My budgies are very quiet – reason to panic? 3 common causes

Anyone who has dealt with the colorful budgies over a longer period of time knows that these birds are usually very lively and rarely sit still.

Their great eagerness to communicate is in their nature, because budgies are extremely social animals and maintain intimate connections with each other. If there is suddenly silence in the cage, the concern on the part of the owner is naturally great.

In this article you will find out why your budgies are so quiet.

Is it all a question of temperament?

A healthy budgie is cheerful and likes to chatter away.

Of course, there are always candidates that are more or less talkative on their own.

However, if your budgie is completely silent, you should keep an eye on the health of your pet.

Regardless, a silent budgie does not necessarily mean that there is a disease. There are also various other reasons why your budgie is silent.

To get a little more into these causes, here is a brief overview of the three most common reasons for silent budgies that have nothing to do with a disease.
3 common reasons why Wellis are quiet

1. please don’t eat me!

Young birds that are not yet capable of flying are almost defenseless against their predators. For this reason it would be tactically unwise to scream like mad in the area.

So if you own a budgie that is only a few weeks old, it is a defenseless baby. For this reason, it’s no wonder that your little parakeet keeps its beak shut – it’s not sick, it’s following its natural survival instincts.

Just wait a few weeks and you will see, or rather hear, how sooner or later a gentle voice will sound.

If you have the feeling that your Welli baby is not really fit, you should at least have a short check at the vet to exclude other causes. However, you should also keep in mind that baby budgies spend a lot of time sleeping and are not very interested in their surroundings. This is normal behavior and is not a concern.

Signs of illness include a shaggy plumage, an overall heavily plucked bird, vomiting, refusal to eat (red alert: even half a day without food can have serious consequences for the animal!) or coordination difficulties.

However, if the bird makes a healthy impression, you can wait calmly until the Welli gets older and begins to talk of its own accord as if from the sewing box 😉.

2. budgies are also just people – or something like that.

Admittedly, this headline is of course somewhat provocative. Because budgies are, of course, not people, or even mammals. Nevertheless budgies and humans have some things in common: First of all the fact that both species have various needs.

If – or even if – the needs of your budgies are not met over a longer period of time, behavioral problems and even depression can occur – just like with a human being.

Animals that have been kept alone for a long period of time and animals that have been severely neglected in general are particularly susceptible.

If you have already taken in your budgies as adult animals, the taciturnity does not necessarily have to be due to your attitude, but can have its cause in the past.

If your animal suffers from depression, you can support it by making every effort to keep the animal species-appropriate, including daily free flight.

If your budgie has been torn from its familiar environment and its previous group, this can lead to great grief and sometimes also to depressive moods. The same is true if a budgie from your group has died.

Since budgies are very social, it is perfectly normal for them to be calmer for a time after this loss and to work through their grief.

If you have already established a good bond with your depressed candidate, you can also help him out of his predicament by spending a lot of time with him.

Since budgies are very intelligent animals, clicker training might be a way to bring some pep back into the animal’s life. Whether the training bears fruit, you will only find out if you try it again and again over a longer period of time. If your Welli does not accept the training at all, you should accept this and look for an alternative.

3. fear of people

Budgies, like all birds by the way, have an innate shyness towards people by nature. In many cases, simply being at home but not actively engaging with the birds is not enough to get them to shed their fear of you.

For example, even adult budgies that have lived with humans all their lives may still be very shy.

So if your feathered friend does not make a sound even after a certain period of acclimation, this may actually be because he is afraid of you and therefore falls silent as soon as you are in the room.

If you want to test how your budgie behaves in your absence, it may be worthwhile to position your cell phone so that it records both image and sound in a video.

If you have positioned the cell phone optimally and started the recording, you can now leave your home and come back after some time. When you watch the video afterwards, you will be able to clearly see whether your budgie thaws out as soon as you are not at home. Make sure that you can clearly see which of your birds is communicating. Otherwise, you will not be able to identify the vocalizations without any doubt and your experiment will not yield reliable results.

If you notice that your little problem child is happily philosophizing and talking to itself or to other birds when you are not present, you should do something to take away your bird’s fear of you.

Occupy yourself a little more intensively with the animal and speak to him regularly in a calm voice directly, so that he can get used to you. Hand feeding can also help strengthen the bond between you.

Always keep an eye on your pet’s body language during these actions!

It is perfectly normal for your budgie to become anxious or even slightly panicked at first when you approach him directly. In this case, simply keep a little distance from the cage, so that your budgie can relax more easily and a learning process is possible at all.

Over time, you can gradually reduce the distance to the cage until your budgie will eventually not be bothered by your presence.

Especially with the help of hand feeding good results can be achieved.

However, this step should only be taken when your budgie can relax – even if you are standing directly in front of the cage.

Once your pet associates your presence with delicious food, it will be easy to get him to talk in your presence – the way to a pet’s heart is through its stomach!

When to the vet?

This question can be answered short and fast: As soon as you have the feeling that something is wrong with your animal – no matter if it is a dog, a cat or a budgie – and there are no concrete changes in the animal’s life, it is recommended to go to the vet.

It is better to go to the vet once too often than once too little, because your animals cannot speak and it is your responsibility to take care of their well-being.

So if you go to the vet early and your pet is actually sick, the earlier the illness can be diagnosed and treated, the better the chances of recovery.

If, on the other hand, the vet does not find an organic cause, the visit was not in vain – because you can now look for other causes for the sudden change in behavior with a clear conscience.

In case of doubt, a visit to the vet can always help you – be it to make a diagnosis or simply to clear up your own fears and concerns.