Buying Your First Budgie

Wether your a newbie, or a seasoned budgie breeder the process for buying a budgie remains relatively similar. First of all have a home ready, for one budgie the cage should be no smaller than 30cm x 30cm x 40cm. If your budgie is by himself all day it is a good idea to get a bigger cage, so that he can move around and can have more toys to play with (general rule of thumb is to get the biggest cage you can afford). Get the cage ready for your budgie, make sure you have a source of seed/pellets, water container, food bowl, toys etc. Also decide beforehand what colors and gender you would prefer. Males are typically the way to go, as they are usually easier to train and faster to start "talking"  (mimicking). When you look at buying a budgie, the first thing to do is to take note of their habitat (state of the cage their in) and the other budgies around.

Look at the state of the cage and birds:

• Is the cage and the surrounding area clean and relatively tidy?
• Is there a good supply of food and clean water?
• If there are a few budgies they should be playfull and chirpy.
• There should not be any budgies that are looking sick ( fluffed up for the duration of your visit, sitting on the bottom of the cage), you do not want to buy any budgies from there if there are sick ones in the flock.

If the budgie breeder/pet shop passes the test above, it is time to look at the budgies individually.

Try to choose a budgie with the following characteristics:

• Is the color and gender you decided previously
• Young (their ususually more playful people friendly, 6-10 weeks is ideal)
• The budgie should be alert and playful 
• Double check for sings of illness

These are typically some signs of a good budgie to buy.

The first place you should look to buy a budgie is from your local breeder, this can be beneficial in many ways:

• Usually breeders will handle their budgies from a young age, which means the budgie wont be as scared of people and will find it easer to adjust to you.
• They usually care more because they specialize in budgie breeding, and have an active interest in the health of their flock. 

Getting a budgie for a breeder usually means having a healthier, friendlier and more entertaining budgie. Some pet shops are better than others, and if they pass this budgie buying guide there is no reason not to buy a bird from one. But it is not ideal.