Interested in budgies, but I have some questions

[HappyClucker7]

They CAN. For example, avian flu effects both chickens and budgies and has a high mortality rate.
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...may-be-behind-latest-spread-of-h7n9-bird-flu/
Many parasites spread between the species too.

The best thing you can do is have good biosecurity for your chicken flock. Do not bring in birds from outside flocks without proper quarantine, only wear chicken shoes out to the chicken pen and never around your budgie, change clothes and wash hand between handling chickens and handling budgies, have visitors sterilize their shoes or wear shoe covers, always take care of your chickens last when you can, etc. If your chickens are healthy, your budgie can't catch anything from them.

If you suspect illness in your flock, quarantine the flock from your budgies heavily, and always change clothes and wash up between handling sick animals and healthy ones. A hair covering also helps.

Okay, thank you. In general, do you think there is a big risk that the budgie could make my chickens sick, and vise versa?

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have a big white parrot cage, and I plan on raising budgies in it when I live some where I can't have chickens. I will store it until then. Who is noisier boy or girl budgies? Do girl budgies lay eggs even if there is not a male around?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Okay, thank you. In general, do you think there is a big risk that the budgie could make my chickens sick, and vise versa?

I take mine outside every summer. I haven't had a problem. Chickens may wander by, but they don't come in close contact. Just wash your hands after handling any birds, and change clothes if you have done any serious holding of chickens.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have a big white parrot cage, and I plan on raising budgies in it when I live some where I can't have chickens. I will store it until then. Who is noisier boy or girl budgies? Do girl budgies lay eggs even if there is not a male around?

Girls seem louder and more destructive to me. Females generally need to have a diet high in fresh foods or sprouted seeds to lay. They need to be brought into breeding condition. On a mostly seed diet most will not lay. They will lay without a male.

 

[HappyClucker7]

I take mine outside every summer. I haven't had a problem. Chickens may wander by, but they don't come in close contact. Just wash your hands after handling any birds, and change clothes if you have done any serious holding of chickens.

Okay, great. That definitely gives me comfort.

I have one more question for right now. I've been reading a lot of conflicting information about the diet. What do you feed your budgies?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Okay, great. That definitely gives me comfort.

I have one more question for right now. I've been reading a lot of conflicting information about the diet. What do you feed your budgies?

I just do a good seed diet with occasional spray millet. I haven't had luck getting them to consume much else. I used to do sprouted seeds when I bred them. That was just sprouting some of their seed mix.

You can try offering some fruits and vegetables, as well as things like dandelion greens. Some will nibble, and others will act like you are trying to poison them. Generally the tamer the budgie the more likely they are to try offered treats.

 

[HappyClucker7]

I just do a good seed diet with occasional spray millet. I haven't had luck getting them to consume much else. I used to do sprouted seeds when I bred them. That was just sprouting some of their seed mix.

You can try offering some fruits and vegetables, as well as things like dandelion greens. Some will nibble, and others will act like you are trying to poison them. Generally the tamer the budgie the more likely they are to try offered treats.

Okay. Thank you for all your help!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Okay, thank you. In general, do you think there is a big risk that the budgie could make my chickens sick, and vise versa?

Real, talk, the depends on how you keep your flock and your local environment.

For example, if you happily take in "rescue" chickens, know a lot of other chicken keepers in the neighborhood, have tea at their houses, have no biosecurity, free range, live near a CAFO chicken farm... Your risks are WAY higher than if you have a few penned in pet birds, never bring in new chickens, are the only chicken keeper in the area, change shoes or clothes between handling birds, etc.

Much like with all illnesses, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A little bit of inconvenience to have good prevention can go a LONG way It can genuinely cut risks massively. It's a complicated equation, but someone who is taking regular steps toward prevention is going to be safer even if they live in a hot spot environment than someone who lives in a lower-risk environment and takes no preventative actions. (Example; nurses in contagious disease wards have much LOWER per capita rates of those diseases than the average population, despite a higher exposure level because they're constantly taking steps to prevent getting sick.) Biosecurity is critical to success regardless of outside risk factors.

Having said that the chances of your chickens giving something serious to your budgies is low. Mostly by virtue of your chickens getting something serious is low. And the chances of your budgie passing on something the the chickens is pretty much nonexistent 'cause a budgie is an inside bird with low exposure levels. But if your chickens *were* to get sick, it would not be hard for that to spread to your budgie before they even express symptoms if you don't have good biosecurity.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

In general if you keep your chickens healthy your budgie will be too.

 

[HappyClucker7]

Real, talk, the depends on how you keep your flock and your local environment.

For example, if you happily take in "rescue" chickens, know a lot of other chicken keepers in the neighborhood, have tea at their houses, have no biosecurity, free range, live near a CAFO chicken farm... Your risks are WAY higher than if you have a few penned in pet birds, never bring in new chickens, are the only chicken keeper in the area, change shoes or clothes between handling birds, etc.

Much like with all illnesses, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A little bit of inconvenience to have good prevention can go a LONG way It can genuinely cut risks massively. It's a complicated equation, but someone who is taking regular steps toward prevention is going to be safer even if they live in a hot spot environment than someone who lives in a lower-risk environment and takes no preventative actions. (Example; nurses in contagious disease wards have much LOWER per capita rates of those diseases than the average population, despite a higher exposure level because they're constantly taking steps to prevent getting sick.) Biosecurity is critical to success regardless of outside risk factors.

Having said that the chances of your chickens giving something serious to your budgies is low. Mostly by virtue of your chickens getting something serious is low. And the chances of your budgie passing on something the the chickens is pretty much nonexistent 'cause a budgie is an inside bird with low exposure levels. But if your chickens *were* to get sick, it would not be hard for that to spread to your budgie before they even express symptoms if you don't have good biosecurity.

Thank you very much for your reply. I don't live near anyone who owns chickens, and none of the people I know own chickens either.
I won't be bringing any new chickens into the flock.
My chickens don't free range, but I do let them out into a netted area at least once per day.
So, I guess if I keep the budgie and the chickens healthy, there will be very little risk of anything being spread, right?