conflicting advice way to tame

[outnumbered]

i have read conflicting advice, some say lay hand flat in cage, mine nearly falls off with tiredness whilst others say just gentle follow them with your hand which i did but pickles just flies away. should i just keep resting my hand inside the cage. She isn't tempted with millet. i have only had her a couple of days. thank you

[Hezz]

I have deleted your other thread, as you are asking the same question in both. You will get some people answering one thread and some the other; a bit pointless, really.

I think you need to find your own version of the two; there are no hard and fast rules, and most people really work a little by trial and error. A lot depends on the bird, itself. As you have only had Pickles for a few days, hang up a small piece of millet in the cage and allow P to explore it for her/himself. Once P has the idea that millet sprays are wonderful, you will be able to use then as enticement to come to, or at least accept your hand. Once the millet is being eaten while hanging in the cage, remove it so the only way P gets millet is via you.

So .... hand in cage with millet offering, close to P, move it closer if you can without P moving off. You will see when P is getting twitchy, so stop and leave the hand in one spot. As P settles again, try moving hand slowly, slowly all the while with millet closest to the bird. If the cage is too high to let you spend 10 minutes working like this consider moving the cage lower so that you are comfortable, pull up a chair and sit down. Also don't stare at the bird while you are doing all this; wink, blink, close one eye, look out of the corner of your eye, turn your head so that only one eye is visible to P etc, etc. You must be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was budgie trust.

[outnumbered]

thank you. all advice noted . she just flaps about so i guess it will take time, I am having problems but seems to be the norm with new budgies as she doesn't even realise whatmillet is so have put a little in her seed dish

[Hezz]

If the bird has not been given millet in spray form as a chick/fledgling then it is not going to recognise it as a form of food. It needs to learn this, but once the lesson has been taken on board, generally budgies cannot resist a bit of millet spray.

[OP]

I have found during past attempts to get Joey, one of my male budgies, to eat millet spray was to cut the floppy tip off and rest my hand on a perch. If I left the floppy piece on and or did not rest my hand on a perch the millet would shake. This in turn seemed to Joey that I was not very confident and in turn made him uncomfortable, so much that he would just sit and glare at the millet and my hand. When I cut the end off and made my hand stop shaking, I do this normally, he would tuck into the millet spray. Just something to think about.

[Deleted]

When I was taming Reggie this is what I did.

First of all let your budgie settle in for two weeks as it's a new environment and they will be scared and nervous.

After the two weeks sit by the cage a few times a day and just talk to your budgie, read a book or sing.

After a week if the budgie is calm towards your voice gently place your hand on the side of the cage and continue talking to your budgie letting your budgie know your hand is there.
(Also a few times a day, do you see the pattern here?)

After another week place your hand inside the cage. DO NOT force your budgie to sit on your hand or finger. Just let your budgie know that your hand is there. You must do this a few times a day for a week. Not just once a day. if your budgie is familiar with your hand now you can move onto the next step.

After about another week of doing that. Place some seed, millet in your hand again DO NOT force the budgie to eat from your hand let your budgie investigate itself. Once your budgie starts investigating and realising it's food that he/she can eat then they will begin eating out of your hand.

Now they are familiar with your hand you can start teaching them to step up but do not put them on your finger and then force them to come out of the cage. When they're ready to come out of the cage they will. It just takes a lot of patience and even when you think they're tamed it's never fully over because they grow fond of you as they grow up and you spend more time with them.

NEVER GRAB OR FORCE YOUR BUDGIE TO DO ANYTHING IT DOESN'T WANT TOO. This will ruin the progress you've made and it's a lot harder for them to trust you.

Oh and also don't force your budgie to give you kisses or have scratches on his/her head or strokes on his belly if he/her doesn't want it. You have to take it at their pace and some budgies just don't like to be petted at all. Especially when the leave baby stage. They don't want to be petted like a baby.

Don't be frustrated if your budgie doesn't do it first time. Like I said PATIENCE. Your budgie needs to understand you're not a predator. You're friendly.

I hope this helps.

[Hezz]

OP's point about your hand getting tired and shaking, making the millet shake as well is something we tend to not mention, but it is a very real issue. It is the reason I suggested you get the cage into a position where you are comfortable sitting, or standing, still for a moderate amount of time.