Taming budgie; lost budgie's trust?

[bud101]

Help!
I feel like I am doing everything wrong 😦
I will have my budgie for 1 month in just a few days.
Some background:
Taken from a petshop, she doesn't have a ring, and I realized too late that there is no way to guess the real budgie's age once they have reached adulthood. When I got her, they told me she was almost a year old, but there was something off in the way they said it, so.. I don't know. But I am sure that the birds usually spend a lot of time at the pet shop in really bad conditions for a long time, not trusting people.
I started by spending time near the cage, after two weeks she seemed used to my presence. I also put soothing music many times. I started putting my hand in the cage slowly, sometimes with a little bit of her food. I stayed there for many minutes, hours, just to show her that she has nothing to be afraid of. She never came to get food. Even when she had eaten all the food in her cage and there wasn't any left, she just went there, looked inside and chirped.
I have to mention that, to my surprise, she doesn't touch millet. Neither did she touch any other food than her seeds. Fruits, vegetables, no. She took them and threw them at the bottom of the cage.
Some days ago, she had a really good day. She didn't mind when she was flying/walking around and her tail touched my hand. She started eating apple right after I placed it there. I had put my hand quite close to her many times before and I approached her again. No signs of distress, I touched her foot a little, she didn't mind. Later she jumped on my hand briefly and then down. She did that twice. She had half of her foot on my finger while she was sitting there. We stayed there for hours (?) and then I touched her belly a little. No distress again. All was good. I caressed her and she was just closing her eyes like she does when she rests. I moved my hand a little bit to the back and she pulled back her head (she is scared of being caught). But she was still comfortable again with the belly and the foot. Still resting.
Well, the next day I put my hand in and she flew down to the corner of the cage. I tried yesterday, the same. Today, the same. She is back to being scared. I stopped the effort with the hand.
Everything was okay, why did we go back to zero?

[dylosaurus]

My Rain is just the same, I got him first and I tried taming him with millet but he wouldn't touch it at all. He also had really good days where I could pet him and some days where I felt like I was an enemy. It difficult with birds and taming them takes a very long time, especially if they're older.
But you're down to just one month and she already lets you pet her and touch her on some days, I'd say that's wonderful progress!!

Rain only started eating millet after I got Kala, my white budgie. She is very adventurous and playful, whereas Rain is more cautious, so she taught him the wonders of millet and now he can't get enough.

[Hezz]

Firstly most budgies do not like being touched. They are happy enough to do the touching once they have learnt to trust you, but not being touched against their will. If you do get close you might be allowed to give the cheek feathers a ruffle when SHE feels like it.

Training/taming is very often one step forward, two steps back. You just need to hang onto your patience, be persistent in your approaches and persevere. Don't give up, even if it seems you are getting nowhere. One day you will get a surprise, but the next day you may be back to square one. That's fine, it happens, just continue to move only at the bird's pace.

[bud101]

Thank you for your replies!
I tried it again at afternoon/early night and all was okay.
It turns out she only gets upset at morning?
I am always doing slow movements and trying to follow her pace. The music always makes her calm just after a while.
She has been trying out fruits which I am really happy for! I think she finally tried some millet, too!
I don't know if she will ever come to my hand, but it's okay. I just don't want her to spent her life trapped in a cage, I want to let her out of it, but just trying to make sure that she will go back in.

[disasterbudgie]

May 2, 2019 10:43:39 GMT bud101 said:

Thank you for your replies!
I tried it again at afternoon/early night and all was okay.
It turns out she only gets upset at morning?
I am always doing slow movements and trying to follow her pace. The music always makes her calm just after a while.
She has been trying out fruits which I am really happy for! I think she finally tried some millet, too!
I don't know if she will ever come to my hand, but it's okay. I just don't want her to spent her life trapped in a cage, I want to let her out of it, but just trying to make sure that she will go back in.

I let my budgies out on day 2. I now feel I might have done wrong 😟. For a couple of days they had trouble coming back to the cage themselves. I had to push them somehow or try getting them on a photoframe and bring them back but now they seem to come back themselves to rest and eat. Been 1.5 weeks.

[seraphina]

I remember with my first budgie, he was also a pet shop budgie. After I had him for a while, I let him out of the cage, poor thing was so bad at flying he couldn’t control himself at all. I had to put his cage on the bed, and he would land somewhere near it, and walk in. After a few days he was fine, flying around and exploring. I used to just let him out while I sat there reading my book. One day, he landed on my head! And after that, he would land on my head, sit on my glasses, preen my hair and eyebrows... He never liked hands and was never super tame, but he trusted me and I didn’t do anything special, just sat with him while he flew around. He was a special bird... I’m sure he would be more tame if I knew then what I know now.

[suesbird]

It takes time to get them go back in on their own. Mine used to, but now, no way. Took me 15 mins to get him back in and I was going out, so I was not pleased. He slipped out whilst I was feeding him in the morning. When they are hungry, with mine about 3 hours and then they will go back in.

[ladybird]

My Charlie is very tame, he likes to sit on my shoulder and finger and get as close to my mouth( as he can while I talk to him.) He climbs all over me......but.....he does not like me touching him with my finger. He followers me everywhere and shouts if I Go out of the room. But although he is happy to climb on my fingers....he won’t be poked........They are all different aren’t they,

[helenmat]

My tamest bird Pickle would sit on my shoulder or hand for hours but if I ever tried to touch him he would bite me. We used to rub noses with his beak but that was it.