Hanfed Baby Budgies
While we do focus on rescued or surrendered animals, there are a select number of animals that we do intentionally breed for pets.
The Budgerigar, or "budgie", is a small parrot from Australia. They're more commonly referred to as "parakeets" here in US. They're a small, relatively quiet parrot with one of the largest speech capabilities! They make great pets for all kinds of people including children and adults. In fact, they're one of the only birds we recommend for kids! After we're done hand-feeding them, they end up being such sweet, playful and curious companions that really bond with their humans!
How it works:
In order to keep our parent and baby budgies happy and healthy, we intentionally don't breed in large batches. We give special care and attention to each individual baby and we monitor their parent's closely. We also receive budgies from a local breeder that takes the same care in her colony as well. This ensures a long lived and healthy pet bird.
Because we take such care in our breeding program, we do have a (fast-moving) waitlist for these birds. We regularly have a number of babies being hand-fed. Once the babies reach a certain age/size we call your name on the list. Since they're still being hand-fed when we call you, they won't be ready to go home quite yet. During the time between your name coming up on the waitlist and you bringing the bird home, we encourage you to visit at much as possible and bond with your bird while it's still in the hand-feeding stage.
While it may be tempting to get multiple handfed budgies, we really recommending having only one. While it's true of parent-raised birds that they should have a bird companion, our babies bond with people, creating a new flock. They prefer human companionship and will stay tame and sweet throughout their life if kept by themselves and handled on a regular basis. If you'd like more than one bird, please consider the many rescued parent-raised budgies that we have available for adoption!
Our trained staff are experts in hand feeding. Our bird manager Joe has a degree in Ornathology (study of birds). Both Joe and our other bird specialist Jennifer, have completed training from PIJAC's "Certified Avian Specialist" program.
To inquire or if you'd like to join our waitlist, please call us at 415-564-6482 and ask for our Bird Manager Joe! As of November 13, 2022, we have plenty of baby birds early in the hand-feeding stage so the estimated time between your selection of the bird and the day you take it home is about 6-8 weeks! Please note this is just an estimate. The handfeeding process is as much of an art as it is a science, so weaning times vary greatly.