Ask Lafeber

Bought smallest food dish but parakeet is still finding a way to lay across it

I just purchased a parakeet a week and a half ago. I tried to go for a boy (his beak has a blue stripe over it) but I’m wondering if this might be a girl. The cage I purchased had really nice, large food and water dishes. Pretty soon, my parakeet climbed right in the food dish and made himself comfortable. He just wanted to stay there. So after reading a bit, I got a much, much smaller food dish. But now my parakeet is just laying his body across the top of the food dish. If I wasn’t worried it would be comical. Also, he hasn’t begun singing yet. He’s made a few random noises. He does preen and stretch his wings and looks at us when we talk to him.

Hi Amy,

Since you just got this bird, it could be a young bird that hasn’t been out of the nest for very long. In that case, he should outgrow this need to be in something very soon. Can you email a photo to Brenda@lafeber.com ? I can try to tell you if it is a male or female, but should definitely be able to tell if it is very young if you can send some good pics of the head. As for singing, parakeets do not sing. They chirp and chatter and some learn to talk. It sounds like he is settling in. I’ll give you the links to our behavior and training pages to help you get the right start with him.

Teaching Your Bird

Pet Bird and Parrot Behavior

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda