Rehoming budgies any advice please

[ella733737]

Hello, I have two budgies max and rory. I have had Rory for a little over a year and max around 7 years. I have tried training them to step up and take food from my hand so I can remove them from the cage to fly. I have found it very very difficult training them and they do not like leaving their cage unlike my first budgie which was very tame. I feel very guilty if they do not spend time out of their cage but also don’t like scaring them by having to gently grab them to remove them. I have been thinking about rehoming them to a sanctuary/rescue, but they would have to be rehomed to a potential new owner together as they have a strong bond and max feeds Rory. I only want the best for them and for them to be happy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Loz]

What part of the world are you based?

If the UK, what region?

[Marianne Marlow]

It'd be such a shame for you to have to rehome them. Maybe someone can help with advice for getting them back to their cage instead?

[Marianne Marlow]

I never have to grab mine to get them to go in.

I follow the same routine every evening. Close curtains, put away any outside toys that they play with. Take away outside seed bowls.

I find that if I get Billy in first, the others will follow, so I always do it in the same order.

[ladybird]

The way I read it is….Ella has to grab them to get them out of the cage?

[Marianne Marlow]

I see. Must have read it wrong, sorry.

Try placing a millet spray, just out of their reach, outside the cage door. This might entice them out.

Sept 5, 2022 11:09:11 GMT ladybird said:

The way I read it is….Ella has to grab them to get them out of the cage?

[Ira]

When I first had Indie, he never wanted to come out. I had hoped that adding Yuki, who kept leaping from his cage all through quarantine, would encourage him, but no. They were both homebodies. I used to put their food bowls on a table near their cage at first, so they would come out to eat.
This is how my habit of shutting them out of the cage during the day started, as once they were out they'd then have to find somewhere to go if they couldn't get back in.
Indie's the first out every day now.

[louises]

When I first had Georgie she didn't want to come out, so I put millet in the open doorway. To begin with she would try to reach the bit that was above or below the open door, nibbling it through the bars. However, with time she came to sit in the open doorway, and then began to explore a bit outside the cage. It was a very gradual process though, and still is actually, as she's not comfortable going too far from her cage yet.

[tweetiepiesmom]

I did exactly what louises described to coax my two guys out their cage. I put a perch just outside the cage and left it there so they got used to it being there. I put millet right above the outside perch but where they could reach it by standing on the doorway. At first they perched on the doorway to eat it. Then after some time they came onto the perch. After they ate, they would sit there and look around. After doing that awhile, they would fly around the cage and perch on top of the cage. Next I set up a table with a playgym across from the cage, about 4 feet away. As they became used to coming out and flying around the cage, I started removing the food from the cage and putting it on the table with the playgym. We now have a routine where I feed them in the cage first in the morning and then around noon I open the cage, putting food on the table. They come and go in their cage all day but they have to come out to eat. At dusk I remove all food from the table and put fresh food in their cage. They follow their food!

Try this and hopefully it will work for you.