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The median lifespan for a budgie would be +/- 10 years but that's with ideal conditions. Some have reached the ripe old age of 15, but that would be rare. Five to eight years would be more "normal".
The two most important factors for ANY kept bird are diet and exercise. Diet is particularly important to prevent fatty tumors, obesity, etc. As birds are far, far more sensitive to pesticides/herbicides, etc. than, for example, we are - "ideal conditions" include an organic diet.
Good perches to prevent arthritis, plenty of flying time, controlling the ambient temperature/humidity when necessary and exposure to UV light would also all be very important. As is you spending time with him too of course.
Don't forget that birds need UV and normal household windows block those rays out. Secure access to the sun is ideal, but if you live somewhere too cold for them to be outside in the winter, special UV lights can be purchased.
I agree with much of what has been written, but I do take issue with flying time. Birds need exercise time, but I am a strong proponent of pet birds having their wings clipped, (by a professional groomer or avian vet, until you learn how to properly do them yourself if you choose). This means absolutely no flying. You will find many people have differing opinions on this matter.
There are many dangers to having a bird fly. There are open toilets where birds can drown, sinks perhaps with soaking pots, stoves which may have a hot pot or surface, ceiling fans which can quickly decapitate them, refrigerators for them to fall behind, doors which are inadvertently opened when someone walks in or out, (allowing a flighted bird the opportunity to make a quick getaway - it only takes seconds), other household pets, ie dogs, cats who may think the bird is "chicken dinner", indoor plants (some of which are toxic to birds), mirrors and clean windows, to name just a few flight hazards. (Birds do not know what mirrors or windows are. They see right through windows to the outside and wind up flying full speed and crashing into them.) There have been many pet birds who have flown right into walls, because they hadn't learned how to stop or turn properly, resulting in permanent injuries to the birds (ie seizures and/or paralysis) and even death. There have also been reports of birds pecking at electrical cords, which is another safety hazard.
Instead, allow your properly clipped bird to sit upon your index finger and secure its feet in place with the thumb of your same hand. VERY GENTLY AND SLOWLY, move your hand up and down a short distance. Your bird will open his/her wings and flap in enjoyment and also get needed exercise. This also helps provide some of the human interaction it needs.
I am also not a big fan of allowing a bird to sit outside for sunlight. There are many predatory birds which fly over, as well as stray animals. They can knock a cage, (especially a budgie sized cage), to the ground very quickly. I am always so very sad when I hear this has happened. The bird either gets hurt/killed in the knock down, the cage door flies open during the fall or the door is pawed open, and the bird either flies off or is consumed for dinner by the predator. Even with a human sitting right beside it, one would need to be careful and give it utmost attention. There have been many reports of this sort of thing happening even on upper floor balconies, so even they're not safe enough for inattention either.
Your birds do, however, require "sunlight". As was mentioned, there are lights which can be purchased to simulate "real" sunlight. Sunlight is important for the production of Vitamin D in your birds, which is essential for the utilization of calcium.
Proper nutrition is a key component to the health and longevity of your birds. In addition to choosing a fortified seed mix or pellets, (I am a big fan of pellets), select something which has natural coloring such as beet juice added, rather than artificial coloring and additives. Your budgies can also eat oats and millet, often included in a seed mix. Millet can be purchased in "sprays" which you can attach inside the cage to be pecked at as a healthy and fun treat. A daily selection of fresh fruits and vegetables is a healthy dietary addition. Some fresh foods that budgies often enjoy include carrot tops, sprouts, strawberries, kale, apples, broccoli, and most dark, leafy greens. When you feed lettuces to your budgies. avoid those that are mostly water, such as iceberg and cabbage. These light colored, watery greens don't offer much in the way of nutrition. Stick with the dark green/purple lettuces which are full of nutrients. Also, always take any left-overs of fresh foods out of the cage after a few hours so that it does not go bad inside the cage. When offering fresh foods to your budgies, go for variety in choices and presentation and experiment to see what your budgies like. In other words, try many different kinds of fresh foods, and offer them in different ways. You can clip chunks, (ie melon, corn-on-the-cob, apple, etc.) in the cage, or pierce them with a skewer made for pet birds. You can clip wet greens to the side of the cage, hang them from or twist them through a favorite toy, or just hang them from the top of the cage. You can offer sprouts in a treat cup or on top of the seeds. You can chop up/shred different foods (ie broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, bell peppers, etc.), to make a birdy salad and put it in a treat cup or bowl in the cage. You can even offer favorite foods from your hand. Variety in choices will ensure your budgie receives complete and balanced nutrition, and variety in choice and presentation will keep him interested in fresh foods and in trying new fresh foods. Your birds may enjoy sharing your morning bowl of oatmeal cereal (no sugar added!) or sitting on the side of a bowl of room temperature vegetable soup and sharing it with you - just make sure the bowl isn't deep enough for them to drown in. (Of course, they may decide to bathe in it while they're there, but that's a risk you run. LOL.) Birds on seed only diets have much shorter lifespans than birds on healthy diets which include fresh fruits and vegetables. There are several foods which you should never feed your pet birds, because they are toxic to them. These include avocado, chocolate, rhubarb, coffee and other caffeinated and carbonated beverages. Please do a quick search on the net for a comprehensive list of them.
