Here is an introduction from a new member...

 

 

Hello! My name is Kathy. I am from Riga, Latvia. I am an old budgie fan but unfortunately couldn't keep them for quite a while. I grew up with a couple of green and lutino budgies. The cock died when I was 14 and the hen - the beautiful lutino escaped due to an accident when I was 16. Since the I had only cats, dogs and fishes.

 

I've bought a couple recently - a blue cock and a lutino. I cannot figure out the gender of the latter. I would really love it to be a hen... We all want chicks!

 

My new birds are not as friendly as my childhood couple. They only care about each other and very much so! Seems like they dislike people and dogs (I have a dalmation girl). I used to let them fly in the room but they do not go back to the cage. Once I was tired and left them out of the cage for the night. I ended up catching the at night because they panicked and flew amok all over in the dark.

 

Is it possible to tame budgies if they are so engaged in each other? Can one determine the sex in a lutino? The yellow bird is more gentle, doesn't bite and doesn't sing much. maybe behaviour also differs? I will be grateful for any advice on the matter!

Edited November 27, 200618 yr by Rainbow

Nice to meet you Kathy, hope you enjoy the forum. There are several posts on having a couple of budgies and bonding with them and as well, e-terri, one of the members ,has a website devoted to budgies with great information so you should check that out as well . (would find it for you but I am exhausted from shoveling snow).

Welcome to our forums

 

www.budgietalk.com is eterri's site excellent tips on taming as Pheobe said.

 

Is it possible to tame budgies if they are so engaged in each other?

 

It is more difficult and it depends how long they have been bonded to each other. What are you looking for in taming? If you are looking for that childhood bird you probably won't get that with these 2 birds.

 

Can one determine the sex in a lutino? The yellow bird is more gentle, doesn't bite and doesn't sing much. maybe behaviour also differs? Yes you can, if you can post a picture that would be great. Quieter behavior can denote a female but not all the time. If her cere is more of a white/tan it would be a she if you look at my white bird in my siggy see how pink his cere is that would denote a male in a lutino.

 

As for the 2 you have I would start working with them just in the cage first to build a trust of your hand. You can do that many different ways and Terri has excellent advice in her website. I used the treat method with mine so they associate my hand with be good and not ready to grab them. I slowly had them have to step up to get the treat by putting the treat under my finger and then they would step up. Taming can take for some 3 days to get the bird to step up others 3 months.

 

Pretty my white one took a good 9 months for him to accept me because he was a scaredy cat and that was okay.

 

Again you just have to determine what you want out of them, and know you may or may not get it but either way they will unconditionally love you if you show them they can trust you. Birds are not like dogs where they wiggle up to everyone they are not even domesticated they are actually still wild.

 

On that note, my first dog was a dalmatian, he was my kid, wonderful dog and I miss him even 16 years later. He passed away in my arms at age 10. He was a liver spoted.

 

Hope I helped a bit.

Hello from Riga!

Thank you very much for your replies! The commentaries were so explanatory and I enjoyed reading them. I will definitely look for eterry website on bonding. I realise that it will hardly be possible to reach the 'childhood' sort of bonding that I had had with my first lutino bird. It has just occurred to me that my childhood Chapa might have been a boy and that's why we never had any chicks. When her green companion passed away we bought Chapa several other friends but they all mysteriously died. Only now I realise that Chapa might have treated the young newcomers badly. Back then I was very young and my parents didn't have a clue and we had nowhere to get any info about budgies.

 

I do not expect parakeets to be as tame and as obedient as dalmatians. Birds are freedom loving creatures, they are bound to be afraid of larger animals like us. I didn't want to have just one parakeet and teach him speak. I think they are much happier living together, that's why we got another one. I would love to see them much calmer and trusting around humans and dogs. Maybe, just one dog.

 

We also have three cats in the country house. We were visiting there last week and had to take a lot of precautions to protect the birds against the youngest cat who was just hunting them. The birds stayed in the cage for the three days of our visit. We will think how to separate them hard because we live in the country for the whole summer.

 

The birds have been with us for a month and a half now. I can tell that they are a bit more relaxed, especially the blue one (he was not clipped and is a great flyer). But there is still a lot to do on the way to our mutual understanding. The reason I cannot post any pictures now is that I can't really take a good picture of them until I get them sit more or less relaxed when somebody is approaching.

 

Maybe you could advise us what to do if our lutino turns out to be a boy? Is it a good idea for two boys to live together or should we eventually 'enrich' their little world by adding two females?

 

Thank you for your help! I loved the story about the liver spot dalmatian. We had a dog show in Riga and a liver spot boy won last week. Mine is a black spot girl. Yes, they are like kids, lovely beings who always live in our hearts. She tries to play with the birds when they are out flying. I know she doesn't mean any harm, but being a kid, she may be quite clumsy. It scares me. Has anyone had any experience of having dogs and birds? Is trust ever possible?

 

I am sorry for this unreasonably long and hectic letter.

Edited November 30, 200618 yr by Silver

Maybe you could advise us what to do if our lutino turns out to be a boy? Is it a good idea for two boys to live together or should we eventually 'enrich' their little world by adding two females?

 

If it ends up that you have two boys , thats okay they will get along just fine , they might even act like a couple and that's normal . l have boys and girls together and lately two of my males have taken a liking to one another and are acting like a couple :(Laughing out loud):

Edited November 30, 200618 yr by birdluv

As far as dogs and birds trusting eachother..... I don't trust them! Instinct is strong. I have trained my dog to absolutely ignore birds. She is not alowed to even look at them, because I am afraid that looking at them would stir her interest. I am very carefull, but one time one of my birds accidentally landed on the dog. The dog froze instantly and didn't move a muscle and she only looked at me to ask what she should do. :hap: She wouldn't dream of hurting my birds, but I am still careful to keep them apart.

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If it ends up that you have two boys , thats okay they will get along just fine , they might even act like a couple and that's normal . l have boys and girls together and lately two of my males have taken a liking to one another and are acting like a couple :(Laughing out loud):

Birdluv, thank you for your advice. You are describing a funny situation indeed! However, won't it be better for the birds health to have boys and girls? I am also afraid that the girls might not be accepted by these two later. Let's wait and see what happens...

 

As far as dogs and birds trusting eachother..... I don't trust them! Instinct is strong.

 

I quite agree with Shellball, we cannot trust dogs with birds. My dog always watches the birds when they fly around instantly. Once she even caught the lutino Princess in her mouth, but it was a very gentle catch, the bird was not hurt at all. The fact is that she really wants to play with them, She cannot control her curiosity. But she can't always fully control all her movements either. Our dogs trainer told us that a german shepherd once just accidentally shut his mouth when a budgie was sitting in it. Don't know what exactly it was doing there. Dogs cannot fly and that helps. She is very obedient, and I hope to train her, when the birds get tamer, to be gentle and cautious.

Edited December 1, 200618 yr by Silver