For a couple days I've tried to get Bogie more used to me. I've been taking a little time to put my hand in with some millet. Today he finally got brave and leaned over to grab some! Didn't land on my hand yet, hopefully that will be soon.

 

He's really funny and deliberate in how he does things. Stares for a while, then acts all nonchalant: stretching, scratching his head, then finally he makes his move!

 

Right now he's staring at the snap pea in his cage, if he goes for it it will be the first veg he's tried. Here's hoping...

 

OH and today I saw him getting a drink of water. Yay!

Edited February 19, 201015 yr by Wendymoon

That is good progress

Great method!

Well, there was a bit of excitement today when I was trying to offer Bogie some millet. He backed away a bit, then flew right over my hand and out the cage door! (I was really glad I had the room door closed.) He flew pretty well despite his clipped wings. After he walked around on the floor exploring for a bit I managed to get him to step up onto an extra perch and moved him back into the cage. Whew! Hopefully that's the last he'll be out until he's finger tamed.

 

In other news, he's also already making little chattering noises to himself. Not just chirps and squawks, but the little noises that sound like he's working on mimicking our voices. I think we've got a talker! (Although it's tough to make out what he's trying to say so far as he likes to chatter when it's noisy, like today when I was sewing. For all I know he could be imitating my sewing machine, lol!)

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by Wendymoon

Great positive steps :budgiedance:

Here's the latest with Bogie:

 

Doing lots more chattering, he may or may not have said "birdie" yesterday!

He's very happy eating millet when we hold it, but still not wanting our hands too close.

Seems to have specific songs he likes and chirps to them when we play them.

Moves around the cage a lot more, sleeps in his swing every night and goes up to it when we say goodnight & cover him. :-)

Hates the pellets in his food dish and eats around them. (Gets all the way in his dish to dig for seeds.)

BUT I think maybe just maybe he finally tried a bit of veg... some red and green peppers I chopped up and put with his seeds. Yay!

Bogie will come on our fingers if we bribe him with millet! Steps up more consistently on an extra perch.

 

 

We also got him a little playgym, and he was out today on that, seemed to like being out by us while we worked at our desks. :-)

Bogie will come on our fingers if we bribe him with millet! Steps up more consistently on an extra perch.

 

 

We also got him a little playgym, and he was out today on that, seemed to like being out by us while we worked at our desks. :-)

That is awesome. l love the picture.

For a minute there l thought you had my Jasper. They both look similar. lol

Bogie will come on our fingers if we bribe him with millet! Steps up more consistently on an extra perch.

 

 

We also got him a little playgym, and he was out today on that, seemed to like being out by us while we worked at our desks. :-)

 

 

You are making great progress. I noticed something- your play gym has a copper bell. You should remove that, because copper is toxic to budgies. I really don't know why they sell them like that.

 

Your cage looks a lot like mine! If so, it's a great size, isn't it? Did yours come with wooden perches that are bumpy-like?

Thanks birdluv! My Bogie and your Jasper do look alike (so cute!) I think Jasper's colors may be a bit brighter, though. :-)

 

Finnie, thanks for the tip about the bell. I had no idea -- that's just wrong that they can sell items for birds that can actually hurt them. :-( Bogie will be sad though, he likes that bell. I'll have to find one to replace it.

 

I wonder if our cages are the same... I'm pretty happy with the cage. Nice size, but the perches were just plain wood. (We added in some different ones for variety.)

Thanks birdluv! My Bogie and your Jasper do look alike (so cute!) I think Jasper's colors may be a bit brighter, though. :-)

 

Finnie, thanks for the tip about the bell. I had no idea -- that's just wrong that they can sell items for birds that can actually hurt them. :-( Bogie will be sad though, he likes that bell. I'll have to find one to replace it.

 

I wonder if our cages are the same... I'm pretty happy with the cage. Nice size, but the perches were just plain wood. (We added in some different ones for variety.)

I noticed you are from the states. If you want, you can pm me your address and l could send you one of my extra bells that l have from my toy parts.

