|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Nov 24, 2020 21:23:08 GMT
Hi guys! New here, just thought I'd ask what are some things your initially scared budgies did while you were hand taming them? My new budgie, Pixie, was brought home with me on Nov 17. Yes, I know, it wasn't that long ago, so she's still settling in. Although, I have noticed some minor details in her progress She has a designated spot where she goes when she feels sleepy or scared, which is towards the top of the cage in the corner. Whenever she retreats to that spot, I know to leave her alone. She has gotten comfortable enough to eat around me, and speak here and there (but gets most excited when she hears other birds). Right now, she is still absolutely terrified of my hand and cautious with me in general, so I don't do much with her except talk or read. I have already tried a few times holding my hand in the cage to see how she will react, of course without trying to grab her. She usually just sits there and stares or moves away from it. She also does not respond to millet. She has ended up flying out of the cage a few times, and when that happens I use a spare perch not connected to her cage (she sees it as safety) and she will immediately step up and I can take her to her cage. Until she is more comfortable with me, my usual day with her right now goes: wake up, change her water/food, talk with her, read to her for a few minutes, playing upbeat pop music, watch her nap, speak when she speaks , sit on my computer next to her, and repeat a few of these things until the end of the day. I don't let her out of the cage at the moment because of the difficulty on getting her back in.
I'm not really sure what to expect from her next, and deciding when it would be good to give her more exposure to my hand and how much exposure to give her without traumatizing her and losing all the progress that's been made. What do you guys think? Should I be doing more or less? Any advice would help, thanks!!
|
|
|
Post by blueelephant on Nov 24, 2020 22:31:46 GMT
Hello and welcome to you and Pixie. It sounds like you are making good progress and doing the right sorts of things.
Do you know how Pixie is? If she is a young bird she might not have come across millet before. Leaving her a sprig in her cage for a bit till she figures that out might help. You then remove it and offer a millet bobble from your hand. Feeding it through the cage bars can be a good first step.
Another tip I learned here is to not state at them as this makes you look like a scary predator. Instead try slow winks. My budgies have seemed to like this although I admit to feeling like a fool doing it.
Offering a hand full of seed in the cage is another possibility rather than millet. Whenever you go in move very slowly talking at the same time. It can take them a while to summon the courage to try some food from you so just be patient. I'd try and follow the lead of the bird. If they are not desperately trying to get away then offer your treat slowly and if they don't go for it try again later on.
How long it can take and how fast it progresses all depends on the individual bird. As does what to expect her to do next. My first budgie jumped on my daughters hand after fortnight, walked up her arm out the cage and sat on her shoulder. A week later he was stealing her toys. Budgie number two took well over two months to be similarly bold. Budgie number 3 we have had for three weeks and is not making much progress at all!
Once you have persaded her that hands are ok and bring food etc then stepping up willingly comes at some point after that. In the meantime the taxi perch if she does want to come out is a great trick. The whole being out takes time for them to get used to as well. Finding the places they feel safe landing etc. She might start to be bored in the cage and get more willing to come out. I swear rescuing my second budgie from the weird places they landed/crashed was what finally convinced him we were friendly.
Do share some photos of Pixie if you get chance. We all love a budgie photo. And keep us posted how you get on.
