So I thought I would make a post about how I tamed my budgies and what steps I took when I brought them home to help them trust me and begin taming!
If you have read some of my other post you may know I have two budgies and they were bought at different times.
We will start with my first budgie Kirby.
Kirby was bought from a pet store, at the time I was doing work placement (volunteer work) there for my tafe course. I spotted Kirby and she seemed to be being picked on by the other budgies and I decided I wanted to take her home. She was a real character in the pet store...
when I brought her home she was in a little budgie size white box, I placed it inside her cage and let her come out in her own time.
don't be worried if they sit still for hours and not eat or drink, this is completely normal they are just afraid of the new place they are in and now its your job to show them that they are safe and you are not going to hurt them.
For the first few days I wouldn't put your hand in the cage. other than to change water & food.
What you should do is sit by the cage, talk to your budgie, whistle to him or her and slowly he should get used to you. Also make sure the cage is in an area of your house that you are in a lot. For me Kirby's cage was in my bedroom because that is where I spend all my time.
In a few days your budgie should be feeling a bit more comfortable, its time to take the next step.
Slowly open the door of your budgies cage, and place your hand inside. Don't try and touch your budgie just leave your hand there, at first it may be afraid but if you keep your hand still it will soon realise your not coming too close and won't be too scared.
the trick is not to force your budgie to like you but to get him to be interested in you and want to like you.
For the next few days you should keep doing this but slowly start moving your hand closer but not touching your budgie.
Some budgies will decide to bite your hand or try out standing on it themselves, if they do this let them. A bird will bite your finger/hand before it wants to step onto you to see if its able to perch on you its not trying to hurt you, Pulling your hand away from your budgie when it bites is a mistake! (because he/she will believe you will go away if he/she bites) I your budgie is biting you and you think he or she is afraid slowly move your hand away (don't jerk it away) and go back to just leaving your hand there.
When you feel that your budgie is used to your hand being in the cage trying getting them to "step up".
There are two different ways to do this
The first one is place your finger above the feet, near the abdomen and push gently against your budgie and he may step onto your finger (usually only staying there for 2 seconds). Some budgies will just fly away from you, they are too afraid. you can keep slowly trying to do this method and when your budgie does step up say "good boy/girl" and if they want to get down let them and try again latter. don't force your budgie to get on your finger repeatedly they will get annoyed.
If you can't get your budgie to do this try using the second step:
Most budgies Love millet, try holding some in your hand, offer some to your budgie and get him to eat some while its in your hand. When he is used to eating millet from your hand rearrange the millet so he can't reach it unless he steps on your finger. This is the method I used with Charlie as he was very scared of me but very food orientated.
Once you are able to get them on your finger, each time you do it they should stay longer and be more comortable. Once Kirby knew how to get on my finger and once she realised it was fun, as soon as my hand went in the cage she would jump on me, I didn't even have to try... even if I was trying to put a new toy on she would be standing on my arm while I was attaching the new toy haha.
Because Kirby was by herself she became tame very quickly as she only had me as a friend.
If you are trying to tame two budgies I would have them in seperate cages while taming.
Charlie was harder to tame than Kirby, I started the taming process when he was in quarantine. And got as far as getting him to step up for a short period usually using millet.
Once he moved into my bedroom where Kirby was, but still a seperate cage, he became much more comfortable, having another budgie around really made him happy and he starting chirping and soon started playing with his toys that he hadn't touched at all before.
I kept using millet to get charlie to step up then slowly stopped using it.
Charlie isn't like Kirby and doesn't want to communicate with humans as much.
But he is slowly learning now, he will step up and let me carry him out of the cage. I am also starting to train him using positive reinforcement. And with time I'm hoping he will be more trusting and less afraid of things.
If you have a very timid budgie like Charlie, or a budgie who is afraid of new things including toys. Just keep trying slowly, eventually you will gain their trust, use millet and positive reinforcement to make them see the things they are afraid of are actually a good thing.
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