What should I do next with my budgie taming?

[Zentg]

hey guys I got my budgie about 3.5 months ago from petsmart and right now I can get her to jump to my finger/hand and eat millet/seeds - but if i try to take her out of the cage she just flys right back in - even though I keep her cage door open and try to bring her out everyday, she just doesn't want to come outside lol! She is about 7 months old atm.

What should I do next with her? basically i been practicing getting her to come to my finger/hand with millet/seeds and she does it every time now without hesitations (as long as i have food) but if i dont have food she acts super scared of my hand...

I have been thinking a lot and came up with this new idea, what do you think? My plan is to give her only pellets in her food cup and give her a teaspoon full of her dr harvey seed blend from my hand once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. My theory for this method is based on 2 parts that I am hoping will work.

1. Breeder budgies are tame because they are hand raised and hand fed from brith, so If she gets her main food from my hand then i am hoping with time she will tame and see me as a friend. also the dr harveys blend is delicious, she loves it and goes crazy for it - in fact she will no longer accept vitakraft or kaytee seeds lol - i even think the dr harvey blend looks and smells good, makes me want to snack on it like trail mix.

2. for the rest of the day she will have her pellets so hoping that will help her convert to pellets too.

Otherwise what else can I do? I have ready pretty much every budgie taming guide and seen every video on the internet, but what should I do for where I am at? I also do keep her cage in my living room and she sees me pretty much all day everyday because I no longer work. Also I talk to her everyday....what else can i do to get her to see me as a fellow budgie friend?

also how can i play with her? she only comes to my hand if i have food but otherwise i don't know how i can play with her cus if my hand even gets a little close without food she starts side stepping away and climbing up the side of her cage...*sigh*

[Zentg]

on average it takes baby budgies 5-6 weeks of being handfed to be weaned, so i am hoping to simulate a similar effect by giving all her food from my hand and you guys wont believe this but it worked out VERY well today!!

me and her kinda worked out a system basically, i can get her out of her cage "SOMETIMES" and when i do i been recently putting her on her saphy stand - and thats when i feed her - and she is so smart! because this afternoon i could see she was hungry and then i saw her climb out her cage and fly to her saphy stand and she chirped at me - and so i hand fed her 1 spoon of food

then this evening again i saw her go to her stand and chirp - so again i put 1 spoon of harvey blend in my hand and she just hopped right on my finger and started eating - i went back to the computer and watched some cartoon and she hung out with me and ate the food for like 5 mins, then after she got full she flew back to her cage very awesome!

[Wolf]

Great! It sounds like you found your way, that is wonderful

[Pajarita]

Handfeeding babies works to tame them because they imprint to humans instead of their parents but this process cannot be repeated or imitated later in life, it needs to be done when they are teeny tiny babies so I am sorry to say that the entire premise you are basing your system on is flawed. You are not making your bird imprint to you, you are just making it hungry so it has not choice but to eat from your hand... And, I am sorry but I do not agree with doing this to tame or train a bird. It works because the survival instinct in them is strong but it's cruel to the bird and it's also the ultimate flooding technique. The same result can be achieved with time, patience and love and without any stress to the little one... Budgies are hardy when treated right but lone budgies are already severely stressed out as they are intensely flock oriented and making one hungry to force it to accept a giant alien they don't trust, thereby intensifying the stress to huge levels is not recommended, my dear. How would you feel if you were in her situation? Have you thought about it?

[Zentg]

Handfeeding babies works to tame them because they imprint to humans instead of their parents but this process cannot be repeated or imitated later in life, it needs to be done when they are teeny tiny babies so I am sorry to say that the entire premise you are basing your system on is flawed. You are not making your bird imprint to you, you are just making it hungry so it has not choice but to eat from your hand... And, I am sorry but I do not agree with doing this to tame or train a bird. It works because the survival instinct in them is strong but it's cruel to the bird and it's also the ultimate flooding technique. The same result can be achieved with time, patience and love and without any stress to the little one... Budgies are hardy when treated right but lone budgies are already severely stressed out as they are intensely flock oriented and making one hungry to force it to accept a giant alien they don't trust, thereby intensifying the stress to huge levels is not recommended, my dear. How would you feel if you were in her situation? Have you thought about it?

I agree, now that I think about it I do not want to starve her like that. If I just keep working with her everyday and keep being nice to her and talk nicely to her, will she just randomly open up to me one day?

[liz]

You have a smart one. Yes she will bond with you if you treat her with love and respect. A full belly is always calming no matter what you are. Just like a child you feed them well so they can be happy. Only those well fed have the energy to play. You can always tempt her with a goody.

[Wolf]

It is not really random it is the process of you earning the birds trust and the bird learning that you can be trusted. It does take time, but how much depends on both of you. You can't build a one sided relationship, it always takes at least two.
I would feed her the way that we have been discussing in your other thread and I would watch to see what she picks out of her seed mix to eat first and second and pick those out for use as treats and for training. I would make arrangements to do three or four 15 minute sessions of sitting in front of her cage with the door open just talking to her and offering a treat every now and then At the door of the cage. It is important that you do not reach into the cage, your bird needs to come to you whether you have a treat or not. That is the beginning of her trusting you.
I would also set up a place near her cage and playstand to sit down and play with her toys while talking to her. I would play with her toys, read, but not spending much time looking at her. If you are interested in doing something then she will also get interested in what you are doing and begin to want to be a part of it.

