parakeet questions.

[Cliffordsmom]

I know I'm super full of questions all the time. Sorry :-/ I'll stop once i quit reading about everyone elses birds and want mine to be like theirs. lol

I have 2 budgies a male and a female they are both about a year old, they were bought from a pet store. I got the male first and had him completley hand tame. He would play with me and mimic me and even tried to say words. I had to get a second job and I was worried he would get bored so I bought him a playmate. He hates me now. Neiter one of them will have anything to do with me. Ive had them both for about 3 months and they still scurry away when I come to the cage and talk to them. Cleaning out their cage is no fun, they fly around in a panic. I dont see them playing with their toys, they never use their cuddle bone, they dont do much but groom each other and kiss each other and mimic Clifford my sun conure. They sit there and do nothing (poor babies) all day long. Is there hope of hand taming them? Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to help them be less afraid. Their cage is on a stand and when im next to it im still wuite a bit taller than it, do you thik it would help for them to be up higher?
I appreciate everyones help and advice you guys are great!
Here's a pic of Odin the male blue guy and Diana the white female.

 

[luvmytooo]

Try separating them. Give each keet some one on one time and they should come around. I would put them in separate rooms if possible.
Once you mentioned was hand tame , which you should be able to make friends with again. The other one will take time.
I do suggest you clip the wings. It is much easier to tame them when they cant get away from you. Leaving the wings intact will make taming very hard , not impossible , just very hard.
Their wings grow back pretty fast , so dont worry about it.
I wouldnt let them near Clifford , not even on top of his cage.
His beak is much bigger and he can do alot of harm if not kill the keet. Use some millet for training. Get them to accept your hand on the cage without flying away , do short sessions. The once they accept your hand on the outside , try putting your hand inside the cage and just hold still , let them relax. Then withdraw your hand.
Do this everyday , couple times a day or as much as you can.
The next step , pull the food the night before , the latest you can , the better... take some millet and see if they will feed off your hand or finger. Once they do that and are comfortable with it , you are half way there. Take them out and let them perch on your fingers. Play with them like this on a regular basis . Only until you are positive they are both hand tame , you can put them together again. But make sure you are handling them both regularly , because if you dont , they will revert back to being skittish very quickly.
Once more thing , if you want them to talk , you need to keep them separate . Keets that are kept on their own will start to mimic and continue build their vocabulary throughout their lives. They actually are found to have one of the largest vocabularies of the parrots , they are just very hard to understand because of their size. Enjoy them

 

[luvmytooo]

I forgot to mention , only pull the food if you intend on working with them that morning. You can leave a little food in the cup if you plan on working with them in the afternoon. Never leave them without food for too long.
You can also use oats and groats , as treats . Only use as treats though , this way its just that , a treat and they associate it with you.

 

[Cliffordsmom]

Im afraid if I seperate them they will be depressed! They love each other so much.
Not to worry Clifford is not allowed to mess with the budgies, and he knows is I wouldn't want him to harm them.
We have scheduled times for all pets, when I get home, I let the dogs out into the yard to play and run, then i open Cliffords door, when the dogs come in Cliffords door gets shut, or the dogs are kept in the other room. Clifford tries to kill them if hes around them!
The parakeets never come out. I have taken them into the birdie safe room and taken the top of their cage off completley and they just still sit on their perch. They will NOT come out. If I put my hand in they frantacally flutter to the bottom and sit there....
I will try your suggestion, I will have to watch them for signs of depression I would really be afraid they will be sad without each other.

 

[luvmytooo]

They wont be depressed. But I doubt Clifford knows you dont want him to hurt them.
He will do what his instincts tell him to do at the moment. Just saying...
Good luck.

 

[Cliffordsmom]

Clifford's wings are clipped so he cant get up there. There is nothing to climb to get up there either. No worries. I love all my babies, and they are ALL very supervised.

 

[luvmytooo]

I'm sure they are all well taken care of. I didnt mean to be
so blunt , but I have seen some really bad accidents with smaller birds and going near the larger parrots that's all.

 

[Cliffordsmom]

I think Clifford is more interested in killing the dogs than the keets! lol. The dogs get lots of pets and cuddles, so he is jealous. Thanks luvmytooo for the hints, I will try them!

 

[mcw009]

I have 2 keets who share a cage too, but they're both males. I got both from a pet store; one was only about a month old at the time and the other already had full adult plumage so he's a mystery. As such, the baby was easy to tame and has remained docile and unafraid, but the other guy is still skittish. I've had them for about a year and a half now.

On the bright side, the older boy has mostly come around. I'm afraid of being crucified for admitting this, but I had excellent results from holding him in my hand in bander's grip for a couple minutes at a time. He screamed and bit and struggled every time, but now he doesn't freak out when I go in the cage anymore, and will readily perch anywhere on me except my fingers. So that might be a last resort after trying the other suggestions luvmytoo offered. But it does carry the risk of making the bird terrified of you forever.

Personally, I got 2 birds for the same reason as you: I didn't want a lone bird to be lonely while I worked all day. I knew it meant they would probably never be super sociable and accepted that. I would hate to separate them, even if it meant they'd like me better... they're bestest buddies!

 

[Cliffordsmom]

Yes mcw...I do realize that they will probably never be as social as a lone bird. sad but I accept it. But I dont want them to be scared. No point in cleaning out a bird cage that just gets messy again from all the startled fluttering. Its frusturating. Im going to try and seperate them and see what happens. It still makes me very nervous, I've heard that some keets die without their partner in crime. :-( that scares me. So if I seperate them and they stop eating and singing and act weird I will probably put them back together. I want them to be more sociable with me but not at risk to their happiness or health.

 

[mcw009]

That's probably the fastest way to get results. But time alone does help too. 3 months isn't actually all that long... my boys were pretty well settled by then, but I'd say it was closer to 6 or more months before they really felt at home.

 

[JMO]

My keets were never tame/tamed. If I put my hand in their cage they do flutter around and stuff. I wouldnt say they are scared of me though, my oldest budgie is about 10-12 years old so he is very used to my family, my dog and I. They just rather not be touched but I would say they do love us.

One of my budgies though, has a problem and has never learned to fly. He flaps his wings and actually goes in circles and crashes (sometimes hard) on the floor. After he crash lands a couple times, he "warms up" and then flies a bit better to the point where he can land on his cage but there is no hope. When he is tired though, I can manage to hold him and he stands on my finger.

In my opinion, unless it is the only bird and it was hand fed and dealt with from the time the bird was a baby, there is little one can do with budgies. They are a bit standoffish but do make excellent little pets for sure.

Good luck.

 

[ann]

You could separate them but have their cages touching, or keep them in the same cage and get a cage divider? Good luck