Taming Sky

[midas]

I have been trying to get sky used to my hand by feeding her millet, I do this inside her cage at first and then when she is outside of her cage, I do this several times throughout late afternoon/early evening. When I did this last night, I set up the laptop, went onto youtube and played "happy Budgie" sounds lol. After I give her her last piece of Millet, I wait for quite a while before I attempt to put her back, I used to use millet and a perch, but now I just use the perch as I didn't want her to associate millet with bedtime (she doesn't like going to bed). A couple of times she has actually fallen asleep on the top of the cage, I have put the perch to her and she doesn't move, so I have gently got hold of her and put her straight in her cage, she doesn't seem to notice, but I don't like grabbing her as I don't want her to be bothered by me and I couldn't leave her out all night, she may get disorientated and get frightened and hurt herself. I know I should have got her in earlier, but we were chatting and singing and I forgot the time (well, I was chatting and singing, she was just looking at me, then nodding off) I will try and get her to bed earlier tonight, but don't want to chase her with the perch to much,,,,, boy is she stubborn!

[Deleted]

I used to have that problem with Munchy. Now that he's more used to my hands and is perfectly fine with my arm, we don't have the cage in the same room but leave the doors open so he can fly back if he chooses. He doesn't tend to, though, so he gets hungry and then when it starts getting dark, he flies over to me because he wants to go home for food. Usually he then sees the open door, so if I'm too slow taking him, he will fly out and if he turns the right way will go to the cage by himself. More often than not, he turns the wrong way and comes back in so I eventually have to take him myself and he goes straight in.

Obviously, I don't know what your house arrangement is like, and Sky is probably different from Munchy, and obviously you are trying to bond with her, but if her only source of food was in her cage then she might go back in when she's hungry and then you can close the cage door when she's inside and eating. I noticed that Munchy eats a lot less seed on days I do a lot of taming practice with him as he eats a lo of millet, so I'm guessing she isn't hungry enough to want to go back. Once she's more used to you and you've got where you want to go with the millet then she might start going back by herself for food.

Other people probably have a lot more useful things to tell you ;D

[Hezz]

No, Ira, I don't think so. But Tina, have you tried giving her a little push with your finger to get her to step up? If she is half asleep anyway, it may well work easily. Just put out your finger like you would normally do to gt her to step up, across her tummy and gently push against her tum and legs. Your pushing will upset her balance and their natural reaction is to step on what is there. This may be a simple way of getting her into the cage, while she is still not fully awake.

The other thing to try is putting her into the cage as the end of your last session of training. Maybe put a piece of millet in the cage at this time, so she associates being put into the cage as reward time with millet? I haven't ever had this problem, so I am offering suggestions only, not tried methods.

[midas]

Well, I let Sky and Tommy out together last night, Tommy sat on her cage for a bit, then went into Sky's cage and they have been there ever since! They seem to be getting on fine and I have added more toys, Sky was showing him around this morning and investigating the new things then they sat next to each other on the perch and started preening, not each other though, just next to each other :-)

[Bird Junky]

Hello If you click on the post bellow, I'm sure you will
find lots of useful info. Yours B.J.

budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=budgietaming&action=display&thread=2867

[midas]

Thanks Bird Junky, had a quick flick through and will read properly later. Oh dear, should I not let her out until she steps up now then? she does eat millet from me, but my hand isn't right close to her yet? I will try and upload a video I took later. Sky is in with Tommy and he is a bit flighty, hope she doesn't copy? but he seems a bit better since he has been with Sky???

[Rachael Kellett]

Jun 1, 2012 13:12:16 GMT midas said:

Thanks Bird Junky, had a quick flick through and will read properly later. Oh dear, should I not let her out until she steps up now then? she does eat millet from me, but my hand isn't right close to her yet? I will try and upload a video I took later. Sky is in with Tommy and he is a bit flighty, hope she doesn't copy? but he seems a bit better since he has been with Sky???

You can definitely let her out before she is hand tamed Not all of my budgies are tame and they still get to come out every day Of course it is easier if you can get them to step up to go back in but that will happen in time

[Hezz]

Sorry, I missed this one, Tina. I did reply, but my post went AWOL. I agree with Rachael, she needs to be able to come out and have a fly around even if she never learns to step-up.