Whoever said that training a parakeet was difficult is lying. Period.
I thought it would be sweet of me to buy my fiancĂ© a parakeet for Valentine’s Day. She was always talking about having one, and she could use a little noise in the house. What I mean by noise is the sweet singing and chirping of a new Budgie. This would have been the most difficult animal to train so far, or so we thought. We already have a cat, and cats come pre-programmed to be a friendly, loving house pet that needs little or no training. Then we have two fish tanks. It was quite difficult to teach our guppies to turn around or fetch, so we let them swim of their own free will. So it’s time to step up and take on a bigger challenge. That’s when we got our bird, or should I say his bird.
Let me introduce you to Marty.
First of all let me start by telling you that we bought our budgie at Petsm**t. Now we all know that shopping at a big box store like that only makes it harder to train. When you use these warehouses, the birds are handled like cargo, like another item to store on the shelf. Then they put the birds in a small cage with about a hundred other birds. So naturally they start to bond with each other, interact and react to each other (one bird flies, all fly). Then you finally pick the one you want, and the birds’ first real encounter with a human is usually a high school punk kid who just walks up and grabs it. He takes it away from his friends and family to put it in a small dark box with small holes. No, that’s not scary at all, that’s not going to have an effect on people’s opinion of birds, that’s fine, no problem, right?… Wrong! This must have been pretty scary, if not traumatizing. Next time I’ll use a local breeder and get one for a little more money but already tamed.
So you did the same as me. I’m sorry, what am I supposed to do? Small, trapped in a strange place, he can’t leave. I’ll save you, little bird, we’ll take you home and set you free, a little. The first thing you notice is how gitty it is. He wants nothing to do with you, and he would go to great lengths not to be touched by you, he watches this video and you’ll see what I mean.
Does your parakeet do this? We can help.
Rules of buying a bird:
A) Buy as young as possible
B) Buy a cage big enough for him to flap his wings and stretch out.
C) Have a lot of food on hand, never run out.
D) Provide a safe environment.
E) Buy a cuttlefish bone and a mirror.
F) They like to destroy things. I use manila rope.
G) Make sure you have time to dedicate
H) Get them some treats too, they love millet.
Now you have a bird at home and it is afraid of everything and anything. We can start.
(Week 1)
1. First of all, leave him alone. Place the cage in a corner of preference, this way he doesn’t have to look at all 4 sides all the time, this will help him relax. You can sit in one position and see everything that is going on. If you don’t have a corner, put it up, put it up high. If nothing else, put a towel over his cage covering two sides. This will really help you to be less nervous. It’s nice if she can get some sun, but not full sun she can’t hide from. Be sure to cover it at night and uncover it every day (this is a good opportunity to talk a little). Talk to him regularly, as you walk past the cage, from the other side of the room, and don’t go into the cage except to change the water and food. And for God’s sake, do this every day. He’ll build a small amount of trust, he’ll start to know that you won’t hurt him. I would leave him alone for at least two weeks. Just talk to him as much as possible. Let him hear your voice and get used to it. He will watch your every move and learn your daily routines. This makes for a more stable home for him at first to understand him better.
(week 2-3)
2. When he finally eats regularly and sings, he feels comfortable. This is a good thing. He knows that you feed him and take care of him. He sees the same people every day and begins to believe that this is his “herd”. Now the fun part, you are going to need a lot of patience. You are not yet trained with your fingers and this part requires time and patience. He takes the cage to a room that has few or no hiding places (he’ll find them and you’ll move the furniture to get him out, I promise). Once he’s in the room and you’ve birdproofed him, turn off the lights. I mean a dark room, no lights at all. Go into his cage and place your finger under his chest closer to the side of the leg and gently lift him up. Talk to him while you’re doing this, so he knows it’s you. He always uses a soft voice and don’t let him see you get angry or frustrated. This will only scare him more. When it goes up, find a resting place for your hand and leave it there. He has no idea where he is sitting, and you will show him soon. Do this every other night for a week and try to do it at the same time, so he knows it’s coming. Once you get a step up on your own, you can start on the next step.
