Well I got my two budgies about 15 months ago, in the first 3 months I had them finger tame, then over christmas I left them at a colleagues house, and they came back completely untamed and untrusting... I did kind of leave them to it, but although they then accepted me, they never went back to being finger tamed.

 

So I'm trying again, neither of them are scared by my hand in their cage, and I have recently been able to get Storm to sit on my finger, but he has taken to attacking it vigorously while sitting on it... just bites continuously, and he has quite a sharp little beak, though I just ignore it and don't react, he is happy to stay on it and attack for a few minutes before he gets bored, or Sky who will only stand on my finger when trying to get to another perch (away from the finger) pushes him away from the nasty finger!

 

Have any of you got any ideas? I've tried taking them into the bathroom, but they perch on the shower rail and get quite stressed out by the experience... plus I'm going away for 3 weeks for christmas and this time they're being left with my boyfriend, so I think they'll be fine, but I'm concerned they're going to forget over christmas... I'm determined to keep trying though, as Storm is happy to come down and land on my head when he's flying around my room... so if anyone has any suggestions!!!

 

Allycat!

I am sure you will get some great advice from others, this is more of my personal opinion and what I have done that worked.

 

I do believe you may have to separate them to get them both bonded back with you. Right now they are bonded with each other, and when one sees the other react they both act the same way. That may be possible for you maybe not.

 

You may also want to keep them around you all the time within their cages. The hand is a big scary thing, and what I do with Pretty is put his cager closer to us when we are sitting down watching T.V. or doing other activities so he is admist of everyone.

 

Right now they are in this reaction stage, they see the hand they get scared period. So also just talking with them with your hands down at your sides through the cage and other times maybe put your hand up by your face and see how they react without the hand being in the cage.

 

You can also offer them millett or a treat from your hand that they love. Sometimes it works, at first Pretty would not eat anything from my hand now he is more apt too because he knows it will not hurt them.

 

As for you leaving for Christmas, your boyfriend will have to continue to work with them too.

Hi!

Thanks for the advice!!!

I didn't separate the birds before Christmas and although I did ask my boyfriend to keep working with them, neither budgie reacted well to his hand in the cage, so I'm afraid he gave up.

So, now that I have more time on my hands I'm planning to separate them. I do have a couple of questions though...

1) Should I put both cages into the same room still, or do they need to be in separate rooms?

2) I have a larger cage and a smaller one, I'm thinking of putting the energetic budgie (Storm) who loves to fly around (and is slightly tamer)in the larger one and the lazy fearful one (Sky) in the smaller one. Is that the right way round to do it?

3) Storm at least, loves his fly around in the evening, Sky is not so interested in flying and has to get coaxed out of the cage by Storm. Can I still give them a fly around in the budgie proof room after their training sessions? And should I do it separately, removing the other one's cage from the room (depends to an extent on answer to Q1)?

 

Thankyou for your help! It is much appreciated!

You've gotten some great advice, I just want to add a bit more that may help a little.

 

The number one thing to remember is to try and NOT appear like a predator to your budgies. Don't stare them straight in the eye. Blink at them, look at them from the side. Think like a bird!

 

If you move their cages to different rooms, be prepared to hear a lot of contact calling. Also, if one of your budgies seems a little more confident than the other, it may even help to keep them in the same cage and concentrate your efforts on the more confident bird. Often they feed off each other's fear or confidence. If you can get one budgie to trust you, it will likely be easier to convince the other.

 

Study their personalities. Observe what makes them more nervous and what makes them more calm. Sometimes quiet talking seems to make a budgie more nervous. It really depends on the bird. Sometimes using your finger like a beak actually helps them overcome their fear of it. As odd as it sounds, I've tapped my beak in my birds' food dishes when they seemed nervous of it. It resembles a budgie eating and other than getting very confused stares, they seemed to be a little more at ease that way.

 

I guess my point is, in the end, your training methods depend on the personality and confidence level of your birds. What works for one budgie doesn't always work with another. The ground rules are to not be appear like a predator and to be very very observant to figure out what instigates the response you're looking for. And by all means, if you can get them to respond to a treat of some sort, use that to your advantage!

 

If you're willing to clip their wings, that will help a ton. But I understand many people are against this so I won't go into that method unless you want to hear more.

i think if you keep determination and like eterri said work on the most confedant and if you get one trusting the other one will also follow and will be more confadant good luck!

Hi!

Well, I've separated them, they're still in the same room, so they can talk to each other but I can work with them separately without them influencing each other.

They seem okay being separate as long as they can talk to each other. I tried taking Sky's cage downstairs while I had my breakfast in front of the TV, but it became impossible because they were 'contact' calling to each other through the ceiling which was a bit deafening!

I did a couple of minutes training Sky to step up, and he did so first time, so he does know what he's supposed to do, but its something he's not done in over a year! He was trying to get out of the cage, which may have motivated him as my hand is obviously in the doorway, I think he thought he could fly to find Storm, but he's never been particularly interested in coming out of the cage without being coaxed for 10 minutes by Storm before.

So far so good, I hope to do some more work with both of them individually tonight, maybe taking them into a 'quiet' room where they can only land on me!

Wish me luck!

Hi,

I took Sky into the bathroom last night to work with him, and I got him to step up and come out the cage with little problem, and once I'd put the cage outside the door, he was fairly happy to sit on my finger for around 20 minutes while I talked to him!

It's a good start, I will try and make time to do this for both of them again tonight!!!

Sounds like your making progress. Good Luck

Cindy