New Budgie!

[Moth Feathers]

Summary: I got a budgie at a yard sale. Her name is Parsley, she is a yellow-faced something budgerigar. No clue on her gender. I have some questions (scroll down, they're bolded).
Below is more details about Parsley/how I got her. It's long. I'm sure someone interested will read it. If you aren't interested, just scroll down and answer my questions instead.

Today I got a call from my Grandma about a yard sale that was selling birds. Curious, I decided to go.

The yard sale was pretty big, but most of what it sold was just miscellaneous items- clothes, a scooter, a cheap shelf, and such. There was only three birds- a conure (Jenday, maybe? A bit rusty on the bigger birds), a female grey-pied Zebra finch, and a budgie. None of them were taken care of that well- the conure had its wings clipped (aka mutilated), the budgie was in a tiny cage with a single plastic dowel and a swing (but was fortunately flighted), the Zeb just had a perch. All the cages were tiny and meager.
I felt so bad for them. It was a chilly day (chilly enough to wear a light jacket) and here they were, having to be in those little cages and people stare at them all day. Most especially, I felt bad for the Zebra, who, despite finches being extremely sociable creatures, was kept alone. I wanted to get her but decided against it, just because I wouldn't have anyone to pair her with and was a bit unsure of how my resident two females would take to her.
I saw the budgie and she was so adorable. She had a single swing with a bell and some beads on it, and she playfully 'beaked' them and moved them around. It warmed my heart.

She was only twenty-five dollars (twenty, when I asked for a slightly lower price) and I knew I could give her a better home. I'd been wanting a budgie for a while, but thought it'd be a couple years before I would get some, since I wanted to get an aviary for the finches beforehand and such. But there the opportunity was open. She was flighted (and to my knowledge, has never been clipped in her life). I asked some questions to the guy who was selling her- she was supposedly hatched in February (a date I believe, judging from her eyes and partial-bar head) from a pair that he had, and she was somewhat tame- would sit on your finger for a little bit, but prone to flying off.
She was healthy and lively, a little bit vocal, and young, just like how I prefer my birds. And so, how could I refuse?


So, long story short, today I purchased a new budgie. It's somewhat of an impulse buy, but not quite- I've been wanting a budgie for a while, just not expecting it so soon, and after (as any of you who know me on here know) all I do own six finches, so I'm familiar with avian husbandry. I had a cage ready, had a swing and a 'parrot toy' (some wooden blocks with a bell at the end), some perches.

So there you go. I have gotten yet another bird. She is quite the sweetheart- her name is Parsley (all my animals are named odd things).
More about her-

Not sure of her gender- I'm using 'she' just because of her feminine colors (pastel yellow and blue) and because of a very light pink cere, but at the moment she is (to my knowledge) too young to actually sex, being hatched in February according to the man I bought her from. She's very vocal, so I'm hoping for a male, as I prefer them over females as far as pets go (but even if she really is a she, I don't mind).

No pictures yet, I want to wait until she has calmed down more to get some. I'm not /positive/ of her color mutation yet, not being too familiar with budgie mutations, but if I'm correct, she is a yellowface. Can't say for sure whether she's a type 1 or 2, still working on determining that, heh.
For those unfamiliar with what a yellowface is, in short she has a very light, pastel-yellow face with a light blue body.

So far she has been moved into her new cage (a 20long, 16wide, 24 inch tall cage). She will be moved into my Prevue flight (30 long x20 wide x40 tall) once I build my next PVC cage and move the Prevue's residents (Peep and Meep) out into that. I will be getting her a friend, but will do so only after I get her into the Prevue cage- her current cage is too small, in my opinion, and I would rather have one bird having to suffer within a small cage rather than two.

Getting her into her new cage was an interesting procedure. I tried opening the door to her tiny cage and opening the door to the new cage, then trying to 'usher' her out. This works perfectly fine with finches, who are severely frightened by being so close to a human and dart out of the cage at the quickest instant, but with a budgie it apparently doesn't bother them much at all (aside from making them uncomfortable). So, I attempted that and she didn't move. I put my hand in her tiny little cage and stuck out a finger, then gently pressed it to her belly for her to 'step up', having the idea that she might step up and I could lift her into her new cage. Parsley is such a tame girl! I was surprised to see she wasn't bothered at this at all, though she also didn't step up either.
Eventually, I had to grab her, something I really didn't want to do but didn't really have a choice (no bird of mine is going to remain within itty bitty torture cages no bigger than 12 inches across). What an interesting ordeal that was! It was much like catching a finch and was over with quickly, but once she was in the hand, she showed her distate very quickly- I got bit! I don't blame her at all, but ouch- it was the first time I was /ever/ bitten by a bird, ever, and it hurt a lot. No blood, thankfully, but felt like a very sharp pinch. I now understand why people often towel birds that they need to handle!

So anyway, Parsley is in her new cage now. It is very sparse for now, and will definitely be rearranged after she settles in. She currently has a dowel rod, one 'calcium perch' (had it laying around), a concrete perch (also had this laying around) and a red plastic swing. For toys, I really had to improvise, since my finches have plants as their 'toys' but the fake plants don't work for budgies. she has, at this moment, a cardboard egg carton, a cloth glove, and some blocks of wood on a chain with a bell at the end, as well as her swing (as before mentioned) that has a bell on it and some wheel-like things and some bead things to play with.
Went to the pet store, but their toys are just so overpriced- a good variety, yes, but very overpriced! A lot of those things I could make myself, so I'll probably be doing that.

she used to be vocalizing a bit some hours ago, but now she's pretty quiet. She hasn't explored her cage much, just sits on her swing mainly, but at one point she was perched on the dowel rod as well. I have a millet spray up in the cage for her but she hasn'eaten it, as well as a bowl of the food she was used to also in there. Still no eating, but I'm not too worried, as I've heard it's pretty normal (and yes, I'm positive she's not eating, as there is no feces on her paper).
I plan on working on taming her when she becomes more active within her cage and is more vocal. For now, she just seems sleepy, which is understandable considering the stress, so I'm letting her be. When approached, she isn't fearful, but looks at me (blankly, I will admit), then usually goes to preening her feathers. So, a good sign so far, I suppose!

So, besides the long story about Parsley, I have some questions. I know how to care for birds and such, but am just curious of a couple things.
Questions

For those who own parrots in general, what is their favorite type of toy (ie rope, shreddable paper things, wood block, plastic rings, etc)? I'm going to be giving Parsley a variety of toys but I'm wondering what she will most likely end up liking most. So far, she has an affinity for her swing. I'm hoping that budgies like shredding things, as I have a lot of things that she would be able to srhed.

