Hi !
First its a gr8 work up here on this site. 100% love it.


I have a pair of budgies (male= about a yr & female = about 1/2 yr). Had them for about a month. Started taming about 10 days back. Facing a number of problems so before going into details let me explain how I proceeded with taming.

Taming
======
I pulled out their food dish. Put them on diet for about 3 hrs. Placed millet seeds on my hands and offered them. They become used to it. Few days later go hold of 2 millet seeds between my right and 2 between my left hand fingers. Offered a seed on step-up. Surprisingly, they keeping doing step-ups on my fore fingers for the gift of a millet.

Problems
========
1) The male one always bites my fingers before stepping-up. The female one doesn't. Someone suggested you try holding the male budie and scratch its head it will help him tame easily! Is it correct ?

2) After they get their food, they just mov onto their best sitting place. Though they r not afraid of my hands / fingers but still doesn't let me touch them (on touching they start shifting ides). THEY DONOT STEP-UP WHEN NOT HUNGRY. Should I say they are finger tamed when they can sort of ladder on my fingers ?

3) I have not Clipped their wings, as I don't feel like so. Is this much level of taming suitable for letting the female budgie out of the cage ? Considering that when hungry it won't be difficult to let her step-up ?

Plese help on the extent of finger-taming before letting the budgies out. Thx

I've always read that before letting out your Budgie for the first time, you should be able to offer your finger, say "up" and they step up willingly on their own 10 times or more in a row without hesitation or food bribe. You should also beforehand make sure the room is bird-proof, all doors and windows are closed, doors locked so no one will unexpectedly enter, and have a bird net available in case of emergency/necessity (but only use it in case of emergency - it could stress/injure/scare the bird and make it not trust you).
Training is best done individually, one at a time with no distractions. Most people take one bird in a small bird safe room, such as a closet or clean bathroom, and start there. Training sessions should be around 10 minutes each time, three times a day. "Taming" is done through trust, which takes alot of time and patience. Figure out what kind of relationship you want with your bird. If you want it to trust you and want to be around you and be playful, this will take alot of time, effort, and no amount of bribing or flooding (force or bullying) can happen (eg: making it do anything, holding it so it can't get away, scratching/touching it if it doesn't want to be touched).
Most birds will test things out with their mouth, to feel if the thing they are stepping up onto is sturdy/safe. It sounds like perhaps this is what your bird is doing, which is normal.
Learn to read your birds' body language and go at their pace. If they are scared, biting, or refusing to do something, there is a reason and you should know when to back off and give them space. Don't rush, let them learn to love & trust you and then you will have an awesome relationship in which you are all happy.
I highly recommend a book called Getting Started Clicker Training For Birds by Melinda Johnson, which explains everything on how to train birds, why not to punish, how you should change your behavior (not theirs) to get them to do what you want.
Good luck

i always clip wings before doing any out of the cage work. birdie can still fly just not get any serious hight or distance. i feel it is safer because they won't be able to get somewhere they can't get out of and you can't help it. it also helps because the bird tends to look to you for help and safty out in the "big world"
i have noticed that no matter how well "trained" they are in cage... things change very quickly out of cage. just a suggestion. i'm no professional, but these are some of the things i have done with the members of my "gong show".
go with what feels right to you and i'm sure everything wil be fine. good luck.

Here's my pages on hand training -

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/articles/bird_hand.html

It's great that you're making progress, and your birds will learn over time to *want* to come to you. It's a relationship you're building. So keep at it every day, keep working on that trust with your keets. There's no need to rush, keets live 11 years or more!

I would wait until they voluntarily go to you before letting them out. When they are afraid they might not be lured by millet. You want them to go to you for safety because they trust you. It sounds like you aren't quite at that point yet.

There are many points of view on the wing clipping discussion. My keets do not have clipped wings, and I prefer them that way.

Thx for the help to all of you. I guess I will have some more in-cage taming sessions before letting them out at this stage !

2x more thing that I foget to ask the last time.

Question-1
==========
I have a male and femlae budgie. Male one is a little older than the female one. They do scartch each other heads with their beaks etc... However, there is one serious problem. They fight 300% more than they play. Spec the female budgie is the qurrel picker. I hope their are no such things that 2 specific birds may never make a pair so you need to break them up and make pair with other birds ?

Question-2
==========
Birds are lazy / slow / sleepy at night. I managed to rub his head and he didn't bother to fly away... (perhaps too sleep/ lazy at that time). It went fine that night. But, in the morning it was the same active and run-away bird again.
Is it fine ! Should I continue so or not ?

Looking forward
Thanks

I'll take question 2 first, that's the easy one. Birds are meant to be asleep at night, and awake during the daytime So you want to make sure they get their solid 8 hours of sleep at night, with it dark and quiet so they can do that. Yes, they are sleepy when it is sleepy time Their bodies are high energy and night is when they recharge!

Question 1 - are you intending to breed the keets? If so, make sure you bring them to the vet and get them both checked out, to make sure they're healthy enough for the activity. For the female, especially, you'll need to make sure she gets enough calcium and other vitamins to support her body making eggs.

Are you sure the cage is big enough for two birds, and that they have their own food dishes and so on? You want to make sure their world is as stress free as possible. If for example you were jammed into a tiny room with a stranger and only were given one Mars bar a day to eat between the both of you, things might get tense

Budgies actually need 10-12 hours of sleep every night to stay healthy. To try to avoid breeding you can keep them covered up to 14 hours.
My girls usually sleep between 7pm-7am, give or take half an hour. If 7:30pm approaches and I haven't covered them yet, the oldest with start barking & squawking up a storm until I do.

i have always found if u approach from front to try to get them to step up in the process you are throwing them off balance a tad..i was shown long ago to come in from the back and they step backwards onto your finger much more easily and willingly.