Lonely Bird?

User Question
Hi! I got my new keet 3 days ago at a persons house. I was looking through the buy and sell and i found an add for a budgie and a cage for 35$. When i went to the house there were 2 keets. They both had the same cage and they were placed beside each other. One was white with grey stripes on the top of it's head and blue underneath. It was 5 weeks old and very tame (not hand tamed when bought though, they just got it used to them). When i picked it up it was very cute, didn't bite and it even ate in front of all of us which i heard is a good sign. It's wings were clipped.

The other keet was light blue with white under it's belly, very pretty. It was not tame at all and it's wings were not clipped. When the lady put her hand in the cage to get it, it flew around knocking into things trying desperately to get away. After much struggle, the lady got it out but it was still struggling to get away, bitting her very hard ( i didn't think budgies could bite hard at all but this one pinched extremely and sometimes drew blood).

Surprisingly I still had trouble deciding which one to get because the blue one was also very pretty and it looked more like a male (it was scrawnier but i supposed this was just because it's feathers weren't as fluffy) and i knew that in a couple weeks it'd be as tame as the white one. Somehow i decided to go with the already tame one.

I've had the white one for about 3 days now. I want it to be a male and it seems more like one because it doesn't chew alot and is very friendly. I've named him Decoy (Deek for short). He's very tame and nice and he let's you hold it only i have a couple questions to ask because they've been bothering me alot.

-First of all i'm wondering if i should have bought the other bird as well because their cages were put togeather and they were tweeting back and forth and when the lady put them both in the same cage they nibbled at each other playfully and were very content. I heard somewhere that if you take a bird away from another bird it's been with, it will miss it too much. Sometimes my bird squakes and cries out and i wonder if it's for the other bird. The only reason i didn't buy the other bird was because i want my new budgie to talk. I heard that this is harder if u have 2 birds and because they will only be concerned with whistling and talking to each other instead of talking to you. I've been repeating words to it constantly letting it watch my lips move and letting it be close to my face. Will my bird just forget about the other bird it was with or will it continue to miss it for the rest of it's life?

-I'm also wondering if since my budgie is white will it be harder to tell what gender he is from the colour of his cere because maybe he's half albino? Right now his cere is pink with a hint of blue (that's also another reason i chose him to be a male for now). Do you think it'll make it harder to tell what gender he is because of his feather colour (which is mostly all white)? Also could u maybe guess for me what gender he might be? I know it's almost impossible to tell when their young unless you take them to a vet but his cere right now is mostly pink with a hint of blue around the nostrils.....is it most likely a male or a female?

-Also i was wondering about how he acts. When i put my hand in the cage to take him out, he climbs the cage away from me and tries to avoid my hand. Then when i grab him he clings onto my fingers and lets me take him out but he tries to fly back to the cage. When i take him out of the room which his cage is in he forgets about it. I would like to know if this is because he doesn't like me? I'm really nice to him and i gove him treats and everything. He doesn't seem very playful when he's on me either. He seems like he's not scared of me but just doesn't like me. I really don't want a pet that doesn't like me! Do you think he'll become more playful and open up to me in a few weeks? I really want him to like me. I usually let him sit on my shoulder or on my finger and i play the piano for him, is this making him bored? should i try to play ball with his or something to make him more happy being with me?

-can you litter train a bird? because when i take him out he poos every once in a while. Is this because he's scared or he just needs to poo? My family is complaining about him pooing everywhere. Is there anything i can do to teach him to go to his cage if he needs to poo?

-when i let him out should i let him have his cage in sight so that if he wants to get back to it he can? I don't let him see it because he always wants to go back to it!

-I'm teaching him to talk but in the household before, there was a mirror in his cage and another bird he talked to. He chirps pretty much now. I took the mirror out of his cage but whenever i take him into the bathroom, he goes crazy! he starts chirping and sqwauking and jumping towards the mirror! should i not take him into the bathroom anymore? I don't want sights of mirrors to ruin his ability to talk.

-My uncle also has a budgie and whenever i go over there (which isn't very often), i want to take my budgie to visit his budgie. Will this distract my budgie from learning the human language?

Please email me back asap, i know there's alot of questions and i apologise for it being very long.

also thankyou for the wonderful site. It's helped me alot and it's the best site i've found!

Lisa's Answer
It really sounds like you should come by our forum, you are full of questions! Just about every bird comes from a flock, so they all miss their flockmates at first. It is your role to become his new flock.

White feathers are not albinoism, it's just a color like any other (unless your keet is really an albino with red eyes). So I wouldn't worry about that affecting the cere.

Do NOT grab your keet!! Read my hand training information. Your keet should not be out of the cage until it is fully hand trained.

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