Mar 24, 2021 16:43:45 GMT
formybudgie
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 21
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Post by formybudgie on Apr 1, 2021 13:15:05 GMT
You should let her step onto your finger on her own - you can tempt her by holding the millet further away so she has to come to you for it instead. Given an alternative, she chose to fly away. Only when she was trapped by the cage top did she step up. Birds step up when you push in their bellies because they don’t like the pressure there. They do it only because it is preferable to being pushed on, which is not the best way to train them to want to perch on you. It’s fantastic that you are already making progress with her though! Some birds are just more nervous than others. It’s hard, but be as patient as possible with her progress, and celebrate the little successes. Like her eating from your hand and staying calm for now. Sounds good. I will stop pushing above her legs for step up. I will bribe her with millet to try to get her on my finger. I tried today a few times to hold millet spray and move it further away as she starts eating. She eats as far as she can stretch without going on my finger. When it is to far she stops eating and acts as she is falling asleep. Is that some sort of a trick to tell me to leave her alone or she is really comfortable even if my hand is so close? She does the same when not holding millet.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2021 1:04:07 GMT
I don’t think any bird would fall asleep in the presence of a predator, so I think she’s probably comfortable. Don’t worry about her not wanting to step up immediately. It took my first budgie girl Pig ages to want to on her own (and I used the pushing against her method too at first because I had read that’s how you should do it >.< So don’t worry about that at all). I eventually got Pig some more friends, but that’s another story. She did eventually start to perch on me on her own though. It must have been at least a few months later though, and only after I stopped trying to get her in my finger by pushing. Budgies all have different personalities, so my boy Goat now hops onto my hand whenever he sees me looking for millet. He’ll sometimes hang out a moment too, so maybe with more time he’ll hang out longer - but now with a flock of budgies I doubt it. So just go at her pace and try to read her body language as you have been doing. It’s a wonderful learning experience for those patient enough to appreciate it
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Mar 24, 2021 16:43:45 GMT
formybudgie
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 21
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Post by formybudgie on Apr 5, 2021 14:44:45 GMT
So I did not push the finger in her chest anymore. I started by holding the millet spray close to her so she takes a bite or two and I move it further so that she can step on my finger to get it. She started stepping on my finger but sometimes it takes up to 10 min until she decides to do it. However 90% of the time this happens when she is at the top of the cage. If I try to move her on a lower perch to practice she immediately flies to the same spot at the top of the cage. There she feels secure and my hand does not seem to bother her at all. Today she was on my finger eating millet and I moved her to a lower perch, immediately she flew away but this time she went outside the cage since the big door was open. She perched on the curtain rod and when my finger was close to her she stepped up on it . I did a tour of the house with her perched on my finger. I was so happy she stayed the entire time on my finger.
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Mar 24, 2021 16:43:45 GMT
formybudgie
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 21
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Post by formybudgie on Apr 5, 2021 16:01:06 GMT
And I just got her to eat veggies (lettuce for now). So happy. In the past I tried several things like: small cut pieces, small cut pieces with seeds on top, veggies on the side of the cage, veggies on skewer, veggies on skewer with seeds on top, veggies offered by hand. None of these attracted her at all. Today I tried lettuce one more time and she did not care at all so I was pushy and slowly moved the corner of the piece of lettuce under hear beak. I moved it left and right and I think at first it kind of bothered her as she was opening her mouth and shaking her head. Eventually the lettuce got in her mouth and I think it tickled her tongue as she started pretending to chew on it. She did not bite it but just moving her head left and right as the lettuce piece was in the mouth. I removed my hand and the piece of lettuce and clipped it to the side of the cage where she is perched. At first she kept playing with it but now when I checked half of the piece is gone.
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Mar 29, 2024 9:42:12 GMT
Deleted
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2021 20:25:01 GMT
Sounds like you are making good progress.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 6, 2021 7:02:20 GMT
Awww, it sounds like your finger was at least much less scary than being outside by herself! That is great progress! Hopefully she will eventually be brave enough to fly around on her own too of course :3
Don't give up with the veggies! Keep trying all the methods all the time haha. Eventually she should take interest!
It sounds like you have having a great time with her. I love it!
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Feb 11, 2021 21:33:25 GMT
snowylily
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 62
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Post by snowylily on Apr 6, 2021 20:27:55 GMT
So I did not push the finger in her chest anymore. I started by holding the millet spray close to her so she takes a bite or two and I move it further so that she can step on my finger to get it. She started stepping on my finger but sometimes it takes up to 10 min until she decides to do it. However 90% of the time this happens when she is at the top of the cage. If I try to move her on a lower perch to practice she immediately flies to the same spot at the top of the cage. There she feels secure and my hand does not seem to bother her at all. Today she was on my finger eating millet and I moved her to a lower perch, immediately she flew away but this time she went outside the cage since the big door was open. She perched on the curtain rod and when my finger was close to her she stepped up on it . I did a tour of the house with her perched on my finger. I was so happy she stayed the entire time on my finger. Yayyy well done, sounds like you have made loads of progress. she clearly trusts you now!
