I'm just wondering if any of you have budgies? I have 2 and would love some tips on training them, and some other questions.
Thanks
Michelle<><

Oh, I had one of those sweet little boogers for almost 7 years (old age for a budgie!).
I can't give you any advice on training, because I didn't train it...it trained ME! (It was just a smaller version of Lola that didn't talk back to me like she does!)

Cindy

oh, I loooove reading your funny stories about Lola, and I hope one day I can own such a beautiful bird, but I figure if I can't get the budgies to work with me, then I'd be up a creek with bigger birds!! My sister had a budgie for 12 years, and he had the mouth of a sailor! My one budgie is quite tame, but does not talk. I can get her to come out on my hand and sit on my shoulder, but I cannot pet her, or she'll have my fingers for lunch!

I have a little harlequin Budgie named "Confetti" who is 10 ½ years old now. I know his exact birthday cause I had his parents. When Confetti was hatched, I handfed him as I was just learning how to do it, getting ready to handfeed bigger parrots. He's a great little guy, nothing much phases him until a stranger gets too close to him then he freaks out, lol.

One tip I can offer is, it's easier to tame a budgie when it's by itself. If there are two or more, they will bond with each other and not with you.

That last part with the budgie bonding is very true. I had a budgie named Tweeter ^.^ He was so cool! The day he died was the day Magic hatched, so i saw something special, and immediately started getting her used to me And she just got smarter and smarter by the day o.O She figured out a piggy bank in an hour at 1 month old!

But anyway onto the budgie ^.^ Whatcha can do is get the lil one alone *take ur big one out and put her somewhere else while you work with the lil one* Then just put your hand in the cage with the lil one, and let it get far away from it. After a while it'll settle down, and you can move ur hand closer and closer until its calm with ur hand right next to it ^.^ Then you can start trying to finger train it. Put ur finger up to its chest, and if it flies off, let it calm down and try again, until it stands on ur finger. Then do regular exercises like that with whatever movement you wana do with ur budgie. It should learn quite quickly at its young age They like things to be routine too, so do it at relatively the same time of day every time ^.^

Hope that helps!

~Phoebe

every time i try to put my hand in the cage the little one has a coniption fit!! It's so bad sometimes I think he's gonna give himself a heart attack!! He knocks everything over in the cage, falls off the perch, sends the water dish flying , and then parks himself half upside down in the very top corner of the cage and "pants" like a dog!
Do you think clipping his wings would help? I've never done that with any of my birds. Although my older girl Nellie has stopped trimming her beak, so I have to clip it.
But I don't think I would know how to clip the wings anyways...I think they should be able to fly. I let Nellie out and she will just take little circles around the room and come straight back to her cage or my head. With Smurf (the new one) he only gets out by mistake, and today I spent 1/2 an hour in my bedroom closet trying to get him out!! :rolleyes:
I don't know what to do!!
Thanks for the tips though!
Blessings,
Michelle