Hi all,
Nine days ago I adopted my first budgie, a roughly 5 month old male. He came from crowded and cramped conditions where I believe his only source of stimulation was the other budgies around him, but I stupidly bought him alone.
Since we got him, he seems to be adjusting alright ... by the second day he stopped reacting to me & my partner as predators, and started looking at us more like intimidating bigger birds he wanted to stay out of the way of. Which makes sense. We know we'll be taking it slow. By the end of last week he was grinding his beak before bed, chattering a little tiny bit sometimes ... but he's still very quiet most of the time, unless you engage with him/he feels lonely.
I've filled his cage with lots of things to discover: hidey hole, toys, sprigs of basil and coriander seeds for him to pick at. He has only investigated about half of what I've put in there. My partner and I always put on TV when we leave the house so he doesn't have to sit around in silence.
His cage is about 36" high, 18" wide, 11" deep. I'm realizing now that the amount of space he has is "the bare minimum" and I'd like to save up to get him a proper flight cage. Still, what I've provided him is significantly more than the space he shared with like 6 of his old flockmates...
We let him out of the cage a few times this past weekend as he started to get restless – once he returned by himself, 3 times we returned him there by having him perch on his food dish and then putting him back in, and then once it was a real pain to get him back in.
Before we let him out of the cage those few times, he spent a lot of time just running back and forth on the perch squawking, looking for other birds ... now that he knows he can get out of the cage through the bottom door, he just spends a lot of time desperately flying back and forth from perch to closed door, trying to get out.
My partner & I are usually away from home 9-5, and (as stated earlier) we always put on something for him to listen to while we're away. We are planning to familiarize him with a housemate who works from home, so he can have regular human company during the day as well.
I work and study very close to my home and can visit him during lunch/come home early a lot of the time. I did both of these things today. During lunch I came home and talked to him for 40 minutes; he seemed receptive and wasn't obsessing over the cage door. A couple hours after lunch, I came home early for him, but almost as soon as I got there and started talking to him, he started flying back and forth to the cage door. I let him out because I felt so bad for him – he just perched by the window where he had previously made contact with a sparrow on the weekend. I tried socializing with him during this time but he wasn't all that interested.
After an hour I put him back in and now he's been flying back and forth to the cage door over and over for 45 minutes. Nothing I do/say seems to distract him. I tried putting on budgie sounds, "relaxing music" etc.. Nothing helps or even changes the behaviour. I just let him out of the cage again. He hopped onto the table beside me, so he's clearly not scared of being near me, but then he went straight to the window. Then he makes circles around the room and goes back to the window over and over.
It breaks my heart to see him flying back and forth in his cage trying to get out. I feel like I am torturing this bird and driving him insane. I've seen so many conflicting things about whether or not a budgie can be satisfied by human contact. I know each one is different. Will he ever adjust? Do budgies who adjust to "lone budgie life" ever go through phases like this?
How long should we wait before we conclude that he is unable to adjust to solo budgie life and requires a companion? My partner would really like us to wait and see as long as we can before we get him a friend, but I feel like every day he goes without budgie contact is killing him inside ... I can't stand to do this to him. It hurts to see his desperation. I don't know how I could put him through another month or even another week of this, unless he starts adjusting to it.
I think it may also be the case that he feels insecure in his cage, from us coming so close to it rather early on & and rearranging the things a couple times this past week.
Does anyone else have some experience with budgies who struggled to adjust to solo life? How did you solve the issue? I feel so lost.
Thank you for all advice you can provide.
Update: This most recent time we let him out of the cage, he's a little more explorative... he's perched on my laptop and hung out on the coffee table where I'm typing. Then he went back to his cage to eat. We'll leave the door open tonight and see what happens. Maybe he'll be more receptive to bonding with us if we start leaving the cage door open whenever we're home? I wasn't expecting to give him so much free roam so early on, but if it will help with his mental health and help him bond with us, I'm more than happy to do so. He just landed on my arm without me prompting him or anything!! But then he went back to the window. Now he's tried landing on a pillow, and landing on the couch behind me. Is this a good sign?
