Training Poppy

[hawk1]

Have had Poppy a couple a days and she already loves finger time. Shes very calm and loves having her tummy tickled.

Im hoping to introduce her to the world outside her cage once shes settled down as I think she will be pretty easy to train.

However my Ozzy is not tame - Ive tried to introduce him to fingers but he's very skitty and just shoots off in the opp direction. Hes almost 7 years old and gets spoilt rotten - is it to late to have a go at hand taming him?

Its just that I will feel guilty if I have Poppy out flying and Ozzy just looking on. Do you think that by seeing what fun you can have when you are tame will perhaps persuade Ozzy to become more approachable?

Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated.

[MattJ]

It will be harder but not impossible to train Ozzy.
Are you worried about letting Ozzy out because he's not tame? I don't think a budgie needs to be tame to be allowed out. If your worried about getting him back in you can use a perch or dowl to get him to step on then transfer him back to the cage; he may well go back himself, especially if Poppy is in already.
If all else fails you can turn off lights in the room so its dark and just pick them up.

It is worrying letting them out for the first time but if you've covered all the windows and mirrors, removed anything sharp - then all you can do is hope they do ok, which they probably will! (I think there is a more detailed thread on budgie proofing a room?)

Some people have had luck with one Budgie encouraging another to become tamer, people saying that the second budgie will fly to a hand only when the other is already there. I'm unsure how tame they would both need to be for that to work.

Best of luck!

[Hezz]

I have to agree with Matt. There is no reason why Ozzy can't have outside of the cage time with Poppy. Even if he isn't quiet, once the two birds are properly introduced, I think they will hang out together and quite often the quieter of the two birds will show the other there is nothing to be scared of. Just make sure the first time out that you do the rounds budgie-proofing the room so there are no accidents, especially for Ozzy as a set-back there could cost a lot of time. Ozzy would more than likely head for the highest perch available and sit and survey the room. This is where your long stick or perch comes into it's own. Get him onto the perch and bring him down again to where-ever Poppy is.

But for now with Poppy in quarantine, you could try getting Ozzy used to stepping onto a perch, if he is so averse to a finger, so that when time comes out of cage he will know what to do when you offer him the perch.