Hello from NE England!

[trilby1339]

Hello everyone!



I'm Trilby1339 and I live in NorthEast England.



I am a big animal lover and have had a variety of pets over the years.



The only bird I've ever had was a budgie. When I was a child our family inherited my mam's auntie's budgie when she went into an old peoples' home. His name was Joey he was approx 6yo when we took him in. He was a green and yellow type (sorry I don't know the proper term yet). He wasn't tame so spent all of his existence in his cage. I have always regretted this and wish I had asked my parents to buy a book on how to tame an older bird.



I really want to get a budgie or 2 bonded budgies which I can allow to free fly in a room along with having a large cage for them so I'm here to research before taking that first step of contacting breeders etc



I have cats and a dog so the only way it would be possible for me to have budgies would be to convert a spare room into a budgie-room. I worry though whether me spending a few hours a day with them would be enough interaction for them. If not then I'd have to reconsider getting them. I'd want to give them the best life I could so if there was a possibility of them being lonely or stressed then I wouldn't get them.



I spend the majority of my time in my home in the living room with my daughter and my canine and feline pets (and hubby when he's awake off his shifts!) Obviously the ideal scenario would be to have the birds in the living room too so that we're around eachother all of the time but I'm obviously not going to do that because of the cats.



I'd love your input as to whether a few hours a day with me in the spare room would be enough to have a happy budgie (or 2).



Oh, and thanks for allowing me to join your fascinating site!

[birdguhl]

Hi trilby1339 and welcome to the forum!

I am always rather concerned when I hear about cats (and some dogs) and birds living in the same house. I know some people manage this but it seems like a risky thing to do. Even if they are in a separate room, I would imagine that one way or another the door would get left open and then it could work out very badly for the bird or birds. See what others think.

If you do go ahead, I would say two birds would be much kinder than one, as a single budgie in an otherwise unoccupied room for the great majority of the day would likely be a sad and lonely one. They are very social birds and if they are on their own substitute human company is very important.

[Hezz]

I agree with everything in birdguhl’s post. Having the birds out of the main body of the house really defeats the purpose of having them, in my opinion, and they will not be the tame, interactive characters that it sounds like you want. The only safe way to have birds, dogs and cats living under the same roof is to give each their own out-in-the-lounge time with the others shut away somewhere else. This still leaves that accident waiting to happen.

Thank you for thinking the whole scenario through. Too many people don’t, and take a “she’ll be right, mate” approach, usually to the detriment of the bird.
If you work from home and could make the office a “Birds Only” zone, that might work with the budgie(s) getting plenty of interaction, but only if it were somewhere you spent a lot of time. You want them to live with you, not have to go and visit them in their room.