I've read a lot about budgie behavior and have found over the years that there's a lot that nots in the books. I had one bird, Taylor, that I got purely by accident. I had gotten this beautiful, big turquoise male. He seemed so proud and strong at the store, but when I got him home he was terrified. He stood in one spot and was drooling. I felt so badly for him that I went back to the store and got another bird. I knew very little about budgies at the time and I ended up getting another male. This male was smaller and sweeter than the first male. I named him Chipper. I don't remember the name of the first male because he screeched so much it gave me a headache and I finally, after three days, had to bring him back. Next I got a pale blue budgie I named Taylor. I should have known he was special from the start. When the clerk tried to catch him he thought it was a game and kept jumping on the handle of the net the clerk was trying to catch him with. The first two birds I had picked after studying the birds for around 40 minutes. This bird I had picked after about ten minutes because I liked the way he looked and felt a connection to him for some reason.
Chipper hadn't really liked the first bird. He had been pretty aggressive and pushed Chipper around. Chipper was so excited with Taylor that he turned around in circles on the perch. Taylor was thankfully gentle with Chipper and best of all he didn't screech! He loved swings and was either on the swing in the cage or playing with it. On the third day that I had him I covered the cage and started to go to bed, when I heard a high-piched squeal. I ran over to the cage and uncovered it to find that Taylor had impailed himself on the top of the swing where it looped over the cage. I had stupidly neglected to close the loop. He must have been standing on the top of the swing and slipped and it went through his neck and out his mouth. I'm only glad that I was there to help him. If it had happened when I wasn't due home for hours, he might of died. Everytime I tried to remove it from him he let out his high pitched squeel. I got some wire cutters and try to cut the end off so it would be easier to remove, but the wire was too thick and hard and it was too awkward to get to. I finally had to just pull it out and listen to his terrible squealling. I was worried about infection so I put some hydrogen peroxide on his wound. Fortunately budgies don't bleed a lot. I put the swing back but made sure to close the loop this time. I went to bed fully expecting to find him on the bottom of the cage the next morning, feet up in the air . I woke up early and ran to the cage to see if he was alright. He was happily swinging on the reinstalled swing. As soon as he saw me though, he turned his back to me. I was later to see this behavior with other budgies and discovered it was their way of showing displeasure. The behavior itself was not amazing but the fact that he kept this up for two weeks was. Later I would find that budgies didn't stay angry for very long. They might be angry for a couple of hours or even a couple of days but I never had another bird keep it up for two weeks! Taylor turned out to be one of the smartest budgies I ever had.
