Two weeks ago my nine year budgie passed away. Charlie has been with us for three months before SB passed away. Every day Charlie would come out of his cage to play with SB and SB would always preen Charlie and feed him.

 

Since SB has passed away Charlie will not come out of his cage to fly around as he did before.

 

We do have another budgie Joey that we got for company for Charlie but we have only had him for a week and he has not settled down yet.

 

What can we do with Charlie I don't want to make him come out but I am worried about him

:yellowhead:

Two weeks ago my nine year budgie passed away.  Charlie has been with us for three months before SB passed away.  Every day Charlie would come out of his cage to play with SB and SB would always preen Charlie and feed him.

 

Since SB has passed away Charlie will not come out of his cage to fly around as he did before.

 

We do have another budgie Joey that we got for company for Charlie but we have only had him for a week and he has not settled down yet.

 

What can we do with Charlie I don't want to make him come out but I am worried about him

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Hi there,

I,m so sad to hear of your loss, SB must have been a very friendly soul to take to a new friend so well.

Do you have Charlie and Joey in the same cage ? . If they are in the same cage, I would start the basic finger taming again with both birds, one at a time, also, encourage them to come onto your hand by holding food treats, such as millet spray or fruit slices, once one starts eating, it won,t be long before the other starts to join in.

After a few days of them BOTH eating from your hand, when you open the cage, don,t put your hand with the treat in right inside the cage, just hold it steady just inside the door, they will eventually get used to approaching the door and your hand for their treat.

When you are sure they are happy with this, start holding their treat at the door opening, again, get them used to this and then hold their treat at the edge of their landing platform (these attach to the base of the open door ).

At this point, when they are happy to come out onto their platform, you have the choice to either leave them to it or encourage them onto a play area, toys ladders and a shallow dish for water is a great way to encourage them both to enjoy time spent outside.

Charlie will have had his confidence knocked by the loss of his pal, Joey is still learning to get used to his new home, but I am sure, by starting again with both birds, they will will grow in confidence and *egg on* eachother.......no pun intended. take your time and you will be rewarded !

best of luck

 

cal.

 

OHHH........if your birds are in seprate cages, put the cages side by side , open both doors and work with each bird in turn, do the same thing for both and you will find their curiosity will encourage them to gain confidence with you and eachother ! :yellowhead:

And don't forget, quarantine the new bird for 30 days. In this time, you can tame him and having one tame bird makes it WAY easier to convince the other bird to come out and interact with you!

Charlie will still sit on my finger inside the cage and he will let you stroke his tummy but he will not come out of the cage as he did before to fly around. It is funny because Charlie used to look to SB for encouragement and now the tables have turned because Joey looks to Charlie.

 

I don't think it helped matters as SB disappeared out of Charlie's life and then my husband had a mild heart attack and I had to spend time at the hospital so poor Charlie was left on his own for a longer period of time during the day so I think may be he thought every body had disappeared.

 

But as I said he will sit on my finger again and let me stroke his tummy but he will just not come out of his cage as he used to. Thanks for your advice I will keep trying with him.

Edited July 28, 200520 yr by JJ2571

Oh JJ, you haven't had too good a time of it have you? How is your husband now? And with Charlie, I think your probably right, he's just very scared because his world turned upside down for a while. Your doing great with him, he's progressing well. Before too long I'm sure he'll be happily destroying your house (Laughing out loud)

He is probably still grieving. I believe birds do grieve for awhile, when Rainbow died it took quite a while before the rest of the flock acted normally, close to two months. Right now I would just shower him with a little extra affection. He will need to get used to a new routine, and that may take a little bit of time.