Cover Birds To Keep Them Quiet

If you have parakeets (budgies) who annoy you or your family with their screeching all day and all night, throw a light cover over their cage. You can buy or make one or you can simply use an old cotton tablecloth. Keep it lightweight so that the little birds don't get overheated or lack air. If they are "talking" excessively, put the cover on the cage and they should go to sleep and keep quiet at least while you sleep. If you sleep in the daytime, use the cover in the daytime for the hours you need to sleep.

We had 5 absolutely wonderful budgies: mama, papa, and 3 babies. Her name was Budgie, papa was Patrick, and the babies were Peter, Paul, and Mary. We learned so much about parakeets with that precious little family that I'm ashamed we never knew anything about them before.

They are the most loving parents you could ever imagine, and if you leave them all together, the little mama and papa birds will continue to feed their year-old babies forever, I guess. They are totally devoted to their offspring. Just to watch Budgie teach her little girl to turn a somersault on the swinging perch was something we'll never forget. Watching Patrick feed Budgie while she remained on the nest before the 3 eggs hatched was something else as well.

Before she laid the first egg, Budgie was pretty impatient with poor Patrick and we always said afterward that she wanted a family - that's all she wanted. Without a doubt, it was one of the sweetest lessons we ever had the opportunity to learn and no one had ever told us they could be that way. Such a shame. We finally did have to separate the parents and babies, but kept the 2 cages wired together so that Budgie could "kiss" her children through the wires and she certainly did "kiss" them too. Many times a day.

Budgie often fed them through the wire as well. The babies were already about half again as large as Budgie and Patrick. She was yellow, he was blue, and the babies ended up a gorgeous chartreuse. Two males and a female. After the babies hatched and had come off the nest, Budgie never again scolded Patrick or pecked him or anything. She was perfectly content with her children. No more screeching, only the most pleasant and congenial talking among themselves. Amazing!

We treat our animals like they have no feelings at all, when all they need is a chance to live life as God intended them to do. They all have families but are never allowed to remain together. I can only imagine what else we're missing in our ignorance.

By Julia from Boca Raton, FL