This is sold as a "large parakeet cage" but is way too small to house even a single budgie.

Budgerigars (a.k.a. "budgies"), often simply called "parakeets" in America, are one of the most popular species of pet birds. But most people don't realize that budgies are actually little parrots.

And like all parrots, budgies are super smart and need mental and environmental enrichment, a great diet, appropriate toys, and lots of attention and playtime. Budgies are also very high energy, so should have lots of opportunity to move.

That means these small birds need big cages. It's a big misconception that you can put small birds in tiny cages and that they'll be ok. In fact, almost NONE of the cages they sell  in typical pet stores are good enough to be daytime cages for ANY bird.

However, a cage can't just be large, it must also be safe -- and that means the bar spacing has to be appropriate for little beaks and bodies. The large parrot cages designed for cockatoos and African Greys feature spacing that's too big (and therefore not safe) for smaller birds

Below are a few good examples of appropriately sized budgie cages, as well as tips  for how to decorate your parakeets' cage(s).

Pepper, Female Budgie, in Her Flight Cage

Lindsay has several small parrots, including Pepper a female budgie. When setting up budgie cages, Lindsay says she always focuses on two things: space to fly, and stuff to destroy!

Pepper has a spacious powder-coated flight cage, which not only is a great size, but also has appropriate bar spacing for parrots her size.

Lindsay stresses that it is incredibly important to her birds' health and well-being to have room to exercise all day long, not just when they're given out of cage time.

For that reason, when she sets up her birds' cages, she leaves the center of the cage free of clutter, so that they have as much horizontal and diagonal flying space available as possible.

This budgie's flight cage is stocked with lots of natural toys and perches.

Here's a view of the left side of Pepper's cage, looking up.

Lindsay explains that female budgies have strong beaks for their small size, "in the wild, they use their beaks to expand nesting cavities in trees - and I have found that nothing occupies my girls better than having natural materials to shred and chew."

Lindsay's budgies shredded this willow perch in a week.

Right now, Pepper's cage includes a number of 'easy' shredding toys, made of things like palm, seagrass, vine, paper, yucca (which are a HUGE hit), and balsa, as well as natural barky branches like bottlebrush that she can strip. In the spring and summer they really appreciate fresh leafy branches like hibiscus brought in from the yard for them to chew.

"I have also found that it is unnecessary to trim their toenails if they are provided with a variety of sizes of natural perches. I frequently buy larger than recommended perches as well as flat perches (they really like their flagstone perches) to supplement the small diameter ones that are advertised for budgies," adds Lindsay.

It's a great idea to give your budgie a variety of perches to choose from. This flight cage has rope, grapevine, swinging and flat perches.

Pepper shares the bird room with six other birds: three cockatiels and two lineolated parakeets who are all cage optional during the day, as well as a small conure. Pepper can only be out of her flight cage when actively supervised because she tends to harass the other birds. "Keeping her safe around them is one of the most difficult things about my current set up (and has been a big lesson about the complications of keeping multiple species in one household)," says Lindsay.

Kristen's 3 Boy Budgies Share a Flight Cage

Despite owning a number of parrot species, Kristen of PersnicketyParrot.com says budgies have always been her dream bird. So she was very excited upon bringing home three boy budgies recently.

Boo Boo, Turquey and Puff live together in a single flight cage and share a room (but not a cage) with a little parrotlet named Ziggy, who likes to come visit. Her other parrots, because of the size difference and potential for injury, live in a different room.

Budgies (and their parrotlet friend) in a flight cage.

Kristen is a big fan of always offering several different types of wood perches. She always includes as much grapevine wood as she can because it is loved by all sizes of parrots for its varying textures and widths. The wood promotes healthy feet. In addition to wooden perches, she also includes at least one type of pedicure perch, at least one platform perch, and a comfy rope perch or two. A swing or two is also wonderful for exercise.

Swings provide in-cage exercise for birds.

Similarly to how she includes different types of perches in her birds' cages, Kristen also makes sure to include at least one toy in each category when she's rotating out enrichment items: wood/chew toys, shredding toys, toys that provide exercise, and of course foraging toys appropriate for small birds. "You can never have too many foraging toys, and in fact, I prefer to feed my birds through foraging "stations" and toys in and out of their cages."

In the wild, parrots, and especially budgies, forage throughout the day for their food. Foraging toys and foraging stations give birds a choice of what types of foods they'd like to eat at any given moment, and a new place to perch.

Kristen's budgies can choose from many different perches.

"These choices make for happier birds, in my opinion. After all, who would want to eat the same dry cereal each and every day? I offer my birds a choice in pellets, seed mixes, and many other types of fresh and cooked foods daily.

