Cannot seem to tame my new budgie

[carmo85]

Hello, this is my first time post so be patient. 

My girlfriend and I have recently got a budgie together. She has had lots of budgies growing up and Bertie is my first. We have had him for about a month now and he has made some progress however he is a bit odd. 
So Bertie is incredibly calm. He never flies erratically around the cage, has never bitten anybody and you can put your finger up to him most days and he doesn't really eat. He doesn't go up onto your hand if you push but some days he can be coaxed onto your hand with some millet as a reward.

He is also extremely quiet. He rarely sings even if you put videos of other budgies singing. However sometimes, out of nowhere, he can start singing a really low song to music from the TV.  H e does 'screech' sometime and this is usually followed by flight (his wings are nor clipped).
Now I do think that I made a mistake with Bertie by allowing him out of his cage when we are away at work (we leave the door open). He comes out sometimes when we are in the room and has a fly but he seems very scared.

Now here's another weird bit, Bertie refuses to go near my hand in the cage but when he lands on the bookcase in the living room( it's high up) he almost jumps onto my hand when presented. We never needed millet to get him up outside of the cage).

I have promised myself today that he will not be allowed out of the cage unless i bring him out and I will coax him onto hand with millet then drop him back on perch then repeat.

Have you any advice for us? We really don't know how to get him to become more social. He never plays, he rarely moves that much.  he's such a lovely, polite little thing but I really want him to be more outgoing and trained.

Help!! 

[starlingqueen]

Are you sure it's a he? The reason I ask is because the behaviour you describe, the lack of chatting and the screeching sounds like a female.

[Hezz]

My thoughts too, SQ. Except for the "never bites" bit!! But I must admit that Spyro bites more than Mango, so that is not always a gauge. carmo85, how old is Bertie? Photos can help if you are not sure of the sex as well.

What do you mean 'doesn't really eat'?? Is it just that you don't see him eating, or the seed level never goes down? Or do you mean he won't eat out of your hand? Some budgies take a while to settle into a new home, although after a month I would expect that he would be relatively settled.

There really isn't any way to "make" Bertie more sociable; it really is nigh on impossible to make a budgie do anything it doesn't want to, they are such strong-willed little characters. The only thing you can do is spend as much time with him, talking to him, interacting in any way you can. As he becomes to know and trust you more, you may see him livening up as his real character comes out. At this stage I don't think allowing him out when there is no one home is a good move, as they can very easily find themselves in positions they cannot get out of. Save that one for when you are home. Practising the step up routine in the cage is a good place to start - personally I often wonder if they learn this one as quickly as they do simply to stop having that wretched finger poking at them all the time! If he doesn't wish to step up, push him gently on the tum just above his legs until he does. What other sort of training do you want to do with him?

[carmo85]

We always thought that he was a boy as the nose is blue. I've attached some photos here.

He eats from his feeder just fine. He does however throw food everywhere when we are not there and when we come home there is seed all over the bottom of his cage??

I do agree with you with regards the part about him jumping up to stop the annoying finger. He is EXTREMELY strong willed and some days millet doesn't get him to move out of his corner to try and coax him to hand.

I am spending as much time as possible with him. Even his absolute stubbornness is sometimes endearing!

Thanks guys for your continued help.


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[starlingqueen]

He is a definite she so would explain the lack of chatting and the stubbornness.

[Deleted]

SQ's right. She couldn't be more clearly a she in that photo.

[Hezz]

Definitely a girl. Her cere is a washed out blue fading to whitish around her nares; here is a photo of a male's lovely blue cere. You will note there is quite a difference.

[carmo85]

Berta it is then!
So what's your advice on training her to come out of cage and become more open to being handled. I still dream of having her out of her cage and on my shoulder etc.

What's the big difference in the males and females besides the singing?

[OP]

They are just being female. I refuse to say any more on that, there are too many females on the forum.
Really, female budgies apparently are less sociable to humans, less vocal than the male ones in general. Not all are like that though.

[Hezz]

I don't think they are less vocal, but generally they do have a different personality, if you were ever game to try to categorise budgie personalities.

How long have you had her, and how old is she? These are important questions that need to be answered as time is a very real factor in budgie training. Some people think you shouldn't bring them out of the cage, but rather wait until they come out themselves. I don't agree with this, so first steps need to be getting Berta to step up on command, and working on her staying there. Being able to walk around with her on your shoulder is not to much to ask. But ....... Don't expect things to move quickly with budgie training - Berta needs to learn to trust you first. Practise the stepping up as many times a day as you can, for 5-10 mins at a time; bribery with millet is usually well received.

[maz]

Hi everyone, I don't want to hijack this thread, but seeing it was talking about female budgie behaviour, I just wanted to ask something...it's been quite a while since I posted: I had Frankie and Benny 3 years ago but Benny died of a mysterious illness at 15 months. He was the more sociable of the two and Frankie has never really been tamed, I'm afraid, and I admit to having given up, though of course we still talk to her and try to be around as much as we can. She never seems bothered whether we're there or not, really! However, she's just been moulting for a week or so, and wasn't particularly moody with it, but suddenly she's gone all perky and is doing things she's never done before - we always leave the cage door open to encourage her to have a fly and sometimes she won't bother for weeks, but since yesterday she keeps coming out and flying round the room screeching and, weirder still, flying down to the carpet and pecking around (not that there's anything down there!) Any ideas why she would suddenly be like this?