HELP!!! My Parakeets just don't want to bond at all!!!

I currently have three Parakeets. One male and two females. I have had two of them for almost two months and the other I just got recently. They just want nothing to do with me. I read countless articles on taming Parakeets and everything suggested doesn't work. I tried feeding them out of my hand and basically trying to show them I am no threat but they always run away from me. My friend (who is experience with birds) said to just forcfully take them out of the cage myself and try and pet them and play with them. I tried this countless times and my Parakeets always run away from me and try to avoid me as much as possible. They won't even let me pet them. I've tried everything and nothing works. Any help will do, I just want to bond with my Parakeets.

Trying to bond with any multiple birds that live in the same cage is going to take along time and maybe never to the level I think you are wanting. Tey have already formed some bond with their cage mates and frankly grabbing them to forcefully remove them and pet and play with them is just killing any chance of a bond ( a positive bond) happening.

Curious why you got 3 to start with?

I would start with minimal hand exposure for oh a month. During that month you are going to sit next to the cage and read aloud to them in a quiet and pleasing voice. Doesnt matter what you read to them ; Moby Dick or the Wall Street Journal ). Do this EVERY DAY for an hour for a month. No eye contact. Next find ot what their favorite treat is (the thing they run to eat). This now is only given to them by you. At first offer it thru the bars. DO this for a month. Next offer it in your hand thru the cage door but only at the opening of the cage. Again do it for a lonth. Next you offer the treat still in your hand but with a finge from the other hand between them and the treat. Again for a month. EVERYDAY. At the same time. Be consistent in how you do things - all parrots like consistentcy. You see where this is going I hope. Take steps at a time. Youmay find one of them moves a lot faster than the others. Or one or 2 never or ALL never progess beyond a certain point. BIG IDEA: In any interaction with them always think "Is this trust building or tust braking?" Because it is all about trust. And take you time - they can live 10-12 years or moreso 2 months is nothing. Example - it took me awhole year to get my Salty to wear a harnes. Whole year - working with him every night and including it our nightly training sessions.

And if nothing works - everything - you still have 3 beautiful birds that live inyour house and add beauty and music and joy to your life.

When did you try feeding them by hand? For how long did you try feeding them by hand? Or many days did you work on feeding them by hand?

I tried hand feeding them recently because the thing my friend suggested wasn't working out so I wanted to start over and do things properly.

This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. When trying to hand-tame birds that were not hand-raised/fed and/or have had little human-interaction, the process needs to be done every single day for at least an hour or more, and we're talking months to even years, not weeks unfortunately. On average, I'd say it takes at least a month or two to start seeing an overall change, that's just how this process is...

And Wrench is correct, trying to hand-tame multiple birds who are housed together is going to make this process much, much, much more difficult, and in a lot of instances impossible. You need to think hard about separating them into their own cages. They can live next-to each other, but not with each other. Think of it this way: As long as your birds have each other to be bonded closely with, why would they want to bond closely with a human? That's the way they are thinking right now. If you separate them into their own cages, and when it's training/taming time you take each bird's cage into a totally separate room with a latching door and spend an hour with each one a day, you'll be much more successful in taming them, and especially in bonding with them, as that most-likely isn't going to happen in your current set-up...

sorry to pinch this thread i have to parakeets but i am not bothered wether they bond with me or not as long as they are happy and healthy tomorrow is first time out of the cage day as i will have had them a week , they have been in there cage in the garden and seem happy they have not played with any toy i have put in there cage as yet

I'll say that 15 minutes a day, if that, done once a day, every day, is enough to start earning their trust. However, it's best to try in the morning when they are hungriest and haven't eaten yet. After offering food by hand, whether or not they take it after 5-15 minutes, refresh their food dishes and try again the next day.

I had 5 adult, flighted budgies that I did this with. Three of them were second hand birds that were originally purchased at a pet store then their families decided they didn't want them and gave them to me. Two of them came from a breeder and were parent raised. My only goal was to see if I could get them to trust me enough to fly to me.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUx81WHTUwk"]1 Bird in hand Leads to Many - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSm4uFZzVU"]More Budgies!!!! - YouTube[/ame]