totally disinterested budgie

[starlingqueen]

Have we established if the bird is male or female? Do you have a picture we could look at? It could be that it's an aloof female. Sorry if this has been established already.

[Deleted]

It really comes down to just how much you would expect from your bird, A lot of owners are happy for the bird to sit in its cage and learn a few words, feed it through the bars with millet etc.
Some owners want a hands on bird, at least to come on your hand or fly to you without asking it to.
Some want a highly trained bird.
Every bird will have something it does not like, every bird is different, but for the owner and bird to live happily together the bird must have trust in the owner, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of repetition and a lot of time for the bird to fully trust someone, take baby steps, only train for a few minutes at a time.
think to yourself, every time the bird eats out of your hand, inside or outside the cage this is one of the baby steps and one step closer to what you want from the bird.

[aronya31]

Yes it would appear that Muffin has lost all trust in me. He's even started to fly to the other side of his cage whenever I go to it to talk to him. He just does not want to know. I closed the lounge door and busied myself with other things and after a while he started chirping away loudly. In fact he was still in full voice an hour later. But the moment I opened the door again he stopped and darted away.. I can't believe just how much he's changed.

I guess what I'm hoping for with Muffin is for him to fly to me and perch wherever he feels most comfortable. To be a part of the family. To feel loved and relaxed. It feels like it's going to take forever now.

[helenmat]

I would suggest you just go slowly to the cage, open the door talking softly all the time and winking, rest your hand on a perch for a while, don't move at first, take it away. Keep doing that so that your bird can see you mean no harm for a while then get closer and closer. Use millet as a bribing tool, but it will take a while and you must be patient. Eventually your bird will trust you again and you should be able to get nearer. My bird pickle is very tame, he talks and will step up and sit on my shoulder for ages, but I cannot touch his body with my hands. He will allow my nose to rub his head but if I try to touch him with my finger he will and does bite me, hard!! They all have something they don't like but with patience you will get close to your bird. I am just training a very young bird to step up and eat from my hand and it takes a long time, but the effort is worth it. I would not clip his wings anymore it's not natural for a bird to not to be able to fly and will just make him feel more Vunerable. Hope we are offering some help.

[Deleted]

Honestly it is not forever, even if it seems this way.
Right be positive, the goal is going to be, "I'm hoping for with Muffin is for him to fly to me and perch wherever he feels most comfortable"

Start now by getting a chair, sit next to the cage and read your local paper or a book out loud, do not look at the bird in any way, do not touch the cage whilst reading,, ignore him, when he allows you to sit without skitting to the back of the cage, let me know for the second step.
Remember baby steps is what we are after at the moment, this can take a week maybe 2 just to settle him.
Don't worry if he vanishes when you walk into the room etc, just concentrate in sitting and talking, ignoring.

P.S. you may feel silly doing this, or think its not nice to ignore the bird, but honestly there is method to my madness.

[Deleted]

helenmat Archie is the same as pickle, not allowed to touch anywhere but his beak with my fingers, presses his beak and head on my nose as a form of having a rub.

Weird thing though, I can place a tea towel, large handkerchief etc on my knee and he will step on to it and allow me to wrap him in it.

But examine him and all heck lets loose, you would think we were killing him.
He does not bite me but has taken a sizable chunk out of my daughters knuckle.
But their again she is the vet and she has to pull him about at times,,,, serves her right Archie says.
2 minutes later all forgotten and back to normal.

But I respect the bird for this and don't push him to do something that is unnatural to a bird, Archie is perfectly controllable and just flies on anybody without a fuss.

[Hezz]

aronya31, for what it is worth, I agree with the statement that all birds are different - after all, on this forum ...... Budgies are People, too, you know. Well, that's how I feel. So how one reacts to a particular situation depends greatly on the personality of the bird. Muffin, it would seem, has a timid, suspicious nature and it would seem that his trust in you was rather fragile. I agree you need to go back to the beginning with training/taming, but here you are going to be at a slight disadvantage, I feel; I mean that I think you are going to be starting from behind the point that you were at when you first got Muffin, because in his eyes he was beginning to trust but then "you' broke it ...... this is in his eyes, not the way we see it, remember.

If it helps any, I will tell you the story of Spyro - Spyro came to me at I am not sure how old, but around 12 months old (2 years ago). He settled in quite nicely, paired up with my stroppiest of hens, and was beginning to settle into the house and his little flock, but after about six months I came home one day after being out only a couple of hours, to find that he had broken his leg in the cage somehow. With all the woo-haa that went on with getting him plastered, X-rayed, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, plaster reapplied, and having to keep him cage-bound for 3-4 weeks, even though while he was cage-bound he had the worst case of pinnies and I was his only means of scratching himself and we got along fine there, once he was fully functional again he basically wanted nothing to do with me ...... it has taken the last 18 months for him to get to the place he was at before this happened. It was very sad, and depressing to be seen as the cause of his trauma, but unfortunately being a bird I couldn't explain to him what was happening and why ....... this last moult he has actually allowed me to give him scratches again, but only in the safety of the cage. We are getting there; and so will you. ......... that is, if you managed to make it to the end of my post!!!!! Sorry.

[Angelgirl]

I agree with all that has been said. I have two boys. One - Alfie - who I have tried to tame with little success, and one who I then got as a friend for him - Billy - but ended up keeping in a separate cage for a year. Billy tamed very well and he will step up when I ask. Both boys are now in the same cage and although Alfie is still not too keen on me, he sees the bond I have with Billy and is a little more accepting of me.

I still wish Alfie would trust me and step up, but I have now accepted it will be a very long and slow process, if indeed I ever properly gain his trust at all.

Ax

[Deleted]

I often place an older bonded bird beside unruly babies or newbies.
the older bird will soon give the youngster a bop for doing something wrong.

The young bird will sit watching the bonded bird getting affection, treats, playing with you etc
He will soon want a bit of the same, his courage will build up and come closer and closer until he is joining in.

[deguchloe]

Dec 20, 2015 23:53:17 GMT aronya31 said:

Dec 20, 2015 23:00:48 GMT @shewbert said:

Yes Marianne is correct all birds are not the same, but placing a mixture of different foods )seeds, pellets, greens the bird will have some of a choice, I should have explained better, don't just take away the millet in one go, but you must stop it being the only food the bird receives.

If you have a video camera, put it facing the cage and record the bird when you are out, I think I would win a bet in saying he will play with his toys and act totally differently than when you are with him.

If possible keep the bird in one room, moving them from room to room can stop them from wanting out in a strange place, they find it harder to acclimatise.

My budgie eats his seeds ok, not JUST millet!! -- he has proper bird seed in a dish on the side of his cage. I'm a bit hurt actually when you say he doesn't associate me with something good, I've given him so much of my time - even made a tape recording of songs to listen to when I'm out. He's always been a bit wary/timid but for some unknown reason he's now acting like he wants nothing to do with me and as I said he wont tolerate me even coming a little bit near him. He just scarpers to the other side of his cage. Then, when I walk away, he returns to where he was. It's very disheartening and a bit hurtful actually. All of you on here have got a good rapport with your birds. I've failed and I don't know why....

near him

Don't worry my birds arnt hand tame either. And it took them a wile to leave the cage. They know when bed time is so when they've had enough they go to bed or I pick them off the light when there sleep and put them back.