I'm thinking of getting a parakeet sometime before x-mas i have a few questions about to do and expect...?

Question

This is going to be my first parakeet, i've always stuck to dogs,cats,hamsters,mice, and rabbits. I'm getting it from Petco is this a reliable place? Any thing I should be aware of within the first couple weeks or days that i have it. Is it ok to put its cage by the window? should I cover up it's cage with a blanket? Can I feed them things like cheerios and other small snacks? Any other advice relating to my questions or completely random advice is very helpful!!!
Thanks

Answer 1

Budgies and cockatiel make ideal pets! There is nothing more delightful than a finger tame pet bird, but to achieve this, much time and patience is needed. A bird is much easier to tame when it is kept on its own,but if your fami;ly are out all day then it may be kinder to introduce another bnird of its own kind, as both are gregarious birds by nature.

To sex a budgie of over three months of age, the cere (band of flesh across the top of the budgies beak) will have turned blue for a cock or brown for a hen.For cockatiels it is slightly harder to sex young birds as they are very similar until they have gone through the first moult. Cocks will show no bars under the tail where females will display darker horizontal bars under the tail, that is not quite so clear on lutinos ,females will have yellow bars but males will not. Canaries cannot be sexed by outward apearance, cock birds will sing and hens will not. Cock birds moved to a new enviroment may caese to sing and can take up to six weeks to settle in and start to sing again so unfortunatley there is no easy way to sex canaries.

Care:- Birds should always be housed in a roomy cage in an enviroment free from draughts and excessive smoking. Also reasonable constant temperature is needed away from windows and a room with a fire when lit gets hot, then suddenly cold when then fire goes out, this is not really suitable.

Diet:-a good qualityclean dust free seed is a must, and remember the bird swallows the kernel/seed and leaves the shelled husk, so the seed dish must be emptied and refilled each day. They enjoy millet on a spray, but a limited amount as it is extremley fattening. A dish of fine bird grit should alwats be available as this aids digestion, alsso a piece of cuttle fish bone for calcium, and a mineral block, fresh greens in very small quantities such as lettuce, dandelion, chickweed and apple, all must be well washed.
TOO MUCH GREENS CAN CAUSE DIAHOREA!

Bathing:-Most bird relish an occasional bath which helps tone them up and keep the feathers ingood condition. A dish of warm water inthe cage or amanufactuered bird bath, whuch fits on th outside of the cage on the door opening will serve the pupose well., Remember to bath the bird early enough to dry out before roosting for the night.

Moulting:- is when the birds looses its feather gradually, at the same time new feathers wil appear. This usually in the months before the breeding season. A moulting tnic can be given at this time ti aid growth of new feathers.

Toenails:- overgrown claws need to be clipped but great care needs to be taken not to cut into the blood vein that runs into the nail if necessary take the bird to a vet. A concrete perch in the cage can prevent over grown claws by wearing them down constantly.

Mites:- cause itching and loss of weight, thse are usually Red Mite and a spray especially for birds is available. If at any time your bird seems unwell, loss of appatite, listless and feathers flufed up, keep it warm in the region 80 derees farenheit and get help from a vet. Covering at night where a room is adequatley warm but once the practice is started it should not be stopped as birds like routine and not change!

Cage Flooring:- It is natural for birds to chew and sand sheet can get shredded. Please be careful as I have lost bird with problem from eating sand sheets. Sand glued to paper is not a natural product and I don't like to use it and don't recomend it I recomend loose sand or wood chip for flooring as this is clean and absorbent as well as a natural product.

Answer 2

Petco is okay, but make sure you're getting a young bird - the older they are, the harder they are to tame and train. In the feathers just above his beak, there should be no stripes. Also, the beak should be light in color and not dark. If it has few feathers, this usually means it is a pretty young bird.

When you take it home, the best thing you can do (this is going to sound really weird) is get in a dark closet with it and sit on the floor with the bird perched on your finger. You should talk to it and stroke its feathers. The reason for the dark closet is that since it can't see it won't fly off your finger. You should do this a few times a day for several days in a row. Before too long, the bird will be 'finger-tame' and won't be afraid of you anymore.

You can put the cage by the window if it isn't drafty there. Cover the cage with a blanket at night and uncover in the morning. You should stick with bird food and bird treats unless you read on a parakeet website that there are specific other foods you can give them.

You can teach it to talk, too - it's all in repetition. Teach him to make kiss sounds first - by kissing him on the beak. Then teach him how to whistle. And so it goes - 'hello' is a good first word. Good luck!

Answer 3

Petco should be just fine, they have laws and rules that they must adhere to for selling birds and animals.

Shannon, was on the right lines, however the younger that the parakeet you select is, will have black edges to the feather all the way to the beak, for this reason we exhibitors call them barheads and thet lose this effect after their first mould to fully grown.

The fleshy area above the beak should be more pinky with a bluish tinge if you want a male to teach to talk.