"Offering perches, toys, and foraging "stations" or toys at different heights and places around the cage gives your birds more room to exercise and explore. I utilize the entire cage offering food and water bowls, perches, foraging stations, and toys at all different levels."

Kristen adds, "You don't even have to have a dedicated foraging toy to provide foraging opportunities. In fact, you can utilize your cage bars and existing toys to string food through.  I like to provide fresh veggies and fruits to my birds each morning. Sometimes it's in the form of a CHOP mixture and sometimes I offer it hanging." You can pierce delectable budgie treats on a small, stainless steel skewer and hang the skewer from other toys, for example. Be sure to keep these within easy reach if your parakeets are not flighted so they have easy access.

Kristen likes to provide her budgies a little bit of the outdoors in their cages as well, with bird-safe plants and UV lighting. "I purchased wheat grass at a local pet store -- it's "pet grass" -- but you can grow your own grass and bird-safe plants and put them in terra cotta pots with organic coil in the bottom or tops of your cages for your parrots to enjoy. And don't forget your lighting! I like to use the Featherbrite Cagetop Light Systems for my smaller birds' cages."

Featherbrite Cagetop Light Systems.

As you see, Kristen gives a lot of thought to how to enrich and entertain even her littlest parrots!

Sabrina and Charles in a Custom Expandable Habitats SS Cage

Sabrina and Charles are a female and male budgie belonging to Coco, who blogs extensively about the product choices she makes for her birds. In addition to being super conscientious about bird safety, Coco also takes particular care to find special products that will appeal to tiny birds.

When it comes to cages, she laments a fact that's flummoxed everyone who's ever wanted to buy the biggest cage possible for their small parrots: "It seems that well-made, functional, and large cages made for small birds (with 1/2″ bar spacing in particular) are quite the rarity."

After investigating several options, Coco decided to go the route of ordering a custom-made cage for her budgies.

"I contacted a number of bird cage companies within the U.S.A., who make both powder-coated and stainless steel cages (and even aluminum, and at one point acrylic — not the acrylic sheet style but actually acrylic bars created in the same way as a traditional metal cage).  Even with a relatively open-ended budget, I was turned down by a number of companies: making a large cage for a budgie, it seems, is actually much more difficult than it sounds.  Some companies simply don’t work with small bars, as would be required for a bird as small as a budgie: the bars required for budgies are so much thinner than the thick bars used on a medium to large parrot cage, requiring far more support bars and therefore not only increasing cost but significantly increasing labor as well, and making the acceptable margin of error that much smaller.  Eventually, I was literally left with only one: Expandable Habitats."

Here are the specs the cage Coco ordered:

• an American-made cage
• 304-grade non-magnetic stainless steel
• 1/8″ bars spaced exactly 1/2″ apart
• Interior dimensions: 36″ wide by 24″ deep
• a large front door with one 6 x 6″ door on each side
• no grate, just a slide out tray
• an acrylic divider that keeps my aggressive two safe from each other
• a flat top with a frame that supports an acrylic sheet above
• a spacious shelf underneath
• the amazing paper roll system
• heavy duty casters

Coco's Expandable Habitats budgie cage, with divider.

See detailed close-ups of the workmanship on her blog.

As for decorating and arranging perches and toys in Charles' and Sabrina's cage, Coco likes to switch things up every couple of weeks, but there are some general guidelines for where she places items.

Since the 'keets are most likely to roost at the top parts of the cage, she ensures that those perches are the extra comfy kind.

Charles (above) has tire-swing style perch for sleeping, a boing, and another cotton rope fluffy swing.  His toys include a fleece puff, a leather horse, a bunny with seagrass and beads, and a Puzzler Foraging block.

Sabrina has her own budgie-sized "Puzzler Foraging Block" and a noisy bell that she loves to ring when she's playing on her boing, as well as a grapevine perch you can see at the bottom of the picture.

(You can read much, much more about the various toys that Coco meticulously selects for her little ones by visiting her site here.)

Complementing a variety of rope perches and boings are various wood perches of varying textures and hardness. Below is another view of the different kinds of perches that are safe and appropriate little 'keets and similar parrots.

At night, when it's time to sleep, Coco covers Charles and Sabrina's cage with a custom cage cover made of "heavy, high quality fabric, [that is] completely lined with a heavy sateen that keeps all the light out." Because after a full day of playing in their cages, these little birds like to get a good night's rest!

Photos used by permission. Thanks to Lindsay for photos of Pepper's cage, Coco for sharing all her wonderful information about what Charles and Sabrina like, and Kristen of Persnickety Parrot for her photos of Boo Boo, Turquey and Puff.

