Advice on a lonely budgie.

Some acquaintances of mine had a pair of budgies but the female died so they gave the male to me in the hopes that he and my African Gray would get along. That didn't work out, as the Gray is pretty hostile toward him. Unfortunately I can't really handle the budgie either, he won't step on my hand and just flies around and avoids me.

I haven't had a budgie before and I don't know if this one even socialized with people in the past. My other birds just naturally got along with me so I'm not sure what to do that will get the budgie to trust me.

I've been thinking of getting him a companion budgie, but what is the best way to go about that? I don't want to get a new bird and then it turns out they don't get along. How do I go about finding the right bird-friend and/or getting the budgie to like me?

Good Morning and welcome to the Forums. I am sure someone will come along soon and give you some help. I don't own a Budgie but they are the cuties things.

Hi and welcome. I have had a few single budgies in the past and they have been great on their own. Please try giving him a break in another room so he can get used to you without your other bird, who is poss sending out hate vibes. Budgies are so sweet, make sure that he has a good diet, toys and a decent cage. Give him a chance and a little of your time one to one each day. Obviously if you really dont have the will to do this then please seek a new and good home for him. Who can say that a new companion will work out and then you have two problems. Give this little one some time and a chance to trust you and see what transpires.

Most budgies are parent raised birds, so they find humans to be frightening.

From the sounds of it, you haven't given this budgie any reason to trust you. Sure, you may feed him and give him water, but that doesn't give him any reason to think you aren't some sort of threat. You need to earn his trust.



I found that feeding birds by hand every day, first thing in the morning prior to giving them food (feeding every day! not making sure that they have a dish full of food and "topping up" when "needed") can help teach them that humans aren't so bad. It can also work by giving them favorite treats!


[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]




[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9w9w8nMRmw"]Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH9ZWxhCSAE"]Not So Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]

MonicaMc: Thanks for those lovely clips. I had budgies straight from an aviary and they were characters and delightful, one lived to 14 and a half and broke my heart when he died so I said I couldnt take another - too painful.
LornaWhisperer: If you give this little one a go chances are he'll be great, the problem I think would be juggling your parrot and this little one?

plumsmum2005 said:

MonicaMc: Thanks for those lovely clips. I had budgies straight from an aviary and they were characters and delightful, one lived to 14 and a half and broke my heart when he died so I said I couldnt take another - too painful.
LornaWhisperer: If you give this little one a go chances are he'll be great, the problem I think would be juggling your parrot and this little one?

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They're both in my bedroom (I live with my parents) so taking the budgie to another room to socialize alone won't be simple but I'll try that out. The Gray is also really demanding of attention and unfortunately I can't have them both out at the same time. Thanks for the advice to other posters, I'll definitely try hand-feeding.

I would get your budgie a companion budgie. If it's a male, then you probably want another male because they tend to get along with each other better. I have an aviary with rescue budgies and they get along wonderfully. Budgies that aren't hand tame are very hard to earn trust from and in my experience they just do better with other budgies they can relate to. If you get him a companion, it would be good to change his current cage arrangement (rotate/change toys) to reduce the chance of cage territorial behaviors, although I have never had a problem with that. We've put countless hours and hours into rehabilitating our rescue budgies and they actually eat out of our hands now. But I think they benefit the most from having each other, as budgies aren't usually as cuddly as other parrot species (we have a budgie that was hand raised and is very sweet and attached to my husband and I dont think our rescues would ever be comfortable with humans like that, which is totally fine because we just want them to be happy and comfortable on their terms). Best of luck to you and your birds!

so i know what you are going thru as i felt the same with my first budgie who is now 5 months old. after some time lucy has earned the trust of just about my entire family. if you talk to your bird as much as possible even when you are cleaning cage let the bird know what your doing. lots of toys and rotate them every so often. get the budgie a mirror. lucy loves to dance to music now and will make noises at my husband when he talks to her. it just takes a little time. good luck

I got Andi from a corner pet shop where she was just thrown in a corner and nobody even had any idea she was there! I spent a lot of time just sitting with her doing homework, reading a book or doing research on the computer and I learned to type with one hand while one hand would get closer to her cage which I would take in baby steps, and by baby steps I mean like fetus steps! extremely tiny steps!

First my hand just sat laid on the desk next to her cage. She didn't like that at all!! flipped out, but I just let my hand sit there. She calmed down after realizing that my hand wasn't attacking her. I couldn't move closer for a week!

After she was comfortable with my hand laying on the desk I moved it a couple inches closer. Yup, she flipped out again! and once again that is how far I could go for a few days.

I wouldn't move closer until she was completely comfortable with my hand at the current distance. Preening is good indicator that you could move on to the next step. I eventually got around to putting my hand on the side of the cage, then I advanced to having one finger in the cage at a time. then two, then three.

After each session she got lots of treats for being a brave girl! not from my hand of course but she got the point lol as soon as I was able to put my entire hand in the cage I made sure that I ALWAYS had treats in my hand so she could be slightly distracted that there were goodies in that monster thing that was going to eat her!(my hand lol)

It definitely got easier and easier as she started to realize more and more that if I was going to eat her I probably would've done it by now lol. She was the only budgie that I was ever able to lay on her back in my palm and she just relax there.
You could tell she didn't enjoy it as much as Kyro my sun conure but it was more like a trick for her and she eventually trusted me enough to do this with me!! Now how many budgies do you know that will lay on their backs for their owners?!

All it takes is loving time and PATIENCE!!! LOTS AND LOTS OF PATIENCE!! If you put in the work with them they will reward you more than you ever thought they could. you just have to invest a little energy into these tiny little sweeties(

Hello I own 6 budgies. Now budgies can be hand tamed but usually their nature is more of a sit back and watch me do my thing kind of bird. As for letting a big bird near a budgie, that's definitely not a good idea. I recommend getting another budgie to keep it company. I keep two of my budgies in one cage and four in another. Good luck with your budgie, budgies are amazing little birds. Unfortunately many people consider them throw away birds because they're not easily tamed like a lot of the bigger birds.

LornaWhisperer said:

Some acquaintances of mine had a pair of budgies but the female died so they gave the male to me in the hopes that he and my African Gray would get along. That didn't work out, as the Gray is pretty hostile toward him. Unfortunately I can't really handle the budgie either, he won't step on my hand and just flies around and avoids me.

I haven't had a budgie before and I don't know if this one even socialized with people in the past. My other birds just naturally got along with me so I'm not sure what to do that will get the budgie to trust me.

I've been thinking of getting him a companion budgie, but what is the best way to go about that? I don't want to get a new bird and then it turns out they don't get along. How do I go about finding the right bird-friend and/or getting the budgie to like me?

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Usually just any budgie friend would work. Try a male, males get along great when not with a female budgie and both will easily mimic, bond with you, and they're more chatty and bold.
The last time I had a female, she made Mika more shy because she wasn't as peppy as a male. So now I want to stick with males, and they both warmed right up to me.