(week 4)
3. Now he steps on your finger without even trying? Now the fun is gone. Take a flash light, turn it on but standing on the ground (blocking the light). Once it’s on your finger, slowly raise the flash light to gradually light up the room. He still doesn’t know it’s you holding him, but he’ll know as soon as his eyes adjust. Once he sees it, he’ll probably jump up and panic. Don’t worry, turn the light down (so it’s dark again), give it time to adjust, and start again. Work it like this every day or every other day. And soon you will see that it is sitting on your finger out of habit. It has become something he does all the time but, at this point, in his cage (safe place) during the day he would not consider approaching you, this is all normal and will change over time. If you want to try turning the light on in the room like I did, give it a try. I could take it well. Don’t be disappointed if you still don’t fully trust. If it ran away, turn off the light and do it again. The trick is to let your eyes adjust to the dark.
Fool him with our finger.
The lights were off for about 3 minutes or so.
(week 5-6)
4. So now he sits on your finger in his cage from the dark and he’s not so nervous, WOW! Now is the time to get him out of the cage. Still training in the dark, if you have other pets, this is the time to introduce them face to face, no bars in between. Our cat is a good boy for the most part, he just wants to smell it. We introduce them and talk to both the cat and the bird.
We remind the cat to be a “good boy” and pet him while he watches the bird. In this way he associated the bird as family and would not think of hurting it. Once he’s had his fill, he’ll go off and get bored with the whole bird thing. Now ask someone to turn on a light in the other room. It will be brighter than the flashlight, and is like a shock to his eyes, and will give you time to work with him. Always talking to him make him get on your finger over and over again so he doesn’t get distracted. His eyes will adjust and he will most likely fly towards the light. Walk over there and pick it up with your finger, don’t grab it roughly and tear up all the work you’ve already done. He will soon realize that you come to his rescue. Do this as much as possible and be nice to him. This is a scary thing for him and your protector.
(week 7)
5. Once we got used to it being on our finger, it was time to start doing it during the day. It feels like lost progress, but he has to put it together himself and soon he’ll be jumping on your finger whistling Dixie. You’ll be chasing him around her cage again, but it’ll all work out. Once you get it on our finger, don’t push it, let it see what happens and adjust. He keeps talking and pierces the sound of your voice into his little brain. In a moment you will be able to remove it. Chances are if he sees his cage, he’ll take off. So I have a little hack for this, check out the video below.
taking it out requires a bit of practice.
You pick him up and quickly turn around so he can’t see his cage.
Once he’s out, take him to a place where he can’t see the cage and won’t be tempted. It will always try to go to the cage at first, but with clipped wings it will rarely make it, and you will have to “Rescue” it and bring it up so it can reach it. This develops a bond because you always bring it back home. Using the same trick to get him out of the cage, do it to get him back. So that it doesn’t fly from your finger, but from your finger to his house.
(week 8)
6. You will soon see that it is more interesting for him to spend time with you than to be alone in the cage. What I did was make it more accessible to him. I put some string in places where I do things, like my computer for example. There is a rope that runs from a shelf to my computer monitor. He just sits there and watches me write. He finds that quite enjoyable and doesn’t fly away. He also likes to watch us wash the dishes, he whistles with the sound of the water.
He also likes to sit on top of our laptop while the wife does her thing on the internet. There are certain places you like more than others. I found any of the curtain rods on the hose that you like. I think it’s because he’s so high up that he can see the whole room. When it flies down, it will wander on the ground. Remember to let the other animals watch it. If they are not in danger, let them interact with each other. My cat is funny, he chases it as the bird approaches to land. The bird in turn lands and walks towards the cat and the cat doesn’t know what to do so it jumps back. The bird wants to take a look at it this time and the cats got scared… hahaha, it’s funny.
(the rest of the time)
7. Soon your parakeet will be interacting with you, you will find him talking and squawking while you talk to people. He feels that it is his contribution to the flock. And if we stop, he stops, it’s a lot of fun. He even tries to yell at us just to be heard, we acknowledge him and he stops. He just wants to talk, that’s all. They are social creatures that need interaction. Just don’t ignore it and don’t abuse it. Teach his children why and how to treat the bird. Remind them that he is small and that he trusts them. They need to make sure he doesn’t get hurt so he lives a long and happy life.
I hope this helps. I know it worked for me and I have video proof. Enjoy your bird and remember that it is now part of your family, treat it as such. Once he has settled in well, you can put his cage anywhere. Try not to expose it to direct sunlight from which it cannot escape. Birds are a shade-loving animal.