New Parakeet

[willist]

I currently own an 17 year old African Grey and a 6 year old Greenwing Macaw. Today I purchased a male parakeet from a pet store so I know he wasn't hand raised. I'm looking for any tips or tricks on how tame him. I know many pet shop parakeets can not be tamed, but I'm hoping I'll be successful. I'm hoping with my big bird experience I'll be helpful.

 

[Lonnie]

In my experience with 'keets most tame down quite easily. Maybe some not quite as easy as others, but like with any bird it just takes time a patience, and when I am taming 'keets I usually clip their wings, as they can be boogers to catch if they are flighted

 

[willist]

Thanks for your reply. He actually came with clipped wings. I've only had him home for a few hours and he seems pretty calm. He is now down stairs with the big birds sleeping, all in their own cages of course.

 

[IcyWolf]

I used to work at a PetSmart and we usually had over 30 budgies at a time, none were hand fed and it is obviously impossible to work with that many birds on a daily basis and still get my other work done. So I would usually pic three birds(one of each color) and clip their wings and begin handling them. Within a couple days I would usually have them stepping up and within a week I could usually get them to hang upside down They were surprisingly easy to tame and it made them sell WAY quicker. I always selected males for this as well, for some reason they always seemed much friendlier than the girls.

 

[willist]

I picked a male also for the same reason. Starting tomorrow I'm going to try keeping his food out of the cage for a few hours and then slowly put my hand in the cage with a small amount of millet in it. I was told that will help develop trust. I have some friends who started feeding wild pigeons by sitting on a bench with small amounts of food in their hands. After a couple of days they had pigeons landing on their arms and legs to eat the food. My avian vet told me handling wild pigeons is not a good idea because the can carry many diseases, some of which can be transmitted to humans.

 

[KBEquine]

Wild pigeons aside, I think you are on the right track. I have 2 hand-fed, hand-tamed budgies. The male is much more affectionate & also talks. The female is, well, a b*&ch. But that's who she is, so I work with it.

The thing with budgies (and I've got bigger parrots, so have the same level-of-comparison you do), the budgies like people who pay them attention. The males are easier to 'tame' than the females. Yours doesn't have a girlfriend, so will be looking for attention & that gives you something to use.

And in general, the budgies don't realize they are little birds. My male budgie will challenge my Pionus for his food on a daily basis. I think the budgie thinks he is a macaw (who got hit by a shrink ray).

They are also copycats. So the budgie will make note of the good interactions he sees between you & the bigger birds & when he is comfortable with you, will try to get the same reactions the big birds get. Make him jealous of your relationship with the macaw & the grey & you'll get a lot of good results.

Enjoy.

We have 1 Yellow Nape Amazon, 1 Congo African Grey, 1 White Capped Pionus, a bonded pair of Liniolated Parakeets & 1 pair of budgies. Every single bird in this mixed flock has learned at least one thing from each of the other birds. Budgies are smart little guys. You'll be amazed at the relationship you can develop with yours.

 

[Nakiska]

Awww...how sweet! KBEquine nailed it with the description of their keet. And smart, absolutely they are...isn't it a male parakeet that holds the world record for most words spoken?

As for pigeons...I rescued an injured pigeon from the big city 23 days ago, and now she's soo bonded to me, I wouldn't dare release her back to the wild. She follows me through out the house and spends hours sitting on my shoulder, preening my hair, as she's doing right now. I have discovered pigeons are very affectionate birds.

Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you on your keet purchase, do you have any pictures you want to share??

Toni

 

[Remy]

Nakiska - how cuuute! My mom has a pidgeon that I rescued as a fledgeling 7 or 8 years ago, in her aviary. He's grown up to be big an macho. He's fathered children with the ringneck doves, which come out to be a cool hybrid. He would even defend his children after they grew up, when they were arguing about food! LOL

 

[Nakiska]

Remy That's cool! I feel really blessed and honored to have rescued Belle.

You can read her story and see a picture of her I posted in the "off topic" forum here.

http://www.parrotforums.com/off-topic/13293-i-just-had-share.html

Willist How's things going with your new keet?

Toni

 

[willist]

A little update, my little Parakeet buddy now has a name, it's Mikey. Today is day 3 and he comes out of his cage and sits on my hand eating millet. When the millet is gone he flies back to his cage and sits on top. When I put my hand back to his cage with more millet on it he gets back on. He also seems to like my dog, or at least he's not the least bit afraid of her. Also, I have one question, I'd like to trim his wings, at least until he is completely tame. Is it to soon to trim his wings or should I wait a couple of weeks.

 

[IcyWolf]

Sound like you're making some really good progress! I want to see the little guy though! Generally speaking, you can trim their wing feathers as soon as they have mastered their flying skills. You just want them to know how to be able to fly well before you trim them.

 

[willist]

What I meant about clipping his wings is does he need more time to get to know me or will trimming his wings now freak him out and might I lose ground as far as taming him goes? I'll post some pictures this weekend.

 

[IcyWolf]

Oh, okay, sorry, misunderstanding. I guess that's up to you, you know him better than anyone at this point. I trimmed ziggy's wings as soon as we got her home. I planned on taking her from carrier to cage and then letting her settle in for a bit so I figured that getting it over with right away was better than having to chase her around the house to catch her and then clip her.