Go into the store with a mind what colour you want, be it blue or green series, I would then study the birds to select which one you feel you want, the bird to select should be lively, not hudled in a corner, but not aggressive to the other birds around it, When you first get your pet bird in his cage I would leave him in it a few days and talk to it through the cage gently to reasure it,
Putting the bird by the window is OK but I would mostly advise against it,
A: windows are areas of draughts, which is one of the biggest causes of sick birds,
B: if it gets too hot when you are out or at school it could also be bad for the bird.
Select an area which would not be affected by large temperature changes and just any cloth to put around the cage is fine.
After your bird settles in I would start basic finger training in the cage, from pearch to your finger
I would not feed it the snacks you suggest until you finger train it, and he flys to you outside the cage, then you will find out that what you eat he wants to try.
I had a pet parakeet who loved soda and baked beans.
Have fun with you bird, look after it and you will be rewarded with lots of fun and laughter at the anticks of it.

Answer 4

yeah they are nice bird to watch and if u play with it alot u can get it nice but it not a bird that will talk all the time i got some cockatiel and they are the best u can play with them and teach them how to talk + they live longer then a parakeet i mean dont get me wronge but i have a parakeet to and when i try to play with him i allways lose it lol but yeah dont put it by the window to long it can get to warm and the blankket at night is a good idea it clams it down and makes it quite , the food well its a little bird so i would'nt be giveing it like cheerios but get a book u can give it lot of food that u neaver think, and ask the pet place what to feed it to they should know and give u lots of help oh yeah if u want to tell if its a girl or boy the best way is look at there beak look ablove it theres like it noes or something it will have a color maby a dark blue or pinkish well blue/purple= boy pinkish=girl and the darker it is that means the older it is so get one that has a light beak it will probly live longer cause it is younger and i would put some mirrows in the cage they like to sing to it and other ramdon stuff or get to bird well if u have any more question just e-mail me ok [e-mail] - i love aniamals and had like everyone and i am only 14 i know kinda crazy i know so much but yeah your welcome hope this helps

Answer 5

Ummm you're only 14 years old and you were madly in love with someone? Oh, come on. Don't get circumcised just because some stupid 14 year old girl was grossed out by your penis. When I was 14 I probably would've been grossed out too, (largely because I had never seen a penis up-close and would've been a bit scared in general), but also because the only penises I'd ever seen were health book diagrams in which the penis looked circumcised). When you are older and with older women, you will really appreciate having a whole penis, and you will be much more likely to find a girl who is informed about how normal and non-dirty an intact penis is. Btw, 14 year olds should not be playing doctor, in my opinion.

Answer 6

petco birds are fine. make sure you get a young parakeet. you can tell because they have lines on their heads, and the closer the lines are to the beak, the younger the bird is. (it's kind of like a receding hairline when they get older :D) you might want to cover its cage up with a blanket to insure darkness for your bird. you can feed them cheerios, but don't feed them anything salty or citrussy. so oranges and pretzels are a definite no-go. my parakeet likes lettuce and apple. parakeets love music, too. not screamo or heavy metal though. things are illedgedly 10 times louder for a parakeet (i'm not so sure about that), but to be safe, if you play music, don't make it too loud. my bird michael likes it when i play piano or when my boyfriend plays guitar. of course, birds like whistling... or at least mine does. if your bird starts to pluck its feathers out until the point where it gets bald, it's very very bored and lonely. try to give your little friend as much company as possible. even if you just tell him/her about your day, they'll like the attention. if you don't want your bird to fly all around when it's out of the cage, get its wings clipped by a vet or professional. DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF. you might cut a blood vessel or something. also, get sand covered perch covers. that way, the bird naturally wears down its nails so you don't have to worry about clipping them. parakeets also love different types of perches. like natural ones that look like branches. many people like to have swings for their birds because they look nice, but my bird was absolutely terrified of the swing he had. birds also need gravel (which you can buy almost anywhere, including wal*mart) because they use it to grind food in their gullet. put a little bit on the floor of the cage or in a small cup and the bird will take what it needs. also try to get a cuttlebone... your bird will love it! i hope this helped!

Answer 7

Some of the people answering are giving answers that are not completely accurate.
Budgies can not always be sexed by cere color. Some parakeets of certain colors are not going to be showing the same color differences as well as some colors not having lines on their heads.
Cockatiels also are not always sexable by standard means when it comes to the less common colors in particular.
People often own a bird for many years thinking it was the opposite sex of what it is, due to these common misinterpretations of colors.

Answer 8

feed it nuts or fruit snacks.put a blanket on it's cage so it doesn't want to hurt your other pets.get a female so you probably will want a small cage.yes,Petco is a great place their birds are mostly nice.be aware if it is a boy.(all boy birds aren't mean)Go for it!

Answer 9

Please visit your local humane society and adopt a keet, there are many little keets there that need you and a forever loving home.
Parakeets enjoy Pasta, Pasta will also help fight fatty liver disease that comes from an all seed diet, fresh water daily and once a week ad a multi vitamin.
Good luck to you.

Answer 10

please go get a book about parakeets BEFORE you get your bird so that you know something about it first, instead of having to learn as you go
nobody in this forum can tell you everything you need to know