Hello

:ygbudgie:

I just wanted to tell everyone Trilby ate millet from my hand while it was in the cage! I have had her just under a week so far & I am really pleased she is recgnising my hand as something friendly rather than the hand of doom! I am a little over excited at this step and my family who rather tolerate my love of budgies rather than share in it are sick of hearing about it! Anyway that was it really - hope all is well with everyone & their flock

what a wonderful step, congrats

Congrats

Well done Jaffy2008. We here FULLY understand your pride and excitement.. Its so precious when they perform their little milestones in training!! My family sighs and raises their eyebrows at my pride in Charley.

 

I'm often guilty of saying "oh you MUST listen to him... he can now say...blah blah blah....and watch what he can do now.. " They roll their eyes and say "yes mum!" and politely smile and nod. They agree he's amazing but somehow I get the feeling they're thinking their mum is "losing it".

 

This forum is great for us to show off our little cuties (and not be thought of as a little crazy!!) .. and of course its priceless for information and advice!! I am impressed at how quickly and efficiently the forum members, especially the "Moderators", jump to attention and answer the sometimes desperate and urgent questions, as well as sometimes just a word of encouragement and praise for the not so urgent posts.

 

(I have to admit that sometimes at work I am guilty of looking busy but am not being half as industrious as I should be as I am just too busy reading the budgie forum instead!! ) :devil:

Edited March 21, 200817 yr by thk

Hello

:ygbudgie:

I just wanted to tell everyone Trilby ate millet from my hand while it was in the cage! I have had her just under a week so far & I am really pleased she is recgnising my hand as something friendly rather than the hand of doom! I am a little over excited at this step and my family who rather tolerate my love of budgies rather than share in it are sick of hearing about it! Anyway that was it really - hope all is well with everyone & their flock

 

 

Brilliant!!! My family is the same... although when I do get home from work my Mum has to tell me about what the birds did or said when I was away!!! . I know this place is great as I don't feel guilty bragging about my birds on here as I know no one is rolling their eyes as I speak (hopefully :hap: ) okay... back to you. That is a great first step in under a week. Remember to work at her pace and do what she wants to do. How long is your millet? Try making it shorter over time... then she'll have to step on your hand to eat it (when you think she's ready though) I'm really pleased for you and look forward for regular updates and milestones... YAH FOR TRILBY

Nice work Jaffy ! Glad Trilby & you had a good time with the millet party.

 

We all like hearing the milestones ppl make with their birds. It's exciting to bond with these unique little creatures. Good luck & tell us more as it comes !

Good work, keep it up!

that is really great.

my whole family is like that too, except for my grandma, she just loves birds. this past weekend she scolded me for not bringing my budgies over for a visit. so she told me l better bring them with me the next time l visit her

Hello thanks for all the encouragement! My family appreciates that I have an outlet for my budgie obsession too! - training had to be postponed a few days as I was away for Easter - my parents thought I was nuts as I would call to ask how Trilby was. So far she is content to mainline millet from my hand - she's not even too fussed if my fingers touch her as she reaches for the millet. Although she is definitely hesitant about sitting on my fingers - but I did see some good tips on the forum regarding getting her to sit on my fingers - will keep you updated!

 

She appears to be relaxing into her new environment a bit too, exploring her cage more and being more vocal. It's so funny watching her make the decision to fly to another perch or the floor. She run back and forth along her perch, screws up all her courage takes the plunge and then directly changes her mind, usually the momentum results in her almost falling of her perch rather than a graceful swoop to the floor!

She run back and forth along her perch, screws up all her courage takes the plunge and then directly changes her mind, usually the momentum results in her almost falling of her perch rather than a graceful swoop to the floor!

 

Sometimes they are so ungraceful ... (Laughing out loud). I love watching them think out a plan of where they might go next. They look up ... look over. Look back ... REPEAT OFTEN ... take tenative step ... Attempt. FAIL. Fall against or over or on something. Look stooopid. Look around & see if anyone saw that ... preen where they bumped whatever & make it look like it was all planned ! Who says budgies ain't got no PRIDE !

Ha, yeah I know the look over, look back, look over, look back budgie trait. Very cautious little birdies budgies can be sometimes.

 

:ygbudgie:

 

Well despite mocking Trilby she is still smarter than me - managing to fly past me again when i was offering her millet to take a tour of my living room. Still only took 4/5 hours before I coaxed her back in again with.. you guessed it... millet! Wasn't too bad this time as I didn't bother chasing her round the room with a tea towel , so the whole experience was less of an ordeal for her.

 

And the good news is I have go her to stand on my Finger!!.. I am cheating slightly as I am just resting my finger on top of her perch and holding the millet so she has to step on it to get to her beloved millet. So it's not an actual step off perch onto finger as of yet - but it's still progress. And she is obviously aware her foot is on my finger -was funny the first time she did it, she looked down at her foot like AGH what am I standing on!

 

On a side note - I was wondering how much budgies can understand? Do they recognise human faces & their hands as one being? Maybe I should start a new thread about budgie cognition!

Sounds like you are progressing, continue what you are doing. You may want to try a smaller room for taming though so she is not flying past you. .