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Mar 24, 2021 16:43:45 GMT
formybudgie
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 21
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Post by formybudgie on Apr 8, 2021 2:30:25 GMT
So I’ve been making progress with eating veggies and sometimes she comes on my finger but right now I am still concerned that she is not active. She eats her food (veggies from bowl and seed mix), plays with toys maybe once a day and chirping once or twice a day. That’s about all she does, the rest of the day she is perched somewhere sleeping or awake but inactive.
I am wondering if me trying the finger push on chest several days ago has caused ‘learned helplessness’. I can see a small reaction when putting my hand in the cage to feed her millet but she does not fly away. She just leans left or right and moves her head.
She is never excited to see my hand with food. Never moving towards my hand to be closer to the millet. The only time she makes a move is after a few minutes of my finger being close to her she steps on it to reach the millet. And this is happening only 50% of the time.
So did I cause ‘learned helplessness’ ? What do i need to do to get her more active and interested in interacting with me?
Do I need to give her some time without me being so close? Maybe stay in the same room but further away and get close to the cage only when changing the food? Then slowly move closer and start again with hand feeding ...
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Post by Morgan on Apr 11, 2021 3:22:28 GMT
I don’t think you have taught her learned helplessness. Especially in such a short time. She may just not be overly interested in the millet (does she free-feed seeds or pellets all day? She may just not be that hungry), or she might just be a bird that is not overly interested in human company, or she just still needs more time. My girl Pig was a bit like that, and I was always worrying about her so I decided to get her some friends. Which turned into many! I’m not saying you have to go that route, just from your description it reminds me of how I felt when she was a single bird too. Getting her a friend before she is fully bonded to you may mean she (and the newcomer as well) never will bind to you fully. So I would just give her some more time and keep an eye on her. If you are really worried you can always take her to a vet for a checkup, just to get an all clear. You can also post video or photos here for us so we can see if there’s anything visibly amiss.
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Feb 11, 2021 21:33:25 GMT
snowylily
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 62
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Post by snowylily on Apr 11, 2021 7:58:21 GMT
I think it's actually easier to tame two budgies than one, because one will persuade the other one! I think that budgies are much happier with another budgie friend.
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Mar 24, 2021 16:43:45 GMT
formybudgie
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 21
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Post by formybudgie on Apr 12, 2021 1:39:16 GMT
I don’t think you have taught her learned helplessness. Especially in such a short time. She may just not be overly interested in the millet (does she free-feed seeds or pellets all day? She may just not be that hungry), or she might just be a bird that is not overly interested in human company, or she just still needs more time. My girl Pig was a bit like that, and I was always worrying about her so I decided to get her some friends. Which turned into many! I’m not saying you have to go that route, just from your description it reminds me of how I felt when she was a single bird too. Getting her a friend before she is fully bonded to you may mean she (and the newcomer as well) never will bind to you fully. So I would just give her some more time and keep an eye on her. If you are really worried you can always take her to a vet for a checkup, just to get an all clear. You can also post video or photos here for us so we can see if there’s anything visibly amiss. After several days of trying to get her to step up on my finger by bribing with millet I made almost 0 progress. From the time I stopped pushing the finger on her chest till 2 days ago she was stepping up on my finger less and less. She was eating millet when within her reach and if millet was further away she would fake sleep. During this period as I mentioned before her activity in the cage was really really minimal. Eat food and be perched somewhere for majority of the time. 2 days ago I decided to see if she still comes on my finger if I do the gentle push above her legs. I tried it and without flying away she stepped on my finger. This was while holding the millet spray. I let her eat a little millet spray and got her back on the perch. Tried again getting the finger in front of her and immediately she stepped on it without me even touching her. I kept doing this for ~10 minutes. I only touched her above legs 2-3 times but for probably 20 time she did step up on her own. So I guess she is a little lazy and I have to take the first step (gentle tap above legs) and that gets her going for the rest of the session. After this session I noticed she was a little more active. She was moving a little more in the cage. I did a few more sessions like this and I could see constant improvement in her activity. I continued yesterday and today and I can say that today she was very active and had about 2h of constant talking. After these 3 days of practicing step up she seems a lot more comfortable with me. I got her out of the cage several times and we had long talks while she was perched on my finger(I was doing the talking). She allows me to pet her chest and neck and I was able to give her a kiss today . So I would guess that she needed more attention and that's why she was bored.
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Feb 11, 2021 21:33:25 GMT
snowylily
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 62
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Post by snowylily on Apr 12, 2021 8:41:03 GMT
That's good, I'm glad she's perching on your finger again. sometimes they can be moulting/hormonal or something and that makes them grumpy and less interactive.
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Post by ariella on Apr 12, 2021 12:55:14 GMT
Sounds like you’re making really good progress, formybudgie :-)
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Mar 24, 2021 16:43:45 GMT
formybudgie
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 21
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Post by formybudgie on Apr 15, 2021 14:44:17 GMT
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Post by ariella on Apr 15, 2021 14:51:50 GMT
Perseverance pays off. Maybe try swapping the millet for other treats so you’re not offering millet too often. Mine get excited over spinach, cucumber and apple. Now she’s got the idea, she may be quite happy to step on for other goodies.
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