Because budgies are cheap and common, they are often bought on impulse, housed in cages built for decoration rather than birds, and fed a bowl of seed for their entire short lives. Here is the single most common beginner mistake, and it is nearly universal: buying the cage sold as a parakeet cage.
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PTFE coatings on pans, ovens, air fryers, drip pans, space heaters and some hair tools release fumes odourless to us and rapidly fatal to birds. Also keep the air clear of aerosols, plug-ins, scented candles, incense, perfume, hairspray, bleach and smoke.
For one budgie, treat 45 × 45 × 45 cm — about 18 inches each way — as an absolute floor, not a target. For two, go to at least 75 × 45 × 45 cm, roughly 30 × 18 × 18 inches.
Search Amazon →Varied diameters and natural wood rather than the identical plastic dowels most cages ship with.
Search Amazon →For the several hours of out-of-cage time a day the book argues a budgie needs.
Search Amazon →A varied diet that is mostly not seed — the book's feeding chapter covers the conversion.
Search Amazon →A gram scale is on the book's day-one list for a reason: it catches illness before the bird shows it.
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