What makes a Galah a great pet?

Galahs are awesome mischief makers. They are curious, into everything that is going on and quite excitable and cheeky. Have you ever seen a group of young galahs rolling down a hill and playing?

Galahs have a really soft loose type of feathering and they love to be ruffled and scratched.  They are excellent talkers and pick up phrases very easily.

  • Mischeivous and Inquisitive
  • Excellent Talkers
  • Super Soft Feathers
  • Attention Lovers

PLAYFUL and ATTENTION LOVING – Galahs simply love attention from their human family. They integrate easily with their new human family and they cant wait to come out of their cage, interact and play like a clown.

You need to set boundaries with your pet galah early on so it doesn’t turn into a needy and petulant bird. Its a bit like training toddlers. Set a routine with your pet parrot as to when it will come out and play and when it will remain in its cage. You will need to deck out the pet galahs cage with various chew toys such as pine cones, banksia cones, gum nuts, native branches with leaves and flowers so to create a nuturing and safe environment for you bird. That way when your galah  actually looks forward to cage time as well as time out with you.

TALKING and GREAT MIMICS  –  Galahs have a natural ability to both mimic phrases and sounds that they hear and to also understand simple commands and requests. It is not unusual for a weaned  baby galah to start creating speach sounds at around 14 weeks of age. From then on the  galahs “speach” becomes clearer.

As time goes on it is quite common for your galah to  be able to “talk” at the appropriate times. For example: “Come Here”… “Hello”. A mischevious galah will also manage enough speach to be able to call the dogs and  rouse on the children in a way that is very nearly identical to how you do, so be careful what you say…ha ha

If you care and nurture your galah, without spoiling, you will have a wonderful companion for many many years to come.

Galah Playful
Galah Sitting

Personality and BEHAVIOUR

It doesn’t matter what sex, whether boy or girl that you choose for your new companion, both sexes are excellent. Both the boys and girls can talk equally. Both the boys and girls will get up to mischief and both sexes will be lots of fun.

As galahs are very intelligent and cuddly birds, it is not uncommon for your pet bird to choose to bond particularly well with one member of the family. When you bring your pet bird home, try and make sure that each member of the family interacts with your galah  to try and minimise your galah choosing one person over another.

Galahs are a very SOCIAL bird, therefore they require at lot of attention. If you feel you don’t have time to devote one on one time regularly with your galah, then choose another type of companion. Say this, you dont have to be a stay at home person. You can go to work each day and leave your galah in its cage as long as you make the cage a stimulating and nuturing environment. Galahs love to forage on the ground, so you may wish to make up a sand trya on the floor of the cage and fill it with different foraging materials such as shredded newspaper or grass with hidden nut treats.

Woven cane baskets hanging in the cage with pine cones in them is also a fun activity. Just use your imagination …. that’s the fun part.

Out of the cage your galah will like to have the run of the house. Make sure you keep your pet galah under supervision to make sure that it does not eat or ingest anything it shouldn’t. Galahs love to pick up anything that is shiny and bright. If a bird ingests metal objects, such as pen nibs, small  parts of Christmas decorations or metal toys, this can lead to Heavy Metal Poisioning wich is usually fatal. Therefore if your pet bird is out of its cage….keep  an eye on its activities.

GALAHS – AERIAL ACROBATS – Galahs are the most amazing flyers. They learn to fly and  navigate a room with such ease. Galahs can fly straight across the room, bank and actually hover backwards, then turn on the head of a pin and fly in  the opposite direction.

The video here shows some of our young hand raised galahs flying around our bird room.They are very graceful and very accomplished at such a young age.

Dietary

Galahs are seed junkies. In the wild galahs spend a large proportion of the day  searching and foraging for food. You will often see large flocks fo them on your lawn foraging for fresh grass seeds. In the home that galah is provided with its food in a shiny bowl. A galah tends to over feed on seed, therefore you must provide them with fresh vegetables each day and discourage your pet galah from consuming a seed only diet.

Our baby galahs are raised from their weaning days to eat a variety of vegetables as well as some seed. We find that the baby galah’s favourite vegetables are usually corn, spinach, peas and grain bread. We also supply our baby galahs with a variety of weeds such as milk thistle, dandelions, chick weed and green grass seeds.

It is also a good idea to grow some of the seeds in the garden, then you can pick them fresh and give to your pet galah

Bush Food