What are budgies able to eat as far as dry foods go? This isn't a 'what foods are poisonous' type of question, nor 'what do I feed them' type of question (both the answers of those questions I know), but rather, what are they /capable/ of eating?
I know with my finches, I once tried giving them some brown rice and some oats, as well as cantaloupe seeds (lol) but they ignored it (too big for their beaks). Are budgies big enough to eat foods like brown rice and oats? Are they big enough to tackle striped sunflower seed (not the oily black sunflower seed, just striped sunflower seed)? Are they big enough to tackle safflower? I was also curious if they were able to eat those big chunks of dried fruit in the 'large parrot' mixes. I also wish to know if they're able to handle milo as well.
I'm against feeding birds corn (feeding corn is as nutritionally deficient as feeding iceberg lettuce- actually, it's worse), but out of curiosity, are budgies big enough to eat cracked corn? That's another thing I tried with my finches and found they were unable to do so.

Behavior-wise, what can I expect from her? How active are they? So far, she hasn't been active at all, just lounging on her swing- this I expected. I'm just wondering what her settled-in behavior will be like.
Are budgies constant-noisy or 'certain time of day' type of noisy? My finches, for example, are constantly singing, cheeping, beeping, just being loud in general, and they all 'shriek' when hearing a noise they dislike. They are what I consider 'constant noise'. But I know some parrots are mainly pretty quiet and will usually be noisy during peak hours (in the morning, in the evening) or whenever they want attention from their owner.

Wooh, that was a long one. Oh well, had to share all the details about the cool little friend I have now. <3

[TinyLittleKitty]

Moth Feathers

Toys:
This depends on the individual bird. Though in my experience with Budgies they tend to like plastic, bells and toys that are easily shredded. Wooden blocks seem to be there least favorite. They will also avoid toys that are to large for them, even if there not afraid of it.

Diet:
Spinach, broccol, carrots(top and root), peppers, cooked sweet potatoes, cauliflower, parsley, broccoli, romaine lettuce, cucumber, peas, radishes.

Apples, berries, banana, kiwi, pomegranate, pears.

Cooked rice, cooked pasta. You can also feed them oats.

Budgies will usually like green vegetables and foods that are crunchy.

I've never given my Budgies sunflower seeds, to much fat. The stripped sunflower seeds are high in fat and protein. Black sunflower seeds are high in oil and lower in fat.

They "can" eat dried fruit and vegetables. Though, they will probably choose not to.

Avoid foods with ethoxyquin, BHA, BHT and FDA in the ingredients. Also colored pellets.

I have never heard of milo before. I'm also not sure if they can eat cracked corn, I think they can but I'm not 100% sure.

There are more foods they can eat, I'm sure I missed a lot. >.<

Behavior:
The behavior depends on the individual bird, Its perfectly normal for a new bird to be quiet and not active for the first few days, maybe even a week. Budgies are usually very energetic and lively little birds. I only have one Budgie. Though I have tamed 7 other budgies for people, they are each a little different. My budgie will sing and dance all day, Its rare for him not to. He will make a loud noise when he dislikes something, He sings when I turn on the light in the morning and before I go to bed, then again, he sings all the time, just not when the lights are off. The other budgies are also active and vocal.

"what can I expect from her? How active are they?"
This is hard to explain, or maybe I'm just not good at explaining things. xD They are very "energetic" but they can still sometimes be content, sit quietly, holding one foot up and blinking gently.

The noise depends on the bird, some will sing more some less, males tend to sing more then females. They may also sing more if they are in a flock.

The Jenday and Sun conures look alike but Jendays have green all over there back while the Sun conure has a yellow back with some green on its wings and tail.

Also, the straight and smooth perches make there feet sore, its best to go with natural wooden perches. The perch should be big enough so there toes don't touch.

[FerretPrince]

Thank you for rescuing a bird, especially a budgie. There is an active bird shelter not far from where I live and they were recently forced to stop taking in all birds, simply because too many people were abandoning them. So thank you for saving a bird from being left behind.

I don't have a lot of experience with budgies, but I know cockatiels. My pet cockatiel used to love leather toys. He also loved bells. Things to shred and chew were also popular.

One thing I would avoid are bird 'happy huts'. I had one for years and my bird just ignored it. He'd sit on it, but not in it. I later learned that this is not unusual for small birds. I suspect budgies are similar. (Later, I managed to wash and use the happy hut for my rodents, so it wasn't a complete waste of money. )

You'll also want to avoid mirrors. Birds love mirrors. Unfortunately, that's literal. Small birds have a tendency to start seeing their reflection as their mate. In males, this can lead to increased aggression. In females, I'm not certain... but it would probably stimulate egg-laying behavior. Again, I'm not certain about this.

[Moth Feathers]

TinyLittleKitty

Moth Feathers

Toys:
This depends on the individual bird. Though in my experience with Budgies they tend to like plastic, bells and toys that are easily shredded. Wooden blocks seem to be there least favorite. They will also avoid toys that are to large for them, even if there not afraid of it.

Diet:
Spinach, broccol, carrots(top and root), peppers, cooked sweet potatoes, cauliflower, parsley, broccoli, romaine lettuce, cucumber, peas, radishes.

Apples, berries, banana, kiwi, pomegranate, pears.

Cooked rice, cooked pasta. You can also feed them oats.

Budgies will usually like green vegetables and foods that are crunchy.

I've never given my Budgies sunflower seeds, to much fat. The stripped sunflower seeds are high in fat and protein. Black sunflower seeds are high in oil and lower in fat.

They "can" eat dried fruit and vegetables. Though, they will probably choose not to.

Avoid foods with ethoxyquin, BHA, BHT and FDA in the ingredients. Also colored pellets.

I have never heard of milo before. I'm also not sure if they can eat cracked corn, I think they can but I'm not 100% sure.

There are more foods they can eat, I'm sure I missed a lot. >.<

Behavior:
The behavior depends on the individual bird, Its perfectly normal for a new bird to be quiet and not active for the first few days, maybe even a week. Budgies are usually very energetic and lively little birds. I only have one Budgie. Though I have tamed 7 other budgies for people, they are each a little different. My budgie will sing and dance all day, Its rare for him not to. He will make a loud noise when he dislikes something, He sings when I turn on the light in the morning and before I go to bed, then again, he sings all the time, just not when the lights are off. The other budgies are also active and vocal.

"what can I expect from her? How active are they?"
This is hard to explain, or maybe I'm just not good at explaining things. xD They are very "energetic" but they can still sometimes be content, sit quietly, holding one foot up and blinking gently.

The noise depends on the bird, some will sing more some less, males tend to sing more then females. They may also sing more if they are in a flock.