[Zentg]

It is not really random it is the process of you earning the birds trust and the bird learning that you can be trusted. It does take time, but how much depends on both of you. You can't build a one sided relationship, it always takes at least two.
I would feed her the way that we have been discussing in your other thread and I would watch to see what she picks out of her seed mix to eat first and second and pick those out for use as treats and for training. I would make arrangements to do three or four 15 minute sessions of sitting in front of her cage with the door open just talking to her and offering a treat every now and then At the door of the cage. It is important that you do not reach into the cage, your bird needs to come to you whether you have a treat or not. That is the beginning of her trusting you.
I would also set up a place near her cage and playstand to sit down and play with her toys while talking to her. I would play with her toys, read, but not spending much time looking at her. If you are interested in doing something then she will also get interested in what you are doing and begin to want to be a part of it.

ahh i see thanks for that tip! - i was sticking my hand in to try to get her to step up as suggested by all the guides out there - i can see what you mean now when you say there is a lot of bad information out there.

So you think I should do 3 15 minute sessions a day? Maybe morning, noon and evening?

I hear reading to them is a great way, think maybe if i get a harry potter book and read 3 chapters a day she will be tame by the time book is finished? (lol jk)

Gonna slow down with her again cus i was rushing when i first got her, then i slowed down - but this week its been 3.5 months and i was feeling frustrated and started rushing again which only made me more frustrated lol! so gonna slow down with her again and set a goal for june 2016 (which will be 1 year since i got her) - i guess it just gets hard for me with my anxiety problems and the fact people irl like my phsyical therapist and friends are all like "wth? u had that bird for 3+ months and she still doesn't do anything?" And then I tell them "it takes time!!" and then they are like "hm, I bet I could get her tame in a week easily" - I hate people so much, glad I got my bird friend now lol

[Wolf]

So many people look and see just a bird and nothing more, it is worse than them looking at a car because at least they see something, but a car is nothing like a bird. They think of companion animals or pets and think that they are all like their domesticated dog or cat and they can't even care for them properly much less train them humanely. They don't understand that a bird is not domesticated and is as smart and intelligent enough to train them. Birds learn their own language, they learn the languages of other species of birds and they learn human speech even if they don't speak it, they learn it. How many humans do you know that speak more than one human language, much less the language of their dog or cat? A bird and especially a parrot is unlike anything that they have ever experienced. And each parrot is a very unique individual and there is no other like it in our universe. And these are just the easy things to see about them.
One of the first things that I learned other than that parrots bite is that you need to learn patience to have one of these fascinating creatures and than when you get frustrated with the bird you need to add in another pound or two of patience so that you can learn to gain their trust and begin to build an actual relationship with them. Then you need at least another cup or so of patience while you begin to learn their body language so that they can communicate with you and then once they start developing a relationship with you them they begin to teach you how to show them respect which takes another pound of patience. In time this respect will grow and blossom into love. Well you get the drift of what I am saying and these are all before they teach you how to give them treats for doing tricks for your amusement.
By the way parrots do not look at time in the same manner that humans do. A month is no more important to them than a week, most of the time. The fact is that she is tame already, the issue is that she doesn't trust you yet. As I have said before training can help to deepen their trust and bond with you but it can not create it. Most trainers would have you believe otherwise and that the way to earn your birds trust is through training, but it just doesn't work that way. Once the bird trusts you it will help you to teach it things if you know enough to listen to them. There are no experts when it comes to parrots other than the parrot itself. I have birds that I have had for about three years that are just now trusting me enough to want to do things like tricks for me, I have not had to teach a single bird to step up for me or to recall, they all want to be with me and they come out of their cages on their own and either step up without me asking them to or they come to me from across the room on their own and when I call them. They ask for head scratches and they ask for treats as well as telling me they just want to sit on me without being disturbed. They will defend me with their life against other birds, cats, 100 pound dogs and humans all without being asked to do so. And they were not taught any of these things.

[Pajarita]

I have a feeling your bird is clipped and that's a shame because, if she wasn't, it would be easier for her to trust you in many ways. For example, they love flying around and then end it up by perching on your head. It's high up for them to feel safe, far enough from your hands to feel that you won't be trying to grab it but still near enough another living being to make her feel good.

Do the sessions after her breakfast (wait until she finishes eating and preening and do it then), early in the afternoon after she gets up from her noon rest (don't do it during her noon nap time, you would be disrupting her natural biorhythms), then again before her dinner. These are the times that birds in the wild interact with each other and are the best ones for our own interaction with them.

It's always easy when you keep them to a strict solar schedule and don't feed them high protein all day long because then you can use the times birds normally interact with other birds in the wild to tame/train, etc. and tempt them with a high value item reward. People think that the husbandry (diet, schedule, etc) we recommend is not really necessary and that's it's too hard but, in reality, it's not only that it's so much healthier for them but also that it helps the human immensely when it comes to taming and training!

When your friends tell you that they could tame a bird better or sooner than you, tell them that this shows they don't know anything about parrots!