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C R E A T E A D |
Guys! I just bought a Parakeet! I've never had a bird before!
| #1 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 5:25 PM | |
 LaurenIs a Survivor    524 Posts 644 Achievements  
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 This shall be an adventure. I named him Mozart, although, I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. I'm trying to pin down his color variety. He was sold under the Blue Parakeet breed, but he's pure white, but I don't think he has red irises, they kind of look blue to me, but he may have the tiniest tiniest bit of yellowish-ness on his tail, but it could just be pee or dirt. Might be some kind of spangled, or something. I know nothing of parakeets. Educate me!  Tell me about your birds and any advice to get me off to a good start? I picked a parakeet because they are cheap and ranked beginner, while still being social. He's very quiet so far. He hasn't made a vocal sound at all. Not even at the pet store, but he looks healthy. He seems pretty chill. He got out in the car because everyone wanted to see him and he crawled onto my hand and let me put him back into the box, he was just lightly nipping at my finger. (I should probably add for clarification, that I do know how to care for parakeets, I just meant that i'm not an expert. I know there are multiple fan sites dedicated to the birds and they are a very popular breed. I apologize about the confusion, I had been going back and forth between a parakeet and a bearded dragon for awhile now and finally made the final decision today.) Last Edit by:
Lauren 8/19/12 - 5:51:31 pm
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| #2 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 5:39 PM | |
| Magic Is the Pumpkin King!  4,657 Posts 577 Achievements |
 I'd suggest reading up on how to care for them. Most libraries should have a pet section. I'm sure there are also online bird forums/communities out there that will have many people willing to offer you tips. Talking with the people you bought him from should give you info on at least what to feed him and what kinds of cage and toys he'll need. He's being quiet because he's being taken to a new environment and is nervous. He should start chirping as soon as he is settled in and comfortable with the new people in his life. If he gets really scared, putting a blanket over his cage in a quiet area should calm him down a bit.
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| #3 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 5:43 PM | |
| Lauren Is a Survivor 524 Posts 644 Achievements |
@Magic
Oh, I already know all that. I meant I don't know about colors or variations. I know all about nutrition and housing. I just know that a lot of people really get into that kind of stuff and would be able to better tell me. And you know, tell me their stories about how they kept their's. It's not like I just went out and randomly was like, "i'm bored, time to buy a bird."
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| #4 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 6:07 PM | |
| LonexWolf12 Subeta Luva  63 Posts 97 Achievements |
Quote By @Lauren:
GREAT choice for a birdie beginner! They're super easy to care for. Heads up- it doesn't cost much to get a friend or two for them. They're much happier if they have a friend in there with them. If you can find out the gender, you could get a mate for him/her. Be careful of open windows with any birdie. A good draft can kill a bird- likewise do not place them right under an air vent where cool air is to come out. Some birds like to bathe if you put a shallow bowl of water down for them, but they might just ignore it and poop in it xD. Keep handling the bird throughout its life, gently. Get him/her used to it. Some birds may regress to a more... wild attitude if not held a lot. I have a cockatiel right now that did that. We used to be able to hold her in the SHOWER- now she'll nip and hiss at us! Ever since she went into the birdie equivalent of "being in heat". A female bird may sometimes also lay an egg, however without fertilization from a male, the egg will never grow into anything. Never take a bird egg out until the bird has laid a full "nest" worth and figures out that they won't hatch. If you take them out before then, the bird will keep laying more, and really they could be in danger nutritionally if they keep at it, plus in danger of getting the egg stuck in them (happened to one of my birds, we think- a childhood pet, a parakeet named Rainbow). Give him/her a nice diet. Buy parakeet food, it isn't too expensive and the bird won't go through it quick. Change it maybe every two days, depending on how fast it eats and how fresh