The Jenday and Sun conures look alike but Jendays have green all over there back while the Sun conure has a yellow back with some green on its wings and tail.

Also, the straight and smooth perches make there feet sore, its best to go with natural wooden perches. The perch should be big enough so there toes don't touch.

Thanks for your help.

For toys, do they use 'foot toys' often? I have seen larger birds really enjoy playing with foot toys.
I've also noticed she enjoys gnawing on the silver maple branches I put in for her yesterday (after I posted this question).
Never knew they don't care for the wooden blocks. That's interesting.

For the shreddable items (such as newspaper, cardboard), how do they like those things to be presented? I've tried giving her some strips of paper through the cage bars- she didn't show any fear, but not a whole lot of interest either, just sort of 'meh, look at that'. Though it could also be because she's new.

Also, for taming. She's a very sweet bird- lets me get close to her, lets me put my hand in the cage, no fear at all, not even backing up. But, she is not too interactive just yet- for example, an outstretched finger for 'step up' she'll just stare at, or simply ignore and preen. That's to be expected, I'm not worried about step up much right now, but when offering certain treats through the bars (sprig of millet, a sunflower seed), she also ignores them. This is a temporary thing, correct? I was hoping to use treats to help with the taming (such as the good ol' 'step on my finger to reach the sunflower seed!' trick, for example) but it sure makes it harder if she isn't responsive to it.

The dowel rods were a temporary fix. In my finch cages I ONLY use natural branches, but for Parsley I had to use the dowel rod temporarily since I wasn't confident using the same branches I give for the finches (I use any and all branches for the finches, but since psittacines chew, I needed to wait until I was able to get out and get some safe tree branches).

But as far as the diet thing, I wasn't asking what they /can/ eat or what their diet should be or whichever (I'm extremely knowledgeable about captive avian nutrition- I know what fresh foods to give, trust me). I was asking what they were /capable/ of eating as far as the dry foods I listed in the question- some foods, being how small they are, they physically are incapable of eating (take huge brazil nuts, for example. too big for a budgie to eat). I was wondering if things like brown rice and oats were too big for them like they were too big for my finches. With my finches, it was a trial-and-error thing, and while that's fine and all, it wasted a lot of my money from buying things specifically for them to eat and it turning out that it's too big for them to be capable of eating. But thanks for somewhat-answering that question (I see they're able to eat cooked rice and oats).
Sunflower seeds have a lot of benefits, such as being high in vitamin E. Fat does not automatically equal bad. I find that they're fine in moderation- the mixes containing some crazy amount of sunflower seeds, of course not, but some in the mix, that's fine. Most of the problems with sunflower/similar oil seeds being too fattening is when the bird is wing mutilated (of COURSE there is going to be problems with that- flight is the bird's main form of exercise and when you take that away, you are dooming them to a life of being stuck tied to a perch) or when they're in too small of a cage. Parsley is going to be free-flown throughout my house once she's tame, and while her cage is on the small side now, she'll be moved into the Prevue flight in about a month.

I already knew about the artificial preservatives and colorings in pellets, but thanks for the reminder anyway!

Milo is a large, round seed (think about the size of a pea- it's pretty big) often found in wild bird mixes and mixes for doves. I always want to feed a variety of seed (I mix my own, rather than rely on the icky commercial mixtures), so I'm not opposed to giving a little milo, but I wanted to know if she could eat it or if it'd just be waste in the seed mix. I did all sorts of wacky things a long time ago with my finch's seed- tried giving them cracked corn, brown rice, oats...but, of course, these things were too big for them (they're now down to a much reasonable red, white proso millet, as well as white millet and canary grass seed, though if only they could eat more!).

I also know how to identify Jenday/Sun conures, it's just that I didn't bother taking a close enough look, just a glance enough to be like "Oh yeah, that's a conure".

[poiisoned]

Congratulations! As for advice, I'm not quite in the position to be giving you perfect advice, since you're the one that's been posting in a few of my own budgie threads, haha. but I will tell you about my first week with my new budgie, and maybe my experiences may be similar.

On about the third or fourth day home, my budgie started becoming pretty comfortable. He was moving around the cage, chirping every once in a while, and in general being less lazy like the first few days. By now (it's been exactly a week) he's pretty active: moving from perch to perch, climbing the cage walls, moving back and forth. But of course he has some favorite spots where he'll stay still for a while.

he doesn't play with the wooden block toy with the bell on it, so I'll probably be replacing it with some other ring toy or something. He likes poking at thee rope perch I have for him, so a rope or leather toy would probably work well.

As for how vocal he is, he's pretty consistent from morning to late afternoon. I wouldn't say it's as constant as your finches, but he responds to a lot of noises around the house (music, TV, moving dishes in the kitchen, crumpling paper and plastic, etc). He chirps mostly in the afternoon, since that's when he hears the sparrows outside of the house. He goes nuts!

Like I said about him being mostly active in the morning and afternoon, he calms down significantly at about 7 PM, which I thought was pretty odd. One of my other friends has a budgie, and theirs keeps chirping until around 9 PM, haha. But after around 7 or so, he's pooped, and sits in one place with his foot up, ready to sleep, I suppose. No matter how much music you play or how much you try to talk to him after 7, he won't budge.


so anyway, thanks for the advice that you've given me in my past threads, and I wish you the best of luck with your new friend! (:



oh, and I did finally get a picture! I think your new budgie may look a bit like mine, since it's a yelloeface (: not the best quality, but here he is (:

[Moth Feathers]

poiisoned

Congratulations! As for advice, I'm not quite in the position to be giving you perfect advice, since you're the one that's been posting in a few of my own budgie threads, haha. but I will tell you about my first week with my new budgie, and maybe my experiences may be similar.

On about the third or fourth day home, my budgie started becoming pretty comfortable. He was moving around the cage, chirping every once in a while, and in general being less lazy like the first few days. By now (it's been exactly a week) he's pretty active: moving from perch to perch, climbing the cage walls, moving back and forth. But of course he has some favorite spots where he'll stay still for a while.

he doesn't play with the wooden block toy with the bell on it, so I'll probably be replacing it with some other ring toy or something. He likes poking at thee rope perch I have for him, so a rope or leather toy would probably work well.

As for how vocal he is, he's pretty consistent from morning to late afternoon. I wouldn't say it's as constant as your finches, but he responds to a lot of noises around the house (music, TV, moving dishes in the kitchen, crumpling paper and plastic, etc). He chirps mostly in the afternoon, since that's when he hears the sparrows outside of the house. He goes nuts!

