figured I would bump this up since there are a lot of great experience here and if you are new you could add yours .

Hi Guys, A quick update on Marty. he is almost 2 years old now and as far as taming goes, to this day he is still making progress. The latest thing with him is he is willing to go into any room in the house (this is new). Certain rooms he wouldn't go into before. You can catch him, hold him, play with him as much as you like and he doesn't mind at all. He follows us every where, will land on all members of the family. He really loves technology. He will come to us when we call him etc (even if you call him from another room)

 

He even interacts with visitors! He is well and truely tame.

 

Cheers

Paul

This just refers to Cosmo, but I tamed a lot of others when I used to have budgies in the past.

 

1. How old was your budgie (s) when you purchased him/her

I don't know how old he was. He was a baby for sure, and it was a few months before his first moult. Could've been anything between 8-12 weeks I reckon.

 

2. If you tamed your budgie right out of the nest, when did you start taming and handling the chick?

n/a

 

3. Was your budgie tame a little or not at all?

Not at all

 

4. When you tamed your budgie was he the only budgie, or did you buy them in pairs, or was he an addition? Did your first budgie stay tame, and how did the taming go for the additional budgie (s)

There were no others, we just got the one

 

5. What is your best tip you can give (don't say everyone else gave good tips (Laughing out loud)) what did YOU find worked well for you and WHY?

What worked well for us was using a chopstick as a transition to our finger. For some reason he was afraid of our hands, but not of the chopstick. He would step up onto it, and we taught him the actual "step up" with it. He even let us scratch his neck with it. We held onto the thick end and he had to stand on the skinny end, and eventually as he got more comfortable with us he walked up the thicker end closer to our hand until one day he was standing on my hand!

He is now afraid of the chopstick 6 months later-- so this would only work probably with a young bird or one that isn't afraid of the object you choose to use. Although I guess if I wanted to get Cosmo to not be scared of the chopstick again I could probably get him accustomed to it.

 

1. How old was your budgie (s) when you purchased him/her

Hugo: 6 weeks

Winchester: 9 weeks

Avril: 7 weeks

Petronella: ~ 2 years

Fjådor: 8 weeks

 

2. If you tamed your budgie right out of the nest, when did you start taming and handling the chick?

Hugo was from a bad breeder that didn't care about the birds so no he wasn't tame ore used to humans. Petronella is from a pet store, then she moved to a girl who gave her away to my friend (the breeder) who sold her to me after she have had a litter. (I totally fell in love with her so it was not planned at all).

Winchester, Avril and Fjådor are direct from the breeder who has been working with them since they were eggs, but just a couple of minutes a day when she was cleening the nest, so they have been with their parents and siblings until they left the nest.

 

3. Was your budgie tame a little or not at all?

Hugo: NOOOOT at all

Winchester: well he had met humans before at least.

Avril: Yes, she was tough and intrepid. But she has always been keen on her integrity.

Petronella: no not at all, she had never been tame and she had lived in an aviary with other parrots the last six month.

4. When you tamed your budgie was he the only budgie, or did you buy them in pairs, or was he an addition? Did your first budgie stay tame, and how did the taming go for the additional budgie (s)

Hugo: He was afraid of me for a very long time, I forced him to be alone with me for a year witch I regret. He was so sad and lonely. He went tame when he got a bird-friend tough.

Winchester: He has never been alone and it took a week or two before he trusted me, but he sat on my hand and head after an hour or something like that. Hugo learned him that humans are friends.

Avril: She has never been alone and she isn't afraid of anything. Hugo and Winchester taught her to like me.

Petronella: She had lived in an aviary with other birds and never been tame or alone, but my other birds learned her to like me so after a few days she flied to my hand if I called her name, just like the other ones.

Fjådor: He is a veeery active bird who was alone in the quarantine for a couple of weeks, he is cuddly and loves people, but Ii doubt that it would depend on the loneliness. He has just a good personality. Now he is with the other birds and he is just as sweet as always!

 

None of my birds has become less tame when they got friends; they have rather been more lovely and cuddly.

 

5. What is your best tip you can give (don't say everyone else gave good tips (Laughing out loud)) what did YOU find worked well for you and WHY?

All birds are personalities, don't force them to anything, give them at least one budgie-friend to play with when you are at work or in school and show them that you are trustworthy. Treat them with respect and have always a bit of candy ready for them Don't be sad if it goes slow or if the training takes a few steps backwards, it is normal and if you just are patient they WILL trust you sooner or later.

 

Anything else you would like to add?

I don't consider that it is nice to hold birds alone, clip their wings or hand feed them. (no offense to anyone, it is just what I think) They are intelligent and they will like you even if you let them fly, play with other birds and get raised by their parents. :sad: After all you are their human!

 

1. How old was your budgie (s) when you purchased him/her

I'm not sure but these are my guesses:

-Sky: 3 months

-Fiona: 3 months

-Snowflake: 8 weeks

-Louie: 6 weeks

-Jasper: 10 weeks

-Sonny: 4 months

 

2. If you tamed your budgie right out of the nest, when did you start taming and handling the chick?

All of my birds were from pet stores so I didn't get the chance to tame them right out of the nest

 

3. Was your budgie tame a little or not at all?

 

Sky: Not at all but she was and still is very playful, and she seemed to know since the begginning that humans are good and the give food lol

Fiona: No, way less than Sky and she didn't trust humans either..

Snowflake: A bit more tame than the others, she would let us hold her and she didn't freak out everytime I put my hand in the cage like Fiona did.

Louie: He is the sweetest of them all, he would also let us hold him.. but he did freak out when I put my hand in the cage..

Jasper and Sonny have only been with me for a week so still working with them.. Jasper is very sweet, playful and smart and Sonny is shy and seems afraid of humans.

4. When you tamed your budgie was he the only budgie, or did you buy them in pairs, or was he an addition? Did your first budgie stay tame, and how did the taming go for the additional budgie (s)

I bought my birds one at a time except for Sonny and Jasper but they are in different quarantine cages. None of them became very tame to start with so they are pretty wild lol Sky is the bravest one and she likes to come near people when they get close to the cage and it seems that Jasper is gonna be just like sky I'm not planning on taming them just let them be and be happy with their friends. As long as they are tame enough for me to handle them and do my bird owner duties is all good

 

5. What is your best tip you can give (don't say everyone else gave good tips (Laughing out loud)) what did YOU find worked well for you and WHY?

Just let them be birds and be happy like that, every single one of them has a different personality so give them time to adjust, some birds may take longer than others so be very patient! Just try to make them happy!! If my birds are happy I'm happy :sad:

 

Anything else you would like to add?

Budgies are very, very social so I think is best for them to have at least one budgie friend, and I definitely don't like to clip their wings.. They love to fly, I think is a beautiful thing to just let them fly around and be happy birds They also love it when you talk to them! so try to talk to them as much as you can and eventually they'll get used to your voice and get happy everytime they hear you

Edited April 10, 200916 yr by Cory