Hi All,

 

I am new to this forum and apart from a family budgie that we had years ago when I was kid I am pretty new to budgies as well.

 

We brought a new budgie home yesterday that we bought from a reputable breeder here in Toowoomba. His name is Bernie and he's six weeks old. We stood and watched the birds in the cage for a while before choosing one, and tried to pick the most active sociable bird. We took the advice of the breeder and had his wings clipped to make it safer and easier to train him, even though he is already used to being picked up and is not really afraid of people's hands. The plan is to have him well trained by the time he moults. After that he will be free to fly around the house whenever we are around.

 

So far he has only been home for 24 hours, but I am a bit concerned about how quiet he is. He was one of the most active birds in the breeder's cage, but now he just sits quietly on a perch in the corner of his cage. I've spent some time talking to him, and he will let me stroke his belly and will step up onto my finger, but he clearly feels nervous about it. But as soon as I let him climb back onto a perch in his cage he gets comfortable and then just sits there, not moving, for hours on end. He has eaten very little since we got him home, and he is not interested in bribes like popcorn or dry bread that I have tried waving in front of him.

 

Am I worrying too much? Pushing him to hard by putting my hand near him? Does he just need time to settle in, or is it likely that something is wrong? Maybe he just needs to adjust to the new surroundings and not having other birds around? Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Scott

Hi and welcome to the forum, it is normal for budgies to be quiet and not eat when you get them home, it takes them a while to adjust to the new surroundings. Did you see him eating or flying when he was at the breeders because 6 weeks is very young to be away from his parents. i would love to see a photo of him.

New budgies will often be quite for the first few days as your home is a new (and scary) environment for them. After a few days or couple of weeks he should be settled in and start to show that personality you chose him for. Budgies don't tend to eat for the first 3 or 4 days as they feel it is too risky to put their head down when you (a stranger and perhaps a potential predator) are around. Try covering three sides of his cage and the top with a blanket, so he feels more secure and take it off a little bit each day until you manage to remove the whole blanket. After the 3 days of initial scaredness, he may attempt to escape as much as possible!!! but don't let this worry you, he should stop that after a while too.

He sounds like he's just settiling in.

Sailorwolf has given you some good advice. The only thing I will add, is to put his food and water in shallow dishes at floor level for awhile so its easier for him to find.

Here he is,

 

 

Yellow pied? Is that right?

 

okay, I'll just give him some time. Would it be best to just leave him alone for a few days to settle, or is it okay to keep approaching the cage and talking to him etc. He will sit there and let me stroke his chest without protesting, but maybe I should just give him some space for a while?

 

edit: resized the image

Edited April 7, 200817 yr by Scott
picture over the size regulation of 450x450

He is an olive green dominant pied. I would cover the grid section of the bottom of the cage for now and put some shallow food dishes down there not directly under a perch. They find it hard to cope with grids when young....and they like to fossick on the floor for their food. Keep doing what you are doing with regard to interaction and cover the cage on three sides like Sailorwolf suggested. Put a radio on or some noise factor as quiet means danger to a budgie.

Edited April 7, 200817 yr by KAZ

okay, thanks for the advice. I'll put some newspaper down on the floor with a couple of chinese food containers for seed and water. Hopefully he will come out of his shell soon. He was warbling very softly this morning when we got up, but he's been silent ever since. He seems to be a fast learner. He's already stepping onto my finger without too much encouragement, but he usually hops straight off at the earliest oppurtunity.

I keep my grid covered with newspaper it is so simple to clean so you may just want to keep it that way it is a pain getting bird poo out of the grids. When I bought Pretty home he was very quiet for a long time as long has he is alert, responding to you and he is not fluffed up and he is perching okay he is probably just very quiet. You can read the FAQ on taming your budgie's too I put in my experience of what I did when I first brought Pretty home.

He is very nice Scott, andlike Kaz said fantastic advice, he should be chirpy and mouthing off too you soon ... All the best

Well, I've been home all day today and young Bernie is already starting to perk up a bit. He's gone back to sulking in the corner at the moment, but he was singing earlier and he has had a couple of sessions sitting on the edge of his seed dish stuffing his face. Putting newspaper on the floor of the cage made a big difference. He seems like running around on it.

 

He's an independent minded little character too. He will let me touch him and even climb onto my finger if he feels inclined, but sometimes he avoids me. I've already had him out of the cage (always close to the door so he can jump back in if he wants) stepping up from one finger to the other.

Sounds good....they hate trying to walk on the grates.....even the adults. Keep an eye on his bottom....a mucky bottom being signs of ill health or not eating. Scatter some seed on the newspaper too. Try feeding him some homemade eggfood....Mashed boiled egg with some finesliced greens ( like spinach, not lettuce ) and some grated carrot...sprinkle some seed over the top and see if he likes it. If he doesnt you have the makings of an egg/salad sandwich ....but take the birdseed out :hap:

Edited April 7, 200817 yr by KAZ

...

 

a bit mushy though kaz

You've been given plenty of great advice already. I'll just add that he is a very handsome young boy and I'm glad he is starting to settle in. Well done on posting your photo too!

*GOBSMACKED* he litteraly took my breath away when i saw that picie!! what a handsome little devil!!

 

 

♥Indz

Just an update on Bernie's progress. Today is his fourth day here. He seems to be settling. He spends more time moving around his cage, chewing the bark on the perches, preening etc, and he is getting a bit more talkative. I had a good conversation with him yesterday, although he was speaking budgie so I'm not sure what he was saying . He often chirps when he hears the galahs and lorikeets outside.

