Parakeets make really good house pets for some people. People need to take some responsibility for owning and caring for parakeets. Parakeets need a cage because if you don't have a cage, it can fly outside. If a parakeet stays outside for a long time, it can die because of the temperature. If parakeets get outside they can get attacked by predators such as rats and raccoons.
You might want to get two parakeets instead of just one because if you have only one, it will get lonely most of the time. You need to keep your pet out of the reach of little children and other pets like cats because they can hurt the bird or sometimes even kill it.
The parakeet will sing but most of the time it is quiet. So if you like quiet pets, the parakeets is your kind of pet. If you live in an apartment, a parakeet can be a good pet for you because they don't need much room. Parakeets are also fairly easy to take care of.
There are many different kinds of parakeets. Each kind of parakeet is a different color. Some parakeets are only one color, but others like the Pied parakeets are two different colors. The cinnamon parakeets are a cinnamon brown color. Another kind of parakeet is the graywing. That parakeet has gray wings. The albino parakeet is a white parakeet with red eyes.
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If your parakeet lives in a cage, you should let it out every day to keep your bird happy. Just letting your bird outside of the cage for about half an hour a day gives its wings exercise. Remember to keep the windows closed during the parakeet's exercise. Most parakeets will fly a little before perching on a high place. They will learn to return to the cage for food and water. If you keep parakeets in an outdoor aviary, it will get enough exercise flying around in that.
Where
do you keep the animal? What special equipment does
it need?
The most important thing to have for a parakeet is a cage or an aviary. The cage should always be kept out of the reach of pets and children and away from windows. If the cage is too near a window, the parakeet can get too much sun or cold from drafty windows. The cage can be made of wood and mesh or metal so the bird can't break out of its cage. Buy as big a cage as you can.
An aviary is an large outdoor pen that is big enough for many parakeets and has room for them to fly around in. They are usually made from wire mesh screens attached to a wooden structure. An aviary should have a heated, closed in area for sleeping. Make sure your outside aviary will protect your parakeets from predators!
Parakeets like company. If you don't have two parakeets, you should buy a fake bird to keep your parakeet company. You also might want to have a mirror so you bird can see itself in the mirror. A parakeet should have a water bottle so it can drink when it gets thirsty and a food container for holding seeds. Parakeets also need to have branches or a perch to stand on. You can also buy parakeet toys like a bell, a swing, a ball, or a fir cone. Toys are really important if you only have one parakeet to help it from becoming bored. That is what you will need to have.
If you have a parakeet or any kind of bird, you will need to know how to hold it and touch it properly. You should train your bird so it is finger tame. Finger tame means your parakeet will perch on your finger and let you carry it around. You can have someone around you in the beginning so that if the parakeet flies away someone is there to get it when it flies away. If you hold the parakeet in your hand, you need to hold it with the wings down so it doesn't try to get away and hurt its wings.
Parakeets generally eat seeds. They bite through the seed's husk and eat the seed inside. You should make sure you get rid of the husks before refilling the parakeet's food bowl. Some parakeets will eat foods like a piece of corn on the cob, lettuce, carrots, peas, spinach, watercress, celery, alfalfa, and other kinds of vegetables. Parakeets should always have fresh water to drink.
You need to clean a parakeet's cage once a week. It depends on how many parakeets you have and how big the cage is. Each day you should remove seed husks from the cage and give the parakeets fresh water. Parakeets will usually clean themselves by using water from their water bowl and by preening their feathers. You should check parakeets every day to make sure they aren't dirty which may mean they are sick.
When they are about three to four months old, parakeets are old enough to breed, but you should wait until they are ten to eleven months old. The mother parakeet is called a hen. The father parakeet is called a cock. The hen and cock should be kept in the cage together. A hen can lay up to six or seven egges. She lays one every day until she is done. The hen will sit on her eggs for 18 days before they hatch. The babies are born blind and without feathers. Parakeets look very weird when they are just born. For about six weeks, the father parakeet will feed the mother parakeet while she keeps the babies warm. The mother parakeets then feeds the babies. After 17 days, downy feathers start to grow on the babies. When they are 23 days old, the baby parakeets grow pinfeathers that cover head. At 27 days old, the parakeets look almost fully grown. Breeding babies is fast, but it needs to be quiet.
Parakeets live between 5 and 10 years. Ever year you should take your parakeet to the vet for a checkup. If you think your parakeet is sick, you need to keep it warm, and then bring it to the vet right away. If you see your bird is not able to sit on its perch, you really need to take the bird to the vet really fast.