Nine days ago I adopted my first budgie, a roughly 5 month old male. He came from crowded and cramped conditions where I believe his only source of stimulation was the other budgies around him, but I stupidly bought him alone.
Since we got him, he seems to be adjusting alright ... by the second day he stopped reacting to me & my partner as predators, and started looking at us more like intimidating bigger birds he wanted to stay out of the way of. Which makes sense. We know we'll be taking it slow. By the end of last week he was grinding his beak before bed, chattering a little tiny bit sometimes ... but he's still very quiet most of the time, unless you engage with him/he feels lonely.
I've filled his cage with lots of things to discover: hidey hole, toys, sprigs of basil and coriander seeds for him to pick at. He has only investigated about half of what I've put in there. My partner and I always put on TV when we leave the house so he doesn't have to sit around in silence.
His cage is about 36" high, 18" wide, 11" deep. I'm realizing now that the amount of space he has is "the bare minimum" and I'd like to save up to get him a proper flight cage. Still, what I've provided him is significantly more than the space he shared with like 6 of his old flockmates...
We let him out of the cage a few times this past weekend as he started to get restless – once he returned by himself, 3 times we returned him there by having him perch on his food dish and then putting him back in, and then once it was a real pain to get him back in.
Before we let him out of the cage those few times, he spent a lot of time just running back and forth on the perch squawking, looking for other birds ... now that he knows he can get out of the cage through the bottom door, he just spends a lot of time desperately flying back and forth from perch to closed door, trying to get out.
My partner & I are usually away from home 9-5, and (as stated earlier) we always put on something for him to listen to while we're away. We are planning to familiarize him with a housemate who works from home, so he can have regular human company during the day as well.
I work and study very close to my home and can visit him during lunch/come home early a lot of the time. I did both of these things today. During lunch I came home and talked to him for 40 minutes; he seemed receptive and wasn't obsessing over the cage door. A couple hours after lunch, I came home early for him, but almost as soon as I got there and started talking to him, he started flying back and forth to the cage door. I let him out because I felt so bad for him – he just perched by the window where he had previously made contact with a sparrow on the weekend. I tried socializing with him during this time but he wasn't all that interested.
After an hour I put him back in and now he's been flying back and forth to the cage door over and over for 45 minutes. Nothing I do/say seems to distract him. I tried putting on budgie sounds, "relaxing music" etc.. Nothing helps or even changes the behaviour. I just let him out of the cage again. He hopped onto the table beside me, so he's clearly not scared of being near me, but then he went straight to the window. Then he makes circles around the room and goes back to the window over and over.
It breaks my heart to see him flying back and forth in his cage trying to get out. I feel like I am torturing this bird and driving him insane. I've seen so many conflicting things about whether or not a budgie can be satisfied by human contact. I know each one is different. Will he ever adjust? Do budgies who adjust to "lone budgie life" ever go through phases like this?
How long should we wait before we conclude that he is unable to adjust to solo budgie life and requires a companion? My partner would really like us to wait and see as long as we can before we get him a friend, but I feel like every day he goes without budgie contact is killing him inside ... I can't stand to do this to him. It hurts to see his desperation. I don't know how I could put him through another month or even another week of this, unless he starts adjusting to it.
I think it may also be the case that he feels insecure in his cage, from us coming so close to it rather early on & and rearranging the things a couple times this past week.
Does anyone else have some experience with budgies who struggled to adjust to solo life? How did you solve the issue? I feel so lost.
Thank you for all advice you can provide.
Update: This most recent time we let him out of the cage, he's a little more explorative... he's perched on my laptop and hung out on the coffee table where I'm typing. Then he went back to his cage to eat. We'll leave the door open tonight and see what happens. Maybe he'll be more receptive to bonding with us if we start leaving the cage door open whenever we're home? I wasn't expecting to give him so much free roam so early on, but if it will help with his mental health and help him bond with us, I'm more than happy to do so. He just landed on my arm without me prompting him or anything!! But then he went back to the window. Now he's tried landing on a pillow, and landing on the couch behind me. Is this a good sign?