Budgies are small, social birds that make great pets. They are relatively easy to care for, but it is important to provide them with a spacious and comfortable cage. The size of the cage is important for both the physical and mental health of your budgie. A budgie's cage should be at least 18 inches long, 30 inches wide, and 18 inches high. This will give your budgie enough room to fly, play, and perch. If you have more than one budgie, you will need a larger cage. The general rule of thumb is to provide each bird with an additional 2 square feet of space. These dimensions will provide you ..read more

There are several pages on this site that go into detail on the subjects below.  This is intended to give you an answer, at least in part, to the question so often asked…” I am a new budgie owner. What do I need to know right away?” So you are thinking about getting a parakeet…how exciting!  Budgies make wonderful companions whether they are housed in a cage or free flying! If you are wanting a budgie who wants to be near you, consider a hand raised baby. They are used to being handled and are not quite as skittish. But this doesn’t mean that a colony raised bird won’t be friendly ..read more

I woke up this morning and Hodge, our "poster budgie" for ParakeetPro was sitting on his perch fluffed up. As I went to change his water and give him his morning veggies, he was acting funny. I reached in and he stepped up on my finger in a very wobbly fashion, unable to keep his balance. He had been fine the night before, chirping and making noise. I put him in his cage on the floor, got the travel cage and noticed he was eating, but he was sitting funny and his eating was a lot slower than usual. We have a few avian vets in the Chicago area and I decided to take him to the Midwest Bird & ..read more

One thing we don't often think about is what we would do if we needed to get out of the house quickly. What would you do if your home caught fire? What if you were in an earthquake, tornado, flood, or typhoon? Do you have a plan to get your birds out? Having a plan can give you peace of mind and you'll be prepared when (hopefully "if") the time comes.  Tornado Not all of the world experiences tornadoes but for those of you who do, you know that you often only have minutes to get to safety, sometimes not even that. But with advanced warning and a small travel cage (or cages at the ready ..read more

Unless your name is Snow White, please keep reading. If your name is Snow White, wow, I'm honored you are here! Assuming that you are still reading, you are not Snow White. This blog post is likely going to upset a few of people. It is not meant disrespect or shame anyone, but it is something that needs to be written. Stop with the animal utopias. Time and time again I come across pictures and videos of birds with cats, birds with dogs, and budgies with conures or full-sized parrots.  This is dangerous. There is a reason why there are cartoons about cats chasing birds. Your cat is a ..read more

You may be surprised at the answer... but the answer is YOU! This statement is from the American Pet Products Association and can be found here: "Toys-there is no specific regulatory requirements for pet toys other than general safety requirements  for consumer products which would be overseen by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. However, many of the larger retailers now require safety and durability standards for pet toys that are very similar to requirements for children's toys."   That's great, but children are not birds and what might pass throu ..read more

I wanted to put together a few steps in getting help for your bird. The steps are as follows: Step One:  If your bird is injured or bleeding or looks to be in distress, what are you doing on Facebook? Pick up the phone and call a veterinarian. An avian veterinarian is a better option if you have one near you (not everyone does).  That's it. There are no more steps. But, if you are not sure about if your bird needs urgent/immediate care and you do go to an online bird group, here are some do's and don'ts: Don't post "there are no veterinarians near me" when a quick Google search ..read more

Death is a part of life. Dealing with the loss of a pet budgie can be tough. Let's face it, we get attached to these wonderful, fun-loving little birds as most pet owners do with their own pets. I'm a member of several pet groups on Facebook.  I have birds, but we also have a couple of dogs, a couple of horses and a bearded dragon. When I'm looking through these other animal groups I am a member of, I'll come across several memorial posts. "My horse, Tico, just passed away.  He was 29 years old and was such a great horse.  I miss him."   Posts like this usually show ..read more

First of all, this topic can be a very heated topic on many Facebook groups, and not just on the budgie groups, but other pet animal groups as well. I felt compelled to write this after two recent experiences with a veterinarian. One was for our cat who was 15 years old and the other was a friend of mine's budgie. I'm going to talk about both here and apologize now that this might be the longest blog post to date. You notice that your bird is not acting normal. Her feathers are fluffed, she seems to be closing her eyes a lot more, she's not as active, and maybe she's sitting at the bottom of ..read more