|
|
|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Nov 24, 2020 23:55:07 GMT
Hello and welcome to you and Pixie. It sounds like you are making good progress and doing the right sorts of things. Do you know how Pixie is? If she is a young bird she might not have come across millet before. Leaving her a sprig in her cage for a bit till she figures that out might help. You then remove it and offer a millet bobble from your hand. Feeding it through the cage bars can be a good first step. Another tip I learned here is to not state at them as this makes you look like a scary predator. Instead try slow winks. My budgies have seemed to like this although I admit to feeling like a fool doing it. Offering a hand full of seed in the cage is another possibility rather than millet. Whenever you go in move very slowly talking at the same time. It can take them a while to summon the courage to try some food from you so just be patient. I'd try and follow the lead of the bird. If they are not desperately trying to get away then offer your treat slowly and if they don't go for it try again later on. How long it can take and how fast it progresses all depends on the individual bird. As does what to expect her to do next. My first budgie jumped on my daughters hand after fortnight, walked up her arm out the cage and sat on her shoulder. A week later he was stealing her toys. Budgie number two took well over two months to be similarly bold. Budgie number 3 we have had for three weeks and is not making much progress at all! Once you have persaded her that hands are ok and bring food etc then stepping up willingly comes at some point after that. In the meantime the taxi perch if she does want to come out is a great trick. The whole being out takes time for them to get used to as well. Finding the places they feel safe landing etc. She might start to be bored in the cage and get more willing to come out. I swear rescuing my second budgie from the weird places they landed/crashed was what finally convinced him we were friendly. Do share some photos of Pixie if you get chance. We all love a budgie photo. And keep us posted how you get on. Thank you for the warm welcome This was really helpful to read, thank you! I don't know how old she is because I brought her home from a local pet store. The millet I know she acknowledges its existence. I had left it in 1 of the 2 food bowls for a bit until I watched her eat from it. I did remove it afterwards to attempt some training. She is more cautious than she is willing to be bribed lol. I did read a few other threads here and started doing the blinking stuff perhaps a few days ago, which really helped calm her whenever I approach the cage or walk around the room. I will continue to take it slow and go at her pace I also find that she looooves hearing another bird, she gets really excited, probably because she misses hearing other birds. The first few days I had left budgie videos on for her while I was in the room to get her comfortable without my presence scaring her. I stopped playing them recently because I didn't want her more attached to videos than me until she's trained. She used to only chirp when the budgie videos played, but now she's been more comfortable to chirp with just me and some music. She was crazy excited when I took a video of her chirping and played it back. I'm not sure if this means she's sad and lonely or just prefers the company of another bird, or both. It's wonderful hearing about other people's happy budgies! It's great to get some insight on how other's accomplished training. You seem to have such a happy little family <3 Here is a picture of her as she is right now, in her favourite spot to sleep/hide before bed time (I usually cover her cage around 7-8) I will update this thread again sometime in a few weeks or when there is an update on her progress Thanks again for your reply!
|
|
|
Post by mona on Nov 25, 2020 11:33:01 GMT
Glad that you are ready to proceed with the bird's pace. I normally don't play back budgie or bird sounds or videos to my birdies. They trying talking to them, all in vain.. it must be disappointing, as per me. Mine talk to the garden birds often and they reply back. Which seems a happy conversation most of the time. They sometimes have a verbal argument with the garden birds too.. 😅
Do let us know, how your training proceeds. During that time, you could come back to learn more about birdies. There's just so much and I've learnt a lot from this beautiful friendly forum 🥰😍
|
|
|
Post by willowsmum on Nov 26, 2020 0:26:22 GMT
|
|
|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Nov 28, 2020 22:52:56 GMT
Glad that you are ready to proceed with the bird's pace. I normally don't play back budgie or bird sounds or videos to my birdies. They trying talking to them, all in vain.. it must be disappointing, as per me. Mine talk to the garden birds often and they reply back. Which seems a happy conversation most of the time. They sometimes have a verbal argument with the garden birds too.. 😅 Do let us know, how your training proceeds. During that time, you could come back to learn more about birdies. There's just so much and I've learnt a lot from this beautiful friendly forum 🥰😍 It's definitely disappointing to listen to her call out to the virtual budgies knowing they can't talk back with her, but she's been doing great without them now. Today Pixie accepted my millet offer! I had left a fresh stick of millet in her food bowl to let her try it, and once she did, I took it out for a bit. I've been offering her millet every day for a few days now and with no luck until now! She happily ate the millet I was holding. 🥰 I'm going to keep offering her millet from a safe distance for another week to see how well she progresses Thank you!!! She is I'm happy to be with her. I've actually recently spotted some pin feathers on Pixie's cheeks and she's been rubbing her face on the perches a lot. I think She's going to be starting her first moult soon!
