A blue budgie on a wooden perch inside a dark cage

What keeping a bird involves

Fifteen minutes of chores, then company

Every morning you change the water, refill the food and swap the paper on the cage floor. That takes about 15 minutes. Once a week the perches and tray get scrubbed. The rest is company. A parrot, even a small one, is a flock animal that wants to be near you for an hour or more a day, out of the cage if it is tame. Canaries and finches ask for less: they keep each other busy, or in a male canary's case, sing for the room. Birds hide illness, so part of the routine is noticing small changes in droppings, appetite and weight.

Which bird should you start with?

Small ParrotsBudgies (often sold as parakeets) and cockatiels. They bond with people, can be hand-tamed and need daily time out of the cage. A budgie is small, cheap to feed and may learn words. A cockatiel is larger, calmer and whistles more than it talks, but sheds a fine feather dust that bothers some people with allergies. Budgies live 7 to 12 years and cockatiels 15 to 20.

Start here

Visit a breeder or a bird rescue this week and ask to hold a young, hand-raised budgie or cockatiel. A bird that steps onto a finger calmly will be far easier to tame than one that panics.

Petfinder: birds for adoption

Finches and CanariesBirds to watch and hear, not to handle. Zebra and society finches are kept in pairs or small groups and are busy all day. A male canary is kept alone and sings for much of the year. Neither needs time out of the cage, which suits a home where nobody is around during the day. Finches live 5 to 8 years and canaries about 10.

Start here

Decide between one male canary (he sings, and is content alone) and a pair of zebra or society finches (never a single finch). Then contact a local bird club and ask which members have young birds.

National Finch and Softbill Society

Open a card and add its gear to put that bird's food and toys in the kit. Picking one takes the other's out. The cage, perches and the rest of the list suit either.

How to get started

Tick these off as you go

A blue budgie perched on an open hand — A budgie on a hand

Find a bird vet and a bird

Choosing and setting up the cage

Buy width, not height. Birds fly side to side, so a cage 30 inches wide or more beats a tall narrow one. Avoid round cages, which leave no corner to retreat to.
Check the bar spacing. Half an inch or less suits budgies, finches and canaries. Cockatiels can take up to five-eighths of an inch. Wider bars can trap a head.
Look for a powder-coated or stainless steel cage with a slide-out tray and doors large enough for your hand and a bath. Pass on anything used that shows rust or chipped paint.
Parrots climb, so some horizontal bars help them. Finches and canaries only need clear flying room from end to end.
Set perches at two or three heights with nothing directly below them to get soiled, and leave the middle of the cage open for flight.
Line the tray with plain newspaper or paper towel and change it daily. It is cheap, and it lets you see the droppings.
Each morning, give fresh water and food and check that the door latches are closed. Each evening, make sure the bird gets 10 to 12 hours of dark and quiet.

A yellow canary in a cage hung with toys and a seagrass mat

Daily and weekly care

Food, water, a bath and a weekly weigh-in

Feeding small parrots

Pellets for most of the diet, a spoonful of chopped vegetables (leafy greens, carrot, broccoli, bell pepper) daily, and seed as a treat. A seed-only diet is fatty and short on vitamin A.

Feeding finches and canaries

A quality finch or canary seed blend, greens several times a week and a little mashed hard-boiled egg weekly. Blow the empty hulls off the dish each day, because a dish that looks full may hold no food.

Calcium

Keep a cuttlebone or mineral block clipped to the bars at all times.

Bathing

Offer a shallow bath or a gentle mist of plain water two or three times a week. It keeps feathers and skin in good condition.

Weighing

Put the bird on a gram scale at the same time once a week and write it down. A drop of 10 percent is a reason to call the vet, often days before the bird looks sick.

Reading droppings

Normal ones have a dark solid part, a white part and a little clear liquid. Watery, discolored or very few droppings for more than a day need a vet.

Keeping a parrot busy

Rotate two or three toys each week. Bored parrots scream and pull their own feathers.

