He is a young male, I have had him for a few weeks. I am hoping to tame him. He will rarely let me touch him. A friend said to handle him lots, but he bites my hands. Should I give up on the taming? Any sugestions on taming or getting him back in his cage? All I can think of is to throw a cloth over him to catch him.
Originally posted 2009-04-24 10:21:35.
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nah dont give up, they’re the easiest to tame and their bites hardly hurt at all. Hard to tame and nasty bites? that sounds like my old IRN specially cuz they werent tame at all. You can keep the cage infront of him open, and he should go in especially if there are otehr budgies in there. If not, then you can throw a cloth over him and try to get him inside, or try leaving a trail of bird seed up to the cage. DONT scare the bird, cuz these little birdies can remeber things well enough. Once inside, interact with him as much as you can, talk to him put your hand in with a treat, give it time and it’ll adjust to you and your hand and then its pretty easy from there.
leave the cage door open it should go back in there when its hungry.
to train a budgie you have to earn its trust. you close all doors so that it is say only in your lounge room the budgie can go in . let it out of its cage and put its food and water on the coffee table.it will eventually come down for a drink or a feed . when it does ,don’t make any sudden move ments just carry on as normal and ignor what its doing . it will eventually learn that your not going to try and grab it or hurt it and it will become friendly to the point of where it will fly down and land on your head and try and land on the table to eat what ever your eat or drinking . before you know it it will trust you totally.
Don’t let him out of the home until you have him finger tamed. Even after you have him finger tamed, he may still fly off; then, you perch him on his finger, move him slowly towards the cage door, and he will usually get the idea and hop in. I did have a bird that couldn’t figure that out, as he would always jump from my hand to the side of the cage! I tricked him by opening the top of the home, lowering him from the top of the home to his perch. Oh, and catching a budgie with a light-weight cloth is the best way to do this. Don’t ever try to grab the bird with your hands, as capturing a bird is very traumatic for it, and it will become scared of your hand. (don’t worry, if you’ve been doing that and stop now, you can regain it’s trust).
To finger tame a budgie:
Slowly extend your hand to the bird. When it flutters off, pause a moment and move your hand towards the bird again. If the bird panics and shrieks, slowly pull your hand back. Always talk, cluck or whistle to the bird in soothing tones while you are doing this. When your hand gets close enough, it will probably try to bite. Don’t yank your hand away, as that will startle the bird. Also, they will beak at you. It may not necessarily be trying to bite. Hookbills test the strength of each perch buy testing it with it’s beak to make sure it’s sturdy enough to support them, and you are offering your finger as a perch! And, hookbills express affection with their beaks, so it may also be giving you a kiss. When you can make contact with the bird, use your forefinger at about it’s stomache, just a little above the legs. Gently push up and back. For a while, the bird will flutter off when you do this, but eventually, it will pick up one little foot and mout itself on your finger. Remember that budgies have very tiny little hearts that is already beating much, much faster than yours. Stress raises heart rate, and prolonged exposure to stress can kill a bird. So, leave your finger taming to about 10 to 15 minutes each day, then leave it alone. After you have tamed the bird, have it perch on your finger a couple times every day, or it will forget and start avoiding your hand again.