I noticed you are from the states. If you want, you can pm me your address and l could send you one of my extra bells that l have from my toy parts.

 

Thanks birdluv, that's so generous of you! Actually we had an extra bell from a toy with mirrors that we are not using yet (so that Bogie will bond with us and not the birdie in the mirror.) So we hooked up the non-copper bell to the playgym and all is well.

 

Bogie seems to like being in his cage best of all and doesn't always want to come out to play, although today when I went in to clean his cage I offered him the perch to come out instead, and he seemed to like being away from the commotion of cleaning. His favorite thing at the moment seems to be his rings, sometimes when we offer our finger or his stepping perch he jumps on only so we can get him closer to his precious rings. Like we're his personal elevator, lol!

 

I've also been trying mostly unsuccessfully to get him to eat healthy fresh stuff. I've tried offering by hand, in another dish on the cage floor, clipped to the bars, etc. Today I swapped out his regular food dish for another one with little bits of hard boiled egg and shredded carrots topped off with some seed. He was not super happy with the change, but eventually went in and tried some (has the orange from the carrots around his beak to prove it). He didn't much like the egg whites, though, those got thrown down just like the pellets he so despises. We try to explain to him that these fresh things, fruits and veg are healthy, but it's hard to reason with a budgie! ;-)

I noticed you are from the states. If you want, you can pm me your address and l could send you one of my extra bells that l have from my toy parts.

 

Thanks birdluv, that's so generous of you! Actually we had an extra bell from a toy with mirrors that we are not using yet (so that Bogie will bond with us and not the birdie in the mirror.) So we hooked up the non-copper bell to the playgym and all is well.

I'm glad to hear that you have a bell for him

 

Bogie seems to like being in his cage best of all and doesn't always want to come out to play, although today when I went in to clean his cage I offered him the perch to come out instead, and he seemed to like being away from the commotion of cleaning. His favorite thing at the moment seems to be his rings, sometimes when we offer our finger or his stepping perch he jumps on only so we can get him closer to his precious rings. Like we're his personal elevator, lol!

lol

 

I've also been trying mostly unsuccessfully to get him to eat healthy fresh stuff. I've tried offering by hand, in another dish on the cage floor, clipped to the bars, etc. Today I swapped out his regular food dish for another one with little bits of hard boiled egg and shredded carrots topped off with some seed. He was not super happy with the change, but eventually went in and tried some (has the orange from the carrots around his beak to prove it). He didn't much like the egg whites, though, those got thrown down just like the pellets he so despises. We try to explain to him that these fresh things, fruits and veg are healthy, but it's hard to reason with a budgie! ;-)

It is good that you keep on trying to feed him fresh food daily. Great job!!

Bogie will come on our fingers if we bribe him with millet! Steps up more consistently on an extra perch.

 

 

We also got him a little playgym, and he was out today on that, seemed to like being out by us while we worked at our desks. :-)

 

I have the exact playgym like that too, and I tie extra toys in there. It's such a handy size I can move it around the house with me (and bird) love it :budgiedance: I've removed the bell after reading about the copper? Didnt' know it's toxic to budgies. And Bogie is so pretty, how young?

Edited March 28, 201015 yr by flycow

Flycow, I'm not sure how old Bogie is. We got him a couple of months ago, and were guessing he was maybe 4-6 months? Probably the experts around here have a better guess. Tried to find a young bird to make it easier to tame, was looking for one with marks down to the cere but because of Bogie's coloring it was harder to tell.

 

Haven't been around much here lately, but Bogie's good. :-) He steps up beautifully now and is doing better on his short flights out although he's still happiest just playing in and around his cage. He's been molting now for a bit (he's really funny watching the little feathers when they fall down around him) and we can't wait to see how he flies when his clipped wings grow back in.

 

Bogie has a new love: bells. (I'm glad we got rid of the copper toxic bell before he got attached!) Every toy with a bell gets lots of attention from him, and best of all he loves his big bell. He sits and taps it, talks to it, scratches his head with it. I think he loves bells even more than millet. That's saying something.

