Hi there!
I just brought home 2 sweet English budgies 4 days ago. They're a little over a month old and they were hand-fed and tamed by a nice breeder. He advised taking them out for 15 minutes every day right away, and he thought they would be cooperative.
But they aren't! They're very bonded to each other, which is quite cute. When I go near them in the cage, however, they either hop away or, quite often, just do nothing and ignore me. (Sometimes they even shut their eyes and appear to sleep.)
For a couple minutes, many times a day, I hold some millet in my hand and just hold it out to them. So far, they ignore it or hop away. Usually just sit there and ignore.
The breeder said it would be fine to gently grab them and take them out of their cage, since it was very important to get them out so they could bond with me. Once out of their cage (I did it one by one), they did indeed sit on my hand and tried to hop away sometimes -- were clearly a bit scared -- but did stay on my hand for a few minutes and let me pet them.
I do not really want to grab them again. Everything online I've read said that is bad, and it seemed to traumatize them a bit.
I read a lot online about how how to hand-tame parakeets from a pet store, but is there a different approach/pace to take with parakeets who are babies and hand-tamed (with the breeder, but not with me)? I'm happy to take a slow approach, but I don't want to lose any training that the breeder did with them (and he seemed to say it was very important to handle them each day).
Is there a different approach to take with a pair? Will it be possible to tame them if they're so bonded to one another (without removing them to separate cages, which I'd ideally like to not do)?
Is grabbing them and bringing them out to work with them okay, or should that be avoided and just take a very slow approach?
Would love some tips on what to do!
I just brought home 2 sweet English budgies 4 days ago. They're a little over a month old and they were hand-fed and tamed by a nice breeder. He advised taking them out for 15 minutes every day right away, and he thought they would be cooperative.
But they aren't! They're very bonded to each other, which is quite cute. When I go near them in the cage, however, they either hop away or, quite often, just do nothing and ignore me. (Sometimes they even shut their eyes and appear to sleep.)
For a couple minutes, many times a day, I hold some millet in my hand and just hold it out to them. So far, they ignore it or hop away. Usually just sit there and ignore.
The breeder said it would be fine to gently grab them and take them out of their cage, since it was very important to get them out so they could bond with me. Once out of their cage (I did it one by one), they did indeed sit on my hand and tried to hop away sometimes -- were clearly a bit scared -- but did stay on my hand for a few minutes and let me pet them.
I do not really want to grab them again. Everything online I've read said that is bad, and it seemed to traumatize them a bit.
I read a lot online about how how to hand-tame parakeets from a pet store, but is there a different approach/pace to take with parakeets who are babies and hand-tamed (with the breeder, but not with me)? I'm happy to take a slow approach, but I don't want to lose any training that the breeder did with them (and he seemed to say it was very important to handle them each day).
Is there a different approach to take with a pair? Will it be possible to tame them if they're so bonded to one another (without removing them to separate cages, which I'd ideally like to not do)?
Is grabbing them and bringing them out to work with them okay, or should that be avoided and just take a very slow approach?
Would love some tips on what to do!