The Single Most Important Gift to Your Parakeet is a Bird Cage
Buying a cage for your pet parakeet is probably the single most important gift you can give to it. A parakeet cage is your birds refuge, its sanctuary against danger, its safety net as well as it living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
When buying a cage for your bird parakeet, anticipate spending $80-$100 unless you can find one on eBay or Craigslist.com at a cheaper price or are gifted enough to make one yourself. The cage must be spacious with room for additional perches, toys, perhaps a tiny birdbath, a place for its cuttlebone, etc. Our parakeet cage is perfect. The cage is made of coated white wires about 1/4 inch apart. The detachable cage roof covers only two-thirds of the width of the cage while the other one-third is permanently covered. At night, our parakeet nests under the permanently covered roof of the cage assuring itself of safety and a prime security position. A parakeet bird cage will always be packaged with a food tray and water tray. Buy only high quality parakeet food – a good nut, fruit and vegetable mix will do just fine.
Place the bird cage in a room in the house that is most frequented by humans. Remember that parakeets love to flock and be involved in social activity. Keep them in the area of the house that has the most activity but don’t place the parakeet cage next to the television, stereo or telephone. Loud and persistent noises will startle it and keep it on edge.
At night when the outdoor din tends to lessen, we turn the stereo or computer on to play music. Our parakeet loves the sound of musical instruments and higher pitched (not loud) voices, mostly female. Our parakeet is especially tuned to stringed instruments, flutes and the piano.
Parakeet Toys
Parakeet toys are necessary to quench the bird’s desire for curiosity. When we first bought a bird cage for our parakeet, it was packaged with only one wood dowel that served as its one and only perch. As the weeks moved forward, we realized that there was more space in the cage than we thought. We found that our parakeet really enjoyed climbing on the walls around it, investigating it, nibbling it. So, we ultimately bought three more wooden dowel perches set at various heights with one especially set toward the back of the cage where it could get to its cuttlebone. Incidentally, it’s on this perch that it finds a covered corner to rest and sleep during the evenings. In addition, we bought some parakeet toys to hang inside the cage and some to affix to the outside of it.
Given the activity level, the inquisitiveness inherent in our parakeet and its brilliant eyesight, we purchased some toys for our parakeet. We purchased a rope with colorful rings and a bell as well as a rope with colorful plastic hollow balls with little rattles inside. She loved these toys. She not only used them as time consumers but as entertainment and sport. She loves to pull and yank on these toys, climb on them and nibble on them. Later, we purchased a plastic parakeet ladder toy where each end was nudged into wire openings on top of the bird cage. The toy ladder allowed our parakeet to perch even higher above its cage than the wooden dowel perches allowed and it provided a neat little obstacle course or her. We also bought brown plastic tree branches that protrude from the side of the cage toward the window which allowed her a closer view of the proceedings outside.
The bird cage is set about 6 feet from the sliding glass door leading to the outdoors and each morning that it is opened signals the beginning of another day for our pet parakeet bird. And that means lots of singing and chirping.
Parakeets need toys to keep their minds occupied; otherwise, they will go stir crazy. When parakeets are bored, they can over groom themselves which can cause problems.
Remember that parakeets are like toddlers so you must make sure that there are no dangerous edges or chemicals in your parakeet toys. While you’re at it, parakeet-proof your home. Make sure your parakeet cannot get stuck behind refrigerators, in toilets, or be electrocuted. Above all, make sure all screens, doors and windows are shut and that they cannot be opened by stray cats or other animals preying the neighborhood.
