As some of you may already know, my two birds Eva and Neo will happily come to me for millet. They are crazy about the stuff! At times Neo will also jump onto my finger without the millet, but after one or two attempts realises there's no food and will not come back unless I offer him another bribe .

 

Once the millet is finished, they will quickly go back to their perches.

 

At what point does their jumping on my finger change from being millet only driven to genuine human bonding? Is there any way to facilitate this?

Edited February 25, 200817 yr by watda

It really takes time what you can do is don't let them finish the millet and take it away before it is finished therefore you are in control not them. When you take it away if they fly away then offer it again once they get on your finger then talk to them and then offer it therefore you are creating come to me and we talk and then we get rewarded. You are creating a place to feed and then jump back off like a food dish. Try this method over the next 2 weeks and see if you find improvement, work with your confident bird the one that stays longer. I have done this with both my birds and it is very successful but you need patience .

I would try some vocal encouragement. When they fly over for millet, praise them by saying 'good budgie' or things of the sort. Don't be too loud or startleing but be a positive presence and be excited. The praise can replace the food treat after a while. This is how i trained my budgie to fly over though it may be a slightly more difficult technique with two budgies.

I will definitely try the techniques suggested here and see how it goes. Hopefully over time I can have them doing the right thing

 

Thanks

:ygbudgie: Yes, it does take time and sometimes they don't become overly tame despite your hard work but persevere! :bluebudgie:

You've been given some good advice thus far. Do they let you scratch their heads? You could try giving them millet and a scratch... then reducing the amount of time they have the millet for and increasing the scratching. Good luck anyway, and please keep us updated. :bluebudgie: