Hi everyone! In May 2010, I purchased 2 adorable parakeets - Flash and Barnaby. They have gotten well adjusted and chatter like crazy each day. Here's the situation I have:

1) I am having trouble hand-taming them. I can have my hand in the cage, but as I move my finger closer, they fly around or grip the sides of the cage. Flash's new trick is exiting the cage completely if he gets really scared. Then he's impossible to catch and he will not go back to the cage!

2) Due to Flash's escapes, I took them to the vet and had their wings clipped, just so I can train them easier and catch my little escape artist.

Does anyone have advice on training them both? I'd like to keep them in the cage while I'm training if possible. But I need them tamed so I can let them out for excercise! Any help is much appreciated!!!

~Jenny

Having their wings clipped is very helpful for training them. One thing you could try is putting your hand in the cage and leaving it there until they relax. If you do this every day it should help.
The other thing I've tried would involve taking them out of the cage. You could take one parakeet out at a time and bring it to a small room like a walk in closet and talk to it for a while. Having to force one of the parakeets out of its cage might be too stressful though so I'd definitely try the first thing first.
It's always harder to tame a parakeet when there are two of them. You could put one in another cage if you want, but I'm sure, with patience, you'll be able to tame them both. =)