What to do if you found a Budgie?

Introduction

Budgies in the wild are free to fly to any heights and are experts in sensing danger. They can protect themselves in emergencies as they have more experience in the real world outside. But, budgie under captivation have remained limited to a relatively smaller place all through their lives. They don’t know how to react to a real or imagined threat. They might fly away from their house to explore the outside world not knowing about the dangers waiting for them there. This may land them in trouble or they might get lucky to be discovered unattended by you.

Bring Home

In case you find any budgie, you need to calm him down to bring him to a safer place than he is at, currently. There are chances of him to be a tamed budgie, so try the step-up technique with him by extending a stick towards him. Don’t use your hands as he is not familiar with them yet and might bite you out of fear. If he doesn’t step-up on the stick, you will have to catch him with the help of a net safely and bring him home. Provide a comfortable and warm place to him as he might have traveled a very long distance. Offer him some food and water as he might be hungry after a long journey. Don’t keep him with your other birds as he is a stranger to them and you haven’t gotten a chance to check him for any diseases. Give him some alone time to relax and get comfortable.

Take him to a Vet

After some relaxation, take him to a professional veterinary for complete physical scrutiny. Ask for any recommendations for his nutritional requirements and any supplements required by him. After a full physical examination, ask for any diseases that require medical treatment. Perform all the activities you normally would do for your pet budgie.

Advertise locally

Once the bird is safe and healthy, you can check for any advertisement stating ‘Lost Budgie’ in the local newspaper. The tensed budgie owner must have tried hard to find his baby. In case you are not able to find any such advertisement, you can put up one in the local newspaper for ‘Lost Budgie Found’ to inform the owner about him. If the budgie is tamed one, you will possibly be able to find his owner this way. Otherwise, he is yours and you can start training him just the way you train your other babies.

Tougher Training

It is tough to train a rescued bird as he might be traumatized due to any circumstances faced by him in the past. He might react aggressively and bite you when you try to feed him. Budgies are very sensitive beings and such aggressive behavior is very much understandable on their part. You might never be able to earn his trust because of obvious reasons. It is better to give him space in such a case until he starts trusting you. Just provide him with water and food from time to time while talking to him in very soft tones. Don’t make sudden movements in his surroundings, you might scare the hell out of him. Such a rescued budgie might have become extremely sensitive to sound and might react very loudly when you try to talk to him. It will take months of your patience to make him feel normal again. He might react lesser one day, understanding your good intentions of taking care of him.

Healthy Diet

A rescued budgie might not be getting a proper healthy diet in the past. You need to ensure that he gets a well-balanced diet involving fresh fruits and vegetables, and healthy seed mixes. Provide them with an iodine-rich diet and supplement their diet with a cuttlefish bone to fulfill the calcium requirements.

Grooming sessions

To take care of your new family member, you can consider taking him to some grooming sessions with the professional budgie groomer. With some trims to his wings and nails, he’ll feel much better. The veterinary expert will also be able to find changes in his behavior regularly and can be of great help in guiding you about your new pet. He is an expert in pet psychology and can understand each budgie’s behavior much better than us. You can even estimate the circumstances he might have faced in the past with the help of an expert. Such grooming sessions will also help him become normal during human interactions as a vet is a great choice for handling a rescued baby bird. Such frequent sessions will act as a positive treatment for the psychological problems he is facing currently.

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Extra Love and Care

Just the way a scared or a bullied kid needs extra attention, a rescued budgie needs extra love and care from his owner. Even if he is sensitive to sound, you can still comfort him with your little acts of care. Smile at him while offering him food and softly say that you love him. The message will reach him over time, not with your words but with your intentions. Assure him that he is safe with you with your actions. Give him as much space as he asks for, else he might panic. Sing rhymes to him very softly from a distance without directly looking into his eyes. A direct eye-contact with him scares him and he starts seeing you as a predator. You can also consider placing him in the same room as your other birds, after verifying him for the development of any diseases. This will help him understand that a human and a bird can have a good relationship too when he will observe you playing with your birds. The positive vibes from your other happy birds will reach him and he will recover sooner.

Conclusion

Caring for a rescued budgie is a long and difficult process. But we can’t leave a little life on its own. Taking care of his basic requirements is the least we can do for him. Though, making him happy might take years of consistent efforts on our part.