The Home Of Hand-Tame Budgies In Australia

The golden rue with budgies is always have two budgies or more. Budgies are different because of the communal flock nature of budgies and their natural instinct to socialise. Budgies will still bond to their owners regardless of the number of birds that are in the cage. In our aviary, it’s not unusual for us to have 4-6 birds sitting on our shoulders when we go into the aviary each day, we have not gone out of our way to bond with them, they just recognise that we feed them every day, change their water twice a day, clean their nest boxes every day and bring them treats usually in the form of wild grass – they have bonded to us!

To try and explain why a budgie needs to bond with its own kind…. in the wild budgie world, the flock survives because of the sheer size of the flock and socialising and bonding is part of their natural instinct for survival. I live in Australia, if you go to the areas where budgies live in the wild, you may see 1000 budgies and 10 trees, it is not unusual to see all 1000 budgies in the same tree, by choice, for comfort, for safety, for survival. It has been bred into them over thousands of years, that natural instinct to bond and colonise.

Lone budgies get lonely when left by themselves and that is usually evident in their ‘quietness and stillness’ which is generally a sign of stress caused by loneliness, it also shows in their longevity (the number of years they live). Happy bonded budgies in our aviary can live for 15 years, a lone budgie rarely lives for more than 5-6 years!

Often when we sell a budgie to a customer who has an existing budgie, they report back to us that after they introduced the second bird, they saw an immediate and amazing improvement in the general happiness of their existing budgie and we have hundreds of lovely photographs from happy customers who are proud of what they have done for their lone budgie by finding it a mate. The advantages don’t just stop there, the lone budgies general well-being and health improves as a bonus for the owner and the budgies generally also become far more entertaining and fun to watch.

Always remember that you need to be interactive with your budgies for at least an hour a day and preferably more. That does not mean that the bird has to be on your hand for that period of time, but it does involve you having you talk to it, walk around with it on your shoulder, offering things like small toys for it to investigate etc. these are all ways of interacting. If you only have time to play with your budgie for a few minutes a day because you are off doing other things to occupy your time, what does your budgie do for the rest of theirtime? That is why budgies need partners, because in practice, most people simply don’t have those hours every day to spend with their budgie! The second budgie is the simple solution.

There is an exception to the rule and that is for people who buy a lone budgie as a companion and who have got all day to give attention to that lone budgie. In this case, the lone budgie will have its time well occupied and will usually be content and will also be doing a worthwhile job at the same time by being a loving companion to a lone person.

If you already have a lone budgie, we offer a free budgie matching service where we take your budgie and introduce it to a potential partner or two. We believe in letting your budgie make its own choice in life partners and it gives us great pleasure to hand you back two budgies that will be friends for life. You only pay for the new budgie, the service is free.

If you have a mature budgie that has lost a partner, PLEASE do not leave it too long before you introduce them to another partner, even in old age, budgies will re-bond quickly due to their instinctive social behaviour. A budgie that has lost its life partner, can grieve to the point of loss of appetite and eventual death. Get them introduced again as quickly as possible. We keep a supply of mature birds specifically for mature birds that have lost a partner.

When introducing a new partner, you will normally find it better to introduce one of the opposite sex. They tend to bond immediately and it’s lovely to see the budgie you love, find its own love with a partner of its own species. It won’t detract from their love of you and under all normal circumstances, they will not breed if there is no nest box provided.

In our opinion, the golden rule is, unless you can be with your budgie all day, PLEASE get it a friend – you will see the happiness in the birds and you will be very glad you did the right thing. If you have a lone budgie and you have the time to give your budgie all the time it needs and it appears happy and contented, there is no reason to change anything. Be proud of yourself for giving your budgie that much love.

If you are starting off with budgies for the first time, please buy two or more and experience the real pleasure of having ‘heavens angels’ entertaining you, doing acrobatics for you, showing off for you and giving back to you every ounce of love that you give them.

One last important point and this is very important, if you still prefer to start with a single budgie, please take your time to select one that is outgoing and lively in its character. A boy would be preferable as they tend to be slightly more dominant and this helps with the budgies transition to lone life. In our selection of 500 + budgies, there is always a great choice of budgies that stand out with their character and level of confidence and these will always give you the best chance of being successful in its transition to a lone life. The quiet one in the corner may look very cute and may be a great choice to go with a partner, but they do not do well by themselves and usually become very lonely very quickly.

In summary, be the best friend to your budgie and make sure it has a friend of its own kind for life. Look into your heart and let your budgie have a love of its own.