Parakeet Treats

[Katri]

Hi,

I've been trying to find treats for my budgie to begin clicker training. I've tried Dried Apples, Banana Chips, Raisins, Sunflower seeds, and Millet and the only thing I can get the budgie to eat out of my hand are the little red seeds from the food he gets on a regular basis but as soon as he takes it from me he drops it and loses it 90% of the time.

Kathleen/Michael, what treats are you using to train Duke? I've tried millet but he tends to run from that.

[Michael]

Is this a bird you just got? He might not be used to millet spray yet. A trick I use when introducing or testing new treats on my parrot is to give it to her in abundance in her cage for a few days and let her get to like it. Then I don't give it to her anymore and use it exclusively as a treat. So if the budgie has not gotten a taste for millet spray yet, leave it in the cage for a few days so it can get to like it, and then try again.

If not, see what your budgie's second favorite kind of seed is and then feed that to it in the cage and reserve the favorite seed only for training.

[Katri]

He eats millet spray when its in the cage but runs from it when I try to give it to him. I'll keep working on it and trying new foods. Ironically he'll jump on my hand when I'm holding the millet but he won't eat it but if I leave it in the bottom of the cage and remove my hand he'll run towards it...

I've had the bird for awhile but there was a period of neglect where I couldn't spend a lot of time with him but now I'm trying to reconcile our relationship and train him. He's about 2 years old, I'm not sure if that impacts us greatly or not. I've been working diligently with him for 2-3 weeks and have regained his love and trust so when I take him out of the cage he'll actually hang out with me instead of panicking and flying into walls.

[Michael]

Take the budgie's food away in cage for 3-6 hours and then try. If it is more hungry it might get a little more bold.

[TheNzJessie]

exactly what Michael said, my budgie will eat it all in his cage and when out...nothing..... so take his fod away and the the millet into pieces (the one i get is long) i can cut it into 3 sections and tear a bit of so i have a bit of the stalk to hold so my hand is not covering the entire piece of millet so the budgie cant see it