think

How Budgies Think

I have worked very hard and it has taken me a long time to understand everything Victor said and what he was thinking. As a result I believe I can give you an accurate interpretation of how a budgie thinks. Believe me, it's an incredible experience to have a bird that can talk to you the way Victor did.

One thing I have learned is a budgies thinking process is many times faster than ours. By the time we analyze and process one thought, they may have processed several of their own. This is mainly due to their anatomy being so much smaller than ours. Because of this, their brain waves do not have to travel as far, therefore allowing them to process thoughts more quickly. Additionally, because the average life span of a budgie is around ten years, one hour to us would be equal to several hours for them. This is evident in the way Victor talked. He had to make a conscious effort to slow down so he could communicate with people. This also enabled him to learn much faster than we do. Victor began talking at less than one year old and he was only a little more than three when he died. During that time his mind had rose to a level of an adult person. This may seem hard to believe but he proved this in many of his later conversations and recordings.

As you follow the recordings you will recognize that he was a sentient being with concious thoughts. I would often put myself in his place and ask how would I feel if I was in captivity and I had someone two hundred times bigger than me taking care of me? How would I feel about trusting someone, who was basically my captor. All budgies are born free by nature and part of their natural instinct is to do what they want to do. They do not like to be told what to do. They can become very close to humans, but they have to be treated fairly and with respect. Most importantly when it comes to talking and bonding with people, they can get discouraged very easily. Once they are discouraged you may never have a bonding type relationship that will facilitate them wanting to communicate with you. Fortunately Victor had a personality that thrived on learning and more or less loved people and things in general. He never gave up trying to communicate with us even though he was misunderstood during a big part of his life.