Like I said about him being mostly active in the morning and afternoon, he calms down significantly at about 7 PM, which I thought was pretty odd. One of my other friends has a budgie, and theirs keeps chirping until around 9 PM, haha. But after around 7 or so, he's pooped, and sits in one place with his foot up, ready to sleep, I suppose. No matter how much music you play or how much you try to talk to him after 7, he won't budge.


so anyway, thanks for the advice that you've given me in my past threads, and I wish you the best of luck with your new friend! (:



oh, and I did finally get a picture! I think your new budgie may look a bit like mine, since it's a yelloeface (: not the best quality, but here he is (:

Thanks for the advice!
I know most of the technical information about budgies, just not so much of the little fine things, like how vocal they are or what they're capable of eating. xD Little details like that you really only get after owning them.

Your budgie is adorable! Though, it's so sad he has clipped wings, poor little guy.- I can't believe pet stores will clip such beautiful birds. I can't wait for his feathers to grow out again!

An update on Parsley-
Today she was struggling to eat some millet spray (some of it was hanging down below her perch) and so I put my hand in there to hold up the millet spray (she is very comfortable with hands in the cage) and guess what! She ate the millet spray while I was holding it!
My arm ached after holding it up so long, but it was so adorable to see her nibbling away at the millet. She even stood on my hand for a little bit, though it wasn't as much of a step-up as much as it was "oh look, some odd platform, I'll just stand on it to eat my millet!".

She's still very quiet though, which is sad, since I expected she would be more vocal than yesterday. She whistles a little bit more though.

With your budgie, do you find him very receptive to treats? I was giving Parsley little strips of newspaper and she'd reach over and pull on them, it was pretty sweet. When offering sunflower seeds, however, she ignored them, which sort of surprised me (aren't birds supposed to like sunflower?).

[TinyLittleKitty]

Moth Feathers

Thanks for your help.

For toys, do they use 'foot toys' often? I have seen larger birds really enjoy playing with foot toys.
I've also noticed she enjoys gnawing on the silver maple branches I put in for her yesterday (after I posted this question).
Never knew they don't care for the wooden blocks. That's interesting.

For the shreddable items (such as newspaper, cardboard), how do they like those things to be presented? I've tried giving her some strips of paper through the cage bars- she didn't show any fear, but not a whole lot of interest either, just sort of 'meh, look at that'. Though it could also be because she's new.

Also, for taming. She's a very sweet bird- lets me get close to her, lets me put my hand in the cage, no fear at all, not even backing up. But, she is not too interactive just yet- for example, an outstretched finger for 'step up' she'll just stare at, or simply ignore and preen. That's to be expected, I'm not worried about step up much right now, but when offering certain treats through the bars (sprig of millet, a sunflower seed), she also ignores them. This is a temporary thing, correct? I was hoping to use treats to help with the taming (such as the good ol' 'step on my finger to reach the sunflower seed!' trick, for example) but it sure makes it harder if she isn't responsive to it.

The dowel rods were a temporary fix. In my finch cages I ONLY use natural branches, but for Parsley I had to use the dowel rod temporarily since I wasn't confident using the same branches I give for the finches (I use any and all branches for the finches, but since psittacines chew, I needed to wait until I was able to get out and get some safe tree branches).

But as far as the diet thing, I wasn't asking what they /can/ eat or what their diet should be or whichever (I'm extremely knowledgeable about captive avian nutrition- I know what fresh foods to give, trust me). I was asking what they were /capable/ of eating as far as the dry foods I listed in the question- some foods, being how small they are, they physically are incapable of eating (take huge brazil nuts, for example. too big for a budgie to eat). I was wondering if things like brown rice and oats were too big for them like they were too big for my finches. With my finches, it was a trial-and-error thing, and while that's fine and all, it wasted a lot of my money from buying things specifically for them to eat and it turning out that it's too big for them to be capable of eating. But thanks for somewhat-answering that question (I see they're able to eat cooked rice and oats).
Sunflower seeds have a lot of benefits, such as being high in vitamin E. Fat does not automatically equal bad. I find that they're fine in moderation- the mixes containing some crazy amount of sunflower seeds, of course not, but some in the mix, that's fine. Most of the problems with sunflower/similar oil seeds being too fattening is when the bird is wing mutilated (of COURSE there is going to be problems with that- flight is the bird's main form of exercise and when you take that away, you are dooming them to a life of being stuck tied to a perch) or when they're in too small of a cage. Parsley is going to be free-flown throughout my house once she's tame, and while her cage is on the small side now, she'll be moved into the Prevue flight in about a month.

I already knew about the artificial preservatives and colorings in pellets, but thanks for the reminder anyway!

Milo is a large, round seed (think about the size of a pea- it's pretty big) often found in wild bird mixes and mixes for doves. I always want to feed a variety of seed (I mix my own, rather than rely on the icky commercial mixtures), so I'm not opposed to giving a little milo, but I wanted to know if she could eat it or if it'd just be waste in the seed mix. I did all sorts of wacky things a long time ago with my finch's seed- tried giving them cracked corn, brown rice, oats...but, of course, these things were too big for them (they're now down to a much reasonable red, white proso millet, as well as white millet and canary grass seed, though if only they could eat more!).

I also know how to identify Jenday/Sun conures, it's just that I didn't bother taking a close enough look, just a glance enough to be like "Oh yeah, that's a conure".

Budgies don't use foot toys. My Budgie will sometimes use his feet to grab a toy that's hanging but its rare. You can put foot toys or toy parts on a table when the bird is out, they may play with it. Gently poking or "playing" with the toy will make the toy look more interesting and fun.

My Budgie will try to shred his perch sometimes but the perches he has are to hard for him to shred so he never really got that into it.

Usually only a tame bird will take something from your fingers. You could try making paper noises with it. Though it will take trust before she will feel comfortable taking it from your fingers. You could try feeding some seed from your hand with the paper there, its also possible that she may just not like the paper.

You can make the newspaper and cardboard into a toy that hangs in the cage. Put it on a table with seed around it. You can also make it into a triangle, L shape.. et cetera and put seed under/ on it.

They are curious birds, once the bird is tame and trusts you she will want to play with what your "playing" with. Though, It sometimes takes time for them to get used to a new toy since they don't know if it will bring them harm.

For now you'll probably do better using a spray millet then the sunflower seed. Also it depends on the bird but a palm might be more welcoming then a finger.

Her not being active and not vocal is temporary because she's still new. Her being "shy" around you is only temporary because your still taming her.

I don't know much about food, I mostly just give mine vegetables, fruits, pellets and seeds. I will sometimes give them unsalted crackers because once they see me eating it and hear them crackling, they are just begging to have some.

They can be stubborn, even though they can eat it they may not even want to try it, especially with birds that have been on a all seed diet.

