Bert and Ernie make our house a home. I love to come home from work, walk in the door and be greeted with a chorus of happy squawking and a flurry of activity.
In their green and yellow form, Budgerigars are native to Australia. They were first identified as great aviary birds over 100 years ago, and are now bred into a wide variety of colors. So why do they make great pets?
Budgies can be Trained to Talk
Like most parrots, Budgies can be trained to speak English. To train a Budgie to speak, you can only have one bird and you need to be around him all the time. If there are two birds they will happily talk to each other, rather than listen to you! It's a great project for kids to get the bird to say basic phrases like “Hello”, “Hello Budgie” or even “Time for some more seed”. Clever birds will even say the last phrase when they think their seed is getting low.Budgies are Easy to Look After
All you have to do is top up their seed tray and give them fresh water every couple of days. If you keep them inside you will need to sweep around the bottom of their cage, because they like to preen their feathers regularly. I also clean out their cage about once every three months to remove their droppings. The budgies will love you if you bring them a treat every now and again. They love thistles and any grass with seeds on. They also love lettuce, spinach or any other green vegetablesBudgies Come in a Wide Variety of Colors
The most common colors are yellow green and blue black, like Bert and Ernie. You can also find them as white, black, all yellow, all blue and all green birds. Budgies are Great with kids
A hand raised budgie will travel around on your shoulder, just like a macaw on the shoulder of pirate. As pets, they teach kids about life and death and the importance of being looked after. Even an angry budgie's bite doesn't really hurt.
So go and visit a pet store and ask for a budgie or two today! Like Bert and Ernie, they will make brilliant pets.