 

When we set the cage up we naively believed the packaging on a swing that we bought at the pet shop with a sandpaper perch. After perusing the forums here I have discovered that sandpaper is more likely to harm than good, so I removed the perch from the swing and replaced it with a piece of eucalyptus cut to fit. He wouldn't go near the swing before, and when I put him on it he'd always jump straight off, but now he loves it, and seems to have adopted it as his favourite perch.

 

He is eating plenty of seed from his dish, but he won't touch anything else. I have offered him pumpkin, pear, and popcorn. The budgie we had when I was a kid used to love most types of grass seed, so I picked a few different grasses with seed heads attached and pegged them to the side of his cage, but he has shown no interest. He doesn't even show any interest in millet sprays. He doesn't seem to recogise them as food. He just clambers over the top of them and ignores them. I also tried some green gum leaves and a sprig of parsley to see if he'd be interested in chewing on them, but no success. Its a bit frustrating because I'm trying to find something he likes to bribe him with to get him to come to my hand. He will step up onto my finger with a bit of persuasion, but I can't give him any incentive to stay there, because all he wants to eat is the seed in his dish. Does anyone have any suggestions?

use the seed, before you feed him use the seed for training perfect tool , you can cup it in your hand and then have him perch on the other ...sounds like everything is going well.

even though he is not eating his veggies, just keep on offering it to him. even pretend to eat the food in front of him. some budgies can be stubborn when it comes to trying out new food, just the same as humans

To help him get to like vegies try sprinkling seed on the vegies but i do not think pumpkin, pear and popcorn are things that he would like. Try corn,carrot, apple, bok choy. There is a list on this forum of vegies to feed budgies

Edited April 9, 200817 yr by deb

I only tried popcorn because the budgie we used have loved it, and it was the key to getting him tame. I'll mix up a bit of chopped carrot etc in his seed dish and see what he does with it. I just checked and I think he may actually have eaten some of the pumpkin. It was really just a few pumpkin seeds with a bit of fleshy stuff still attached. I'll give Kaz's egg mixture a go as well.

MILLET ....... i used it on my fruit and vegs and after a week of te birds not eating their greens once they seen the millet they ate all their greens (Laughing out loud) ....try 1 type at a time and see how they go

Sounding good! Keep at at... eventually he will try them. Try pushing the millet at his beak (not hard), then he'll have to push it away and MAYBE try and eat it. That's how my tiels 'found out' it was food and something really good!!! It took awile to though.

Well, it has been about two and a half weeks since we brought Bernie home and things are going well. He has come out of his shell, and spends a lot of time chirping and singing to us when we talk to him. He likes music, especially acoustic blues apparently. Jeff Lang was a big hit the other day. He has good taste.

 

Training is going well too. I have been constantly offering him bribes like millet spray and various grasses with seed heads attached. At first he was straight into any sort of grass seed but not really interested in the millet. That has changed in the last couple of days. He seems to have suddenly figured out that millet is delicious. So delicious in fact that it is even worth standing on my scary finger if that is what it takes to get some. He will now hop straight onto my finger when I offer it and say 'Up!' (as long as I am holding some millet).

 

He still doesn't like to come of his cage much. We leave the door open all the time while we are in the house. Occasionally he gets agitated and starts hopping from perch to perch, chattering and flapping his wings before launching himself out the door. Because his wings are clipped he always ends up fluttering to the floor, where he runs around in disoriented little circles for a minute before catching sight of the stick that leads from the floor back to his cage. As soon as he spots it he runs straight to it and climbs up it like a rocket. I haven't yet been able to interest him in any food during these outings. He is too concerned with getting back to the cage, but he will sit quietly on my finger and munch his millet as long as I don't move more than a metre or so away from the cage door.

 

he is beautiful and what a wonderful picture you really need to submit that into the May Budgie of the Month

As for the cage issues, I had the same exact problem with Pretty this is what I did. I covered his cage with a blanket when he was out therefore he stayed by me and learned that nothing was going to hurt him. He needs to trust you he does in the cage but now you can move to trust outside of the cage. If he still flies back to the cage remove the cage from site, I had to do that too with Pretty lol but it does work and you will find he will trust you more then the cage and that is what you want.

 

Keep us updated Scott I enjoy reading how he is progressing.

that is a very good picture.

looks like you and Bernie are bonding well, that is great

please keep us updated.

Hi all,

 

Just another update on Bernie's progess. Since the last post I have been taking him away from his cage and sitting with him in another room for half an hour or so at a time. At first he would get sick of perching on my finger and jump off after a few minutes, then run around frantically looking for a way back to his cage. Gradually he seems to have gotten more comfortable with the idea of sitting on my finger, and he'll stay there for much longer before he gets bored. The best part is that now, when he jumps off, he just runs around for a few seconds before coming back to me, and he'll jump straight back onto my finger when I put my hand out. He seems to have figured out that hopping onto my finger will always get him up high where he prefers to be. Over the last couple of days I have been working on getting him to sit on my shoulder. He didn't get it at all at first, but he's starting to figure it out now. He spent about an hour and half sitting there this morning, and I eventually had to take him back to his cage because I had to go out. He was sitting on my shoulder again when I started writing this post, but he bailed out after the first sentence and went back to his cage to play with his toys. . . Anyway, we're getting there.