Found a parakeet in my backyard

[omi4500]

I swear, we are lost pet magnets! (not that I mind hee hee). First, the Siamese kitty I found on my door step last year... luckily she was wearing a collar with one of those 800-lostpet kinds of phone numbers...she had been reported missing 3 days prior and her grateful owners drove right over to claim her. Then last summer, it was the lion-head lop bunny that showed up in my front yard. We spent 3 weeks going door to door, putting up flyers, calling the local vet, and checking in with ACO. No luck. He's our beloved & handsome house bunny now.

AND now...well, yesterday. we found this little parakeet in our backyard! When I approached him, he flew right to me and landed on my shoulder. He did that three times (flew away but came back) before I could cup him. I put him in the only cage I have, a decorator item...but he appeared to be very comfortable in a cage environment. I offered him water and some chicken treats (a seed mix) and he ate/drank like a starving little bird. I put a stick perch in the temporary cage set up, and now he sits up there and tweets at us when we walk by the cage. He's so stinking cute.



He seems smallish (may be young? but his bill is blue on the top already, though), and he's not banded. Fairly tame and comfortable in a cage so I'm sure he was someone's pet. I've put the word out to neighbors and on the local "lost pets" FB page... I want to do the right thing, of course, so I'm trying to find his owner -- but I'm (shhh) secretly hoping no one claims him because I'd love to add him to our menagerie. ...and get him into a bigger cage, etc. The dog keeps rolling his eyes at me, for some reason. LOL.

ANYHOOOO.... I was curious if it's in fact okay to be feeding him the chicken's treat food for the time being until I can pick up a box of budgie food tomorrow? I've thrown the bag away that in came in, but it looks like a mix of bird seeds, BOSS, a few random dried meal worms, corn, etc. It was originally a seed block treat, but I bashed it up so that I could throw a handful to the chickens now and then. Little found budgie seems to love it. I also wondered if the starter I feed the chickens would be better. (PS - I threw some sand in with the seeds since I know they need grit too).

 

[Rosa moschata]

The chicken treat would probably be fine as an emergency food until you get a proper parakeet mix, but don't bother with the grit -- parrots don't need it. Grit is for birds which swallow seeds whole, and the grit will grind the food in the gizzard, like "chewing" it. But parrots remove the hulls from seeds before swallowing them, and so don't need grit to grind through the hulls. In fact, some caged parrots will over-eat the grit, causing impaction.

You probably have other things in your house which can supplement your budgie. Most healthy human food (except avocado, chocolate, and rhubarb) will be fine to offer your budgie. I want to emphasize healthy here -- overly salty or fatty foods should be left out. But feel free to share some salad, cooked eggs, dry unsugared breakfast cereal, pasta, fresh veggies and leafy greens.

Ideally, aim for a cage with four different food dishes -- one for water, one for dry food (seeds and/or pellets), one for veggies, and a fourth for occasional "treats". If you can manage only two dishes, you can do the veggies and treats clipped to the cage wire, or fed on a dish outside the cage. Your budgie may very well become curious about sharing food from your own plate. My DYH amazon parrot Sammy ALWAYS wants to share what I'm eating, and follows me into the kitchen when I'm preparing food. If he doesn't get some in his treat dish, he'll simply steal some from my plate.

 

[omi4500]

Thanks so much for all the great info! I did learn, shortly after my orig post, that grit is a no no - so I immediately removed the sand from his cage. He seemed to like the chicken treats quite fine (lol) but I did go out and buy a small bag of parakeet food this week - and removed the chicken treat food. I've made lost pet reports to all the local resources, and no one has claimed him... so we plan to keep him. In fact, I'm buying a larger cage for him today (it's been a week since he showed up).

Great tips on offering healthy people food. So far, he seems very un-inclined to eat anything BUT the parakeet food (I've offered him greens, apples, strawberries, millet, etc). Nothing has been touched. I hope that in time he will open up to trying some yummy new things. I have no idea how he was raised, of course, but I'm guessing he was likely only ever offered store bought bird food...

He has warmed up socially in the last week. He SINGS and TWEETS and SINGS and makes all kinds of birdie noises, especially when the radio is on. He's not tame to the point of accepting handling yet, but we'll work with him patiently (ironically, HE did choose to fly to my shoulder when we found him in the yard, though).

Thanks again. I appreciate your input!