Hello! I have been working on training my new little budgie (Buddy) who has been with us for about 2 months now. I'm not sure how old he was when we first got him, but his eyes are still dark (just a little rim around them which according to pictures I've seen puts him at around 6 or 7 months maybe, hard to say.) He was very scared of my hand at first and is still skittish, but I recently got him to eat some millet spray while I hold it and have been doing this for about a week. I know that is a good sign he's starting to trust me, he'll come over cautiously for the millet so I'm going to keep that up for the next few weeks until he is more comfortable before trying to get him to step up. If I put my hand in his cage without millet, I can sit it there on a perch and he will sometimes edge over closer to it, but will move away if I make any advances towards him. I have read that every bird is different and it can take months /years to get them hand tamed (if at all.) I believe he will eventually become tame as he seems to be a curious, friendly, and playful budgie. My question is, I currently have his cage in my home office where I am most of the day and he can see out the window. There is a bird feeder right outside the window where wild birds are constantly flying back and forth to get seed. I know he can see the birds and sometimes he will chirp at them or run around his cage all excited (by the way, his cage is huge for 1 budgie - a flight cage meant for several small birds, but I wanted him to have as much room as possible.) He has even started to make similar noises and call sounds like the finches and chickadees do and he's also starting to imitate a call noise I make to him all the time. My question - is it a bad thing to allow him to see these other birds? I don't want him to be upset that he can't go out there to hang out with them and I wouldn't want it to limit my chances of taming him if it could. I like him to be able to see outside as it gives him a nicer view and I thought maybe seeing the other birds would calm him when I'm out running errands, etc. Any thoughts on this? :-)

if he is around the other birds, he will relise he is a bird as well and the bond between you will never be as strong as what it could be. having baby budgies and taming them can be quite difficult considering all the wild birds around them. if he is just with you, then he will start to believe that he is one of you and start doing things like you. call to him and whistle to him. if he is alone, he will start to mimic these whistles and talk to you. eg. my budgie i have does EVERYTHING with us, even eats off of our plates when we are eating!! she wont leave us alone and will hunt us down if she is alone. males are more known to be a better mimicer of words and whistles. hope this helps

It's nice that you would like him to have a good view. but I don't think that's really necessary for a budgie. As Prince Charming mentioned, seeing the other birds can cause him to identify with them as fellow birds, although I think that since he gets more interaction with you, that might not really be a problem. But it is usually not recommended to have the cage by a window, if there is a chance of overheating from the sun or getting a chill if the window has air leaks.

 

Since he seems to be picking up the calls of the outside birds, I think it would be a good idea to cut off his view of them. You will have a better chance of teaching him to talk if he isn't preferring to learn their language.

 

Oh, and if someone is taking a year to make any progress taming their bird, then they are not putting enough effort into it. The more time that goes by allowing the bird to remain untame just cements it in as his preference over being tame. It's good to be patient, but you can't leave it up to the bird, you have to be the one pushing the progress to the next level.

 

Look around for Training posts on the forum for ones written by BJ (BirdJunky) He has given a lot of good tips on taming and training.