the food stays. Don't just feed it random fruits and veges- some of these are NOT good, may even be Toxic, to birds, so do your research before you fool around with the bird's diet any bit. Millet is a nice snack or treat. Does it have toys? They may like small bird mirrors and bells in the cage. Watch him over the next few days as he settles in. Try not to be too loud and scare him as he/she gets used to things. If the wings aren't clipped, be careful of him/her flying off out of the next open window or door. They're fast! We had our two in maybe a one foot by two feet cage, for most of their life. Get a cage that he/she can fly around a little in, stretch their wings. Aaaand... good luck with Mozart! Here is how to determine the gender, when he/she is old enough: http://www.budgieplace.com/mf.html Generally, male birds are more colorful or less drab than the females. Like a male bird may have a light, sky blue color while a female would have more of a dull blue. I grew up with a male (Neon) and a female (Rainbow) parakeet. The female was my "first pet", even though my mom mostly took care of them. Now I have the cockatiel (Hickory), and she drives me insane sometimes, trying to "talk" to me when I'm talking on the phone. But I still love her, even if she periodically tries to nip my hand off .Can we see pictures? Last Edit by:
LonexWolf12 8/19/12 - 6:14:58 pm
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| #5 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 6:19 PM | |
| Lauren Is a Survivor 524 Posts 644 Achievements |
@LonexWolf12
Thanks, I think he is male, he seems to have a light blue ceres, but I know there's no way to be absolutely sure unless you take him to the vet. I have a millet treat in the cage for him, at the moment, and I bought a nice bag of mixed parakeet food for him. I'm not really into feeding animals veggies and such unless I can find a reputable source that says it's ok, but i'll have to keep an eye on my mother, she...well, she likes to give food that she shouldn't. He has one toy so far, it's a long rope with all sorts of wooden blocks on it. It came with the cage because I bought a parakeet starter bundle. (It was cheaper and had all the brands/items I wanted anyhow.) I will eventually buy him a buddy, once he settles for a bit, I didn't want to be too over-whelmed off the bat. His wings aren't clipped, but he'll be fine. We don't really open windows that much and if we do let him out, it'll be in a room where we can close the door and super-vise him. Poor cocketiel. My grandma's is a rescue. He doesn't like to be touched at all and hates men. But he loves to sit on your shoulder. I like to pretend i'm a pirate when I visit her. xD
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| #6 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 8:59 PM | |
| Silverwolf The Gourmand  2,403 Posts 806 Achievements |
Ugh. Parakeets.... they say they're for beginners, but I have my doubts. I have a lot of pets with much more advanced needs, but parakeets.... I have yet to have one live for a year. I've had other birds before, like cockatiels and doves, and they've all lived for many years before passing. But the thing with parakeets is the fact that they have to be socialized a lot, otherwise they'll get nippy. And they are also very sensitive with just about everything. Temperature, humidity, food, etc., all of it is very particular. My mom and I have had about 4 parakeets in the past, and all of them died less than a year after we got them. They're too noisy too, our last parakeet was so loud that we had to put him on the front porch. He would squawk at any loud noises, and his squawks are very loud. Good luck, though. I might just be one of those people who has a tough time caring for beginner pets, whereas I'm great with advanced ones. Last Edit by:
Silverwolf 8/19/12 - 9:01:11 pm
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| #7 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 9:08 PM | |
| Lauren Is a Survivor 524 Posts 644 Achievements |
@Silverwolf
Aw, sorry to hear that. The socialization won't be too hard for me. I find it hard to leave cute animals alone. It's going to be hard abstaining to actually tame him properly. I'll have to yell at my mother, she's worse then me. I can see her walking around the house with the bird a lot. She already has my hamster, Rhino, following her around in his little ball. I've always have had luck with pets. Animals have always seemed to gravitate to me, so i'm hoping for the best. Have you tried putting a thin sheet over your bird cage? My grandma's cocketiel is the noisiest little bugger ever, but he shuts right up when he's in a sheeted cage? It tricks them into sleeping at night. What other pets do you have. If I may ask?
