Hello I'm new to the forum, I made my way over here after reading everything twice on Lisa Shea's site. I'm so happy I ran across it before I could do any more wrong with my new birdies. The site and this forum have been so informative over the past few days, it's very appreciated!

I recently adopted 2 parakeets. One came from my mother's friend who couldn't care for her after having surgery and the second one I adopted from a lady with too many male budgies who needed to re-home a few due to fighting over females.

I've had them now at my house for about 3 weeks and my biggest concern right now is that while they seem to be comfortable and realtively happy they never play with eachother or with their toys.

I feel I'm making them as happy as they can possibly be right now, their cage is suspended from the cieling (which as soon as I put them up there made a HUGE differece in their behavior), they have regular food and water, treats, toys and a big enough cage.

Am I just worrying too soon? I know with budgies there needs to be patience but is there anything else I can do for them?

The little 'girl' seems to be happy but the other budgie just seems to be living, I haven't heard him sing or chirp - I just feel like he is going through the motions of living...eating, sleeping, drinking...but I'm not sure if he is truely happy or not and I just want to do whatever I can to help him adjust.

Any advice is appreciated!

Thank you,

Maria

Hi Maria! Welcome to the forums!

I know exactly what you mean with wanting to make your birds feel as comfortable as possible. I have a little female keet and you won't believe all the effort I put in to make her happy and healthy.

3 weeks is not that long so maybe you should give them more time. As long as he's eating, drinking and pooping normally he's probably ok, at least physically. Keets are shy and maybe it just takes longer for him to get used to his new home. Also from experience I've seen that keets have different personalities (or keetonalities ) and maybe you just have a more introverted bird in your home.

But it's not a bad idea to visit a vet, just to make sure that your keets are in good health. That's what's recommended you do with new pets anyway. Then you could use the opportunity to ask about the male keets behavior.

Good luck
I'd love to see some pics btw.

well females tend to be more on the queit side anyway. not as playful or vocal as a male would be. but sometimes they can proove you wrong. but as mentioned above as long as they are eating drinking and pooping and perching normally i think they are fine and just a need a little time getting used to there home. ALSO you may want to rethink suspending the cage if you are ever planning on handtraining. because keets tend to get what is called shoulder dominance. you need to have them below shoulder level at all times so that they dont over dominate you. but the plus side to haveing them suspended is they feel safer higher up. in the wild keets would find the highest part in the tree to feel safe and the keet highest up would be the dominant one. so thats your call. but all in all things sound normal and just need time. and welcome to the forum.

Very true I have a female and have seen males. very different. Just like humans. Little boys are wild and crazy. While little girls can be rude and keep to them selfs more.

Noel+Sydney

Thanks for the responses. It's strange that you mentioned bringing the cage down because right after I posted this I went out to the store and bought some chain links in order to bring the cage down some so they would be at least face level with me.

I just love letting them be up that high though, they have such great views from all the windows up there- I catch them straining to look at things outside and it just cracks me up.

I'm questioning their sex right now. When we got the first one we were told it was a girl but later found out she was just barely 7 months old- and she is the one that will chirp and chirp to no end sometimes. Then the blue one, I'm begining to question wether or not he is actually a boy- the more pictures of ceres I look at the more I think he is going to end up being a 'she'.

I do plan on taking them to a vet within the next month I was just concerned with added stress and wanted to let them get settled in first, but I do have a vet lined up for them in the future.

I've been trying to get pictures of them and I would love to post them here once I actually get a good one!

Thanks very much for the answers and the greeting!