# Am I overreacting to show budgie breeders?



## Jesska (Apr 24, 2018)

I recently joined a budgerigar society facebook, and of course there is a lot about breeding show budgies. But recently there have been some really upsetting posts for me. Mostly breeders showing off the birds hatched this year, and tons of them are in show cages, and I've seen up to 10 birds in one show cage literally trying to climb over each other to just not get buried. No one in the comments raises any concerns and this seems very normal in the circle. Lots of birds crammed into these show cages with just two small dowel perches and some food at the bottom. This is really upsetting for me to see and I had to leave the group.

Am I over-reacting because I don't know much about the show budgie scene? I'm sure the budgies are in the show cages for just a short while to get 'sorted' but just seeing them like that was upsetting.

Would love any thoughts. :>


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*I have problems when I see or read about things like that as well. :hug:

I make a conscious choice to avoid Facebook and other sites that are not devoted to promoting only "Best Practices" for the health and well-being of budgies.

Unfortunately, we can't change the world. 
Talk Budgies hopes that by educating our members they will make the choice to follow best practices.

Everyone reading this thread should keep in mind that our Site Guidelines prohibits posts describing budgies being mistreated, abused or kept in poor conditions.

Please do not post additional comments regarding pet stores or other situations where there are too many birds in one cage.*


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## CaptainHowdy (Feb 9, 2010)

It sounds likely that they were just in the cages for the pictures to be taken. Particularly if these are chicks they are taking pictures of.

I don't know of any breeder personally who keeps their birds in a show cage for an extended period of time. They are only in then for training shows and pictures. After that they have aviaries they go back into.


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## RavensGryf (May 8, 2015)

As Amelia mentioned, they aren’t “kept” in show cages, and is temporary. In the world of showing animals, the ways are often “old school” and even more so in smaller non-mammal animals, there is not always the same viewpoint as a pet owner’s. The focus is more on being bred for a purpose, rather than the focus on giving the animal the best as a pet... a member of the family. Still, because they aren’t kept permanently in the show cages, it’s not the same as “abuse”. 

As mentioned above, please do not go off topic and mention similar conditions that we’ve all seen in pet shops, etc. Thanks


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