Personal Issue: Taming traumatized young budgies

[rosesheep]

Hey there everybody.

I've been researching the whole forum for some backstories and answers related to my question, yet I would wish to know about my personal issue with my budgies, if I can offer them any kind of treatment to what happened yesterday.

So.. I've bought my budgies from a previous owner, who has held them kind of harshly in a very tiny cage with several other budgies. It's been a week since I bought them, and I gave them time to settle in, but we've faced some complications, such as visitors claiming to be experts at this and crawling their hands onto the cage while coming close to the budgies.
I placed the cage into my room 1-2 days after I bought them and placed them in the living room first, so they would rest and calm down a bit. It worked, they could settle down and started chirping a bit, and eating their food without being nervous.

Although the progress, yesterday my family members would take the budgies outside of the cage when I was not around, and to get them back into the cage again 1 hour later, they shut down all the lights and made the room dark, to easily catch them with their bare hands.

Now I got the feeling that my budgies are kind of traumatized. Before, I could place my hand inside the cage at ease, and try to tame them with a millet stick, hence they would not eat it and stand still when I was right in front of them with the millet - Now my budgies kind of freak out whenever I put my hand inside the cage not getting close to them at all.

Is there a way to cure this? Is there any way, that my budgies will still trust me and create a bond together with me?

I'm holding 2 young budgies, around 8-9 weeks old. Both are getting along together very well and fell in love with each other, since they share kisses already.

Any kind of tips, ideas and help is really really appreciated. I want to treat my budgies with love, and I will make sure nobody will come close to them without any precautions. I really hope somebody can help me out there.

Greetings
RoseSheep

[helenmat]

You will need to regain their trust. But you will with kindness and patience. Just put your hand in the cage for a few days and don’t move it around. Once they stop flapping about you can try and offer millet. Just keep your hands nice and still so it shows them you will not hurt them. Keep blinking while you talk softly to them and they will soon trust you again. You must be firm with visitors or they will spoil your hard work. Good luck.

[rosesheep]

Thanks for the Feedback! I'm glad it's still possible to build up trust to them.
Do you think I can somehow speed up this process? Or is patience key as always?

Until now they haven't really been eating Millet, so I am kind of thinking of what to offer them instead.

[Hezz]

You can never, ever hurry up any sort of training, taming, bonding with any bird. Progress will only happen as the birds learn to trust that you are not there to harm them, and that can take a lot of time. If you try to push things faster than the the birds are prepared to, you will only set the whole process backwards. All you can do is offer; it is up to them to accept. Never stare directly at them when they are at this stage - that immediately makes you a predator in their eyes - but rather blinking as Helen has said above, and also turn your head so that you only watch them with one eye and they can see only one eye, or close the other completely, again so that they can only see one of your eyes, dip your head so you are looking down for a time ... all these help them to understand that you are not sizing them up to eat them. They are a prey animal, you are a predator which is why the trust is hard to establish in the beginning.

Your best friends are patience, persistence and perseverance. It may take a few weeks, it may take a couple of months. It may well take a year. But with time they will come to understand that they are not in danger from you and gradually come to see you as part of their flock.

Also, unless necessary, keep family members from grabbing them in their hands and instead introduce the birds to a spare perch as a means of transport, teaching them to step up onto the stick.

[rosesheep]

Great news!

So far I was able to reach out to my budgies inside the cage with my hand again.
I offered them millet, and one of the pair took two to three bites of it, while the other was still kind of nervous, but none of both flew away or freaked out.

They seem to be more calm in the night times, when I start cleaning their food cups, water tube etc., they'll most likely stand still and calm on their favorite perch on top of the cage

I hope taming will not take quite long, as long as I stick to your tips. So sometime I hopefully can show you some sweet pictures of my pair! They really look gorgeous!

Thanks again for the motivation you two gave me!


Greetings

[helenmat]

Brilliant news! Keep us posted on progress and yes pictures would be great!

[Hezz]

Glad to be of help, and yes, some photos would be lovely ...

budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/thread/17937/uploading-photos-2