For additional information about getting a new cage, see our tips for choosing a good parrot cage, as well as minimum cage size requirements for parrot species.

You can hear Disco, the budgie, mumble hilarious phrases in his sleep, like: "Nobody puts baby bird in a corner" and "Don't just stand there, bust a move!"

The Internet is filled with so many wondrous things that sometimes we take it for granted. But every once in a while, something comes along that makes you stop in awe and say ...

... WTF is that?

This isn't just death metal. No! Hatebeak is a death metal band fronted by... an African Grey parrot. The only band, of any kind (so far), that features a parrot on vocals. My sources have it that the parrot's name is Waldo.

For best effect, turn volume to "Eleven".

Hatebeak's last album was released in 2007. But given how long African Grey's live, I'm holding out for a reunion "tour" in the next couple of decades.

In the parrot world, respected avian trainers and parrot behaviorists have long challenged the notion that the concept of "dominance" or "alpha status" makes much sense with birds. Trying to dominate a prey animal is just a bad strategy. Parrots don't have the same social structures or psychologies as dogs, who are predators and pack animals -- that's been part of the argument about separating out bird training approaches from old-fashioned dog training strategies.

It turns out that dogs aren't like dogs either. At least what we think is true about dogs turns out to be pretty outdated thinking, as well. To be fair, even modern dog trainers use positive reinforcement training and don't try to train canines through intimidation and force anymore. And while many in the public are starting to warm to the idea of training based on positive reinforcement, most people still hold on to the idea that dogs do have a dominance-based mentality in their social interactions.

Watch this video from the PBS program "Through a Dog's Eyes" to learn where the dominance myth comes from:

Watch The Dominance Myth on PBS. See more from THROUGH A DOG'S EYES.

Finches have very different needs than parrots, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give careful thought to providing a great cage environment for these small birds. Though they might not be as large or playful as parrots, they do need a lot of room (none of those awful decorative cages that hang in the corner, please!) to fly back and forth inside their cages, and they should also have lots of foraging and enrichment items available.

Patricia Sund, of parrotnation.com, walks us through her finches' cage setup and demonstrates how she provides enrichment and exercise opportunities for her pet finches by decorating a large flight cage with a variety of perches, textures and even toys.

Watch this video to see what Patricia has to say about how to set up cages for finches:

See flight cages for sale, and check out more detailed cage setup examples for other bird species.

Cape Parrots are largest of the Poicephalus family of parrots, native to Africa. They are a short-tailed species with distinctive, large beaks. Size-wise, they could be considered similar to the African Grey parrot, although they don't resemble each other.

If you have a Cape parrot or are considering buying a cape, we encourage you to learn about their unique needs and check out some of the cage set-ups demonstrated below, which emphasize room to move and maximizing foraging opportunities.

Lola, Female Cape Parrot

Meet Lola, companion to Coco, author of the blog Coco's Flock. Lola has a wonderful 100% American-made, 304 medical grade, non-magnetic stainless steel cage from Expandable Habitats.

Coco says, "My main concerns are safety, using mostly natural wood perches with a variety of diameters and textures, including one roosting perch that must be double-bolted for security, and keeping those food and water bowls clean.  To suit Lola’s needs and play habits in particular, I also like to have a variety of toys including destructible, noisy, and foraging-type, and at least one swing.  The last requirement for Lola because she is a crazy and destructive bird, but really because I am also very paranoid, is that there cannot be any non-stainless steel metal.  All toys, food bowls, and even the bolt and wing nut on all perches have to be stainless steel."

Coco changes Lola's cage configuration out often, putting an emphasis on various foraging stations and a wide variety of toys.

One of the challenges with arranging Lola's cage is that her droppings are very large, so it's important to layer perches, toys, and food bowls so that they aren't stacked over each other in a way that causes them to get soiled easily.

Because Coco values foraging, she writes that most of Lola's toys double as foraging toys;  she stuffs treats in a variety of toys and makes Lola explore for her treats, and also offers lots of chewable woods and shredding toys.  "In this way, I hope to keep her entertained, adept, enriched, and busy!" says Coco.

For perches, this Cape Parrot's cage features a double-bolted ribbonwood perch, which Lola likes to roost on because it’s extra sturdy.  She has a ribbonwood perch underneath it, as well, which is easier to clean than other woods, as well as a stainless steel bell toy.  Towards the back there’s a water bowl and her stainless steel side-mounted bucket full of foot toys, and a cotton rope perch that goes up to the ceiling.  Other perches include a bamboo pedicure perch, an ocotillo perch, and a curvy sandblasted manzanita corner perch. In the door, there’s the skywalk platform perch as well. Lola also loves her super soft and snuggly ring swing.

