This story actually begins more than a year before we almost killed Kelly. Back in the day I was pretty chill about mice in the house. We would get the humane traps(Grandpa Gus’s Mouse Trap Tubes – Live Catch & Release Humane Mice Tunnels – 4 Pk
Anyway, this détente with the mice ended shortly before we got Toby. We were making tea one evening, I opened the dishwasher, and there was a living mouse among the glassware in the top shelf, frozen in terror. That was just too great an infraction to suffer, so, the dishwasher was replaced and the mice were no longer gently captured and tossed out into the yard. I bought a bunch of snap traps (Mouse Traps (Pack of 12)
We snapped a few more mice and the siege seemed to be over, but I left the traps, because of Toby. If you google mice and parakeets you’ll find loads of stories about rodents trying to eat bird food, scaring parakeets at night, and in worst case scenarios, biting & killing budgies or eating their feet (!). Just thinking about rodents attacking my baby budgie in the middle of the night was enough to keep me laying down snap traps indefinitely.
Not only had Toby never had her wings clipped, but she also came with a crazy aversion to going near the floor. You can lure her down there with some Kaytee Spray Millet for Birds, 12-Count
Fast forward 8 months, Kelly came home, having recently had her wings clipped for the first time. She spent the afternoon chilling out in her cage and the next day I was out of town. I felt horrible missing her first whole day, but my mom and I had a day trip to the city planned that we had been looking forward to for months, and we had purchased non-refundable transportation tickets etc. Also, I tend to be the nervous nell between Patrick and I, so I think we both felt like it might be better if I wasn’t there fretting about everyone’s well-being.
That night when I got home, Patrick told me the following story, he let Kelly out of her cage to spend some time with her, and Kelly, not realizing she couldn’t fly (she never did accept that) launched herself into the air, hit the broadside of the refrigerator and slid down to the floor! Patrick dashed over and shoved the snap trap away JUST as Kelly was about to investigate the peanut butter lure, ie: get her noggin snapped.
I can’t even imagine the crushing guilt we would have felt if we killed our new budgie on her first day home. As it was we both felt absolutely horrible, and I think Patrick probably lost a few years of his life in that instant. I have to give him a lot of credit for remembering immediately the danger lurking in that narrow space.
So – my stomach still turns a bit when I think about mice eating our parakeet’s feet, but we went back to a humane trap. Kelly never made that exact flight pattern again – she only needed to hit the fridge one time before learning that it was not, in fact, a portal to another dimension – but she certainly hit practically every surface in the house over the next several months. She would fly off somewhere and wander around until I found her and brought her home.
I guess the lesson here, beyond the obvious don’t have snap traps or other kill traps for small animals around your budgies, is that every parakeet is different. Ultimately we felt like parents who have their first baby and it’s an angel who never gets into anything, and then the second kid comes along and is a total whirlwind demon baby.
Still, I’m really glad we didn’t murder Kelly on her first day home, and I hope that the next time you endanger or scare your babies, which happens to all of us, you think of me and my mouse traps and feel a little bit better knowing we’re all out there making mistakes.
added to their diet to aid in digestion. For example, adult chickens need grit; they swallow their food whole and the grit they eat sits in their gizzards and helps break down larger pieces of food or hard-hulled seeds. Many chicken owners use 
for grit, which also provides much-needed calcium to the chicken.
and/or 
. You could also feed your budgie 
for calcium.
we could see that the humidity levels were sinking rapidly. We think a comfortable range is about 40-55 percent humidity and the house was dropping well into the 30 percent range. Not only is this bad for the humans, but it is very uncomfortable for budgies.
, which puts out a surprisingly good amount of humidity, and we prefer it to purchasing a big traditional humidifier (like a 
) for a couple of reasons. One because big humidifiers are harder to maintain and would need vigilance and lots of cleaning to keep mold out of the picture and two because of Patrick’s chemical sensitivities, bringing a big new plastic appliance into the house is a challenge. It would probably end up in the garage for months (at best) off-gassing whatever chemicals it came with.
as a humidifier, which you should only attempt if you are going to be home AND your birds will be safe at home in their cage. This is simple enough to do, just fill the crock with water and set it for a few hours; with the lid off the water should simmer and release steam. We tried on the low setting and it didn’t do enough to be worth bothering. I intended to try it on the high setting but then we decided to invest in a few more travel humidifiers so it hasn’t been necessary.
on their feet. There are a few ways I can think of to get the oil on their tootsies, one is to apply the oil to a finger used for step up, and then sneak attack your thumb onto their feet to apply more on top. Alternately you could put the oil on a perch and just let them land, or you could hold/towel them and just get the job done.
and/or hanging greens.
– This could be used either to transport both budgies to the vet (versus our tiny one-man cage) or it could be used as a quarantine/hospital cage if one budgie takes ill and needs to be separated and closely monitored.
– it’s recommended to keep a sick budgie nice and toasty warm, you can drape the heating pad over the top of the travel cage and then cover the cage on three sides for a nice cozy space. You always want to leave one side uncovered so if the budgie gets too warm they can move to cooler air.
– This powder aids in clotting for minor cuts. If you clip your budgie’s nails too short and hit the quick (blood supply) you will want to have styptic powder – or in a pinch 
– to help stop the bleeding. It does not take much for a budgie to bleed to death so this is an absolute must have. As far as clipping nails goes, a 
is the most recommended for budgie nails.
– Has to be the kind without pain relief. This can be used on minor scrapes and cuts as well to aid healing.
or 
– Used to pull blood feathers. Blood feather is really just another term for pin feathers that come in during molting. They have a more substantial blood supply to aid in growing and if they are broken they will bleed, which can again be very dangerous for such a small bird. I’m not sure this is one I would try to deal with myself, but you can restrain the bird and pull the blood feather out at the shaft, with a bit of pressure applied the bleeding should stop and a new feather will grow in eventually. Yikes! Sounds like frontier medicine, although I’m sure it’s the same thing the vet will do.
– Some folks dose their budgie’s water with Bragg’s organic apple cider vinegar year round to help control the growth of bad bacteria in the parakeet’s digestive tract. It can also get rid of viral, bacterial and fungal infections, as well as respiratory infections and parasites! Essentially this stuff sounds like a miracle product. I don’t intend to give it on the daily, but I want to have it on hand in case I see any symptoms develop, it seems like this would be something safe to start with while we are waiting to get in at the vets. Please google how much to give and draw your own conclusions. I saw different amounts ranging from a few drops in the water bowl to teaspoons, and since I haven’t personally tried it yet I don’t want to give poor advice. After reading up on organic apple cider vinegar I may start taking it daily, apparently the benefits to humans are also life-changing!
, 
for bandaging. Although seriously, if you are not a pro-level bird owner and you’re getting into bandaging wounds please see a vet.
, but I think I’d prefer to build mine piece by piece so I familiarize myself with each item, instead of having an emergency and opening the box for the first time in a panic.
, although it certainly increases my risk of burning things! Which, I am joking about, but we make every effort not to introduce cooking smoke into the budgie’s breathing space. It’s not recommended to keep parakeets in the vicinity of a kitchen because of all the contaminants, but with a small house we really don’t have a choice on that.
that is pretty big and safe to use until we sort out the oven issues.