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| #8 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 9:18 PM | |
| Captain Is a Survivor  2,582 Posts 432 Achievements |
 You say you got a parakeet because they are cheap, but birds are actually pretty expensive to keep and require quite a bit of maintenance. Just make sure you know what's toxic to them- avocado, fumes from non-stick cookware, aerosols, etc. Keep the wings trimmed (sometimes they can get aggressive if they have too much freedom) and if you do decide to get a buddy for it, make sure they get along. We've had parakeets before, but one ended up killing the other. And always, always know where your bird is. I've heard too many stories of people sitting on them or closing doors on them. If you socialize it and keep it healthy, I'm sure it will be a good pet Besides our two parakeets, we've had a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (who we rehomed because he didn't like children) and a Blue-fronted Amazon (who we still have). They can be awesome pets as long as they're cared for properly. Like the others said, make sure you read up on everything c:
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| #9 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 10:57 PM | |
| Silverwolf The Gourmand 2,403 Posts 806 Achievements |
Yeah, the socialization isn't much of a problem if you have time to spend a lot of time with them. But my other animals require socialization too, and it's hard to have an animal that requires a lot of it when you have other animals. He's already pretty tame from what you said in your first post, most parakeets I find are horrible and will bite you if you hold them. Yeah, we had tried everything. We've had noisy birds before, so we know that trick, but that trick didn't do anything for him. Sheet or no sheet, if you dared to walk into the same room with him and just talk in a normal tone, he'd go crazy. He was waking me up a lot at night, so we had to put him outside like I mentioned. Even then you can still faintly hear him. I have two prairie dogs(not a type of dog.), a miniature horse, 6 doves in an aviary(We use to breed them, we had about 34 of them, but then my mom downsized to 12, and 6 of them managed to get out through a small hole in the cage that one of our rabbits made. They have just now started to breed again, it appears that there is only one female out of them all.), a rabbit, 5 fire-bellied frogs, a tortoise, a ferret, a Rough Green Snake, three different corn snakes, a ball python, a Shar Pei(A dog.), a Pekingese-mix(another dog.), and 4 cats. In the past we've had 4 other ferrets, 4 other rabbits, 4 parakeets, 2 cockatiels, 2 pheasants, 4 other miniature horses, dozens of other dogs, 2 other cats, a few dozen fish, 6 water turtles, 2 chameleons, a hamster, about 6 or so mice, uhh..... probably more animals that I can't remember.
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| #10 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 11:07 PM | |
| Lauren Is a Survivor 524 Posts 644 Achievements |
@Captain
Yeah, but compared to big birds, dogs, and even reptiles is more of what I was referring to, and don't forget, i'm on the younger side, so I don't have that many bills, I ended banking a lot of money. I was looking for something a bit more needy than my current pets. The most needy any of them get is my cat's flea baths. Yeah, my grandma has had birds bought for company that became hostile to each other, she ended up just buying another cage and separating them before anything got too out of hand. @Silverwolf Wow, I thought I had a lot animal with my goldfish, hamster, cat, and now bird. Guess not. xD
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| #11 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 11:22 PM | |
 Shayis a Time Lord  6,237 Posts 1,237 Achievements |
@Lauren
My mom used to have two parakeets. Pretty Bird, he was green, and Gracie, he was blue. They had to be in separate cages since they both hated each other. They both loved this tape I had of bird calls. Well, not so much when it got to the birds of prey part XD Gracie never would mimic but Pretty Bird did. We had neighbors who we suspected were raising fighting roosters. He started to crow not long after the people got the roosters. Thanks to that tape he did a full range of bird calls, hell even though he hated the hawk calls he did a really good red tailed hawk scream and would catwhistle at you. Only problem I remember was Pretty Bird hated the cuttle bone and those sandpaper like bar covers for their nails so we had to take him to the vet to get his beak and claws trimmed. Remember, pillage first then burn. |
| #12 :: August 19th, 2012 @ 11:26 PM | |
| Lauren Is a Survivor 524 Posts 644 Achievements |
@Fai
My grandma's bird mimics the phone so well that she thinks it's ringing sometimes. xD Pretty Bird obviously just thought that the vet made him a prettier bird than your mundane toys! 