|
|
|
Post by Hezz on Nov 29, 2020 0:57:25 GMT
If she has pin feathers then she has already moulted out those feathers. New feathers can't develop until the old ones drop, so that moult will have already started.
|
|
|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Dec 16, 2020 15:33:40 GMT
If she has pin feathers then she has already moulted out those feathers. New feathers can't develop until the old ones drop, so that moult will have already started. Okay! Good to know! So far its just been small feathers. Also a little insight on me, I'm a clumsy person. I walk into walls and drop things by accident all the time. Anyway, the other day I accidentally scared Pixie while hand taming her. She got comfortable with sitting on my hand while eating, but as I reached for my phone to record the wonderful moment, I dropped it off the table and she got scared and flew off in panic I didn't mean to scare her but I think I've knocked back a few more weeks of training. She's back to being finnicky with me around the cage, unless I'm sitting next to it quietly. When I get up she hops away from the perch she was relaxing on and into her safe spot. I continued the next days after the incident with the regular hand training routine, but she's definitely more caustious about sitting on my finger. She will still eat the millet that Im holding so I assume I didn't lose all the progress. I wil be starting online college classes in January so I will have a lot more time to spend with her at home, but I do work a few days throughout the holiday (probably like three 5 hour shifts until the new year). Any ideas on entertaining her while I'm away? Right now I have youtube videos of budgies playing around on mute playing for her while the radio is on. I thought she would feel happiest with other budgies in my absence. I also made a discord account for her so that I can video call and listen to her while I'm out (I have myself on Push To Talk so she doesn't have to listen to my side of the call, but I'll talk with her from time to time... not sure if she kmows its my voice or not). I would leave her close by a window if it wasnt so cold here during the winter, but she seems okay with videos playing. Also is this normal behaviour? Pixie likes to squack and chirp a lot, and I've been researching if this is a happy sound or not. She doesn't fly around in a panic but she absolitely loves to chirp and squack all day, she doesn't really chatter or squable yet, it's mostly just single chirps and an "ack ack ack!" from time to time while jumping from perch to perch. I'm torn between whether she's a happy birdie or a scared one. I just can't tell!
|
|
|
Post by mona on Dec 16, 2020 19:22:56 GMT
I would say don't worry on the taming process.. it's okay, things happen.. It hasn't been a long time, so your birdie is staying cautious. I wasn't able to move my phone close to my birdies for a very long time. Just continue whatever you were doing.. and expect the least.. I have had to grab my birdies in the past for their own good last year and they were scared of me, but they forgot about it over a period of time, when they saw me as their lunch/dinner table, treat and toy provider 😅
Birdies love radio.. When I was out working for 12 hours a day, mine used to spend all day chatting to the radio. Mine haven't responded to videos except the birdie song from animated movie Rio. I guess you are setting up a lot of things for your birdie. That's all I can think too!
Reg the chirping cum other voice, mine sometimes mix chirping and couple of other sounds that seems to be a filler in the happy singing.. and mine do that too when they fly perch to perch.. i associate it with one of their happy voices... The angry voice is definitely noticeable... 😅😂🙈 Still, if you are confused you can record a video and put it here for people to look at.. 🤗
|
|
|
Post by Hezz on Dec 17, 2020 0:21:21 GMT
Hens are much more likely to squawk and cackle, the boys to chirp melodiously. She sounds perfectly normal to me. Leaving a radio on while there is no one else around to provide noise can help them feel comfortable and not worry about danger. It doesn't have to be loud but just background noise will do fine.
