From one to two, possibly 3 budgies?!

[carolc26]

We lost two loved budgies in less than a year. We never had more than 2 at a time. Coco has now been on his own since October. While a brilliant singer, he’s never taken so much to us,his human family, even after losing his Budgie friend. He just about comes on your hand provided you’ve got a treat for him!
We’ve got him in our living room mostly as that’s where we mostly end up as a family and while he sings to no end, he mostly ever sings to his mirror and does not seem to play or explore in his cage anymore. Fruit and veg at the bottom of his cage are left untouched. He’s not even that keen to come out of cage for a flight. He’s no confidence & little trust for us.

We work from home, kids are 13 & 11 and when home from school they don’t seem keen on taming him…

I’m wanting to get him a friend but to maybe break the cycle (one bird in, two happy birds then one goes) what about getting two birds?
Is three a good number? Refering here to the saying two’s company and three is a crowd!

Less chance of getting them tamed ok but maybe more fun at watching their antics. They’d come from same place together. We’ve a tiny family run pet shop in local town. (Where Coco comes from) I’m thinking of checking their budgies…

We’ve no other pets in the house. The current cage is pretty big and we always get our birds time to fly out anyway.

What’s it like to have a tiny flock?! What to expect (beside more mess n singing and barging?!)

[Loz]

Sorry for your lost little friends. It's so hard to lose them.
It sounds to me like Coco needs a feathered friend to bring him back out of his shell. If you get two new friends at the same time, it's much harder to train them as you know.
There's no way to know ahead of time whether a trio will work together. It will depend on the individual personalities. It could work and probably will, in my opinion.
More experienced members will provide their insight, I hope!

[Marianne Marlow]

So sorry you lost two budgies

In my own experience 3 didn't work, so I had to get another and found 4 a good number.

But I think for others 3 has worked. All depends on the personalities of the budgies.

What happened with mine was that 2 budgies bonded and one (who was very needy) was left out and started exhibiting aggressive behaviour to get attention, he'd barge between the two bonded ones. As soon as I got him a friend, things settled down.

[sweetpea]

So sorry you lost two birds this year.

My policy is to never have just two birds as I don't like it when one goes & the other is left alone. So when I get down to two birds, I get another one or two. I currently have three birds & have had other three combinations in the past. It all depends on the personalities. My worst combination was actually four boys, which is often suggested as an ideal set up, so that proves it is all down to the individuals! It's always good to have lots of space & ideally a separate chill-out cage in case anyone needs a break.

[Hezz]

Three has worked just fine for me on numerous occasions but I have not gotten two at a time with only one resident bird. I agree with sweetpea - a lot depends on the individual personalities, plus the age difference can be a deciding factor.

[carolc26]

Ok, I’d love to have a small flock (no more than 3/4!) do I add one bird at a time over time?
Thanks for all your replies!

[Loz]

One at at time is better if you want to do any familiarisation, hand-training and taming exercises with the new birds. They pay more attention to you when they are young if they have no cagemates! It's best if you have a separate room for (each) new budgie but this may not be practical or possible.
And of course, new budgies not from the same source should be kept isolated from each other and from the existing flock, to ensure you catch any disease issues before they can spread.

[Ira]

I have 5 at present and have only gotten one new bird at a time, so I don't know about trying to tame multiples at once. Although when I got Yuki as a friend for Indie I had only had Indie a month so was essentially working with two untamed birds anyway.

It really does just depend on personalities as to what works. If you introduce 1 at a time, aiming for 4 total, you'll be able to see how well a trio works and if they're settled then you might decide not to get a 4th.

When I introduced a 3rd budgie to Indie and Yuki it was actually my budgie that I'd had for years as a single bird. He was around 8 and a half at the time and very used to not interacting with other budgies. Indie seemed to see him as a threat to him and Yuki, despite my old bird not trying to spend time with either of them, so I ended up with them in separate cages despite the flight cage technically being big enough for the three of them.
Then I got a 4th and was able to keep them all in the same cage because Pippin WAS interested in Yuki and so Indie was more pre-occupied with him.

The Indie-Yuki-Pippin love triangle continues here on occasion. Just yesterday Indie was flicking his wings and chasing Pippin away from Yuki, whilst Yuki was following Pippin around to chat.
It's budgie chaos here just this morning.
Yuki wants to chat to Pippin, but also flirt with Gwen.
Indie's chasing Pippin away from Yuki occasionally.
Indie and Yuki are still being cuddly and chatty in the calmer moments.
Gwen predominantly wants to flirt with Yuki, but I've also seen her after Indie this morning.
Aster wants to flirt with Gwen, but she's not overly interested, and he keeps getting chased off by Yuki.
Literal madness.

[carolc26]

Where can I see pictures of set ups for up to 4 birds please?!

[Hezz]

Definitely get one bird at a time. This will give you a better chance to set some training in motion, sure, but more importantly it gives your Coco a chance to get to know both birds as individuals. If you get two at the same time these two will form a bond while they are in quarantine (more on that further on) and Coco will be in the position of being the odd one out in his own home which is exactly what you are trying to avoid.

Quarantine: Rather than running through the whole palaver over again, read through the pinned thread that I’ve linked below.
budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/thread/6794/important-quarantine

[Hezz]

Dec 8, 2022 15:38:29 GMT carolc26 said:

Where can I see pictures of set ups for up to 4 birds please?!

Setting up for four doesn’t require anything special, except that you should have four seed pots as they will all want to feed at the same time and don’t always like to share.
Swings can be a source of dispute at bedtime as nearly all budgies love a swing to sleep on, so you may need to make sure there is one each. I wouldn’t have anything smaller than something similar to the Hamberley cage to house four together, unless they were out of the cage all day.

www.littlepetwarehouse.co.uk/products/hamberley-single-metal-large-cage.html

Ira has suggested working towards three and seeing how that plays out first. If it works, then think twice before adding another. I would second this suggestion. Bird dynamics chance with each change in the flock and if something is working well it sometimes doesn’t pay to upset the apple cart.

[blueelephant]

Really great advice above. I'd definitely go for getting one bird at a time and giving them each time to settle. I had one. Then a second and no intention of getting a third. But then number three arrived out of the blue and actually really helped calm the dynamic.

They are now a happy trio. Two boys and one girl. It was supposed to be three boys, but after about 9 months I realised that wasn't the case!

One girl and boy are very definitely a pair, but the two boys also feed each other and are lovely buddies. The 'spare' boy was a sole budgie for a fair while until he came to me and he genuinely seems quite happy with having his own space. I sometimes wonder if I should 'get him a friend' but then think about how everyone is happy so it's probably better not to rock the boat!