Your budgie may never understand the words “I love you” — but they can understand safety, trust, choice and belonging. 🐦💚

In this video, we look at 7 science-backed ways to show your budgie you care, from answering their contact calls and using positive reinforcement to giving them opportunities to forage, socialise and make their own choices.

Some of these ideas are based directly on budgerigar studies, while others come from wider parrot and animal-behaviour research.

Which of these does YOUR budgie respond to most? Let me know in the comments!

🐦 Subscribe to Birb Influ for more budgie care, behaviour and bonding videos:
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CHAPTERS

00:00 7 Scientific Ways to Tell Your Budgie “I Love You”
00:12 Answer Your Budgie’s Contact Calls
02:10 Let Your Budgie Choose the Interaction
04:24 Use Positive Reinforcement
06:58 Give Your Budgie a Predictable Routine
09:33 Let Your Budgie Forage
12:09 Give Your Budgie Real Social Time
14:32 Learn Your Budgie’s Love Language

MORE FROM ME

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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

Contact calls and social bonding in budgies:

Farabaugh, Linzenbold & Dooling — Vocal plasticity in budgerigars: evidence for social factors in the learning of contact calls.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8174348/

Hile, Plummer & Striedter — Male vocal imitation produces call convergence during pair bonding in budgerigars.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10877...

Handling, restraint and stress:

The Effects of Human Presence, Restraint, and Stressed Neighbors on Corticosterone Levels in Domesticated Budgerigars.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41059...

Positive reinforcement and learning:

Budgerigar vocal learning and operant conditioning with food reinforcement.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18345...

Positive-reinforcement training and voluntary cooperation in parrots:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23409...

Predictability and chronic stress:

Chronic unpredictable stress, corticosterone and vocal plasticity in budgerigars:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41538...

Unpredictable environmental disruption and glucocorticoid receptor expression in budgerigars:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41662...

Foraging and enrichment:

Contrafreeloading and the behavioural need to forage in parrots:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37627...

Nature Calls — natural foraging style, intelligence and captive parrot welfare:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34610...

Budgie social relationships:

Social relationships of fledgling budgerigars:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Parrot social welfare:

Priority welfare issues facing parrots in captivity:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39600...

Affiliative behaviour and allopreening:

Allopreening and social relationships in birds:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29622...

Scientific research describes general patterns, and every budgie is an individual. Always consider your own bird’s personality, history and body language.

#budgie #budgies #budgiecare #parakeet #birdcare #budgietips