Lisa Shea Forums Parakeets Budgie Training gahhh.... these stubborn budgies!!

Okay guys.. I have an issue.

Now that I'm just down to scooter and boo, I've been really making an effort to train them and get them more used to me. At first, I had them both in the big cage and tried training them together, but they wanted nothing of it. As soon as it would look like I was getting somewhere with Scooter (like he stepped up onto the perch i was holding) boo would flap like mad and everytihng would to haywire. They just want nothing to do with training.

so finaly i decided to seperate them. Unfortunately, I have a very small house with no basement or second floor. The big cage is in my bedroom, about 2 feet from the door. The only place the other, smaller cage would fit without a draft from the front door is where the hallway meets my living room. Essentially, they are less than 6 feet apart.

This has made things a TON harder. Not only do they talk and bicker NONSTOP, it sounds like I have 10 birds. It's constant chatter and acking and it is driving my family mad.
And now that they are seperated and know that they can't be with eachother, they're on a strike. Neither one of them wants ANYTHING to do with me. grrr....

so I guess what I'm asking here, is should I just stick them back in the same cage and spend months to train them? I just can't see me getting much farther than I had with them in the same cage. Did I traumatize them when I took glan, scooter, and lola away? will they ever trust me?

maybe try leaving them in the same cage but take them out individually for training ???

well, they wont step up or let me touch them when they're in the same cage... so it's really difficult to get them out. I think taking them out like that is going to be detrimental to training and will stress them out a lot.

oh ok if they wont step up at all together then that wont work


i duno ... are they more noisy apart or together?

Well, I was just im-ing my bird expert friend and she said the first mistake was two birds together.

Two birds (her words) tend to interact with eachother and ignore you. If you had one bird, it would bond with you, but in the case of two birds being together from the start, they will almost all the time bond with eachother.

You can probably just try working with both of them at the same time, so no parakeet is left out. But then again u might have to read some books to get a positive answer.

haha, yeah, I know that two birds was a mistake.. but my other mistake was worse, but lets not talk about that, haha. the fact of the matter is I have two, and I am losing my mind trying to figure out what's best for them.

I would suggest keeping them separate and maybe putting a blanket on the side of one of the cages so they can't see each other.

I did the same thing you did. I had my two girls in the same cage for about 4 months and every time it looked like i was getting somewhere, one of them scared the other. I separated them after 4 months but kept their cages side by side. The only difference was that I put a blanket between them so that they couldn't see each other. They didn't like it for a while but they've gotten used to it... I was then able to train Ally and I have her to the point where she'll step up and let me take her out. now we're working on outside the cage training.

I guess they can still bond when they can see each other but maybe out of site out of mind works. I give them what I call "conjugal visits" so they can bond occasionally outside the cage.

As much as people might disagree with me, I found that training them outside the cage was much, much easier. I forced them outside and they flew around and evaded me for a while but eventually got comfortable enough that they let me get close and calmed down... then they started stepping up off the curtain rod or railing or wherever they had landed. As long as you bird proof and move slowly, it might be a method to try.

it is possible to train two in one i dont get the big deal u guys make, u just have to teach BOTH u are trusting, u are only teaching scooter and 2 birds isn't a mistake if 6 of mine aren't ur giving up... same cage will work dude.

that was uncalled for. I used scooter as an example. I TRY to train both of them, but it IS DIFFICULT. I care about my animals and I just want to be able to let them out with no worries of not being able to get them again.

birds are DIFFERENT. mine are different than yours, hers are different than yours, etc. some people have better luck training than others, that doesnt mean I'm giving up. I care about my animals.

lol
i have the same problem-
once i got Missy to get out of the cage but then Chippy got upset so then MIssy eventually flew back inside...

but once mIssy did fly out on her own and then Chippy flew out with her...

sometimes it works to your advantage-if one bird is doing something htat seems like fun, then the other will follow- maybe try to think of some fun way to train your birds
:]