Hi there,

 

I am new to this site, but with the wealth of information that seems to be on here, I thought it might be worth registering, to see if anyone can give me some advice.

 

Once upon a time, I had 9 beautiful budgies who lived in a beautiful palace of an aviary. For a variety of reasons (and over several years), I have had 7 pass away, and now only have two.

 

It was a very hard decision when I decided to stop getting more, but the vast majority of them died because of cancerous tumors (according to the avian vet, and autopsies proved correct). It was heart breaking.

 

So now I have two, who are quite bonded with each other - a male who is 7 years old, and a female who is 6. It didn't make sense to keep them in the aviary anymore, so I purchased a nice cage intended for 2 birds, and decided to sell the aviary.

 

That posed the dilemma of moving them from the aviary into the new cage. My gut instinct (as they aren't trained), was to put the new cage beside the aviary (I should mention the aviary is indoors), and to give them time to transfer from one to the other at their own pace. My male initially showed interest, but my female isn't budging, will barely go near the open door, and now my male's initial interest seems to have entirely abated. I have tried this system for 3 days now, hoping that with time my female's hesitancy would change, but that doesn't seem to be happening at all. Maybe I need to give them more time?

 

My dilemma is that I think grabbing them (good luck for me to even catch them) and then forcing them into this new cage will just be too stressful. I tried placing veggies in the new cage, but that didn't seem to work, so I think my next step might be to put some millet in & see if that appeals at all. Based on what has already happened though, I'm concerned that my female will just be too scared, and my male will stick by her, but I am still going to give it a try.

 

Are there any other options?? Am I just being ridiculous in my concerns of doing this transfer?

 

Thanks for any & all advice.

Hi There I would put all the food into the cage none in the aviary. Your hen won't starve she will enter when she's hungry.

 

Leave it until she gets used to it. Birds don't get as stressed as often as we humans think ,or for the same reasons.

 

okay Yours B.J

 

What BJ said.

 

 

 

And, I think if they are going to get used to it on their own time, then 3 days is not nearly long enough. I would give it a week or two. (Unless you have no food in the aviary, in which case they will need to eat sooner than that, lol.)