As you can see, Coco pays close attention to Lola's comfort and safety and makes smart decisions about offering lots of perches and enrichment activities that ensure Lola loves her cage!

Photos and information used with permission. Check out Coco's Flock, a fantastic blog with a ton of great research on parrot cages, nutrition and more.

Also check out set-up examples and photos of African Grey cages, cockatoo cages, conure cages and pionus cages.

So this is now a thing... Angry Bird-themed pet toys

With the success of Rovio's Angry Birds game, the popularity of the merch was inevitable. Now your pets can join the fun of flinging Angry Bird toys across the living room with a variety of Rovio-licensed cat and dog toys, including plush chew toys, pull toys, and cat-nip toys shaped like your favorite pig-hating birds.

Click here for more items.

Photo by Katkamin used under Creative Commons.

An oldie but goodie: How to prepare Thanksgiving Dinner with your parrot.

You'll need:

• 1 Turkey
• Mashed potatoes/gravy
• Corn Pudding
• Cranberry Sauce
• Green Beans
• Hot Rolls
• Stuffing
• Relish tray
• Sweet Potatoes
• Pumpkin pie/whipped cream
• Hot Coffee

Grab a cup of coffee and follow the directions below the jump.

It is going to be a long day so place your parrot on a perch nearby to keep you company while you prepare the meal.

Remove parrot from kitchen counter back to perch. Prepare stuffing; remove parrot from edge of stuffing bowl. Stuff turkey & place it in the roasting pan, remove parrot from edge of pan. Have another cup of coffee to steady your nerves.

Remove parrot’s head from turkey cavity and re-stuff voided area. Prepare relish tray; remember to make twice as much so that you will have a regular size serving after the parrot has eaten his fill. Remove parrot from kitchen counter. Prepare cranberry sauce; discard berries accidentally flung to the floor. Peel potatoes, remove parrot from edge of potato bowl. Arrange sweet potatoes in a pan & cover with brown sugar & mini-marshmallows remove parrot from edge of pan & replace missing marshmallows.

Brew another pot of coffee. While it is brewing, clean up the torn filter and old coffee grounds from around the pot. Pry coffee bean from parrot’s beak. Have another cup of coffee & remove parrot from kitchen counter.

When time to serve the meal: Place roasted turkey on a large platter, cover beak marks with strategically placed sprigs of parsley. Put mashed potatoes into serving bowl; rewhip at last minute to conceal bite marks and footprints.

Place pan of sweet potatoes on sideboard; forget presentation cause there is no way to hide the areas of missing marshmallow.Put rolls in decorative basket, remove parrot from side of basket along with beaked rolls, and serve what is left. Set a stick of butter out on the counter to soften - think better of it and return it to the refrigerator.

Wipe down counter to remove mashed potato foot tracks. Remove parrot from kitchen counter & carve the pie into serving slices. Wipe whipped cream off parrot’s beak & place large dollops of remaining cream on pie slices. Whole slices are then served to guests, beaked-out portions should be reserved for host & hostess. Place parrot inside cage & lock the door.

Sit down to a nice relaxing dinner with your family - accompanied by plaintive cries of “WANT DINNER!” from the other room.

Photo of "munchkin" used under Creative Comments license by wockerjobby

Here's  fun commercial featuring a gorgeous macaw... who wants to go to doggy daycare.

Your bird doesn't have to think he's a dog to learn to fetch though. Teaching a parrot to retrieve is easy with clicker training. Learn more about parrot training and parrot training props.

If you think that animals evaluate potential mates solely on physical characteristics... you probably have a pretty clinical view of life. Most of us probably suspect that personality plays some factor, but now there's a scientific study that shows clear evidence that zebra finches, at least, do consider "personality" when choosing mates; more specifically, female finches prefer mates that exhibit compatible personality traits.

A controlled study at the University of Exeter  showed that "female [zebra finches] care about the apparent personality of their male independently of his appearance." The researchers further state that "it is important for partners to have compatible personalities" and "more exploratory females are more likely to favour the most apparently outgoing and confident males."

This is something most of us bird owners probably already knew intuitively. Clearly our parrots have their own individual personalities, and not all birds get along with each other. That has strong implications for how we interact with them and how we house them. (For example, you can't simply put two birds in the same cage as they could seriously injure each other in a squabble or fight.)

If you have multiple birds in your flock of pet birds, do you notice that some birds prefer their more outgoing flockmates, while others prefer different personality types? Do your pets have established "cliques" outside of species-specific preferences?