Hello everyone!
A few years ago, maybe 2 or 3, my family and I adopted 3 budgies that were rescued from a family who had young children and couldn't care for their budgies. They were very timid and scared of us, but they seemed very happy together after we bought them a very large cage with lots of perches for them to fly around on. We didn't know their exact age, except that they are probably over 8 years old. About 6-7 months ago, one of the budgies died without any warning. Luckily, it wasn't an infection, so the other birds were fine. In fact, they didn't even seem too upset about it because they had each other. They loved to fly around the room we have for them and groom each other. Yesterday, sadly, the second budgie passed away from natural causes after he had been acting funny and we took him to the vet. They didn't know what was wrong, but his diet was good and he didn't seem to have an infection or sickness.
Unfortunately, now there's only one budgie left. His name is Kiwi and he's pretty timid. He's always been the tamest of the three (if you slowly put your hand in he'll sit on your finger) and he likes to fly around outside of the cage. I moved his cage to my room because that's where I work 90% of the day and I don't want him to get lonely. He's still pretty scared of me and avoids being on the side of the cage next to me. He's eating and drinking well, especially enjoying the fresh veggies I gave him as a special treat. I'm worried that he'll get depressed because he doesn't seem to enjoy being around me. How do I make him feel more comfortable? I've been playing soft music for him because when I stop playing music he starts chirping extremely loudly. I think it's probably a communication chirp. I'm worried he'll start looking for his friend... He doesn't seem too distressed but he's definitely been circling the cage maybe looking for Mango (the other bird that passed). We didn't show him the dead body because we didn't know if the other bird was sick and we didn't want to make him ill or anything. Does he know what's going on?
As for taming, I'm not too interested in taming him. He seems very content exploring outside of his cage by himself and I feed him every morning so he knows that I'm a safe person. It would be great if he would play with me but I don't want to make him unhappy. As mentioned above, I sit as my desk 80-90% of my day working so he always has the option to come up to me. Should I encourage his taming more or will he be happier if I just let him do his own thing? Also, I go to college in the fall and I'm really worried about that too. Again, he's probably around 10-11 (at minimum) now so I doubt he'll live for that much longer and I want to make him as comfortable as possible.
Thanks again!
One last thing. His nails are really long and we've trimmed them before but I don't want to traumatize him now that he's alone. I'm not worried about the trimming because we've done it lots of times by ourselves with bird nail clippers safely. Should I wait to trim them until he's more comfortable being the only bird or will it not make a difference?
A few years ago, maybe 2 or 3, my family and I adopted 3 budgies that were rescued from a family who had young children and couldn't care for their budgies. They were very timid and scared of us, but they seemed very happy together after we bought them a very large cage with lots of perches for them to fly around on. We didn't know their exact age, except that they are probably over 8 years old. About 6-7 months ago, one of the budgies died without any warning. Luckily, it wasn't an infection, so the other birds were fine. In fact, they didn't even seem too upset about it because they had each other. They loved to fly around the room we have for them and groom each other. Yesterday, sadly, the second budgie passed away from natural causes after he had been acting funny and we took him to the vet. They didn't know what was wrong, but his diet was good and he didn't seem to have an infection or sickness.
Unfortunately, now there's only one budgie left. His name is Kiwi and he's pretty timid. He's always been the tamest of the three (if you slowly put your hand in he'll sit on your finger) and he likes to fly around outside of the cage. I moved his cage to my room because that's where I work 90% of the day and I don't want him to get lonely. He's still pretty scared of me and avoids being on the side of the cage next to me. He's eating and drinking well, especially enjoying the fresh veggies I gave him as a special treat. I'm worried that he'll get depressed because he doesn't seem to enjoy being around me. How do I make him feel more comfortable? I've been playing soft music for him because when I stop playing music he starts chirping extremely loudly. I think it's probably a communication chirp. I'm worried he'll start looking for his friend... He doesn't seem too distressed but he's definitely been circling the cage maybe looking for Mango (the other bird that passed). We didn't show him the dead body because we didn't know if the other bird was sick and we didn't want to make him ill or anything. Does he know what's going on?
As for taming, I'm not too interested in taming him. He seems very content exploring outside of his cage by himself and I feed him every morning so he knows that I'm a safe person. It would be great if he would play with me but I don't want to make him unhappy. As mentioned above, I sit as my desk 80-90% of my day working so he always has the option to come up to me. Should I encourage his taming more or will he be happier if I just let him do his own thing? Also, I go to college in the fall and I'm really worried about that too. Again, he's probably around 10-11 (at minimum) now so I doubt he'll live for that much longer and I want to make him as comfortable as possible.
Thanks again!
One last thing. His nails are really long and we've trimmed them before but I don't want to traumatize him now that he's alone. I'm not worried about the trimming because we've done it lots of times by ourselves with bird nail clippers safely. Should I wait to trim them until he's more comfortable being the only bird or will it not make a difference?