Mandy, that is very cute.
greatgriffin wrote:Kathleen - how do you handle your budgie Duke? I have had budgies earlier (many years back) but they would all flee if I approached them to close. Has he come to you this tame or have you been able to tame him this nicely yourself?
I haven't heard of hand-reared budgies yet.... is he an exception maybe?
This budgie was hand raised, not parent raised. It was a little bit more expensive than the typical budgies in chain pet stores (in the US). Instead of being $10 (US) it was $25 (US)... I'm not sure what the conversion is.
When I first got Duke he was scared of me a bit. In the store I kept trying to pick him up out of the tank of budgies and he kept running away and running away from my hand. He's a little mouse with wings. When I finally got him, he kept flying/jumping off and biting in the store. He was extremely frightened of me at that point.
It's much easier to handle a baby or juvenile bird that has been hand raised and has been clipped. They are helpless. I immediately started training this budgie using a clicker method and a targeting method. Once he was target trained, he'd go wherever I wanted him to go willingly. On my shoulder, on my hand, on my arm, etc. He'd run around on the floor to reach the chopstick.
The breeder who hand fed this bird and the pet store who clipped this bird did most of the work for me. They made him used to hands and they made him very helpless. He could barely fly away from me if he wanted to at the very beginning, and he didn't want to for the most part after he learned that I am nice to him, that I'm a source of his favorite treats and that my hand is okay to step on and it is followed with a nice rewarding experience--to go outside the cage with me.