# First Budgie



## Klaki (9 mo ago)

Hello all,

On Friday I took home my first budgie. Before taking him home I did a lot of research to make sure I would give him the best possible home. We got him a nice size cage, he has plenty of water and seeds a few toys and everything he needs. 
We placed him in our living room as that's where we spend most of the time and is a nice, big and bright room so he can have his space even if we are in the room with him. He is eating in front of us, we still haven't seen him drinking but I am pretty sure he does drink when we are not in the room. We spend a lot of time in the room, some time just on the sofa watching TV and relaxing, but we also have a chair near his cage and 2-3 times a day we sit there just reading or listening to some music so he can get used to us. 

He spends a lot of time preening, scratching and ruffling his feathers but the temperature in the room is comfortable and he's not in a draft. Is it possible that he is melting? He should be around 12 weeks old.

Also, he seems to be calling all the time, both when we are in the room and when we are not. Sometimes in the evening he does little chirps and he seems to be grinding but most of the times he just do loud calls even when we whistle, talk or sing for him. Does this mean that he is unhappy? If so, what can I do to make him happy? We want to tame him so he can come out of the cage when we are home, but it's way too early now.

Thank you!


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Hi, Welcome to Talk Budgies!

The purpose of this forum is to promote the BEST PRACTICES in the care of budgies for their optimal Health and Well-Being*
*Locating an Avian Veterinarian*

*Congratulations on your new little friend! It sounds like you simply have a vocal little budgie. He may calm down a bit over time.
What have you named him?
If you post pictures, we can let you know if he has started molting at this time. 12 weeks of age would be normal for a molt.

Budgies generally have a first light molt at around 3 - 4 months old and another at 6 -7 months old.
When a budgie reaches at 1 year old their molts adjust to the Seasons., After the adjustment the budgie will have its big molts in the Spring and Fall. Budgies may also have lighter molts throughout the year; triggered by stress, change in diet or change in environment.

You can supplement your budgie’s diet with egg food during a molt.
This helps your budgies replenish the energy lost during the time they lose and grow in the new feathers.
Additionally, egg food promotes good and healthy feather growth.
It is possible to buy ready-made egg food at any specialized pet store but just as easy to make your own by hard boiling an egg and mashing it up.
If you wish you can mix it with a bit of cooked quinoa and flax seed.
You can also finely chop some veggies and add it to the egg food mix.
If your give your budgie cooked quinoa, be sure you rinse it well several times before cooking.

Budgies get itchy during their molt, so they'll preen and scratch more often. Additionally, they may be sleepier and quieter as molting takes a lot of energy, and their poop could be a little runnier. To make them more comfortable, you can offer them baths either in a shallow dish of water (or Lix-It bath) or by hanging wet greens (romaine lettuce or kale works best) in their cage so they can nibble on it and rub against them.

Molting FAQs*
*Miserable Molting*


*A Healthy Diet for your Budgie*
*Quality Seed Mix*
*CuttleBones, Mineral Blocks and Manu Clay Roses*
*Safe Foods for Budgies*
*The Truth about GRIT*

*Please take the time to read through the Site Guidelines, the FAQs, the Budgie Articles and all of the Stickies located at the top of each section of the forum.*
*Truly, the very BEST advice anyone can offer you is to take the time to read ALL of the stickies throughout the various Talk Budgie forums as well as the Budgie Articles we have posted.
(Stickies are threads “stuck” at the top of each forum sub-section)
These are great resources for Talk Budgie members and have a wealth of reliable information which will assist you to learn the best practices in caring for your budgies for their optimal health and well-being.*

*SITE GUIDELINES*
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*Let's Talk Budgies!*
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*A Heartfelt Plea to All Members*
*Tips For Discouraging Breeding*
*Before You Ever Consider Breeding Your Budgies*
*Guidance for Breeding Advice Threads*
*Cage sizes.*
*Essentials to a Great Cage*
*Dangers to Pet Birds*
*Resource Directory*


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## Klaki (9 mo ago)

Hi FaeryBee,
Thank you for you reply 

I'm relief to hear that he might just be very vocal, I want to give him the best possible life and was worried I wasn't doing a good job. Last night and this morning it seems that he is singing rather than calling, so it probably is just me over-worrying. 

