Cage birds: Live tweet

Joe is singing his little heart out as delicate sunrays sneak between a gap in the flowered living room curtains. Mrs Joe choruses along with him and while strutting her stuff up and down the cage length perch, which she insists on claiming as her very own, often forcing Joe to spend hours on one of the two available swings. The second they hear me moving around, they pump up the volume to shriek level, raucously demanding breakfast, literally jumping up and down in excitement with Joe throwing in an ear-piercing whistle every now and then for good measure. Someone once claimed that keeping caged birds was 'pointlessly boring and cruel' — this though, is not always the case. Cage birds, as long as the cage is large enough for the particular species, provide endless hours of pleasure to their 'keepers': they sing, whistle, complain, screech, jig up and down on their perches if excited, and generally put on a soothingly magnetic show from dawn until dusk. They also fall into routines — yours! If you happen to be in the habit of getting up at 7am they soon come to expect you to do this each and every single day and, if you don't, they object, vociferously. If you are in the habit of listening to music, watching the television, vacuuming, using a blender or anything else which makes a noise — rhythmic or not — then they act puzzled if it doesn't happen and don't bother explaining that the silence is due to load-shedding as they won't believe you. They want noise, they want action and they want it now! Budgerigars, 'love birds' as they are more commonly called, are adorable pets for children of all ages and, the older the 'child' the more interaction there seems to be. Native to the Australian outback, these small members of the parrot family are easy to keep and, unlike other pets, don't require regular exercise. But if you can encourage them to leave their cage and fly around the room, windows and doors closed and fans switched off, they will actually fly and enjoy the experience once they get used to the idea. Some people complain that their budgerigars die in no time at all, meaning that they have to keep going out and buying more. But, if correctly looked after, these attractive, very colourful birds can live for 10 years and even longer. Budgerigars are generally very active, only being quiet and morose if they are sick in which case, the odds are that they may very well die. However, if you are careful to select only healthy young birds when purchasing them, you should, with care, be in for a reasonably long relationship. Sick birds are easy to spot — they seek corners in which to hide, don't sing, often have ruffled up feathers and hang their heads in misery. They often develop diarrhoea and this kind of virus is quickly passed on to other birds sharing their cage. It is best not to purchase even healthy looking birds from a cage in which one of their companions shows any signs of being unwell. The most common mistakes people tend to make with keeping budgerigars are housing them in cages which are too small and having too many birds in them. Such birds are subject to draughts or receive inadequate amounts of sunshine. People, even the kindest hearted of souls, often do not realise that the bird seed dish is empty of everything except spent husks which the birds pick through in search of sustenance without finding any. To avoid starvation problems, it is advisable to remove old seed, replacing with new on a daily basis and the seed should not be just bajera (millet) but of mixed types including flax seed and sunflower seed. Imported packets of good quality, specialised bird seed are available and these are a better buy than locally packed bird seed which is of such poor quality that the birds rarely eat it. Drinking water should also be changed twice a day and special mineral blocks or clean cuttlefish shell provided at all times to ensure that the birds get an adequate amount of essential of minerals. Changing the paper in the litter-tray on a daily basis is also recommended. Talking to your birds appears to provide them with a healthy measure of security and well-being and, with luck and lots of patience, you can even teach them to talk a little bit — not as much or as clearly as larger parrots — but enough to be mutually enjoyable. Other kinds of cage birds to brighten up your life include large parrots — although these are definitely not for beginners, a variety of finches, cockatiels and tuneful canaries.