Budgie training plateau

[mousehq]

Hi-
Ok, so I got my two budgies (a green and a yellow) a few months ago, neither hand-tamed at all.  They live in the same cage.  I have worked with them, so that if I put my hand in the cage (near their higher perch), with millet treats on, the green will reliably come over, sit on my hand and eat the treats.  The yellow will attempt to come over and sometimes snag some treats, but the green always chases her off. Yellow used to sit on my hand and eat treats, but now cannot manage this due to Green.  

Anyway, my goal is to get both birds trained to the point where they 1)sit on my hand/finger, regardless of whether I move my hand towards them or they come to me 2)come out of the cage, and then go back in either voluntarily or because they will come to my hand and I can put them back 3) be able to catch them easily and wo/trauma if nails need clipping or whatever.  Is all of that possible, or should I lower my expectations?


I work with them every day, at least 10 min a day, more if I can. I spend a lot of time in the room with them, even if I am not interacting with them.  I talk to them all the time, and try to repeat the same words/phrases during training sessions, in the hopes that they'll associate those words with training.  I'm sure trying to deal with two at once is not helping, but that's how it is.  


My plan going forward is to try to get them to come over to my hand no matter where it is in the cage (not just higher perch), and then to work on moving my hand around in the cage when one is sitting on [my hand].  Do these seem like reasonable steps to take?  Is there something I can do differently that might be more effective?  

Thanks,
Mousehq

[Hezz]

As I have just now mentioned to another member, you can work with both birds together, but you can also work with both birds separately. 10 minutes a day is not a lot, unless you can do multiples of 10 minutes. I would work with them 3,4 ... 10 times a day, if time allows. Work with them together in the cage, but it is fairly obvious that one of your birds is missing out, and that bird in particular needs time and training on its own, away from the more dominant bird. Pop this bird into another cage and move to another room, preferably as far away from the other as possible, and try without the dominance and distraction of the other bird. The other bud may respond differently as well, if it doesn't have to keep fending off the more timid. They each need their own personal training session, plus training time together. This is what has worked for me, every time; others might have other ideas.

As for getting them back into the cage once they are out for flying time, you might find you have more success using a spare perch to get them to step up onto rather than your hand, and then you can walk them back to their cage while they are on the perch.

Mostly, you need to spend time, short periods multiple times a day with them getting them doing little things like stepping up, stepping down, so that these become automatic for them, but this all takes time; that cannot be stressed enough. You must continue with training, be consistent, be patient and one day you will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about. It will happen if you keep at it.