Your birds are so lucky to have a owner that cares so much about them. I wanna see pictures. ^_^

I wanna try the milo seed with my birds if I can find it, do you buy it at the pet store or another place?

[Eizoryu]

Congrats and welcome to the budgie owning circle, Moth! =D I want to see pictures of your new baby ASAP. <3

You already know about the mirror thing (saw someone else bring it up). It won't disrupt your relationship with Parsley as long as you give him/her plenty of attention. And knowing you, you will, so no worries. Kori has a mirror with plastic beads on it (she's destroyed some of them, not surprisingly), but because I had interaction with her daily, she didn't become obsessed. Richter likes to go look at his fine self every now and again, flicking his beak across the surface. xD

I can vouch for the wooden blocks thing, as well. Mine tore the paper off the blocks, but left the blocks. Could be because they're in a group now, though. Kori chewed a wooden apple-shaped block clear off the rod it was on when it was just me and her, and she liked to chew up her perches. So maybe Parsley might take to it, being a lone budgie. I would just get a small toy with one or two blocks, just to see what happens.

You can probably try some milo, but I think it might be a little large for their beaks. Definitely don't go out and get a huge amount, just in case they don't like it. I have found that my flock will eat some treats that are as large as milo seed when it's sparsely mixed in with their food, but it's very individual.

What can you expect from Parse? (Here I am, already nicknaming your new baby xD)
Behaviorally, one bird isn't as active as a flock. Kori wasn't big on talking or singing while it was just me and her, but she had periods throughout the day when she would just scream her little head off like something was trying to kill her. Nothing was, of course, but it's a female thing to make that angry-sounding screech more often than the easier-on-the-ears whistling and chirping. A male is going to be more vocal more often; whistly and chirpy rather than screechy-screamy.
Either way, they don't have a specific schedule to their noise that I've noticed with my flock, but they're not constant like finches. They'll just have periods throughout when they start screaming and bickering and chattering away like little crazies. Richter woke us up this morning at 8:30, so I know he's a morning boy. x_x
When it gets dark though, they settle down. Pick a favorite place to perch and then start beak-grinding happily.

She might take about a week to really start showing her true colors to you, and it'll prolly be about another three or four months before you can reliably use the cere indicator as a sexing method. x3 Seeing as how Parse is a yellowface, though, and I have no idea what his/her plumage is like other than yellow face, blue body (opaline barring? Pied? Spangle? Fallow?), Parse might end up being one of those oddball mutation combos that are tougher to tell, simply because their ceres don't match the general rule of everyone else. Like my Aeonaxx. xD

[poiisoned]

Moth Feathers

poiisoned

Congratulations! As for advice, I'm not quite in the position to be giving you perfect advice, since you're the one that's been posting in a few of my own budgie threads, haha. but I will tell you about my first week with my new budgie, and maybe my experiences may be similar.

On about the third or fourth day home, my budgie started becoming pretty comfortable. He was moving around the cage, chirping every once in a while, and in general being less lazy like the first few days. By now (it's been exactly a week) he's pretty active: moving from perch to perch, climbing the cage walls, moving back and forth. But of course he has some favorite spots where he'll stay still for a while.

he doesn't play with the wooden block toy with the bell on it, so I'll probably be replacing it with some other ring toy or something. He likes poking at thee rope perch I have for him, so a rope or leather toy would probably work well.

As for how vocal he is, he's pretty consistent from morning to late afternoon. I wouldn't say it's as constant as your finches, but he responds to a lot of noises around the house (music, TV, moving dishes in the kitchen, crumpling paper and plastic, etc). He chirps mostly in the afternoon, since that's when he hears the sparrows outside of the house. He goes nuts!

Like I said about him being mostly active in the morning and afternoon, he calms down significantly at about 7 PM, which I thought was pretty odd. One of my other friends has a budgie, and theirs keeps chirping until around 9 PM, haha. But after around 7 or so, he's pooped, and sits in one place with his foot up, ready to sleep, I suppose. No matter how much music you play or how much you try to talk to him after 7, he won't budge.


so anyway, thanks for the advice that you've given me in my past threads, and I wish you the best of luck with your new friend! (:



oh, and I did finally get a picture! I think your new budgie may look a bit like mine, since it's a yelloeface (: not the best quality, but here he is (:

Thanks for the advice!
I know most of the technical information about budgies, just not so much of the little fine things, like how vocal they are or what they're capable of eating. xD Little details like that you really only get after owning them.

Your budgie is adorable! Though, it's so sad he has clipped wings, poor little guy.- I can't believe pet stores will clip such beautiful birds. I can't wait for his feathers to grow out again!

An update on Parsley-
Today she was struggling to eat some millet spray (some of it was hanging down below her perch) and so I put my hand in there to hold up the millet spray (she is very comfortable with hands in the cage) and guess what! She ate the millet spray while I was holding it!
My arm ached after holding it up so long, but it was so adorable to see her nibbling away at the millet. She even stood on my hand for a little bit, though it wasn't as much of a step-up as much as it was "oh look, some odd platform, I'll just stand on it to eat my millet!".

She's still very quiet though, which is sad, since I expected she would be more vocal than yesterday. She whistles a little bit more though.

With your budgie, do you find him very receptive to treats? I was giving Parsley little strips of newspaper and she'd reach over and pull on them, it was pretty sweet. When offering sunflower seeds, however, she ignored them, which sort of surprised me (aren't birds supposed to like sunflower?).

yeah, I know. I wished that they hadn't clipped them, but you know; what are you gonna do? :b

Lately, my budgie (his name is Fester, I realized I haven't even mentioned his name!) he's been taking millet through the bars of the cage, and he's been making some progress with it. if I move it across to the other side of the cage, though, he won't go and get it. I'm trying to use the millet to get him to eat strawberries and other fruits and veggies I have in my house, as in: offer the millet, and when he's interested, take it away and try a strawberry. So far it hasn't worked, but I think he might pull through with it. At least he likes the millet, so that will help with hand-training him; he's still really skittish with hands inside the cage. I'll keep feeding him through the bars for a while, and try inside the cage from time to time I suppose.
So what you asked as far as treats, I guess right now I'm training him to see things as treats? Fester liked pulling on pieces of ripped paper the day I brought him home in the car, so I guess things like cardboard and newspaper could be like fun treats or toys to them (:
And I'm sure that the sunflower situation is just a matter of Parsley's taste. Like some said above (I think), all budgies are going to act differently, and that includes food preferences. (:

[Moth Feathers]

Thanks for all the comments guys! And to you too, Eizoryu!

