New Budgie- When will tail and wing feathers grow back?

[Wolf]

This is why you need to set aside your own fund for your birds emergencies. Please read everything in the link as a budgie is a parrot and they all have many things in common. Except for the quickness of the fight or flight response and their physical size their abilities are similar and their need are even more similar. It all applies to your bird too, well at least most of it does.
When does your bird get up and go to bed? What do you feed it? When do you feed it? How much is it sleeping? Tell us what is the daily routine for your bird. We need this information to help you with your bird, you are our eyes and ears into your birds world.

[Alfie]

Ok, I'll describe her life so far. she started in a pet store, and I took her home Saturday and left her alone (as in, didn't bother her... I stayed in the room most of the night) She managed to climb up the the top perch to sleep, and I made sure she had about 10 hours. In the morning she woke me up to chirping, ate some food, then actively climbed all over the cage and tried to escape through the window on the opposite side of her cage. On Sunday about the same thing was repeated. I read to her and played some music, but she seemed just a bit less active. However, she ate a lot and I had to blow off the layers of seed shells twice. That night, I stayed up later because I needed to shower and finish some homework. She went to sleep at about 10:30, and I woke up for school at 6:30. I came home at 3 on Monday, cared for her, then also went to bed late-ish again This morning I turned the lights off and covered half her cage to let her get in some more sleep while I'm at school. She spent last night on her swing perch and she let me nudge it so it would swing for her Finally, today, I plan to start interacting with her and beginning to tame her.

[Alfie]

Oh, and she always has a bowl of Vita Prima bird seed mix in her cage, though she mainly just picks out the small, yellowish cream colored seeds, as well as plenty of fresh water. I put an apple slice and the tip of spray millet in the cage yesterday, but I don't think she ate any.

[Pajarita]

She is only eating the seeds that are soft enough for her tender beak (she is a baby) but millet and water will kill her in the long term because there isn't anywhere enough nutrition in that diet. She needs to have two types of soft food served fresh twice a day. Soft food is exactly what the name implies, food that is soft. It can be cooked whole grains (like brown rice, barley, oats, wheat, quinoa, etc), polenta, whole grain couscous, cooked pastina (this is the teeny tiny noodles they sell for soup), etc. But she also needs a different leafy green everyday as well as veggies (they are not big fruit eaters), they love raw broccoli, all lettuces except iceberg, chicory, escarole, bok choy, etc and corn, baby peas, cooked and finely diced carrots, etc.

If you keep on putting your hand in her cage, it will take longer for her to bond with you. You are not supposed to tame a bird by forcing yourself on it (clipping, putting your hand in the cage, etc), you are supposed to make it love you by only doing nice things to it.

And babies need even more sleep than adults so the schedule you are using for her will only make her immune system go down.

Budgies might be cheap and small but that doesn't mean they don't deserve the same good treatment as a large parrot.

[Alfie]

She's gone through her first molt and I believe she has her final cere coloration (White with tinted blue?) so I don't know if she qualifies as a baby. Earlier today I gave her another apple slice (although she didn't touch the first one), some celery leaves (we're out of broccoli), and millet along with the seed food. Is the soft food found in pet stores or do I make it? Also, what types of fruits and veggies do you feed your budgies? Also, I'll see if she will come out into my room tonight.

[Wolf]

Alfie, the millet is not for anything but a treat, not for all the time. Use any and all of the vegetables that are listed in Pajaritas post here except for the iceburg lettuce, that is the one that grows as a round head, it is not good for them.
The soft foods you have to make them for yourself as they are not sold inmost pet stores, look for them at the supermarket. Maybe your mom will help you to prepare the food for her, just make sure that it isn't hot when you give it to her slightly warm or room temperature would be ok.
Also I said to talk and sing to your bird and to offer her a treat through the bars of the cage not to reach in. You want her to come to you while you remain out of the cage before you offer treats with the door open and even then you are just at the door.

[Alfie]

Ok. I'm just sticking the tip of through the cage bars to let her try the millet, I'm not using it as an actual food. So far she hasn't eaten any and I don't know if she even recognizes it as something delicious and edible since she was only fed seeds at the pet store. Thank you for the other advise on feeding her- I'll prepare some soft food for her before school tomorrow.
Also, this is the link to a youtube video I watched and was going to use on taming budgies- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nVaVbnV120 According to you and Pajarita, this uses "flooding" and a lot of it is incorrect in how budgies should be tamed. So do I have the right idea now?:
-- After the budgie has had some time to get used to being in a new home, set the cage on the floor (that part would be specific to my budgie, I guess) to see if he comes out to explore. Let him explore and come to you on his own and do everything at his own pace. See if he will let you hand-feed him treats through the bars. Keep his food and water full and his cage clean, and also feed greens daily and soft food for babies. Spend time with him and eventually he will become used to and attached to you- then he can be taught tricks such as "step up" etc....-- Sound good?

[Wolf]

Step up is not really a trick, although I guess that you could look at it that way. The video isn't all that bad and you will be able to use it after a bit. Just wait until the bids start to come to the side of the cage you are on. Sing to them ,talk to them, hold the millet in your hand outside of the cage with just the tip stuck through. Don't leave it there. If they aren't understanding that it is food, you could pinch a little off the sprig onto a paper plate along with a small amount of their seed mix and put it on the bottom of the cage. It is a good place for their fresh veggies too. Just put it where it won't get pooped on.
When the bird starts coming over to the same side of the cage that you are and taking some of the millet then you are ready to open the door and offer it directly to them, but not until they are ready. The difference is that you wait for the birds to be ready so this way although it is not as fast, the bird trusts you more.

[Pajarita]

And please note that this young girl's budgies are clipped, too, and that she specifically said not to put your hand on the side of the cage as you were doing -that's flooding and not what she did which was talk, read and sing to them.

Try giving your bird some corn, they all love it. And how do you know the bird went through its juvenile molt? Did the owner of the petstore tell you?

[Alfie]

No, I just thought she went through her molt because she no longer has the baby bars extending all the way to the cere. However, I guess I'm wrong because I just noticed some pin feathers which are still on her head as well as a few feathers on the bottom of the cage. Anyways... Guess what just happened?!?! I set her cage on the ground and started playing some soft budgie chirping noises in the background (not the kind that makes her chirp back, just a youtube video of a bunch of budgies quietly chattering to each other) and then I opened all her doors and set the food dish outside the cage (only for ten minutesish and to lure her, not to starve her into coming out!) and she did! Then, even further, SHE ATE SEEDS FROM MY HAND! I was a bit frightened that she would bite me since that's what female budgies tend to do, but she was completely calm and gentle. She stepped back up on the food dish and let me pick that up to set her back in the cage. I'm so excited, I expected it to take a few weeks to be at this stage!