A Pet Budgerigar (Budgie) is Good For Your Mental Health - Compiled by Terry Tuxford, The Budgerigar Society

If you feel lonely, pets can break the cycle. However, not everyone has the time or the space for a dog or cat, but a pet budgie can fill this gap.

A pet can remind you that you’re not alone. Pets offer unconditional love, which can be extraordinarily soothing when feeling isolated.

- Desiree Wiercyski, a US life coach

Pet animals and birds can play enormous roles in the lives of humans by providing company, support, and entertainment. There is evidence that the companionship of a household pet can improve human psychological health through the development of strong emotional bonds. It has been observed that interaction with animals strengthens the human consciousness in terms of behaviour, attitude, responsibility, and social support.

How can a pet bird help my mental health?

Pets provide the kind of unconditional relationship that can help someone build social skills and confidence. They can provide a sense of calm and reassurance if their owner feels overwhelmed. Unless you’ve kept budgies as pets before, it’s difficult to imagine just how much they can bring to your life.

If kept happy and healthy, these intelligent and attractive companion birds will reward their owners in so many wonderful ways.

Companionship

The companionship you get from pet birds can reflect some of the elements of human relationships that are known to benefit your health. If you are alone, pet birds can provide a reason to get up in the mornings, and they are always happy to chat.

It is a great feeling to hear your bird greet you when you come home each day or when you get up in the morning.

Research has shown that the company of pet birds can improve your well-being, boost morale, reduce the symptoms of depression, and prompt social interaction.

How can a Pet Bird Help with Mental Health

Social Interaction

Talking to people regularly is good for your mental health. Keeping a pet budgie can help to encourage social interaction both with other bird owners and with your bird itself.

Reduce Stress

A combination of stress at home and at work is a significant cause for people being off sick. Talking to and playing with your pet budgie is a great way to help lower your stress levels.

Budgies help with loneliness.

Elderly people who own a budgie as a pet may actually feel motivated to be active in their communities. This is because budgies offer valuable social interaction. It’s the social interaction that makes people feel better about themselves. They also have higher self-esteem and self-confidence. These people are depressed less often. But constant social interaction has another benefit – it motivates people to interact with others more often.

What is a Budgie?

A budgerigar – or shortened to budgie – is a small parrot, in fact a parakeet, that lives wild in Australia. They are seedeaters, live for up to 10 years and between 6 and 8 weeks of age finger tame easily. Being seedeaters, they make very little mess and just need water and maybe a few treats occasionally, such as carrots or apples. And they can talk! People love them for their amazing ability to display classic human emotions of understanding, respect, empathy, and the ability to express sympathy in difficult situations.

Running Costs

Budgies are cheap to own – maybe costing £30 as an initial purchase plus a similar amount for the cost of a cage. Sand sheets for the bottom of the cage, seed pots, a water font, toys and seeds will be a further £20 or so. After this initial expenditure, the running cost will be a couple of pounds per week.

The Budgerigar Society

The naturalist John Gould brought the small grass parakeet to England in 1840. Since then, no other variety of small cage birds has sparked as much interest as the Budgerigar. The Budgerigar Society in Great Britain stands out. It can claim to be the most well-organised and efficiently run society among all cage bird groups. For many years, the Budgerigar has been acclaimed as the most popular household pet.

The history of the Budgerigar Society (BS) has been eventful since its initial set up in 1925. The BS boasts a vast membership and maintains an office with a full-time secretary/treasurer. This person handles daily queries, manages memberships, and oversees correspondence. They also record minutes of meetings and process ring orders. Additionally, they take show entries for the World Championship show, which takes place annually at the Doncaster Dome. The secretary/treasurer performs many other tasks, too numerous to list. The BS administration is currently located at an office in Perth, Scotland and can be contacted at 01828 633030 or by email: [email protected]

Buy British Budgies

The ideal pet budgie, aged 6 to 8 weeks, is a male bird for easier taming, and breeders should raise them in cages rather than in colony flights. Many Budgerigar Society members are ready to sell pet budgies, and you can find a list of these sellers on the Society’s webpage: https://www.budgerigarsociety.com/pet-breeders/

About the Author – Terry Tuxford has been breeding budgerigars since the late 1970s and joined the Budgerigar Society in 1980. He is currently an Honorary Life Member of the Budgerigar Society, its Editor and Publicity Officer as well as a member of its General Council.