Today, I showed up to babysit and received quite a shock. I hadn't seen Hyrum for about two weeks because his older siblings from Wyoming were visiting. As an early Christmas present, Hyrum's older brother gave him another budgie. Don't get me wrong, Hyrum's a good kid, but he doesn't really do anything with Jack other than feed and give him fresh water every day. He loves Jack, but on the days I'm not there, he forgets to interact with him. And, to top it off, the new bird doesn't have its own cage! They stuck it in Jack's cage (which is kinda small - ok for just one budgie, but *not* big enough for two and certainly not big enough for two who don't know and like each other!) They've had the new bird for a few days, and they haven't fought, but it's obvious that Jack is NOT HAPPY with the situation and Hyrum's mom told me she was worried because Jack didn't seem to be eating as much as usual. He did eat a little today, but I'm worried about Jack and I worry that they might come home one day and find their birdies dead.
I explained to Hyrum's mom that Jack is NOT comfortable with the situation and birds naturally want to defend their territory and if there were any signs that they weren't getting along, they needed to get another cage for the new bird RIGHT AWAY.
The new bird (unnamed as of yet) is from a local pet store and is very young (which I am grateful for). There are bars on its forehead all the way down to the cere, so it's too early to tell the gender, but it's the perfect time for training. It is not tame. It is a bit frightened of people, but I think that has to do with the new environment. It doesn't know how to step up. Hyrum said that once you get her (they're calling it a her for now) on your hand, she will sit there, and he showed me pictures of her sitting on his older sister's shoulder. I take this as a very good sign.
I first said Hi to Jack and asked him to step up for me a few times. He was very nervous around the new bird and stays on the opposite half of the cage, but he was pretty good about stepping up when the other bird wasn't too close. They had Jack first and I don't want him to feel like he's been displaced by the new bird. The other bird kind of ran away from my hand when I got close.
Jack has never eaten millet while I held the spray in my hand. I assumed it was because he didn't like me. I know young birds are more exploratory, so I offered some millet to the new bird and she took to it like a duck to water, not even caring that my hand was nearby. I let her eat it for a while, then offered some to Jack. I know lots of birds learn better by watching other birds. I thought that maybe if he saw the other bird taking millet from me and enjoying it, he would too. And I was right! After offering it between them a few more times, he finally took a few bites!
I was so happy!!! He didn't eat much, but it's a definite start!Also, I got out the target stick and started rewarding the new bird when she touched the stick. She got the concept right away, while Jack has never even touched the target stick in the past, even though I've tried with him a lot. The new bird even started to reach a little for the target stick, after just a few times! Hyrum was watching and he got really excited by this. I'm hoping this will encourage him to start to play with and train his birds. Jack, unfortunately, still won't target, even though I asked him to do it after every time the other bird did it successfully, so he knew what I wanted and that he would get a reward. I'm hoping that after another training session tomorrow, he will be more willing to try.
One last thing - the new bird is clipped, but they want to let her feathers grow out (YAY!) so she can be flighted like Jack. (When I say flighted, I mean he has flight feathers but they don't let him out much so he's not a very *good* flier. I've never even seen him fly because I can't get him out of the cage willingly and I don't want to just grab him.)
Am I going about this the right way? Do you have any suggestions? And I apologize for the long post!!!