Parsley has really progressed fast! She is very used to hands in the cage and doesn't mind it at all, so I started holding up a millet spray for her to eat, and then I was able to progress to her stepping up to my finger!
She now steps up pretty readily, it's just a matter of reliability- sometimes she doesn't want to and just ignores me, and she also has an issue with sometimes refusing to step up if she doesn't see me holding up a piece of millet spray for her to eat. She is a very close 'sitter'- I know some birds are very anxious to jump off when sitting on the hand, but she's pretty relaxed as long as she knows a millet spray is near. I'm able to bring her out of her cage on my finger, but not very much further than six inches from the door, as she is still a bit jumpy and at risk of taking off. I have also taught her to 'dismount' from my finger, though again she's not very reliable and sometimes will want to stay on.
I'm hoping by the end of the week to be able to have her stepping up reliably enough that I can actually start taking her out of the cage for some free flight!


One major problem I've had is convincing her to eat and drink. She, for whichever reason, really hates going down to the bottom of the cage and I have never seen her down there at all before. Unfortunately, the bottom of the cage is where her food and water is. I know it is very common for new budgies to be reluctant to eat and drink in front of people, but I think this is a pretty genuine concern. I put a little bit of her seed (just regular seed, no millet spray or similar treats) into my hand and she went crazy over it, and ate for a good ten minutes or so. This is really concerning, because if she's not eating her regular food, that means the only food she's had over the last three days was just millet spray.

Water has also been iffy. I had to get one of the bowls from the finch cages, one that hangs on the side of the cage, and use it to get her to drink (since it hangs on the side of the cage, she doesn't have to get down on the ground). That is the only time I have seen her drink is with the hanging bowl.

What should I do about this? I need the side-hanging bowl for the girls (finches), because their cage is quite tall and they really need a waterer that's up fairly high.

More about her color..
She has some yellow on her retrices, so I'm thinking she's a yellowface type 2, but the yellow isn't diffusing into the body (at least not yet). Her barring on the back is so beautiful, I'm thinking she's also a spangled. Here's some pictures, maybe you can tell.
For the blue, she has such a light blue I'm thinking it's sky blue. But who knows- I'm still not too good with budgie colors, so you guys should be able to help.
I wish I could have got a picture of her on my finger, but alas, only two hands to deal with the bird and no extra to hold the camera.

I would also appreciate tips on her cage set up! I'm not familiar on how to set up a cage for budgies and how they like to move around, so that'd be helpful. I do realize she needs more toys- I tried to improvise the best I could, and today I got her some ropes (they're actually dog toys technically, but it's all good. In fact, I recommend them in place of those overpriced 'bungie' perches, as these I got for only a dollar and are just as good, except not as flexible). Soon I will be buying her some plastic toys as well, perhaps tomorrow since I'll be going to Walmart.

Pictures!
This is the cage she originally came in. Poor girl!
Picture of cage originally set up
Parsley on her swing

Picture of cage as it is right now, though of course it's always apt to change as I get more toys for her
My best photo! Parsley looking cute.
Different angle of cage, Parsley is also in this one
A slightly blurry picture of her back, so you can tell if she's spangled or not.
Different angle of Parsley and her back
More of her cage and back

And that's it! She's a very gorgeous girl, as you can tell. I have to say, yellowfaces are now one of my favorite colors.

EDIT: Looking back at the pictures, I'm noticing you can see little bits and pieces of the finchies and the bird room in general. xD Like for example, in Parsley's best picture, you can see little Meep in the middle cage checking out what we're doing. xD
Ahh, I love those birds.

[Moth Feathers]

TinyLittleKitty

Moth Feathers

Thanks for your help.

For toys, do they use 'foot toys' often? I have seen larger birds really enjoy playing with foot toys.
I've also noticed she enjoys gnawing on the silver maple branches I put in for her yesterday (after I posted this question).
Never knew they don't care for the wooden blocks. That's interesting.

For the shreddable items (such as newspaper, cardboard), how do they like those things to be presented? I've tried giving her some strips of paper through the cage bars- she didn't show any fear, but not a whole lot of interest either, just sort of 'meh, look at that'. Though it could also be because she's new.

Also, for taming. She's a very sweet bird- lets me get close to her, lets me put my hand in the cage, no fear at all, not even backing up. But, she is not too interactive just yet- for example, an outstretched finger for 'step up' she'll just stare at, or simply ignore and preen. That's to be expected, I'm not worried about step up much right now, but when offering certain treats through the bars (sprig of millet, a sunflower seed), she also ignores them. This is a temporary thing, correct? I was hoping to use treats to help with the taming (such as the good ol' 'step on my finger to reach the sunflower seed!' trick, for example) but it sure makes it harder if she isn't responsive to it.

The dowel rods were a temporary fix. In my finch cages I ONLY use natural branches, but for Parsley I had to use the dowel rod temporarily since I wasn't confident using the same branches I give for the finches (I use any and all branches for the finches, but since psittacines chew, I needed to wait until I was able to get out and get some safe tree branches).

But as far as the diet thing, I wasn't asking what they /can/ eat or what their diet should be or whichever (I'm extremely knowledgeable about captive avian nutrition- I know what fresh foods to give, trust me). I was asking what they were /capable/ of eating as far as the dry foods I listed in the question- some foods, being how small they are, they physically are incapable of eating (take huge brazil nuts, for example. too big for a budgie to eat). I was wondering if things like brown rice and oats were too big for them like they were too big for my finches. With my finches, it was a trial-and-error thing, and while that's fine and all, it wasted a lot of my money from buying things specifically for them to eat and it turning out that it's too big for them to be capable of eating. But thanks for somewhat-answering that question (I see they're able to eat cooked rice and oats).
Sunflower seeds have a lot of benefits, such as being high in vitamin E. Fat does not automatically equal bad. I find that they're fine in moderation- the mixes containing some crazy amount of sunflower seeds, of course not, but some in the mix, that's fine. Most of the problems with sunflower/similar oil seeds being too fattening is when the bird is wing mutilated (of COURSE there is going to be problems with that- flight is the bird's main form of exercise and when you take that away, you are dooming them to a life of being stuck tied to a perch) or when they're in too small of a cage. Parsley is going to be free-flown throughout my house once she's tame, and while her cage is on the small side now, she'll be moved into the Prevue flight in about a month.

I already knew about the artificial preservatives and colorings in pellets, but thanks for the reminder anyway!

Milo is a large, round seed (think about the size of a pea- it's pretty big) often found in wild bird mixes and mixes for doves. I always want to feed a variety of seed (I mix my own, rather than rely on the icky commercial mixtures), so I'm not opposed to giving a little milo, but I wanted to know if she could eat it or if it'd just be waste in the seed mix. I did all sorts of wacky things a long time ago with my finch's seed- tried giving them cracked corn, brown rice, oats...but, of course, these things were too big for them (they're now down to a much reasonable red, white proso millet, as well as white millet and canary grass seed, though if only they could eat more!).