I attached a couple of photos, not the best but he seems really scared of phones and gets really nervous if I get close to the cage with it in my hand. He seems ok when we get close to change his water and food and clean the cage, but when we try to take a picture he goes mad.

After changing idea for a few times we decided to call him Gennaro


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## Deemac00 (Oct 18, 2021)

Im not expert but you might want to call it Genna as he looks like a SHE lol but the others will be able to tell you for sure but she\he is sooooooooo cute 🧡 wishing you many years of happiness welcome to the group.


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

I agree that Gennaro is a beautiful female. The brownish color on the cere is typical of a female that is becoming hormonal. I do not see any pinfeathers to indicate an active molting period but it does appear that she has already been through her first molt as I do not see any baby bars on her head, a more clear closeup picture of her would be helpful.


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## Klaki (9 mo ago)

Oh, that took us by surprise! We got her from a family run pet shop in town that was highly recommended to us so we trusted them completely when they told us it was a boy around 12 weeks old. Is she a lot older?

We changed her name to Janine as is sounds a little like Gennaro and she sounds like the Janine from Ghostbusters 😂

Is there anything different we should now we know she's a girl? We have a pretty big bowl for her seeds and I read that females might use that for nesting, so we are looking to change it with a different style one. Anything else?

Thank you


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Hi there and welcome to the forums! 

Janine is an adorable little girl  I would say looking at the photos she's been through her first moult but hasn't gotten her irises yet; she appears to not have yet developed her iris rings. Is that true to what you see in person, too? If so she's probably around 8 months, +/- a month or so. 

To be honest, owning a single female budgie is frequently not much different than owning a single male budgie since it's really not good for either gender to have potential "nesting sites" or hiding places. Females do tend to chew more than males though; often when in condition they go through shredding toys or cuttlebones really fast. 

Here's a link you may find helpful! 









Common Myths about Female Budgies


Although it is not their fault that they have heard these things, people sometimes believe certain things about their female budgies because of the amount of myths perpetuated by other websites, pet stores, etc. that female budgies somehow make lesser pets than males. This is completely untrue...




www.talkbudgies.com





Meanwhile you've come to a great place to learn even more about the best of budgie care practices. 

Please be sure to read through the forums' many other budgie articles and "stickies" to be sure you're up to date on everything! If you have any questions after doing so please be sure to ask as we'd love to help  

Hope to see you around!


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Janine is a lovely name for your beautiful little girl!

I would suggest you remove the wooden dowel perches in the cage and replace them with natural wooden perches of varying diameters to help prevent pressure sores.
Pressure Sores
Bumblefoot
The information in this link will give examples of better options for perches:
Essentials for a Great Cage
*


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## Klaki (9 mo ago)

Thank you everyone, apologies for not replying sooner!

Janine is doing good  She's a funny little budgie and it seems she is settling in nicely. She loves 70s disco music and sings with us when we put the radio on or when we watch a film with music in it, she's getting more comfortable with us being close and she's finally playing with her toys!

Her eyes are all black so she must be around the 8 months suggested, this morning I could see also some pin feathers on her head so I think she is going through her second moult. I tried to give her some egg or other veggie but she doesn't seem too keen on trying any new food so I will try to mix some flaxseed to her normal seeds. We also tried to give her a bath but nothing worked yet, she doesn't go near the bath at the bottom of the cage and she doesn't touch the water in the bird bath by the cage door, this morning I tried to hang some wet lettuce and instead of bathing she gave it a couple of bites (which is still good so she at least tried some new food). I ordered online a lix-it bath so let's see if that works better! 

I changed the perches to all natural ones now. The book I read to be prepared before taking her home it said to give them a mix of natural and wooden perches so at first we put both in the cage.


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