blogs.sf3am.com/parakeets
Parakeets are highly social birds; they travel in enormous flocks sometimes in their native land of Australia; and in homes they are likely to form close bonds with one another, and often the humans in the house as well.
Grooming is often thought to be a social behavior; it not only helps clean those hard to reach places and feels good, but also conveys affection and status to the bird being groomed.
The Cleveland Botanical Garden is on the east side of Cleveland and is host to many beautiful varieties of plants, but it also houses a few very interesting animals. These include chameleons and finches, and also parakeets.
The parakeets greet visitors as they come in. They have a tall cage that allows plenty of flying, along with some real branches for perching and a painted waterfall background. This picture gives a good look at four of the five birds, although the cage bars prevent a totally clear view.
I always ask my birds “Which bird likes millet?” when I give it to them because the answer is–of course–all of them. Ava and Sparty, normally very shy, can be lured out of the cage as soon as they see Belle and Striker out there going to town on spray millet.
Of course they can’t have millet and other seed-based diet all the time. I feed them fruit pellets for the most part.
Getting a portrait of all four birds at the same time can be a challenge, but in this photo you can see Sparty, Ava and Striker looking with one eye while Belle (the blue one) is just breaking out of her favored beak-in-feathers position. In an Ohio winter, everyone gets cold, even indoors–me and Jessica, and also the birds, especially Belle. She’s the one most likely to have puffed feathers during the colder months. Even being indoors can’t completely protect them from the elements as the birds’ cage is near a door. Since budgerigars are native to Australia, we have to be sensitive to temperatures with them–we even gave them a blanket that hangs from the top of their cage.
Jessica and I got four parakeets last year, and we’ve been having so much fun with them ever since!
They’ve learned quite a bit in that time, and we’ve learned a great deal about birds. Our parakeets are very social and very affectionate animals.
The names of our parakeets are Striker, Belle, Ava and Sparty.