older parakeets

Question
I had a pair of parakeets for 15 years but one died a few weeks ago.  I just rescued 4 older parakeets that have been in the same cage for about 2 months so I bought a big cage to keep them together. How do I train them?  Whenever i put my hand in the cage they fling all around in the cage.

Answer
Dear Ellen,
thank you for your question.
It's normal for birds to be afraid of your hand when it's inside their cage. Try taming them outside the cage, just put your hand on top the cage with a treat on it, like millet spray, talk o them, don't look at them directly at first (not tamed birds think that you are targeting them as prey) and be patient. It may take a while, but them will come to eat the millet eventually. If you do that every day, they will learn that you are nothing to be afraid of. When they are comfortable with sitting on your hand, hold out your hand at a distance so that they have to fly or at least hop to get on it.
Clicker training is also a good way to tame birds. You can find a lot of  good info and a very active message gbroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer