A Budgie Question

[spiritbird]

Training my former TAG was so easy and fast. She was hand fed and took right to most things and could step up right away. She also played some games. (smart birds!)

Now that I have 2 parakeets I am finding training going slowly. One Chipper the male was 100% parent fed but he is doing well with the training except for letting me touch him. Female (from Petsmart) is taking a long time. For 2 months now I have been working with step ups along with millet in my hand and sometimes she puts one foot on my finger but immediately gets frightened.

In reading other keet stories from people I read they take a long time to train in general. Why do you think they are so much slower to train? Could it be size? We must look like such predatorstors to them.

[roxynoodle]

Honestly, I think it's because they were parent raised so they weren't bonded to humans as newborns. I remember my last budgie taking a long time to get on my hand and let me take him out that way. Just keep being patient and once you totally win over one of them, the other will probably follow.

Newborn isn't the right word I guess...newly hatched? Lol!

[spiritbird]

That is what I though too Audrey. It sure makes a difference when your bird is handled by humans in addition to parents. That way they get the best of both worlds.

[roxynoodle]

Despite budgies being captive bred for many, many generations now, they still aren't domesticated. We've been domesticating dogs for 80,000 years and cats for around 8,000. Really when you look at the fact that budgies are wild animals, it's quite amazing that they do tame and bond with humans (predators so much larger than they are).

[Wiki]

My 2c:

I've been clicker training my parent-raised non hand-fed boy for a couple of years now and he took to it very quickly.

The big thing to remember with training budgies is the crop - you need to consider it when it comes to food motivation levels. In the wild they would fill their crop in the morning, then set off to find a roost to hide from predators and rest in the heat of the day, while feeding themselves from their crop, and then again in the afternoon they would feed and fill their crop for the night.

So if you time food-based training to happen in the morning before they hit their food bowl, or in the afternoon, then you'll maximise their motivation for food and get a better result. If you do it when their crop is full, you're just not interesting enough. This is also the time they're naturally wanting to be the most active, so flight time at this time is great.

The in-between time is best for teaching them to talk, spending time socialising with them. They will want to rest, probably nap, generally be perch potatoes for most of this time.

[Honesty]

Hello Wiki, welcome to PP

[Wiki]

Hello Wiki, welcome to PP

Thankyou!