|
|
|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Dec 17, 2020 1:20:25 GMT
I would say don't worry on the taming process.. it's okay, things happen.. It hasn't been a long time, so your birdie is staying cautious. I wasn't able to move my phone close to my birdies for a very long time. Just continue whatever you were doing.. and expect the least.. I have had to grab my birdies in the past for their own good last year and they were scared of me, but they forgot about it over a period of time, when they saw me as their lunch/dinner table, treat and toy provider 😅 Birdies love radio.. When I was out working for 12 hours a day, mine used to spend all day chatting to the radio. Mine haven't responded to videos except the birdie song from animated movie Rio. I guess you are setting up a lot of things for your birdie. That's all I can think too! Reg the chirping cum other voice, mine sometimes mix chirping and couple of other sounds that seems to be a filler in the happy singing.. and mine do that too when they fly perch to perch.. i associate it with one of their happy voices... The angry voice is definitely noticeable... 😅😂🙈 Still, if you are confused you can record a video and put it here for people to look at.. 🤗 Hens are much more likely to squawk and cackle, the boys to chirp melodiously. She sounds perfectly normal to me. Leaving a radio on while there is no one else around to provide noise can help them feel comfortable and not worry about danger. It doesn't have to be loud but just background noise will do fine. You guys are amazing!! 🥰 Thanks for all your insight, everyone has been so friendly and supportive ❤ Really puts my mind at ease being part of a community with other people who are experienced bird owners.
|
|
|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Jan 13, 2021 22:07:23 GMT
Happy new year everyone! Just wanted to update this thread my progress with Pixie She still isn't hand tamed completely, she'll still run away from my hand when I put it in the cage slowly, but lately I've been leaving my hand in her cage for longer and more often so she'll get there. I've established a routine with music and shows playing for her (She absolutely LOVES Hannah Montana and Glee). With her being in my room, I've spent a lot of time next to her cage. Some days I'm there all day, other days I'll have to leave her alone with her shows to watch, but I think it's helped her get used to her surroundings. She started chattering a lot more which is fantastic! I've also introduced her to my sweet younger siblings (7 & 11) who only come to my room to play on my computer. The kids are great with her, they don't try to handle her at all (because I've ordered them not to) and they keep her company when I'm in another room. She seems to really like their presence. Although Pixie isn't tamed, I feel a connection with her already. Sometimes when I sit next her cage, I'll be on my phone and she'll be so interested in what I'm doing, she'll hop onto the cage door and just stare! I can't wait until this training is over so I can finally play with her lol.
|
|
|
Post by Hezz on Jan 14, 2021 0:28:02 GMT
It sounds like Pixie is enjoying her human company, even if she is not so sure on whether to trust or not. It is good for the younger members of the family to spend time around her as well - they are much less likely to do something detrimental by interacting with her on a regular basis.
|
|
|
Post by theecoffeegirl on Jan 24, 2021 19:42:35 GMT
I'm not sure if she's been happy anymore guys So a few days ago Pixie has started screeching more constantly. I've stopped the usually routine because of it. Maybe she never actually liked watching things, but she's also been upset when I'm on my computer playing games (so a lot of mouse clicking and keyboard typing) and she would yell at me some more. She's been sleeping a lot more during the day too. I think it's because she's probably still in a molting phase? I'm not sure how long molting is supposed to last for. I've recently started online classes too, and started adding veggies to her diet (so far I've offered her carrots, bell peppers, and broccoli mixed with seeds and pellets) As for finger training, she has gotten braver and very food motivated. Jan 21st is when she came to me for some millet. I've been trying to train her every day since then to perch on my finger but she will only come close if I have millet. Otherwise she's still scared of my hand. Nowadays have been quiet around Pixie. I have had to wear headphones when I work because she screeches whenever something is playing from my laptop, whether it be a show, music, or if I'm in a Zoom call for class. Sometimes when I talk she will screech at me unpleasantly. I'm just been ignoring this behaviour but I'm not sure what I should do. Any advice?
|
|
|
Post by Hezz on Jan 24, 2021 21:48:41 GMT
As a single bird, it sounds as though she is jealous of the time you spend doing anything else but be with her. Is that what you are finding? Is she out of her cage or inside when she is screaming at you? If she is out of her cage, will she hang around in her own space or does she have to be with you?
Ignoring the bad behaviour and rewarding the good is hard when you need to work and have a bird screaming in your head, but it is about the only way you can turn it around. Can she spend time in another room during the times when you need to concentrate?
|
|