Laws and safety

Nonstick cookware is the best-known killer of pet birds. Overheated nonstick coatings (on pans, air fryers, some space heaters and irons) give off fumes that can kill a bird in minutes, even in another room. Cook with stainless steel, cast iron or ceramic.
Keep the air clean. No smoking or vaping, scented candles, air fresheners, aerosol sprays or oven-cleaning cycles near a bird. Their lungs are far more sensitive than yours.
Never feed avocado, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, onion, garlic, or fruit pits and apple seeds.
A loose bird can drown in an open toilet, a sink or a pot on the stove, and can fly into glass or out an open door. Check the room before every out-of-cage session.
Cats are dangerous even through play. Bacteria in cat saliva can kill a bird from a single scratch, so any contact means a vet visit the same day.
Wash your hands after cleaning the cage. Birds can carry psittacosis (parrot fever), a bacterial infection that causes flu-like illness in people. Dampen droppings before wiping so you do not breathe the dust.
It is illegal in the US to keep native wild birds, their feathers, nests or eggs without a federal permit. If you find an injured wild bird, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
A few states ban or restrict certain pet species, most often the monk (Quaker) parakeet. Check your state's wildlife agency before buying anything beyond the common four.
Never release a pet bird outdoors. It will not survive, and where it does it can become an invasive pest.

If your bird eats something it should not

ASPCA Animal Poison Control 24-hour poison hotline and free lists of toxic foods and plants. The call itself has a fee.

What trips beginners up

What to expect, and habits to drop

Birds are loud at dawn and dusk and messy all day. Expect seed hulls, feathers and droppings within three feet of the cage.
Taming takes weeks. Grabbing or chasing a scared bird sets you back, and some older birds never want to be handled.
Talking is not guaranteed. Male budgies are the most likely to learn words, and many birds never do.
A cage sized for the store shelf is too small. Buying small first means buying twice.
Skipping the vet because the bird looks fine. A fluffed-up, sleepy bird sitting low on the perch is an emergency, not a nap.
Mixing species or adding a mirror for company. Budgies can bully finches, and a lone budgie may bond with its reflection and ignore you.
Putting a nest box in the cage. It triggers egg laying, which drains a hen's calcium and can kill her.

A grey cockatiel with a yellow face standing on top of its wire cage — A cockatiel on top of its cage

Where to learn more

A local bird club is the fastest way to meet breeders and get a second opinion on a setup. The national aviculture federation lists clubs by state and offers a beginner course online. For health questions, use vet-written references over forum advice, and let your own bird vet settle anything urgent. Online communities are best for the things vets do not cover: taming progress, toy ideas and photos of other people's cages.

Clubs, a vet reference and a community

About the kit

The cage is where the money goes, and it is the one item not to economize on, since the bird spends most of its life inside it. Everything else is small. The list is built so one cage, with half-inch bar spacing, works for any of the four beginner birds. Food and toys depend on which bird you chose, so they sit under Small Parrots or Finches and Canaries. The bird is the one purchase that is not on Amazon, and a first vet checkup (commonly the cost of a mid-priced cage) belongs in your budget too. Food, millet and cuttlebone are the only running costs, and a small bird eats only a couple of teaspoons a day.

Two zebra finches side by side on a ledge — A pair of zebra finches

Fill the cage

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there. The first line, the bird itself, is not something you buy online: it comes from a breeder, a rescue or a good store. The food, toy and play stand lines join the kit once you pick Small Parrots or Finches and Canaries.

The bird

essential · The bird

The one thing the kit cannot include. Where the bird comes from decides how healthy and how tame it is on day one.

Not sold on Amazon · breeder, rescue or store

Not sold on Amazon. Look for a breeder who hand-raises chicks, a bird rescue or shelter, or a store with clean cages and alert birds. Budgies typically run $25 to $60, a pair of finches $40 to $100, a canary $80 to $200 and a cockatiel $100 to $250. Adoption fees are usually lower. Finches are bought in pairs.

Flight cage with half-inch bar spacing

essential · Housing

The bird's home for most of every day. A wide cage lets it fly between perches, which is its main exercise.

budget

VEVOR 30 Inch Flight Bird Cage, Stackable Bird Cage Parakeet Cage with Slide-Out Tray and Handle, Small Parrots Birdcage for Cockatiels Budgies Conure Macaw Finch Lovebirds Canaries Pigeons

4.6(711)

$42.90

Bird Keeping

What keeping a bird involves

Which bird should you start with?

How to get started

Choosing and setting up the cage

Daily and weekly care

Laws and safety

What trips beginners up

Where to learn more

About the kit

Fill the cage

The bird

Flight cage with half-inch bar spacing

Natural wood perches

Cuttlebone

Small bird travel carrier

Spray millet

Clip-on bird bath

Gram scale for weighing birds

Pellet food for budgies and cockatiels

Shredding and foraging toys for small parrots

Tabletop play stand

Finch and canary food