# Need help deciding between a budgie or a cockatiel :)



## DaisyXo (Sep 10, 2012)

Hey, i need help choosing a bird as a pet, i have never owned one before but my fiance is desperate for one and his birthday is in 2 weeks so i am thinking this could be the right time to get one 
either a budgie or a cockatiel.. :thumbup:

I know he wants one that he can try to train to 'talk'
only problem is i have a 9 week old kitten, a hamster and 2 reptiles :scared:

any recommendations would be helpful, thanks.


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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

If talking is an important consideration out of the two I would go for a budgie


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## DaisyXo (Sep 10, 2012)

hawksport said:


> If talking is an important consideration out of the two I would go for a budgie


Its a hard decision, there both beautiful birds :confused1:


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2012)

I think cockatiel but whatever you get, don't get min size cages, and they all should be allowed to fly free, in a room, all evening you are up, and most days, if you are home. If you can, get a sheltered aviary in your backyard. Transport the bird from inside to aviary in a pet carrier, and only open the carrier when in the aviary, door shut. Let the bird settle then exit. As they are Oz birds, suggest you find a web site called Smiley's Bird Forum, run from Oz. Real Heavy Duty Experts. They will tell you what is poisonous to birds, etc.


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## DaisyXo (Sep 10, 2012)

househens said:


> I think cockatiel but whatever you get, don't get min size cages, and they all should be allowed to fly free, in a room, all evening you are up, and most days, if you are home. If you can, get a sheltered aviary in your backyard. Transport the bird from inside to aviary in a pet carrier, and only open the carrier when in the aviary, door shut. Let the bird settle then exit. As they are Oz birds, suggest you find a web site called Smiley's Bird Forum, run from Oz. Real Heavy Duty Experts. They will tell you what is poisonous to birds, etc.


whatever bird we get will roam free in the house as long as we are in, unfortunately we dont have the roam in our back yard for an aviary but there is plenty of room in the house for it, thank you so much for all your adice though, very helpful and i will visit that website!

thanks :thumbup:


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## Obvious (Sep 13, 2012)

I vote budgie, as although i've never owned a cockatiel, I have had budgies most of my life. And they make FANTASTIC pets, and can be trained to talk. As well as being extremely fun


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## Marshmellow105 (Dec 15, 2012)

Definitely budgie! I had a cockatiel once and its call was unbearable! Really high pitched loud squark! Not nice!


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## boo2oo (Feb 14, 2013)

So which did you choose?


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## shyfaiz (Jul 4, 2011)

i also vote budgie if you havent already picked , i have a troublesome two i absolutly adore them


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## Freya'n'Sassy (Aug 13, 2008)

I say budgie as I have two, and the noise of a cockateil drives me mad, which is a bit odd as I have three noisy parrots!


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## Babbo (Feb 6, 2013)

I would say cockatiel ;-) had one when i was little he was so tame and very comical!!


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## chrisjill80 (Apr 6, 2013)

Cockatiels are amazing


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## weeziex1 (Mar 26, 2013)

Hi !
I have had both types of birds, I prefer the cockatiel but it has to be a male to talk. The females do not talk, I had a two males and they both talked ,they would say my sisters and my name , thank you, morning , pig which they learned from the movie Babe. He would get 
mad at his brother or one of us and scream pig pig it was so funny the first time they did it. 
I now have a Goffins Cockatoo she is 6 yrs. old and she has about a 80 word vocabulary. Goffins are the smallest of the Cockatoos, and are little clowns. Be prepared for lots of loud screaming, you can here them all the way to the mail box, they've been known to brak windows with their screams. I've taught mine to do a few tricks , such as shake your finger, give you a high five, play dead by pointing my finger at her and saying bang bang. She will be sitting on my hand and I shoot her and put my other hand behind her and she falls over backwards into my hand.You ask her questions and she shakes her head for yes and no.She's a lot of fun.


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## geordiejill (Apr 4, 2013)

DaisyXo said:


> Its a hard decision, there both beautiful birds :confused1:


Hi.

I see you're from Newcastle. I assume that's the best 1, Geordieland then? Anyway, I realize that if a bird was bought, it was done long before now, so what did you get? I've had both budgies and tiels and I've always found it easy to get male tiels talking, whereas when I had budgies, not a single word, even when I just had 1. People always talk about tiels screaming loudly. Mine don't, well not that often. guess they're really bored and miserable then, lol. I hope not anyway. I believe that it's because they're hand reared and are much calmer. Budgies may not shout, but their constant chatter can grate as much as a tiel shriek. I may have budgies again in the future, but they're competing with green cheek conures and other small parrots, but I'm very happy with my lot for now.


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