# Budgie or Mouse?



## Pan&Lou (Jun 14, 2013)

Super random two choices, but every time I go to petco or petsmart I if myself entranced by the budgies and the mice. I may or may not be able to get another pet, but I can definitely afford either one so that's not in the question. I'm just trying to decide which one I want more so I can stick to it and convince my parents 
I really really wanted a budgie for a bit, but then I saw an adorable little boy mouse (who sadly wasn't there anymore yesterday) who ran right up to me. 
I already have a cockatiel (I found him on my roof (; ), and he isn't tame, but I'd like to try my hand at raising a younger budgie since all the ones at my pet stores are typically still have bands on their head and solid black eyes. 
I think what I want is y'all's personal experience with either animal. Noise might be a factor for the budgie (even though my tiel Cinna is probably way louder!) and smell for the mice. 


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## QueenB1958 (Apr 27, 2014)

I've never had a mouse, but as far as budgies go, I've never had a super tame one. Even when I got them as hand fed babies, they were always faily skiddish. If you decide to go with another bird, I would recommend getting a young hand raised cockatiel. My cockatiel Ben is way sweeter than any of the budgies I've had in the past. He always begs to come out of his cage, and loves to get his head scratched.


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## Pan&Lou (Jun 14, 2013)

I would absolutely love to get a hand raised cockatiel. There was some on craigslist a few months ago but not anything recently. 
I think Cinna would love a companion, and if I'm lucky perhaps the tame one would rub off on Cinna. 
My issue with that is that my parents don't particularly care for Cinna since he's not tame and cuddly, I was able to get a third rat because I could show how darling my two were. But Cinna is a different story. I'm so pleased with they progress we've made, he shows zero fear even when I'm right near the cage, I just haven't really been avidly taming him and he doesn't eat millet from me the majority of the time. 

I have mice and budgies as my options because I'm not striving for something super cuddly or tame, all my research points to rats being the ideal rodent and I have them, then guinea pigs but they are a bit out of my price range for now.


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## KrazyKritterz (Apr 26, 2014)

Oo have had both. Birds are sometimes harder to deal with when sick and they can just catch the wrong breeze by a window and get upper respiratory infections. They are more noisy and out of all the paraleets I have had. I have only ever seen 1 really tame one they scare easy. Mice if kept clean and you can use odor stuff in water for smell works good. I personally like mice more.


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## SpringSt (Jun 18, 2014)

I love budgies because they are so active and are constantly moving, pretty much. Having a bonded pair is a fun thing to watch. I would let even my non-tamed budgies come out of their cage on a play gym and they enjoyed it. They would eventually enjoy my company, but didn't like my hands. I've hand raised a few budgies, too, and those babies came out insanely cuddly. My mom still owns one of them and he will even lay on his back in her hand for "belly rubs" and fun. I liked keeping them in pairs more so than in a group, as they seemed happier that way. Too much bickering when there would be 4 or more in a flight cage haha. 

I *love* my cockatiels. Well, I only have one as the other belongs to my husband. My 'tiel is roughly 6 years old and his is about 15 years old. His was purchased from a pet store, mine was rescued from a "breeder" that let him get plucked bald because they did not remove him from the parent cage. He also was not hand raised. He loves me, but not my hands. I clicker trained with him and he talks up a storm, but put a hand near him and he becomes an angry little pecker (I do mean he pecks at my hands with his pointy beak.) My husband's 'tiel is a female and she's super loving and cuddly with my husband and only tolerates me. It's more than I could ask for considering our (er, my husband's) African Grey would rather eat me alive than I come near her cage.

I've also had extremely sociable mice that loved nothing more than to be with you (especially males, while the girls would prefer playing and exploring.) I think one thing to consider is that budgies are very dusty animals, but mice can smell horribly, so both of those should be thought about. If anyone is sensitive to either potent smell or dust, ya know.

Over all, my advice would be focus on an individual animal you like more so than which species if you've done research and such on both already. Keep an open mind - you may be looking for a mouse and end up falling for a budgie, or vice versa.


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## Pan&Lou (Jun 14, 2013)

I didn't even think of waiting to see of a particular one caught my eye. I know that if I had been aloud, I would have bought that little male mouse the day I saw him. Since I don't have any supplies so it's not like "oh I have a ton of mouse stuff already". 
I suppose I will try and tell my family I'm interested in a mouse or a budgie and try to get them to express which they prefer. 


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## Charlottesmom (Nov 27, 2013)

Get a male mouse, but beware they can be very smelly! Parakeets are awesome but are VERY social and you would need to get at least two, it is IMO not nice to keep such a social bird as a singleton. We have 5 but I am going to breed them again and yet again keep the babies, ours are not very tame but I love watching them interact as a family unit. I call them our feathered fish  they are in a big flight cage. My new mouse (Mocha) is getting tamer by the day. We add Goodbye Odor (a ferret water additive that works to quell some of the stinkies) to Mocha's water and it is working rather well, he is not as stinky as he was when we first brought him home and our vet said it was fine for mice and male rats.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

If your tiel isn't tame he might do well for a friend for you to focus on. 

Budgies are much louder than cockatiels as mine even tweet when they sleep. They've to be louder than everything. They also are hard to tame - and those "young ones" are not that young. It'll be much work. 

Mice are smelly and not affectionate like rats. When they are, it's a different game.

Budgies also can tear your tiels beak off and rats will try to slaughter your mouse. 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Also, no pet you've named is a solo animal except for male mice. 


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## Pan&Lou (Jun 14, 2013)

Sorry, I'm aware that if I'm getting female mice I'll aim for three. And I would get two budgies, I've done my research I was simply referring to it as singles, sorry for the confusion. 
Thanks for all of you guys help. ^^


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