Budgies or parakeets are the most popular pets across the world after cats and dogs. These little birds from the parrot family are very small in size, easy to care for and manage, talkative, less loud than other parrots, inexpensive, easy to tame, and prove good companions to the owner. These and some other characters (which I am going to discuss later in the article) that make budgies valuable pets will make it clear, “is budgie a good pet?”
Budgies lifespan
While considering budgies as a pet, you must be concerned with their lifespan. Good news for you, these tiny budgies ranging 5 to 8 inches in size, live 10 to 15 years in captivity. In some lucky cases, 20 years old budgies are also recorded. This is a long period to enjoy companionship with these little fellows.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, a Charlie named budgie died in the UK at the age of 29 years and 2 months.
All you need to improve the lifespan of a budgie is to provide her/him with balance food, good companionship, and a stress-free environment. Only then you are going to enjoy years of companionship with your bird.
Lifespan is a key while answering, “is budgie a good pet?” Read more about Budgies Lifespan.
Budget-friendly
While considering other domesticated pet birds/parrots budgies are way less expensive. Budgies are easily available in all pet shops ranging from 10$ to 20$.
You don’t have to spend much on their feed as they require less food because of their small size. You can feed them vegetables, fruits, grass, and cereals from your garden and kitchen which is not going to cost you much.
People also prefer budgies as a pet because their small size needs less space than other large birds. Buying a large cage is costly and you may run out of space.
How Much do Budgies Cost? | Budgies Price
Striking colors
Budgies are normally green with black spots on the wings and black strips on the head in the wild. A huge variety of colors is now available in the market produced by selective breeding. These spectacular colors increase budgies worth as a pet.
A pair of heterozygous budgies produce chicks with various colors which give a spectrum kind of look to the cage. Even a single budgie is multi-colored with multiple shades. Usually, budgies having a blue shade with white chest and dark patterns on the head and wings are common.
Budgies Diet
Pets are very selective in terms of food and mostly it cost high to the owners. But it is not the same in the case of budgies as they eat a variety of food. They mostly eat all types of small cereal grains. They eat different plant seeds. Green leaves, vegetables, and fresh fruits are their favorite part of the food.
Verity in food provides pet budgies with essential nutrients which are required for their health. Remember to add green grass and vegetables with seeds and pallets.
Provide your pet budgies with soft food (i.e. boiled rice, boiled eggs, mashed breed, etc.) during the breeding season which will help in the growth of chicks. Do not forget to treat budgies with soft food once a week even if they are not on the breed.
Budgies cage
The first thing required to pet a budgie is a cage. You might think a small cage will do for these little fellows which is not the right idea. Budgies like to explore and fly around as they are active.
2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and the 1.5-foot-high cage is a minimum requirement for one pair of budgies. Increase the size of the cage with the same proportion to the number of budgies. Make sure the breeding box are enough and well-spaced in case of a budgie colony. They are aggressive and may fight to the death while trying to dominate and occupy the box.
They keep on exploring every part of the cage and may escape unintentionally in case the cage is not well manufactured. Repair the broken part on time and keep the door closed tightly.
Are Budgies too loud for Apartments? | Budgies noise level
Budgies as a pet
Do budgies make a good pet? If you are a beginner and not sure which pet to adopt, just go for budgies. If you are pet/bird lover you can’t go wrong with budgies. Budgies are inexpensive, easy to care and social birds. These few traits make them competent to adopt.
There are also a few downsides of budgies which I will discuss later in this article. Remember to check the pros and cons of a pet before adopting it and select the one which suits you the most.
Budgies pros
If you talk about the benefits of budgies as a pet there is a long list. It is one of the reasons that budgies are 3rd largest pets in numbers after cats and dogs. Have a look at these bullet points to known budgies pros.
- Budgies are inexpensive, one bird cost 10$ to 15$.
- Being common pet bird budgies are easily available from pet stores. Their food and medicine are also available easily.
- Budgies are small in size and tend to eat less than other large parrots which reduce food cost for the owner.
- Budgies are the social playful bird. They share a strong bond and companionship with their owners. If you are alone at home most of the time, considering a budgie as a companion is not a bad idea.
- Budgies are good pets for apartments and small homes because they are less loud than other parrots.
Budgies cons
These small buddies can be annoying for you at times. Funny but it’s a fact that budgies chirp more when you are on a phone call or when there is a gust in your house. There are no such downsides to budgies but in some scenarios, they don’t fit as a good pet.
- Budgies are not so loud but chirp continuously which could be noisy and annoying for some family members.
- Small size birds can easily get sick which is a downside.
- Budgies poop too often and it’s hard to keep them out of the cage.
- They keep exploring the cage and escape (in most cases unintentionally) if the cage is broken or has space to escape.