Budgies also need to be supplied with a cuttle bone and mineral block at all times. These provide important minerals and calcium. Some budgies prefer one over the other; some like to tear them apart and some like to use them as perches. They should always be available, even if your budgie doesn't seem to touch them. Ask your avian vet if you should supplement your bird's diet with birdy vitamins.
Pet birds also need to be afforded adequeate bathing opportunities, to encourage preening and keeping their feathers in good condition. It also helps relieve itching when they are molting. Some birds enjoy going into the shower with their humans, others prefer to bathe in a shallow bowl of water, others still prefer being misted, and some don't like the water at all. With trial and error, you will find which your birds prefer. Birds require lukewarm water - not hot and not cold - which may not be your shower preference, so keep that in mind if you take your birds into the shower with you.
I wish you good luck and happiness with your pet birds
Birds were designed to fly, end of. It's their mode of transport. They were NOT designed to walk any great distance.
ALL of what you cite as dangerous is dangerous of course - but having said that, it is also ALL very easily avoidable and preventable. Any owner who doesn't take proper precautions (draw the curtains/lower the blinds/mark the windows with stickies, birds to be supervised while flying) has only him/herself to blame.
Ref the outdoors - again I disagree. The UV lights - while they serve a purpose of course - are no replacement for what the bird experiences outside (in terms of mental stimulation) and also is a far cry from natural UV light. It's my understanding that even the best bulbs only provide a fraction of what the bird would receive under natural circumstances. My avian vet's opinion was always that an hour outside was worth six to eight of a UV lamp. For small birds like budgies, building a safe outside enclosure is easy and inexpensive. Yes, birds do freak out when a raptor flies overhead - but a simple roof covering or throw on the top of the cage sorts that out. And no, obviously birds should never be out in anything but a secure area and no, putting the bird out and the owner buggering off for the day is also a very bad idea. A little common sense goes a long way.
But most importantly there's the issue of behavioural/psychological problems developing as a result of wing clipping. (One can liken it to declawing cats.) At the end of the day you are removing, for your OWN benefit and not that of the bird, both the birds natural defense system (to bugger off) as well as it's natural way of getting from A to B. This isn't just "find the most obscure article on the internet and cite it" - it's very well documented. It's far, far more fruitful for an owner to take the time to train the bird to minimize risks as well as to make the room or area bird-proof. It's hardly rocket science.
A good diet is probably the most important thing. Keep his life interesting with toys (no toys with strings on them) and interaction with you. If he is tame you can hold it and pet it and even train it to do tricks. Make sure if your bird is out, whether its wings are clipped or not, that all windows have curtains shut. Birds naturally fly towards the light and do not realize a window is there and hit it and die. Do not use oven cleaner anywhere near where the bird is. Do not use overheated teflon coated pans/pots near the bird or overheated oil in a pan. Air fresheners, potpourri, scented candles, aerosols, pine scented sprays/cleaners, fabic protector sprays etc., should not be used around your bird. Do not leave your bird near a draft of any kind as well. Be very careful what houseplants you have around your house as many can be poisonous if the bird ate any of it. Also, do not ever feed your bird avacado, chocolate, coffee or salt.
