Advice on looking after a budgie please?

I bought a budgie home from with me tonight. She had flown into the store and a customer had caught her. The RSPCA will collect her on Monday, but meanwhile she is staying with me. She is in a large hamster cage (no hamster!), and she has water and bird seed.


I'm pretty sure it's a girl, but other than that i know nothing! Will she be okay till Monday with the temporary home i've given her?


She seems to have been well handled as she's quite tame. Is there a way to tel how old she is?


Any help gratefully received.


Oh and i've put some soft hay into the hamster house.Advice on looking after a budgie please?
Hi Maggs,





Nice of you to take care of the escapee bird!





She will need budgie seed. Wild bird seed usually has a lot of corn and coarse grain whereas budgies need the finer grains such as various kinds of millet.


You should be able to get budgie seed from your local corner shop.


If you can't get the budgie seed, still give her the wild bird seed (she will pick out what she wants) but supplement it with foods found in your larder such as couscous, cracked wheat, ground nuts and/or seeds and oats, just to make sure she gets enough food that she can eat.





Some birds also like vegetables. You could offer her a lettuce leaf; wash it well then peg it to the hamster cage so she can peck at it.





Most birds love bathing. Provide her with a shallow dish (e.g. a large plastic jar top) of water. It must be wide but not deep so she can step into it and flutter her wings without danger of drowning.





What have you put down for bedding?


Normally you put down bird sand. This has a two-fold function. It provides a base and also it provides some essential grit for the budgie to eat to aid her digesion. If you can't get any bird sand over the weekend, use some sandy soil from the garden (not compost).





She will need something to sit on. Get some twigs, cut them to size and slot them at the ends so you can wedge them into the cage wire. You may need to use some bluetack around the twigs' ends to stop them from sliding around.





Put the cage in a warm, draught-free area. Place a cloth over part of the cage so the bird has a space of privacy that she can retire into.





Best wishes


chirpyAdvice on looking after a budgie please?
I am not the right person to answer this one really. I once put my budgie outside (in the cage of course) to let it have some fresh air. When I went out to bring it back inside it had knocked the seed dish off and had escaped.


I am much better at looking after cats!!
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Sounds like it, but I would take the hay out and yes, put newspaper on the bottom of the cage. Watch to see, and if she is eating and drinking, that is a good sign. Give her a cover for night time and keep the cage out of drafts. If she is a pet, maybe there is an ad in the paper for a lost bird. The newspaper answer above about the age bands is right too - if there are lined marks across her forehead that go down to or near her cere and beak, she is a youngster (when budgies lose this marking, or it goes back to about their eyes, they are more mature). That might not work for some colours though. Another sign of a real youngster is dark brown on the beak, not just light brown. Good luck.
Make sure you give her a perch, so she can go to sleep on it, other than that, she should be fine.
she will be fine, I do not think she needs the hay newspaper would be OK temporary, Apart from baby markings (under 4 months) I do not think you can tell their age