I also know how to identify Jenday/Sun conures, it's just that I didn't bother taking a close enough look, just a glance enough to be like "Oh yeah, that's a conure".

Budgies don't use foot toys. My Budgie will sometimes use his feet to grab a toy that's hanging but its rare. You can put foot toys or toy parts on a table when the bird is out, they may play with it. Gently poking or "playing" with the toy will make the toy look more interesting and fun.

My Budgie will try to shred his perch sometimes but the perches he has are to hard for him to shred so he never really got that into it.

Usually only a tame bird will take something from your fingers. You could try making paper noises with it. Though it will take trust before she will feel comfortable taking it from your fingers. You could try feeding some seed from your hand with the paper there, its also possible that she may just not like the paper.

You can make the newspaper and cardboard into a toy that hangs in the cage. Put it on a table with seed around it. You can also make it into a triangle, L shape.. et cetera and put seed under/ on it.

They are curious birds, once the bird is tame and trusts you she will want to play with what your "playing" with. Though, It sometimes takes time for them to get used to a new toy since they don't know if it will bring them harm.

For now you'll probably do better using a spray millet then the sunflower seed. Also it depends on the bird but a palm might be more welcoming then a finger.

Her not being active and not vocal is temporary because she's still new. Her being "shy" around you is only temporary because your still taming her.

I don't know much about food, I mostly just give mine vegetables, fruits, pellets and seeds. I will sometimes give them unsalted crackers because once they see me eating it and hear them crackling, they are just begging to have some.

They can be stubborn, even though they can eat it they may not even want to try it, especially with birds that have been on a all seed diet.

Your birds are so lucky to have a owner that cares so much about them. I wanna see pictures. ^_^

I wanna try the milo seed with my birds if I can find it, do you buy it at the pet store or another place?

Yeah, I've tried on several occasions to give sunflower seed, both striped and oily black, but she doesn't care for it. Alas, but I tried at least. I don't mind the millet spray though, I was just excited at the idea of having a bird that ate a diet at least a little bit different than the finchies.

Milo can be found in wild bird seed mixes and in dove mixes, though not all stores offer dove mixes (fortunately for me, my local feed store does). I was thinking about using the kind from the dove mixes, since wild bird seed's quality can be rather iffy, as well as contains a lot of seeds that Parsley probably will not want to eat, like the sunflowers and cracked corn. Dove mix at least contains some millets and other delectable items.

This morning I also offered her some mustard greens, and it was successful! She was interested in chewing them up, which was great. They weren't the perkiest they could have been, however, so her interest in them did wane pretty quickly, but I'm going to try again tomorrow.

Pictures (as well as some updates for taming) are in my other post! ^^

[Moth Feathers]

poiisoned

Moth Feathers

poiisoned

Congratulations! As for advice, I'm not quite in the position to be giving you perfect advice, since you're the one that's been posting in a few of my own budgie threads, haha. but I will tell you about my first week with my new budgie, and maybe my experiences may be similar.

On about the third or fourth day home, my budgie started becoming pretty comfortable. He was moving around the cage, chirping every once in a while, and in general being less lazy like the first few days. By now (it's been exactly a week) he's pretty active: moving from perch to perch, climbing the cage walls, moving back and forth. But of course he has some favorite spots where he'll stay still for a while.

he doesn't play with the wooden block toy with the bell on it, so I'll probably be replacing it with some other ring toy or something. He likes poking at thee rope perch I have for him, so a rope or leather toy would probably work well.

As for how vocal he is, he's pretty consistent from morning to late afternoon. I wouldn't say it's as constant as your finches, but he responds to a lot of noises around the house (music, TV, moving dishes in the kitchen, crumpling paper and plastic, etc). He chirps mostly in the afternoon, since that's when he hears the sparrows outside of the house. He goes nuts!

Like I said about him being mostly active in the morning and afternoon, he calms down significantly at about 7 PM, which I thought was pretty odd. One of my other friends has a budgie, and theirs keeps chirping until around 9 PM, haha. But after around 7 or so, he's pooped, and sits in one place with his foot up, ready to sleep, I suppose. No matter how much music you play or how much you try to talk to him after 7, he won't budge.


so anyway, thanks for the advice that you've given me in my past threads, and I wish you the best of luck with your new friend! (:



oh, and I did finally get a picture! I think your new budgie may look a bit like mine, since it's a yelloeface (: not the best quality, but here he is (:

Thanks for the advice!
I know most of the technical information about budgies, just not so much of the little fine things, like how vocal they are or what they're capable of eating. xD Little details like that you really only get after owning them.

Your budgie is adorable! Though, it's so sad he has clipped wings, poor little guy.- I can't believe pet stores will clip such beautiful birds. I can't wait for his feathers to grow out again!

An update on Parsley-
Today she was struggling to eat some millet spray (some of it was hanging down below her perch) and so I put my hand in there to hold up the millet spray (she is very comfortable with hands in the cage) and guess what! She ate the millet spray while I was holding it!
My arm ached after holding it up so long, but it was so adorable to see her nibbling away at the millet. She even stood on my hand for a little bit, though it wasn't as much of a step-up as much as it was "oh look, some odd platform, I'll just stand on it to eat my millet!".

She's still very quiet though, which is sad, since I expected she would be more vocal than yesterday. She whistles a little bit more though.

With your budgie, do you find him very receptive to treats? I was giving Parsley little strips of newspaper and she'd reach over and pull on them, it was pretty sweet. When offering sunflower seeds, however, she ignored them, which sort of surprised me (aren't birds supposed to like sunflower?).

yeah, I know. I wished that they hadn't clipped them, but you know; what are you gonna do? :b

Lately, my budgie (his name is Fester, I realized I haven't even mentioned his name!) he's been taking millet through the bars of the cage, and he's been making some progress with it. if I move it across to the other side of the cage, though, he won't go and get it. I'm trying to use the millet to get him to eat strawberries and other fruits and veggies I have in my house, as in: offer the millet, and when he's interested, take it away and try a strawberry. So far it hasn't worked, but I think he might pull through with it. At least he likes the millet, so that will help with hand-training him; he's still really skittish with hands inside the cage. I'll keep feeding him through the bars for a while, and try inside the cage from time to time I suppose.
So what you asked as far as treats, I guess right now I'm training him to see things as treats? Fester liked pulling on pieces of ripped paper the day I brought him home in the car, so I guess things like cardboard and newspaper could be like fun treats or toys to them (:
And I'm sure that the sunflower situation is just a matter of Parsley's taste. Like some said above (I think), all budgies are going to act differently, and that includes food preferences. (:

I was very fortunate to get Parsley and she was already extremely comfortable with hands in the cage- in fact, she didn't mind at all, and I could do pretty much whatever I want and she'd just watch me, or step back a few steps if I was getting too close.
She also had a millet spray in the cage, and since she was comfortable with hands, I simply took the uneatened end of the millet spray and held it up to her so she could reach it easier and..wallah, she's been becoming a bit more tame every day.
So, that's how I managed to get her tame enough to do stepup, if that's any advice. If you can get him comfortable with hands in the cage, you're doing great.

