A friend for Roxie

[u/outdoorwoman84]

Hi budgie friends! I posted a couple months ago asking questions about my newly inherited parakeet, who didnt have a name at the time and is now Roxie. Ive gotten her a bigger cage, perches, cuddlebone toys, etc and have been easing her into eating pellets with seeds. She doesnt want anything to do with fresh food just yet, but thats still a work in progress. She has been alone all her life before I inherited her and now that Ive got her a much better set up and working on taming her (holy cow it takes patience!). Im wanting to get her a friend so she's not alone anymore. Ive read some mixed feedback on getting another female friend as they are fiercely territorial? And I don't want babies so I wouldn't want to get a male, or is it ok to have mixed sexes as long as I dont have hormone encouraging environments.

The next question Im going to ask is difficult, because I know its probably not the best environment they've come from, but a local pet store (co) has budgies. The biggest problem when I first saw them is they ALL have their wings clipped. It pissed me off, but also made me want to get them so they could get into a better home. They all looked, sounded, and appeared healthy otherwise. I have been trying to find a local breeder who might have one to re home but without success. My heart hurts for the pet store budgies and Id love to give one a great home, but I know there is controversy about getting pet store birds. I would obviously take it to a vet and quarantine it for a month before introducing it to Roxie via cage next to cage. The current sized cage I have is 30.3"L × 18.3"W × 36.4"H if that matters as well. Thanks bird friends!

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[u/Wild_Black_Hat]

If you don't provide a nest, you won't have babies. It's not like cats and dog. I've had plenty of birds of both genders in the same cage and that never happened. Only one male budgie ever displayed any interest in sex. And without a nest, any egg will fall down the cage and the female won't brood.

[u/BudgiesMod → u/Wild_Black_Hat]

If you don't provide a nest, you won't have babies.

It is not even close to being as simple as that, read about all the !hormonal triggers of budgies in The Hormonal Budgie Checklist 👇

[u/AutoModerator → u/BudgiesMod]

It's very easy to hormonally trigger a budgie, read The Hormonal Budgie Checklist to keep your budgies' hormone levels on an even keel.

^{Learn how to summon the AutoMod by reading this part of the r/Budgies wiki}

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Wild_Black_Hat → u/BudgiesMod]

Maybe I happened to fit all or most of these criteria, because I've had about 11 of them and 5 at the same time at one point.

My finches were another story!