Having Troubles Taming my Shy Budgie - NEED HELP

[RioTheBudgie]

6 months ago, I got a budgie named Cozmo. Cozmo grew to about 7 months before passing away to a respiratory infection. He was trained up to sitting on my shoulder outside of his cage. Just about 2 months ago, I got a new budgie named Rio. He is very, very shy. he was stepping on my finger for the first 2 hours of coming home but then that 'trick' faded away. Was I too fast with him?After about a week or so, my mother thought he needed some extra space so she forcefully grabbed Rio and dragged him outside the cage. Do note that Rio was biting and freaking out to the fact of a hand grabbing him.

After about an hour of trying to wrangle him back into his cage, he never trusted me again. For about 3 months now I've been trying to earn back his trust but he just flies away when I go near him, in or out of his cage. I've sat next to him while reading a book, put my hand on his cage while talking soothingly and offered him several treats such as millet, seeds and fruit but he always runs away.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can tame him?

[OP]

Personally I think the moment has passed when you will ever tame your budgie. You can only hope that what you are doing now will earn his trust sometime in the future. Sorry.

[helenmat]

If you are to regain his trust which has been broken you are going to have to be very, very patient. You need to start again from the beginning, sit near the cage at first and don’t put your hands anywhere near him, talk to him everyday. Then a week later, put your hand against the outside of the cage, talk to him, then put hour hand in the cage but just rest it somewhere, don’t move towards him. Then rest your hand on the same perch as he is sat, all the time talk softly to him and blink. When he doesn’t run away from your hand, try putting his favourite treat in the palm of your hand and see if he will eat it. Eventually when he trusts you again you should be able to try step up again, but never force him to do anything. At the moment he sees the hand as a big scary, horrible thing and you have to reverse that. Slow and steady, with a lot of patience. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[RioTheBudgie]

Dec 23, 2017 8:28:08 GMT helenmat said:

If you are to regain his trust which has been broken you are going to have to be very, very patient. You need to start again from the beginning, sit near the cage at first and don’t put your hands anywhere near him, talk to him everyday. Then a week later, put your hand against the outside of the cage, talk to him, then put hour hand in the cage but just rest it somewhere, don’t move towards him. Then rest your hand on the same perch as he is sat, all the time talk softly to him and blink. When he doesn’t run away from your hand, try putting his favourite treat in the palm of your hand and see if he will eat it. Eventually when he trusts you again you should be able to try step up again, but never force him to do anything. At the moment he sees the hand as a big scary, horrible thing and you have to reverse that. Slow and steady, with a lot of patience. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Thank you for your help! I'll start it now.

[Marianne Marlow]

As Helen said, patience is key. If you keep doing the same positive thing calmly over and over, he will eventually learn that you are not to be feared.

[Hezz]

How much time do you spend with him on a daily basis? Because your mother forced the issue and set your and his relationship back by untold amounts, you are best off spending small amounts of time several times a day getting him used to your presence. There can be no time frames put on when you move from one stage to another, but rather you need to work to Rio's timetable, and only move forward when he is ready to do so. This is going to take a long time and require a lot of patience, persistence and love on your part.

To set the record straight, the fact that Rio was "stepping up" for you when you first brought him home had nothing to do with him wanting to do this, but all about the fact that he was scared, frightened and disorientated enough to basically do anything you wanted him to do. Once he had gotten over the shock of being removed from his "home" and everything familiar to him, that is when his natural personality has come out, enough for him to think "no, I don't want to go there, I don't want to be near this thing that I don't know, this predator is in my face and I am not comfortable ............" etc, etc

[RioTheBudgie]

Dec 23, 2017 11:34:51 GMT Hezz said:

How much time do you spend with him on a daily basis? Because your mother forced the issue and set your and his relationship back by untold amounts, you are best off spending small amounts of time several times a day getting him used to your presence. There can be no time frames put on when you move from one stage to another, but rather you need to work to Rio's timetable, and only move forward when he is ready to do so. This is going to take a long time and require a lot of patience, persistence and love on your part.

To set the record straight, the fact that Rio was "stepping up" for you when you first brought him home had nothing to do with him wanting to do this, but all about the fact that he was scared, frightened and disorientated enough to basically do anything you wanted him to do. Once he had gotten over the shock of being removed from his "home" and everything familiar to him, that is when his natural personality has come out, enough for him to think "no, I don't want to go there, I don't want to be near this thing that I don't know, this predator is in my face and I am not comfortable ............" etc, etc

Thanks Hezz for this information. I never thought about it in that way. I spend about 10 minutes next to his cage 5 times a day.