 

 

For a while I swear he was even trying to talk like a bell! As in, all his little noises turned into squeaky little bell pings almost. But he's testing his voice a lot, imitates a little whistle we do for him, and I think he says "pretty bird"! (It's hard to tell since he likes to chat when other noise is on and he does it so quietly. But I keep repeating that to him so it's bound to be in his head.

 

He still seems like a bit of a nervous-natured bird, doesn't like lots of commotion around him and really doesn't like new things coming into the cage. But at least he's okay with us and our hands now.

aww thats a cool photo.

He is so gorgeous. I'm glad that he is fitting in so well and bonding with all of you.

Edited April 19, 201015 yr by birdluv

Bogie is a sweetheart. You'll see lots of progress before you realise it.

For a while we've been trying to get Bogie to take a bath. At first he was so skittish of anything new, he really hated the bath getting attached to his cage and completely avoided it. I used a mister instead to get him wet. But the other day he took more interest. We put his bell by the bath (he'll always come for bell!) and he worked at getting to bell without getting wet. I splashed my fingers in the water for a while and that intrigued him, but he still wouldn't quite get in. Finally left him alone for a bit and he ended up diving in a few times and splashing around! Of course this activity ceased as soon as I got out the camera.

lol, good job

So here's the latest on Bogie...

 

He's still moulting (it seems like it's been a really long time, he's lost tons of feathers and has had the pin feathers all over. I'm hoping he's almost done with it. I think it might have been his first moult as he's not looking like a baby anymore.

 

The sad thing is that it seems to have made him kinda cranky (not that I can blame him, I'm sure the moult is no fun) but it's making us sad lately because he doesn't always want to play/interact with us. Sometimes when we try to get him to step up he'll run away to a high perch as if to say "leave me alone!" and sometimes he'll even bite a bit, although not hard at all. He's also asserting his independence more, like we used to bring him out to play or go to bring him back to the cage if he flew somewhere and looked lost. Now he'll fly away from us and back to the cage by himself. There's mixed feelings about it: I'm glad he can find his way home, but I wish he trusted us more. :-(

 

He was also getting quite attached to his toys, so much so that we took a couple out of the cage. He likes to sing to his toys. He also chatters a lot and says "You're a pretty bird" quite clearly now. Sometimes he embellishes that to "pretty pretty bird." :-)

 

So in all he seems healthy and happy, just a bit moody. I'm hoping when the moult ends he'll be more friendly again and not so stinky at us. Any thoughts or tips for us getting our trusting little buddy back? Is this just like a teenage phase?

He's moulting so he probably doesn't like hands much at the moment. It's not your fault, he's just moody. While waiting out the moult, I would talk to him more often, make sure the ambient room temperature is constant, and put Moulting Aid in his water. If he doesn't want to interact at a particular time, just leave him and try again later.

He's moulting so he probably doesn't like hands much at the moment. It's not your fault, he's just moody. While waiting out the moult, I would talk to him more often, make sure the ambient room temperature is constant, and put Moulting Aid in his water. If he doesn't want to interact at a particular time, just leave him and try again later.

 

Thanks for the tips, Sootie! I haven't seen Moulting Aid, is it available in the states? We have been giving him some seed that says it's for moulting birds (along with his regular stuff).

 

I have noticed the last couple of days that Bogie is fine with us talking to him. In fact, he will sometimes inch over to me and even come to me if I stay and talk long enough. This made me happy since for a few days I was sure he hated me! But it's just hands chasing him down he's not so into it seems. (Which is too bad as I'd love to help him scratch some of those feathers coming in! At least he has his toys to rub against, like his bell he uses as a hat to scratch his head. So cute!)

 

 

OH, another cute thing Bogie's been doing lately, as he eats sometimes he will deliberately drop a half eaten seed on the hood/cover thing over his water dish. Like it's a table. Then he comes back for it to finish it. :-)

Moulting.