Hi!

 

I try to let my budgies fly a bit every afternoon. I believe they need it badly and I would let them fly more, but we can't leave them unattended.

 

They fly around, sit on the curtains and chandelier, try out the carpet and walls and then happily go back to their cage as a routine. But yesterday they wouldn't do it! They just stayed out beyond reach looking at us from above. Late in the night I had to start catching them which is a very hard thing to do! What could go wrong? Why didn't they come back at least for a snack? they had been out for more than 4 hours!

 

Has anyone had such experience? I am not ready to let them fly around now since I don't trust them anymore.

Are they tame or untame? With my tame budgie Blinkie when he gets snotty about going back to his cage i pull out a bribe (in my case his mirror perch) and put it in the cage. He's in within seconds. If for some odd reason he's feeling even rattier than normal and he still won't go in i make the room dark, corner him and cup him in my hands.

It probably wasn't anything you did they do get stinky. I would advise that you tame them down and teach them to step up on a dowel so you can take them back to the cage.

They are untame. I know I need to get down with their upbringing! They do not even react the normal way when I turn off the lights. They start flying like crazy and it may become very dangerous for them in the dark. Besides I don't see the blue one in the dark. I also have a feeling that the more often I try to catch them the further away they are from being tame. Bribing (millet sticks) didn't help last time, although they are big eaters. Yesterday they were grounded. I don't know what will happen today.

Maybe if you clip the 2 longest feathers on both wings of each bird. This won't stop them flying around for exercise but it will slow them down enough so that you can get them back into the cage when you are ready.

there are some wonderful taming tips at www.budgietalk.com along with a good article about wing clipping. Your right it is a dangerous situation and I would start working with them on a daily basis to start stepping up. If you can get at least 1 step up good for you on a dowel perch the others may mimic. In budgieland it is monkey see monkey do.

Thank you very much for the advice!

I will try to tame them. But I am not very optimistic about it - they seem so self-centered!

As to clipping - I am just afraid to do it although it sounds perfectly safe and reasonable.

Something has to be done, I can't keep them locked up all day.

Our Bobby, my first budgie, hated being in his cage. It was always an effort to get him back in even though he was relatively tame. Sometimes he would get on his favourite ladder and we'd put him in, but he was often more difficult than that. We used to trap him into the hallway, close all the doors, get him on our shoulder, and then turn out the light and quickly pick him up. He sussed it out after a while, but he loved me so much he'd come whenever I called him anyway. :devil: Sometimes, if he was being really naughty, Mum would drop a teatowel on him!

 

Another trick we learnt was to wait when he had gone back in to eat, and then walk BACKWARDS towards the cage. If you walked forwards he would know you were trying to shut the door and fly out quickly, but walking backwards seemed to really confuse him.

 

With Pippin, he had a favourite toy we called his "baby" (a little plastic bird house with a wobbly budgie head on it). He would dutifully feed and talk to the baby, so if we wanted him back in (a must around human mealtimes) we would 'wobble' the baby and he would get upset and rush in to see what was going on and we'd shut the door behind him.

 

So far with Beaker he always goes back to his cage by himself, but we're teaching him to stand on a big long ladder so we can put him back in. He really doesn't seem to like people at the moment, so the ladder provides enough distance from us that he doesn't freak out and fly away. I'm not sure if you could try something like that?

This happened to me the second time i took louy out.

He was not tame and felt comfortable in the room.

He did not want to come back.

I had to hold him carefully back.

 

This happened to me the second time i took louy out.

He was not tame and felt comfortable in the room.

He did not want to come back.

I had to hold him carefully back.

Bribes have always worked well for me.

 

Scooter is trained to step onto his play gym when I want him to go back in (since he won't step up onto my finger when he's perched up high...I don't know why). He usually does it, no questions asked. But every once in awhile, he'll feel like not doing what I want him to do. So I always have some millet on hand. It never fails. He'll come right to me if I have a treat for him.

 

It's become a little tricky since I got a second budgie. He wants Bella with him at all times, so unless she's back in the cage already or I have her step up at the same time as him, he's so preoccupied looking for her that he'll keep flying back up to his boing as soon as I get him near the cage door. But the millet always seems to work.

 

But anyways, I'd try millet or whatever treat you usually feed them. They'd probably go for it.

Pretty would do this to me all the time and with Merlin being easier to catch and calmer as long as I was able to get Merlin into the cage I could get Pretty into the cage. I did find it more difficult when they were both flighted though (Laughing out loud) because they can be stink pots and millet was my bribe all the time