging the bird cage from the ceiling as this is far from the heat source in most houses. Make sure the cage is not near any windows. It can get very drafty near a window and your bird can die from this very slight draft.
- Seeds are often stored in silos after harvesting, where rats eat and defecate on it, and although washed, bacterial residue remains, and cannot be eliminated by freezing or microwaving.
- Don't leave vegetables or fruits out for more than 4 hours as they can develop too much bacteria.
- Birds naturally hide their illnesses to avoid looking vulnerable to predators, so you need to be very alert to know if your bird is behaving unusually or too lethargic. A book on budgies will help explain how to monitor and care for their health and explain what to do if they are ill (step one is keep an ill budgie warm, 85-90 degrees so its body doesn't have to work to generate the warmth). By the time a bird is showing symptoms, it is usually pretty sick and probably has been for awhile. Time to see a vet, ASAP. Birds have high metabolisms, and their condition can degrade very quickly without proper care. Catching and treating problems early is essential.
- Take strong precautions not to let your bird escape, which probably means clipping their wings and reminding family members, putting screens on doors and windows, and thinking very strategically. If a parakeet escapes, it will most likely die from exposure and confusion.
- Never feed any parrots chocolate, avocado, coffee or alcohol,avoid salt, broccoli.They are poisonous to them.
- Be particularly careful of fumes, sprays and chemicals in the house, as parakeets are very susceptible to them. Burnt Teflon is highly poisonous to them, so try not to use anti-stickware (e.g. nonstick frying fans), and if you do, be sure not to burn the pan. Healthier for you too to not use these.
- Turn ceiling fan off when birds are out if they can fly. Fans kill and injure far too many birds.
- Parakeets are attracted to shiny things. If you let your bird fly loose, be careful in the kitchen! Lots of sharp and/or dangerous things (e.g., mirrors framed with painted wood or near toilets, open toilets, sinks, knives, mixers, etc.) are attractive to them.
- Tropical birds spend much of their time under the canopy of the forest, so be careful to give your parakeet a shady place to be in if the sun is very hot. Avoid putting the cage in full sun on hot days.
- The sap on evergreen trees is poisonous to many tropical birds, so if you have a live wreath or Christmas tree, please put the bird in another room far away from even the odor of the evergreen. The bird might be attracted to the shiny decorations, so be very careful.
- Also if your birds get out of their cage somehow, you have to be very gentle when you are putting them back in.
- Do not worry if one of your birds is inside a nesting house, she is probably in the process of laying eggs. Do not disturb her when you think this is happening because this may break their eggs.
- If you let your parakeet take a shower, be sure to dry it with a towel afterward.
- Always verify that the tree in question is not poisonous to budgies before giving your bird any kind of plant or branch. Many types are toxic!
- Never allow your bird around cats or dogs, even if they seem sweet. Cats and dogs will often kill budgies. This is their natural instinct.
Things You'll Need
- Toys
- Food
- Cuttlebone
- Mineral block
- Cage
- millet spray (essential to training parakeet to fly to your finger or perch on it)
- and to give it lots of attention
- and love