Birds were designed to fly, end of. It's their mode of transport. They were NOT designed to walk any great distance.
ALL of what you cite as dangerous is dangerous of course - but having said that, it is also ALL very easily avoidable and preventable. Any owner who doesn't take proper precautions (draw the curtains/lower the blinds/mark the windows with stickies, birds to be supervised while flying) has only him/herself to blame.
Ref the outdoors - again I disagree. The UV lights - while they serve a purpose of course - are no replacement for what the bird experiences outside (in terms of mental stimulation) and also is a far cry from natural UV light. It's my understanding that even the best bulbs only provide a fraction of what the bird would receive under natural circumstances. My avian vet's opinion was always that an hour outside was worth six to eight of a UV lamp. For small birds like budgies, building a safe outside enclosure is easy and inexpensive. Yes, birds do freak out when a raptor flies overhead - but a simple roof covering or throw on the top of the cage sorts that out. And no, obviously birds should never be out in anything but a secure area and no, putting the bird out and the owner buggering off for the day is also a very bad idea. A little common sense goes a long way.
But most importantly there's the issue of behavioural/psychological problems developing as a result of wing clipping. (One can liken it to declawing cats.) At the end of the day you are removing, for your OWN benefit and not that of the bird, both the birds natural defense system (to bugger off) as well as it's natural way of getting from A to B. This isn't just "find the most obscure article on the internet and cite it" - it's very well documented. It's far, far more fruitful for an owner to take the time to train the bird to minimize risks as well as to make the room or area bird-proof. It's hardly rocket science.
While I agree that birds were "designed to fly", I must point out that they were not designed to live in captivity. Therefore, modifications are needed to ensure their safety in captivity and IMO having their wings clipped is one way to do this. While it is also true they were not designed to walk great distances, in captivity their humans become their primary mode of transportation.
I also agree that common sense goes a long way and many dangerous situations are avoidable and preventable. However, that is making an assumption that everyone who shares a home with a bird is equally diligent. It is not uncommon for one person to be the bird keeper, while the rest of the household simply tolerates or enjoys the birds qualities, but does not participate in their care. In other words if Johnny is the bird keeper, it may not prevent his sister Jane from suddenly opening the front door without warning, nor may it prevent Mom from starting dinner on the stove or Dad from letting the dog inside. It also makes the assumption that everything was checked 100% of the time before letting the birds out to fly. Most of us, even with diligence, aren't 100% perfect, nor do we always have the time to cover the mirrors, etc., making it less time the birds get to spend out of its cage, rather than more. It is not an option to remove interior walls to prevent an unskilled flyer from flying head on into them, so not all flying hazards are preventable even with care. With clipped birds, these issues are minimized if not completely negated and the birds can enjoy the maximum amount of out of cage playtime available.
It has also been my experience that birds enjoy playing on playstands, which could be anything from safe, chewable wood to PVC pipe. (There are lists of which woods are bird-safe and bird toxic on the net.) They also enjoy perching near their "flock". Many of these perches and playstands are portable, to go easily from room to room. This allows your birds to sit beside the table at meal time, be in the family room during tv or game time, etc. A flighted bird will be unable to enjoy these opportunities to spend time with everyone, which is very important for their emotional health.
I have never encountered birds having behavioral/psychological problems from proper wing clipping, but I have encountered many birds with those types of problems from insufficient flock (human) interaction and/or out of cage time.
I agree that six hours of artificial sunlight would be a fair equivalent to one hour of natural sunlight, however, I respectfully disagree that covering a cage helps solve outdoor problems, as you suggest. The only thing that would do is block the sunlight one was attempting to provide, thus negating the purpose of the birds being outside. Additionally, while a cover may prevent an overhead predator from seeing the birds, it does nothing to stop stray cats or rodents, the latter of which can smell bird food very, very far away. Lastly, birds remain healthiest in the absence of drafts and with slowly adjusting temperature differences, meaning that it will not be often that it is 70 degrees F and calm outside when your indoor temperature is 70 degrees F (or whatever).
I stand by my assertions that all pet birds should have their wings properly clipped and should be provided with adequate artificial sun light.
Last edited by CheyDee; 11-13-2009 at 02:23 PM..
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