Yeah, I've noticed they like tearing up paper too, which is good though, since it's really easy to find old paper that they can eat. I tear off strips and will hold it up to her, and she'll nibble at them a little bit.

Give Fester some leafy greens! It's like toys for them, and they nibble and chew at it and eat it...and it's oh so good for them! I found Parsley liked to nibble on some mustard greens I had.
I also offered her a little piece of a pear today, she lightly 'beak touched' it, but that was it. xD

So far I've found millet spray to be the best treat too. Rather than struggle with the entire piece, I cut it into a little section, about the size of a quarter, so it's easier to deal with.

[LuvByrd]

Oh congratulations! She is very cute!

They should be able to eat, safflower, sunflower, oats, and rice just fine - parrots, even small ones have much stronger beaks than finches. I dunno about dried rice though, that stuff is hard.
Budgies, and most other small parrots don't really play with foot toys, but boy will they shred! Paper, woven palm leaf (my lovebird loves that!), cardboard, lettuce/greens, and softer woods (depending on the bird). Funny someone should say their bird doesn't like a happy hut, mine sure does! You could also try a cozy corner - soft and fuzzy, but less intimidating.

It does seem weird that for how comfortable with you as she is, she's not going down to eat. Do you know what she was being fed before you got her? Maybe something happened to her that she has a fear of the bottom of the cage? I use millet spray as a treat for both of my birds, not as part of their "main menu", or it seems like that's all they'd eat. It did help my finch settle in, when he wasn't quite comfortable to go down to his dishes. You could try using rubber bands and binder clips to put the dishes higher up, and see if that'd help.

That is so awesome that she is so used to you all ready, The flight training should be fun! Once she is reliably stepping up, do you have a "plan of attack" on the training? I had some fun flight training Pearl today.

Nice cage! It's got lots of stuff, does she have room to fly back and forth? (That's a dumb question....you've got finches, you know their need to fly) wink

[Eizoryu]

I really need to be getting to bed, so I'll at least take a crack at her mutations for ya, Moth. :3 Parse is a precious little cutie, I gotta say! <3

Looks like a yellowface type I (yellow only in the face and tail) cobalt spangle, from the frontal pic of her. But that may well be the lighting and my being tired, so Parse is probably a sky blue, not a cobalt.

Does she have blue dispersed through her wings? Because if she does, add opaline to the list. I couldn't tell, really, so... Yeah. ^^; Final tally: Yellowface type I sky blue spangle, with possible opaline.

I reckon we'll see if her plumage changes as she grows up; see if that type I shows to actually be a type II. Some varieties do, so time shall tell. I'm really glad she came into your flock. She'll have a good life with ye, I'm sure. <3

[Moth Feathers]

LuvByrd

Oh congratulations! She is very cute!

They should be able to eat, safflower, sunflower, oats, and rice just fine - parrots, even small ones have much stronger beaks than finches. I dunno about dried rice though, that stuff is hard.
Budgies, and most other small parrots don't really play with foot toys, but boy will they shred! Paper, woven palm leaf (my lovebird loves that!), cardboard, lettuce/greens, and softer woods (depending on the bird). Funny someone should say their bird doesn't like a happy hut, mine sure does! You could also try a cozy corner - soft and fuzzy, but less intimidating.

It does seem weird that for how comfortable with you as she is, she's not going down to eat. Do you know what she was being fed before you got her? Maybe something happened to her that she has a fear of the bottom of the cage? I use millet spray as a treat for both of my birds, not as part of their "main menu", or it seems like that's all they'd eat. It did help my finch settle in, when he wasn't quite comfortable to go down to his dishes. You could try using rubber bands and binder clips to put the dishes higher up, and see if that'd help.

That is so awesome that she is so used to you all ready, The flight training should be fun! Once she is reliably stepping up, do you have a "plan of attack" on the training? I had some fun flight training Pearl today.

Nice cage! It's got lots of stuff, does she have room to fly back and forth? (That's a dumb question....you've got finches, you know their need to fly) wink

Yep, she's eating the same food that was in her dish when I first got her. It's a 'parrot mix', with a bunch of sunflower and little colored bits (-eyeroll- I hate those mixes, but I figure it's only temporary. I have some better budgie seed for her, I just want to keep with the old food for now until it's used up).
The day after I got her, she liked to explore around the branches and such, but now whenever I have her dismount ('step down' I suppose you could call it) on one of them, she always rushes to the side of the cage where she can climb back up to her dowel. The only thing I could guess that happened so that she's afraid of being down near the bottom is perhaps one of the branches fell/moved when she was on it? I don't know. I checked them, and they're all pretty sturdy and set in well.

I was thinking of putting my finger a little bit further away than usual for step up, and then have her hop over there, get that down pat, then do a little bit further. Once she would be hopping far enough, I'd move her into my 'free flight room', and work on some longer distances. In the end, I'm hoping it'll be like having some falconry bird, and I could stand at one end of the house and be like "Parsley, come!" and she'd fly over and land on my hand. xD Dreaming.

Actually, she doesn't have much room to fly at all in that cage, which really irks me. I just don't know what to do. The cage is only 20 inches long, and budgies have a wingspan of like 10 inches, so already that doesn't leave much space- the most she could fly would be a couple of inches. But she also does have some toys I placed in there, so that cuts down on the space even more- all and all, her main mode of transportation in that cage is just climbing and sometimes wing-assisted hops.
She won't be in that cage for much longer, a month at best, but I'm not sure what to do right now in order to alleviate the situation. Do you have any tips? Definitely going to do a lot of free-flight with her, though, when she's ready to try to make up for it.

Also, when you free-fly your birds, is there an issue getting them back into the cage? Parsley will be allowed free-flight on the third floor of our house, and her cage is on the second, so it's not like I can leave the door open and just wait for her to come back in on her own time. I was thinking, after she was done flying, to simply call her back to me, put her in the travel cage, bring it downstairs and then move her into her regular cage. But I don't know if it would work or not- what if she doesn't want to come back to me, for example?