need help with budgie

[pionus]

BudgieGirl wrote
When she begins to follow how you blink and close her eyes in return, you can go on to trying for some contact.

with some animals blinking slowly at them is taken as basically saying 'i love you'. if she blinks back, she understands what you're trying to tell her by blinking. at least that's what it is with cats.

good luck!

[retdpd]

she never thrashes around, she just totally avoids contact by climbing away or falling to the bottom of the cage.

She always follows me visually around the room and when I put food in the dishes, she's ok if I put them in from the outside but once I put my hand in she clings to the side farthest point away.

Today is the first day she has eaten in front of me PROGRESS PROGRESS no matter how little. I try to keep the familiarization training to no longer the 10 minutes each session.

But there is progress today she ate in front of me and is just chirping away...

[BudgieGirl]

That's great! What are you doing for your familiarization sessions?

Is she eating people food yet?

[retdpd]

First I go in the cage and stir her seeds and then sit back, reluctantly she will eat in front of me now.

I then give her the smallest bit of millet on the bars being held by a clothes pin after she has a taste I then I put my hand inside with palms up with whole stalk of millet laying across my palm. I play some chirp sounds etc I found on the web.

I have had no luck with the millet but she is moving closer...

I tried just the hand technique etc.. as posted in the forum and didn't have any luck.

As far as human food she will eat some bread, lettuce and pizza crust. She tries the veggies and fruit--grapes, apple ut not her favorite. I suppose I will have to remove the seed mix to get her more accustomed to veggies but I think that will be down the road.

She seems happy she chirps a lot goes on the swing etc..

I haven't moved her into the living room where my Hahns macaw is at because his screeching could be frightening to her. I want her to calm down a bit more. I know this is strange but I'm kinda looking at it from her perspective. Maybe she will just never trust anyone.

I sent you a PM/re: rescue in Michigan

[BudgieGirl]

That's great that you are making progress! I am sure she will tame and trust you eventually. It just takes time. Is she actually going closer to you, or just relaxing?

Of my budgies, all but my original hen were quite wild when I got them, and it took an average of two to three months to get them fully tame. Except for Arwen, who tamed in two days. But considering that she also tried to climb into a running shop vac on ore than one occasion (and had many other adventures besides) I put that down to an incredible amount of curiosity and no survival instinct whatsoever. And her babies all had a similarly whimsical view of the world... I felt I almost needed to sell the little nutters with warning labels or something.

Just give her time. Budgies are not as complex as the bigger birds in many ways, but once they feel that their trust has been broken it takes them a while to trust again.

It might be too that she has always been kept alone, and those birds do take much longer- the isolation just really does something to them. She needs to learn to trust, and the whole concept of interaction. I had one that had been kept alone for three years, and it took a long time to get through to her. Even after she would step up,etc, she was very much in her own little world for a long time.

Any more progress?

[marie83]

Aw she will tame down, just may take some time thats all. I've had 3 that have been scared to the point they thrashed around the cage if I entered the room at a distance. One took a few weeks to tame, one just under a year and my current 'tiel Harlie has taken years and is still work in progress, she has come such a long way. Its hard to be patient but make sure you see every tiny tiny thing as a big big success and it makes it so much easier to keep working slowly.

Glad to hear your making some progress already

[retdpd]

I've been out of town last 4-5 days... Any achievements have been lost due to no one handling her.

But I think we'll be on track in no time.

I got a big chirping greeting from her when I walked in the room though. I didn't push it, I just put some food in her dish with my hand.

When we go out of town my son moves in and takes care of the critters. We don't believe in just have someone pop in and out.

[BudgieGirl]

That's great that she was so happy to see you! They haven't been totally lost then...

I am the same way when I am gone- I always either end up carting mine off somewhere or getting one of my students to watch them.

How is she now that you are back?

[retdpd]

Going to a bird show this Saturday.

If I pick up a companion for Zoe can I have 3 females together or just keep it at 2.??

So far there hasn't been much progress on the hand familiarization but I feel he is getting use to me being around.

[Eurycerus]

I suggest keeping it at two. If you still haven't made progress imagine what adding another parrot to the mix will do. Don't complicate things.