Bonding with a pair of adult budgies

[visca]

Hi

I am fairly new to owning budgies other than when I was a kid my grandpa used to have quite a flock of them. Recently, I adopted a pair of budgies who are 9 months old, and despite both used to be from a breeder who hand feed the chicks, the pair's previous owner left them neglected for a few months. The mom of the previous family also didn't like them very much so other than changing water and add food, they rarely interacted with the poor birds.



When I got them home, they were obviously scared and I gave them space, but now I am slightly worried that I might never be able to bond with an already bonded pair of budgies because of what I have read on the internet. People say it is already hard to bond with a budgie past 4 month of age, and it will be even harder, if not impossible, to bond with a pair.



I don't really want to give up, and yesterday I was feeding the birds from my hand. (They won't step onto my hand, but will eat out of my hand from a perch) The male is more open to me while the female is still terrified of me, but she will come to me if I have food in my hand. They have never bitten me or anything and the male will even let me rub his tummy.



Could you please give me some tips on how to make them trust me more and be able to step up on to my finger? I would love to carry them and show them around the house, the yard, one day. Thanks a bunch!

[OP]

There is a difference between bonding and trusting. You probably never will bond with either or both of the. They will have bonded to each other.
However you should be able to get one or both of them to trust you. This will take time and patience. It may take quite some time and it may be that you will only get one of your buds to trust implicitly.
Daily and as much time during the day that you can spend with them, talking to them, reading to them and of course the treats. Good luck.

[Hezz]

You are not going to be able to take them around the yard; regardless of how tame a budgie might be, that is a recipe for disaster. Either they will get a fright and fly off or something will attack them.

It depends on what you want out of them. They are feeding from your hand; that is a good start. Don't expect miracles, and allow the birds to learn trust at their own pace. Calmness, patience and persistence are going to be your best friends.

[visca]

Thanks for the reply. I am working with the male first in order to get the female to trust me more, but it seems like every step forward I make with the male, the female will just revert it back. I have read a lot of information, tutorials and watched alot of the videos, but most of them seem to target younger, single birds. Let alone stepping up on my finger, they wont even step up on a stick I am holding.

[Hezz]

How long have you had these two? There is no quick-fix to getting budgies trust. It is something that has to develop.

[OP]

You may also find the female rules the roost. As you have found she will tell the male not to do things with you, any human not just you. They have this way of telling the male to get away from the human, or something like that.
I have a very trusting male who has always come to me and eat tid bits from my fingers. I had him quite a while before I took in a not so young untamed female. Now when he is on my hand she will give a little chirp, he will chirp back and depart my hand. They have this way of communicating.
This is just to let you know what you may be up against.
I would suggest concentrating on the female and the male will probably follow. I say probably as nothing is for certain with budgies.