A LITTLE HELP REQUIRED PLEASE

[sidneyworm]

Just looking for some guidance please. I have 2 male budgies, they were 10 weeks old when I got them last November. They are very happy together and very noisy! however, when we first got them one of them would let you stroke his chest but the other one would not. 10 months down the line neither of them will let you come anywhere near them. They go mad when I change their millet, clean their cage even though its a regularly occurrence. They fly around the cage but when we open their door we can leave it open for 8 hours a day they stop making a noise, retreat to a back perch and never come out. How can we get them to be more tame and let us stroke them or even come on our fingers and more importantly how can we get them to come out as I'm sure they would love the exercise! All suggestions greatly received ....

Read more: budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/thread/34/taming-more#ixzz2d4ETFv7t

[ducktaleswoohooo!]

I have 2 birds that hide in the cage unless I make them come out. That has to do with the previous owners never hand taming them. What i have been doing is every day I go in the room, talk to them, and use a spare perch to get them to come out. Every day I move my hand closer and closer to the end I want them to get on. Eventually they will get used to your hand and will be able to have them jump right up on your finger to be out of the cage. It's taken me I would say a good 2+ months to get them to do this. Consistency is key! To get them to stay out, try putting some treats on top of the cage for them. As for not being able to stroke them anymore... You will just have to regain their trust with it. Getting them on your finger and that daily interaction will help wonders!

[Hezz]

A budgie is not a pet that can be put in a corner and be expected to stay the same. The time to train/tame your birds is from the time you bring them home, and the secret to success is consistency, persistence and patience. Stops and starts, hit and miss, will I, won't I, just doesn't cut it with a budgie, let alone two. With two you really need to put yourself in their face otherwise they will ignore you - after all they have each other, why do they need you? They need to be interacted with on a daily basis.

Many people have this same question: when I first brought Budgie home, I could stroke him, and now he won't let me near - usually this is because poor little Budgie has just been removed from everything familiar and stuck in a place where nothing is the same, new cage, new people, new food, new pots, new everything, and he is too damn scared to do anything but sit there very still and hope like hell this predator doesn't eat him! Also, a lot of budgies HATE being stroked or touched anywhere except for their beaks.

From now you really have got an uphill battle to get them to accept you, but as Gina, above, has pointed out, it can be done. It will need to be worked on every day, several times a day if possible, and you will need to take it very slowly. Before you get them out of their cage make sure you budgie-proof the room where they will be flying as well; no large expanses of glass, mirrors, no heavy furniture with gaps for them to fall behind, places for them to land safely. But the first thing to work on is being around the cage enough so that they gradually get used to your presence, so they aren't freaking out whenever you change the seed.