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Budgies are small birds that can light up a home with their bright colors and cheerful chattering.

The formal name of these sweet little birds is “budgerigar,” which has been shortened to “budgie.”

Although they are sometimes called parakeets, “budgie” is the term for the common pet bird, while “parakeet” refers to a larger group of small parrots, of which the budgie is a member. In other words, all budgies are parakeets, but not all parakeets are budgies!

Here are 10 cool facts you might not know about budgies.

When you hear the word “pet,” an image of a dog or a cat most likely pops into your head. But what about adopting a capybara or taking your chimpanzee for a ride in your car? These animals are considered exotic pets and are becoming more popular.

According to therichest.com, more than 20 million Americans own some type of exotic animal. There is no official rule that determines what types of animals are considered to be exotic pets, but that classification usually refers to any type of animal that is not often kept as a pet, especially one that is not native to the owner’s location. For example, hamsters and goldfish would generally not be considered exotic, but monkeys and hissing cockroaches might be. Because the term is so subjective, getting an exotic pet might not always mean getting an extremely dangerous or high maintenance wild animal.

The legal regulations on exotic pet ownership in the United States vary by state. 34 states ban at least some types of “dangerous wild animals,” as shown on a map from humanesociety.org, while five states have no laws whatsoever forbidding the ownership of exotic pets. Eleven states do not ban any animals as pets, but require a permit to own certain species.

According to www.kshb.com, a summer camp in Merriam, Kansas encourages kids to read to animals at a no-kill shelter.

Kids between the ages of 8 and 12 who signed up for a week of Young Heroes For Pets Summer Camp at the Great Plains SPCA in June or July spend their days doing a series of activities which “emphasizes kindness, respect, responsibility, decision-making as well as movement, play, cooperation, problem-solving, reading and writing,” according to the camp’s web page. At the end of the week, each camper is awarded a Young HEROES certificate in front of friends and family.

“When the kid is reading to the pet, they tend to correct themselves,” said Rachel Hodgson, the Great Plains SPCA’s communications director, to KSHB Kansas City. “Their confidence boosts up and then we get the phone calls from the very happy parents that their kids are getting up to the next reading level.”

Dogs can’t use words to express themselves the way people can, but that doesn’t mean they don’t communicate. Dogs use their body language to tell us how they’re feeling and what they need.

The most commonly known form of dog body language is a wagging tail. This is often interpreted to mean that the dog is happy, but this is not necessarily the case. Some dogs who are happy don’t wag their tails, while others who do may be wagging their tail for other reasons, including aggression, according to www.aspca.org. The position in which a dog holds its tail can also be an indicator of its mood: a relaxed dog will hold its tail in a neutral position, while a dog who is feeling threatened or sad will lower its tail. Dogs move their ears in similar ways; when a dog is alert and excited, he will raise his ears.

Like animals in the wild, dogs try to make themselves appear smaller or larger when they feel threatened. You can tell that your dog is scared when she tries to make herself look smaller by hunching her body or lowering her head. An especially scared dog might even roll over on its back as a sign of submission. When a dog is feeling aggressive, it will try to make its body seem big and intimidating by stretching out its neck and leaning slightly forward.

According to www.post-gazette.com, an animal shelter is giving children in a Chicago hospital the chance to play with kittens and puppies in a way similar to playing video games. Wright-Way Rescue in Morton Grove, Illinois paired a live video feed with Internet-accessible interactivity features to create a virtual experience for kids at downtown Lurie Children’s Hospital.

The kids have been able to watch the live feed from the shelter since the beginning of the year, and the interactive content will be available to anyone until coding issues can be resolved and the program can be set up at the hospital.

The system allows one viewer at a time to “play” with animals in one room of the shelter for two minutes. Using a platform called iPet Companion, which connects children’s hospitals with shelters around the country, the person in control can activate one of three toys by clicking on them, piquing animals’ interest. Currently, Wright-Way is one of 14 shelters using this program.

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When the ASTRO Foundation, an Oakdale, Calif. animal shelter, first opened its doors, it was faced with the need for many volunteers. Board members decided to try something unusual: enlist a volunteer force primarily made up of local teenagers. It turns out, their idea has paid off more than they could have imagined.

When executive director Jaydeen Vicente saw how crowded her city’s animal shelter was, she and several other passionate animal lovers came together to form the ASTRO (Animal Shelter To Riverbank & Oakdale) Foundation, with the ultimate goal of becoming a no-kill shelter.

“The city shelter is over 40 years old and way too small to serve the population that it currently does, so we saw a lot of healthy, adoptable animals being euthanized, often due to lack of space,” Vicente said.

About five years ago, one little dog’s journey started a big project. After searching online, Janet Williams found a Chihuahua she wanted to adopt. There was just one problem: Williams, who lived in Maine at the time, had to figure out how to transport the dog from a shelter in Tennessee before she was scheduled to be euthanized.

“I’m ashamed to admit that, in the 21^st century, I didn’t realize that in this country we still euthanize animals for space in shelters,” Williams said. “I thought we actually sheltered them. So it was a real eye-opener trying to save this dog in Tennessee who was on death row.”

Williams and a network of several friends worked together to get the Chihuahua to her new home, each transporting her part of the distance. The experience inspired Williams to investigate shelters in the U.S., especially in the South, and what she found horrified her. One story about a woman’s challenges running a small rescue in South Carolina struck her especially.

Like humans and many other animals, young kittens’ primary food source comes from nursing. This stage of their development is critical to shaping their development.

Although kittens may appear not to be doing much when they are first born—their eyes don’t open until they are about two weeks old—their bodies are hard at work, processing food rapidly. Kittens don’t have teeth at this point, so they must rely on nursing. Because its only real job in this stage of its life is to process food, a kitten will typically double in weight throughout the first week of its life and will continue to grow quickly, gaining about 10 grams every day, according to http://cats.about.com/cs/kittencare/a/tracksixweek.htm.

Kittens can begin to be weaned and litter box-trained when they are about five weeks old, a week after their baby teeth begin to show. One way to do this is to give them a non-dairy milk replacer in a shallow dish. Small amounts of canned kitten food can then be added. It’s important to use canned food specifically designed for kittens, as it contains a high amount of protein.