Ask Lafeber

is it okay to leave a budgies in cages during vacation?

me & my family are going on a vacation for a week, and we are not sure what to do. we have someone who would come in once a day and change the water & give food, but would they need more than this? theres 2 of them, i dont want then to get depressed or not have enough interaction. for clarification, the person is our close friend and would come in once a day,, only to feed & change water though, no interaction. please let me know, we are going in about a month.

Hi Selah,

The budgies will be just fine in their cages while you are gone, since you will have someone coming in daily. Generally a bird isn’t going to want to come out of the cage for an unfamiliar person anyway. Ideally your friend would come in twice a day, just in case the birds spill the water or food. 24 hours is a long time to go without food or water if something happens. Most importantly there needs to be a light on for the birds and the temperature needs to be maintained the same as if you were home. They will not eat if it is dark all the time, and you can’t turn off the A/C or heat or they will get too hot or too cold.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda