Training Shy Budgie

[fortheloveofbudgie]

Hello!! I recently adopted two lovely budgies from the pet store and they are just the sweetest cutest little things. One of them is white/grey and light blue, and the other is black and teal. They are my very first budgies and I already love them.

The white one is brave, and after only five days will willingly hop up onto my hand for millet seed and stay there, even allowing me to move her around gently without getting frightened. However, the teal one is very shy and timid, and will only stay on my hand if I have food and stay completely still. I would like to hand train them both, but I'm not sure how to do this because they have already bonded. If I take the white one out of the cage onto my hand, then the teal one will scream and fly around the cage until I put the white one back. They are inseparable.

Any suggestions? Should I train them one at a time or train both? And any tips on training the shy one?

[jellybean]

Hi, sorry it's taken so long for you to get a reply to your question, but people on the forum are in different time zones.
It is harder to train two budgies as they bond to each other more. But just persevere, slowly and calmly keep putting your hand into the cage using food as treats to try and encourage them and reassure them that your hand is nothing to be frightened of. I hope others will give you a bit more help. Would love to see some pictures of your little buds.

[splodge]

Hi and welcome! What are your budgies called?

I can't offer any more advice I'm afraid. I only have the one and he was hand tamed by the breeder so the work was done for me. He thinks he's a person so normal budgie rules don't apply here!

I'm sure the others will be along with more advice soon but patience and perseverance always pays with these little ones.

[Marianne Marlow]

Hello and welcome, there are some great taming ideas in this thread: budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/thread/1668/budgie-taming-training-walkthrough

We'd like to see some photos of your birds if possible. We love photos!

Marianne

[OP]

Hello and welcome to the forum from me and mine. Maybe you could try and use the tame one to coax the shy one on to your hand. The two will most likely have bonded with each other, so I would think train them as a pair. In my limited experience it is quite difficult to change the shyness of one of a pair. I have three budgies and two of them have become great pals. One is very tame and bold, the other one is tame but very shy. If I try and work with the shy one the bold one is straight there as though I was trying to take over their bond. Just keep trying steadily.

[Deleted]

Training 2 birds will take more time, but just give a little more patience, the shy bird is coming on your hand (even if it is only for a short time)and that is progress.
Let the bird work at his own pace.
You did not mention whether they are male or female, females can be a bit more headstrong in training and take a bit longer to achieve the results that you want, but again with patience they will eagerly fly to you to for attention.
I hope this helps.
Shewy

[fortheloveofbudgie]

Thank you everyone for the helpful feedback!! And here is a picture of them. They are both still pretty young so it's hard to tell, but I think that they're both female.

[jellybean]

They're beauties.

[OP]

They are little beauties. At a guess I would say the one on the left is the shy one.

[Marianne Marlow]

I think the one on the left is male and the other one is female.

[Deleted]

Just a quick foot note that might help you a bit further.
If the teal one screams and flits about while you are holding the white one, ignore him, you are doing just what he wants, i.e. I scream the white one comes back to me, he has his door open, if he wants the white bird he has to come to it or wait until you want the bird back in its cage.

and lastly on training 2 birds together,,, this sometimes works lovely, sometimes not.
I use Archie as a training aid for a lot of young budgies, they see Archie getting treats, getting petted and soon they realise that I will not harm them, they learn a lot just by watching, I will get both birds fairly close together, get Archie to step up, treat Archie for doing it, then the same command to the new bird.
But Archie is fully bonded to me, he can get a bit temperamental if I give the new bird a bit too much attention, so I normally stop the both bird training when the new bird does a volunteered step up, ie he steps up without touching him,
never give more than 15mins at any time on your training sessions, these sessions can be done to a max of 3 sessions in a day.
So if in your case the training is going well with both birds then carry on with it, if one bird is holding the other one up for any reason, then remove one bird from the room, do your 15mins then do the same with the other bird.
Be patient it will all come together in time.
Any problems just ask
Shewy