I Inherited My Mom's Budgie, Tweetie
 

When my mom passed away in November, I inherited Tweetie. I don't know anything about birds, so I may have a lot of questions as I go along. I don't know how old he is. Mom used to have 2 birds together and they just paid attention to each other. The other bird pretty much dominated Tweetie. About 3 years ago the other bird died and Tweetie has become much more social since. I give him fresh seed (budgie mixture) every morning along with a pinch of dried field greens. He has a cuttle bone, fine sandy gravel with white flakes in it (looks like small flakes of cuttlebone) and I bought him a honey/fruit/seed bar. I also change his water every morning and change the paper in the bottom of his cage twice a week. He loves 50/60's era music on the TV and chirps quite happily along with it. Is there anything else I should be giving him? He's never been loose out of the cage, so I haven't taken him out. His wings are not clipped and I'm afraid he might panic if I do so. I'm also afraid one of the dogs would grab him or he might fly afoul of the ceiling fan. He does seem active and happy. How long do Budgies live? Mom said he was old, but he seems healthy and happy.

Budgies are adorable! I"m glad this one found a new and loving home with you!

You don't mention that he has any toys? Budgies are intelligent and active and need playtime. He should have a big long cage, and some natural tree branches in it to climb around on. You can hang toys from it too.

You can try giving him a few fresh romaine lettuce leaves as well. Budgies don't usually eat much in the way of fruits or even veggies, but you can try different ones to see if there is something he likes.

Something they do love is sprouted grass seeds. Grow some grass in a pot. When the grass grows long enough to go to seed, water it and put the pot in the cage! Just make sure of course that the seed contained no pesticides or herbicides!:)

When I had a budgie, he loved looking and kissing the mirror that was in his cage.

He does have a tall cage, 16" diameter, with several wooden perches at different levels. There are a couple small branches but he seems to prefer the round wooden dowel-like perches. He has a small mirror attached to the side of the cage and another small, 2-sided mirror hanging from a small chain. There's a small swing, but I haven't seen him sit on it. He does like to play with the little bell that is attached to the bottom of it. He can just stretch far enough to reach it. His water container is large enough for bathing and he seems to enjoy that. His cage is sitting on one side of a bay window and he can look out into the backyard. I cover the top part of the cage at night and he seems to sleep on the top perch. Like I mentioned before, he loves 50's/60's music. He'll chirp right along with it and really starts scolding whenever the announcer starts talking. He can be quite messy. I attached a sheet of heavy clear plastic around the bottom 10" high. It seems to keep most of the seed from falling outside the cage. I wouldn't have thought of the Romaine leaves. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks!

The trouble with tall narrow cages is that birds fly back and forth and not up and down like helicopters. I wish pet stores would stop selling these cages!

A bird who never gets out of the cage needs room to exercise inside the cage.

Be careful giving much lettuce to any bird,often causes diarhea romaine is the best.try small pieces of different types of fruit most love orange,apple in general most things that are healthy for a person are great for birds.there are a few exceptions such as avacado which is toxic.It often takes a while for a bird to try something new so even if they don't eat first time you try replace with a fresh piece daily most of the time they will try it after a while.