 

I don't have any studies on what you asked but I can tell you that yes they do recognize voices of their owners, the faces etc...mine do. Pretty was more of a one owner bird because I spent so much time, Merlin is more well rounded where he knows me but accepts others too.

They must recognise faces and voices. Charley sounds so much like me, by imitating my voice that I'm sure when I speak he thinks "heck!! she sounds just like me!!!"

 

As to recognising that the hand belongs to the voice/face, I'm not sure. He still sometimes gets an initial fright if I am a bit too sudden in producing the hand.. even though he is totally tame and seemingly fearless. Just for that second its like "whaaa!!! what's THAT!!!" :fear .. then when I talk to him softly he's okay with it.

 

Interested to see what the others think.....

More Trilby updates..

 

I am pleased to announce I convinced Trilby to step both feet on her fingers and move away from the perch a little bit! Yay I'm so happy. I can usually reliably get one foot on my finger. I think she likes to grab on so she knows the millet isn't going anywhere – but have now managed the double finger whammy twice. I am really pleased her character is starting to come through a bit as well she has even started jumping onto the lower perch to chirp at me while I'm on the computer. She often goes into angry budgie mode when I don't always reply to her inquisitive chirps. At this rate I think I may have to record my voice as I talk at her so much I think I'm starting to go a little mad. I was recently asked if I wanted a cup of tea and I responded with a whistle. I think I have brain washed myself!

 

recognising that the hand belongs to the voice/face, I'm not sure. He still sometimes gets an initial fright if I am a bit too sudden in producing the hand.. even though he is totally tame and seemingly fearless. Just for that second its like "whaaa!!! what's THAT!!!" .. then when I talk to him softly he's okay with it.

 

I suppose the inner workings of budgie's minds will remain a mystery! lucky their outward behaviour is so charming! I love the little running budgie thing trilby does when she's excited - sidling up and down her cage at high speed, and the way she slides precariously over the top of her seed container rather than jump perch to perch... I could go on but you've probably heard enough!

 

how wonderful, one thing though is not to respond to the budgie angry talk because if you do you are creating a positive reinforcement to a behavior that will down the road drive you crazy she has to learn to be on her own and call you here and there but don't respond to that type of behavior it can turn into screaming. Glad things are working well.

how wonderful, one thing though is not to respond to the budgie angry talk because if you do you are creating a positive reinforcement to a behavior that will down the road drive you crazy she has to learn to be on her own and call you here and there but don't respond to that type of behavior it can turn into screaming. Glad things are working well.

 

Yeah - i think Trilby is possibly training me rather than the other way round! I suppose at first I was just excited she was requesting or rather demanding attention. I will definitely have to watch that.

I love the title of this topic --- "Taming Trilby" ---- Sounds like a movie

 

You are making great progress with Trilby - well done

very good to hear, you and Trilby are bonding nicely

Good work... keep it up! :budgiedance:

:budgiedance: sounds like you are doing a good job!!

 

ah Bella.... I have much time before you are even as tame as Elvis the baby of the 3 stouges as my mum likes to call them as they never leave each others side.

a strange thing my petie does is when i type and he is on the back off my chair he histles chirps kisses and such but when i stop he slows down almost as if he's keeping the pace of my typing!

 

♥Indz

Hello

:ygbudgie:

I just wanted to tell everyone Trilby ate millet from my hand while it was in the cage! I have had her just under a week so far & I am really pleased she is recgnising my hand as something friendly rather than the hand of doom! I am a little over excited at this step and my family who rather tolerate my love of budgies rather than share in it are sick of hearing about it! Anyway that was it really - hope all is well with everyone & their flock

 

How old is he/she? My ones are 3months, should I start training, I got em today

Read the FAQ article about Taming Budgies. Training starts with building trust first so the first week you will be getting them used to your voice, face, putting the food in and out along with water etc...it doesn't mean putting your hand in that comes later. Once you can build your birds trust for you, you can proceed to the next step. As per your other post your one bird is very nervous by showing you signs of beak panting they can also twitch their wings or go to the farthest corner of their cage all behaviors you want to gradually overcome. You can do that by just taking it slow and being patient . I hope that helps.

 

Side note, I got Pretty at 3 months and by that time if they have not had any human touch or interaction you will find that it takes longer to gain their trust especially when they come from a pet store such as yours did and so did mine. So do be patient every bird is different one can form a bond in under 2 weeks others such as my Pretty took 6 months.

Edited March 31, 200817 yr by Elly

How old is he/she? My ones are 3months, should I start training, I got em today

 

My Budgie was aged by someone on the forums via a photo (Kaz I think) and she thought trilby was around 6 months old. I think Elly said it better than I could about taming your birdy. One tip I would say when you are at the stage of trying to get your birdy used to your hand - try tempting him/her with millet. It's the budgie equivilent of chocolate ice cream! Good luck!

 

I am currently wondering if I should leave Trilby her mirror, she does sidle up to it and chirp at it occassionally and I know birds can bond to their mirror rather than their human owner. But I feel a bit mean taking it away especially as she is a solo birdy. Ho Hum.

 

:budgiedance:

Sounding Good Jaffy ... We love hearing about Budgies here so SHARE SHARE SHARE .....