Budgie List

[Nathaniel]

this is all very confusing for me.

[Michael]

Here's what we can do. I have a general formula for calculating the initial first year cost of owning a parrot. Basically what this means is, with a $900 budget, you can expect to spend about $300 on parrot and $600 on initial supplies and expenses. If you go through a breeder, many parrots that normally retail for $400-$700 will be available for as low as $300. TacoKim recently sourced a conure through a breeder really cheap and might be able to provide you with some insight about that.

Basically the cost of supplies between a budgie, cockatiel, lovebird, parrotlet, or other small end parakeet (green cheeked parakeet included), the cost of supplies will be virtually the same. Perches cost the same regardless of which of those birds you get. Toys cost the same. Food costs practically the same. The cage will be slightly more but not drastically. So if a cage for budgie might run $100, it could go up to $200 for the larger of these parrots we are discussing.

Now of course you can still get the budgie and not spend everything you have. That's totally fine. I just don't want to see you spend that much when you don't have to. You can either get more for your money or save it for future parrot expenses.

PS Please don't double post so much. If you are making a small addition to something you previously posted, click edit instead of posting again. However, if someone else has posted after you did, then you can post again. But if yours is the last post, it's easier on everyone if you just edit it rather than post again.

[Nathaniel]

Ok, sorry.

Well the cage I choose I was told Could house a GCC. It is 18x18x20 and has a playtop. It costs $200.

What cage did you keep Duke in?

[Michael]

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=78&p=391#p391

You can go all the way to 18x18x32 for like $215.

[Kim S]

Wowkay, I missed out a lot in 24 hours

Anyway, i didnt mean that Nathaniel should breed budgies without experience. I just didnt want him to start off in a really bad way, for him and for the birds.

If you still have the idea about breeding, dont buy hand fed budgies. Even if you dont want to breed, dont buy handfed budgies, period. The risks of handfeeding them outway the positives a million to one. I thinks it is a really silly idea to buy hand fed budgies anyway, since they bond with people easily enough straight from the parents. If you take them in your hands every day from 2-3 week of age, they will be magnificent pets.
The problem with hand fed budgies (and cockatiels) is that many (not every one) will have behavioural issues. Often they dont grow up around other birds and dont know how to behave with birds. They bond with humans to a degree that borders on obsession. If you want to add a bird down the line, they can become very agressive not knowing how to behave.
Plus, from the parents crop the young get a lot of anibacteria and things I have no idea how to translate to english, but you get the idea. The handrearingfood we have, how excellent it might be, can never replace the natural food the parents give it.

About the mirror. I never use mirrors and I always advice my customers not to buy them. They become obsessed with the mirror, they start feeding it and act towards it like its a mate. In my opinion this can never be a healthy situation. Every one agrees that its not healthy for the bird to see the human as a partner and give up food for them, then why should we condone it with the mirror?
If you want your bird to have a playmate, buy him a real one. You dont need to breed to have two budgies

[tacotaco]

OK, didn't read much of this but here is my example since i just purchased a bird a few days ago and it's still fresh in my memory:

conure from a breeder, normally in the pet store they go for 350-400, i paid 200 (plus 120 for shipping it to NY from Florida) I think around here a green cheek as you said you might be interested in goes for about 150-200.
the cage cost me 260, it's a spacious cage because I think your better off bigger than smaller, especially if most of their time is spent in it.
the vet is going to cost about 100 (without blood work) not sure how much it is with proper blood work done.
Food I spend about 50 bucks every, hm maybe like 8-10 weeks? i don't know for sure how often I buy it.
I have to pick up a few toys still and probably will look at spending around 50-60 bucks.
Harness+Leash - 35 bucks. (optional but i recommend it for my conures)
Java Tree - 120 bucks (i recommend a play stand or something, u can obviously get cheaper than this but i prefer the java tree and my other conure loves it)

I think thats pretty much it for now ~ so far i've spent about 950-1000 bucks plus you have to add on every couple months for more food, replacing toys that get chewed up. Also factor in cleaning materials for the cage (poop off wipes, an air filter maybe, etc) fresh veggies and fruits supplied weekly, yearly vet visits, bla bla bla

Hope this helps ya

[TheNzJessie]

from my knowlege (at experiance) budgies dont use happy huts but that might just be my budgie and my previous ones

[miajag]

$900 seems like a ridiculous amount to spend on supplies for one budgie, but hey, better too much than not enough.

My costs (so far) were:

Budgie - $50 (expensive, but mine was hand-fed and purchased from a bird specialty store/breeder).
Cage - $150 (really an already sunk cost though because I'm just using Winnie's old cage that was sitting in my garage)
Food and treats - $25 (includes 2.25lb bag of Zupreem pellets, 1.5lb bag of budgie seed, can of EcoTrition seeds and greens and a thing of millet sprays)
Toys, perches, etc. - $60 (again, some of this was already paid for as I'm using some of Winnie's old stuff)

So $285 altogether, including the cage and toys that I already had. Obviously I just got my budgie yesterday so those are just the initial expenses and I'll of course be buying more food and toys and stuff over time, but I can't imagine it'll be even $100/year without some major vet expenses.

[Nathaniel]

OK. After a long weekend. I have lowered the price from 900 to 400. SO, now I will have extra money for the vet, new toys, etc. I will edit the list on the first page so you all can see my selections.