Different temperament in budgies.

[Andyvon]

My wife and I have two budgies which are 7 months old now. They were bred by my aunt and they have always been together in a large 'indoor aviary' that takes up a large part of our lounge. We used to have them out but they were always very quiet and unhappy until we returned them to their aviary. They stay in there now as they have lots of room to fly and they don't like coming out.

My question concerns the birds' temperament. The **** budgie is named Onion and he's incredibly active. He's always flying, playing with their toys, in and out the bird bath, and he never stops chattering and squawking. Part of the aviary is next to the window which is usually open and wild birds come and chatter to the budgies. Onion has learned many wild bird songs as well as blackbird and starling alarm calls (it's a noisy house!). He only stops for a short rest before starting again and he's like that all day and into the night.

However, the hen is the complete opposite. She's named Sage and she spends most of her time asleep with her head tucked under her wing. When Sage wakes to eat and fly she seems fine, but she does spend a lot of time inactive. She's also very quiet and hardly makes any noise. Sage is the boss though and she bullies Onion off any food and treats, although he stands up for himself when he's had enough.

Sage and Onion are different strains of budgie. Sage is green and yellow and plump while Onion is blue and slender. We used to think Sage was ill but my aunt thinks she's just quiet. She's bred budgies for 50 years so she should know. We don't worry about Sage quite so much now but she's very quiet and inactive. Any ideas budgie experts or is everything OK?

[Andyvon]

Just to explain the deletion above. I used a 4-letter word starting with 'c' which is the recognised term for a male bird. Obviously, Answerbank thought I was using it another way!