tips on training budgies?

hiya! i need any advice on training and taming budgies. My parents have had them before but they werent hand tamed. (they lived in an aviary)

my sister has a male budgie which she was going to tame but she never got round to it. he is about 5 months old. he doesnt get out to fly much at all, and I was thinking of getting a hen budgie so he has someone to talk to. The boy (Baggins) lives in the lounge but theres no room in there for another cage so I was going to keep her in my room.

if I was going to get a hen, i would try to tame her at least to sit on my finger. Im aware that it wont be easy but how long did it take anyone to tame their budgie? Im not bothered about it talking. the main reason i want one is cos I feel sorry for the budgie but i would enjoy the challenge of training it. any tips gratefully recieved.

Hey,

Ive hand tamed a couple of birds and it takes a lot of time and patience and a fair few bites!lol If you want some really good advice theres a very good forum that i use a lot http/www.parrots-paradise.co.uk/phpBB2/portal.php If you post your problem or say you want advice on hand taming your budgies there are some experts who can tell you exactly what to do!!! I wouldn't want to give you too much advice as im far from being an expert on these things but you should do fine if you listen to the advice you get on there!

Good Luck and be Patient!!!lol

Jess

my best advise to you is to get a bird as young as possible from a breeder
look for one that is hand raised from very young
if you purchase a bird from a store, the stress alone from being on display will make them wild
this will make it extremely hard to hand tame

i was lucky enough to get a chick for free from my neighbors batch
i had handled him since he was out of the hatching box
i held him for very short periods of time, speaking softly and stroking him gently
i got him home at 5 weeks (although it should have been 6 weeks)

as soon as he was home i was handling him in a controlled, quiet and dimly lit environment despite what the books say (not to handle for the first few days)
i find the only reason NOT to handle them immediately is when you purchase them from a store and they are traumatized from it

every day i had him out
i would slowly put my hand in the cage and hold my hand in front of him and say "up"
at first it would take a little bit of encouragement to climb onto my hand (a gentle push on the bum
and within weeks i had taught him "up" and "kiss"
try to relate with the bird
for the first few months do not supply her with any mirrors or any other bird contact
if she sees another bird as she is learning how to eat and drink on her own, and interact with humans, then she will not become hand tamed

if you wish to be able to stroke the bird gently give it a kiss on the beak,
as soon as you can get her up on your hand, gently and slowly begin to interact with her in these ways
do them on a daily basis followed by soft praise
do not introduce the other bird until she is fully comfortable with your interactions
and don’t be surprised if she would rather be with her mate then on your finger
but hand taming her first will help allow you to still hold her

my budgie is now 6 months old (roughly) and he is completely hand tamed and has been since he was about 2 months old
he now knows over 50 words (including a few songs) and he loves to play games and perform tricks
he does these thing by choice, as they bring him praise and affection
now since you plan on having 2 birds they will probably not talk or do tricks
but they will be happy

if you have any more questions about training or you are unclear on anything I have said
please feel free to pm me

just showing you my little guy (in my avatar picture aswell)
his name is pickle
he loves EVERYONE and is very friendly,
he also has a great sense of humor
if he does something once and we all laugh, much like a little kid, he'll keep doing it over and over to get more laughs
he's been talking since he was 2 months old and now has a very wide vocabulary
he loves all other animals and he loves to poke eyes
here he is getting ready to poke my eyes