Hello to everyone. This is my first post and I am a new budgie owner. I've tried to read all I can, but as I'm finding out, budgies don't read the same manuals and such as you and I do and so don't cooperate very well . My budgie, Tyr, is not what I expected. I bought him from Petland two weeks ago. He is about 20 weeks I believe. Despite being from a pet store, I think he was already hand trained because he is very calm and was eating out of my wife's hand on the second day. It hardly took anytime at all before he started to perch on our finger and he seems to recognize the "up" command. This is astounding from what I understand. I should count myself lucky, but a few things have me concerned. The first is I've made a few mistakes in my ignorance and would like to know how to correct them. Examples are: my wife didn't know to leave the bird alone for the first few days, I introduced toys without allowing Tyr to get used to them first, he got out of the cage and it was a frightful expierence for him getting him back in, and I've been using millet as an aid in training him. My second concern is because he seems like such a quick study, I'm kinda at a loss where to go next. He isn't quite hand trained. He will perch on my finger, but he doesn't seem to like it. He only stays for a short period and quite often he tries to get away from me, albeit in a calm, subtle manner (slow steps away instead of a furious flutter). Any advice would be helpful. Thank you very much.

P.S. I have one question of curiousity. Whenever I approach Tyr, he fluffs his feathers and then shudders. It's more like a reaction to me than he's just trying to be warm. Anyone know what this is?

Welcome to the forums! You'll find some great help and info here. But you have to share pictures of Tyr first!

Lots of good questions, let me see if I can tackle them one by one.

First and foremost, WELCOME!! You have come to the right place lots of friendly people here willing to give you advice from thier own experiences.

Ok, not too worry, he seems to have been somewhat comfortable with hands and he has gotten past the stage of getting used to the move so it's all good.

every bird is different. You will hear some users here say they set a toy beside the cage for a few days before putting it in the cage. Others, like myself, just put them in there. I have 4 boys and some of them will sit far away and look like I just put an alien in the cage, and others will run right up to it and show the new toy whose boss! When you get your next new toy (and oh you will get plenty of them!!) try the slow introduction and see how it goes.

Your bird is being relatively tame and comfortable so I don't think you have caused any problems.

Aruba did this too. One thing that can help is if you have his wings clipped at first. If they are done correctly, he will still have some flight but not too much. He will need to rely on you to get back to his cage and won't be able to flutter around the house hitting who knows what. They will grow back and once he is more tame and bonded to you and your wife, you can have him fully flighted if you want to. (my 4 are fully flighted now)

Not sure why you think this is a problem? Many of us use millet as a training tool. It's just like giving a puppy a little dogie biscuit when he sits on command.



Just take it slow and easy. Don't press on further until he is even more hand tamed. When he sits on your finger allow him to eat a little millet. Talk softly to him and just let him know how crazy you are about him.


If memory serves, this is a comfort shrug. He likes you!! Here is a great place to read about behaviors and what they mean:

http://www.budgieplace.com/behavior.html

You can see if I remember correctly!! LOL

Kentucky is just kidding about having to share pics first.
Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your keet. One of the things you need to be aware of is that his progress may seem impressive and indeed it is. But at this point he has not figured out that he has a choice. He will figure that out and you will feel like everything is going backwards.

You don't really have to start all over but just keep working with him. Since he is your only bird, and he seems calm you probably will have really good luck training him.

When they fluff their feathers and then shake they are just straightening their feathers out. Not unlike you running your hands through your hair.

If you are quiet and gentle there is really no big mistakes you can make. The training guide is just that a guide. Some birds do really well with one type of training and some birds do well with others. Some birds choose not to be trained.

Good luck - and yes we would love pictures.

welcome to the forum.sounds like you have a real winner.the wait awhile rule is to allow a bird to calm down and get use to it surroundings,but you bird is already comfortable with you having your hand in its cage.training can begin once they are letting you place your hand in the cage and they don't attract it or run away from it.a lot of us,are still trying to get our birds to act like your;my female speckles is sometimey.her bites can draw blood.she rules the big cage with 6 males and her.

I read Lisa's suggestion that you shouldn't use millet, so I wasn't sure, but I also read that you should use it because that's the only real interaction a keet has with its mother growing up, so it relates food to affection.

Fortunately Tyr's feathers are clipped and when he got away he just ran. When I caught him, he bit me and didn't let go until I let him go. Strangely I was hoping to get bit at least once because I was extremely nervous about being bitted, I thought if I got bit once I'd know what to expect and get over it. I was right. I was actually surprised that it didn't really hurt very much. I watch how easily he dehusks his seed and how sharp and hard looking his beak is, it makes me wonder if he didn't really bite me as hard as he could. Maybe he was just trying to warn me.

Today I'm also wondering if Tyr is really a boy. The lady at the pet store said she was positive he was and I thought she was right because his cere was rather bluish. It doesn't seem so blue today, but not quite pale or yellowish either. Maybe he's still too young? Anyway thanks for all the help and here is a picture of Tyr.

Lol. Chances are he didn't bite you as hard as he could have. I know that some of us have gotten bitten from an angry keet and it has drawn blood. He was probably just warning you and that is good because it shows that even though he was mad at you he was still being gentle which is a sign of tame-ness. He's so cute!

OMG he is beautiful. When he does bit don't be the one to let go. You are right about them being able to bit really hard. By letting go you are showing him that bitting is an effective way to get what he wants. Some birds are more aggressive about bitting so he may not be one that is aggressive. My she/devil Gracie really bits hard but my other keets not so much.

It looks like there is a tiny touch of blue in his feet. If there is that is another indication that he may be a boy. He looks like he is too young to be sure.

Hello everyone, I thought I'd give an update on Tyr in case anyone is interested and I'd love comments/advice. I've had Tyr 3 weeks so far and he is doing good. I think I've pretty much determined that it's too early to know his true sex and the lady at the pet store didn't know what she was talking about though she has a 50% chance of being right. Tyr is friendly enough I guess. He eats out of our hand and perches on our finger sometimes. He seems to know the "up" command. He is confusing though. He still seems scared of my hand. He tries to get away and only jumps on my finger if he can't get away or I have food, then he tries to get off as quick as possible. Can you start training over again? I'm thinking of starting with just getting him used to my hand and not trying to get him to perch on my finger for a while. Or maybe he just doesn't like perching on my finger. He acts like he wants me to leave him alone, but he chirps if I leave the room.

I'm having difficulty understanding his chirping. I don't really know what it means. He seems to call for us when we leave and he also chirps a lot if the kids get loud. Is he scared? I thought keets liked noise and didn't like silence (I read because when it's quiet there is usually a predator around). When he almost squwaks and sounds really excited, I assume he's scared then, but I don't know about the other sounds. Nervous? Scared? Just trying to spark a conversation with us? Another interesting observation is that when we answer him, he goes quiet. Did we calm and reassure him or is he just a good listener?

One last thing, I never see Tyr asleep. I'm sure keets are light sleepers? I'm sure he's getting enough sleep, but just in case, what would be signs of not getting enough sleep? Thanks for reading and thanks for your help.

I think if he's fweeping loudly when you leave the room he's calling for you to come back, or at least checking where you are.

My birds get noiser the louder my boys get, they love it!