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| #13 :: August 20th, 2012 @ 3:38 AM | |
| Silverwolf The Gourmand 2,403 Posts 806 Achievements |
Everybody says we should open a petting zoo or something xD We're pet lovers, and I especially love the more exotic animals(More specifically, not the common household pets like dogs and cats.), so needless to say we've managed to pick up a lot of animals. Caring for them is pretty hectic, to say the least.
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| #14 :: August 20th, 2012 @ 6:11 AM | |
| Patience is crazy about vending  5,019 Posts 694 Achievements |
   @Lauren - Congrats! I think birds are so pretty but I could never cope with the commitment to take care of one! Let alone have something (at my age) that will live for 20 years! I don't even know what I am doing in one year, let alone 20 xD I think it would be easier to get a dog lol 
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| #15 :: August 20th, 2012 @ 1:29 PM | |
| Aztec is Shady  4,043 Posts 604 Achievements |
 I certainly hope yours turns out better than the one my brother got lol. I can't stand the thing because all it does is sit in the catch and squawk. And flaps about if someone gets close.
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| #16 :: August 21st, 2012 @ 2:33 AM | |
| Jaygo Silly Spamming Sausage  256 Posts 196 Achievements |
 @Lauren Yaay! congrats on getting a parakeet! I used to have a couple of parakeets when I little but I was a bad owner and they either all flew away or died :c I really really love birds now, after caring for lovebirds for about two years. I actually cared for untamed lovebirds for a year, but when I found two stray lovebirds and kept them under my care, they laid eggs and there were chicks! So I decided to do some research about breeding lovebirds and took the chicks out of the nest box and took care of them at 3.5 weeks. I took care of three for the first time and they all grew up healthy and nice to humans! I have a thread somewhere under Chit Chat called "does your pet do funny things" talking about my lovebird, Beaky, so you can check him out what he looks like c: Anyways, as for advice, you should trying taming it or making him trust humans more. I read this in a very old book about taming lovebirds saying that you should start taming them at an early age, and I assume Mozart is still young. They have this method called "perching" and it's a good method to make your parakeet trust your hand more. It's recommended for your parakeet's wings to be clipped so they won't fly around to high places, but when I was taming my lovebirds, I didn't clip their wings because they didn't fly around as much. Maybe because they're still trying to learn fly so they much they could do then was glide across the floor xD. First you take out a perch and lightly push it under your bird's feet. He might be like "what the hell are you doing" and wooble around a bit, but just keep doing it and he'll get the idea. if he successfully gets on the perch, give him a treat! (I usually give millet spray because its "candy/chocolate" to most birds. Also try not to give himm millet spray too much because he may get spoiled) Do it couple of times with the perch and give the treat ever time he does it correctly. Once he knows what you're trying to do, use your finger next. Do the same thing you did with the perch, pushing your finger against Mozart's feet slightly so he can get the signal that you want him to get up on his finger. Again give him a treat when he gets up on the finger successfully. It may take a while, depends on your bird. Another way you can train your bird to like your hand is to handfeed his food. When I got my untamed lovebirds, they didn't like me so my brother told me not to give them food in the food dispenser thing and feed them with my hands later in the day. I did that and they ate from my hands! but that's the most what my lovebirds could do. They go on my hand when there's food xD But I feel like that's unhealthy for the bird, to starve them and then feed them later in the day. So maybe use this for birds who totally don't like you lol. Mozart seems like he accepts humans in a way so I don't think you wont have that problem. For his diet, try give him some fruit. Parakeets are part of the parrot family, and I believe they need fruits in their diet. Buy some dried fruit from your grocery store and cut them in small pieces. At PetCo they also have dried fruit for birds. Also, when I went to petco, they were feeding Conures (also part of parrot family) Papaya so that's another good kind of fruit to feed your parakeet probably. Hope my suggestions help! good luck with your Mozart! Hope he turns out to be a loving part of your family. Art Shop! | Art Payment Shop | DeviantArt
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