budgies

Question
hi
i have 2 budgies, and i had them seperated for a while to tame them. my male was handtamed pretty well, sit on my finger, on my shoulder, etc... but my female wasnt . i decided to put them back together, because they looked like they miss each other soo much
after only a DAY of putting them back together, my male COMPLETLY doesnt like me anymore. if i even put my finger near him, he flys away to my female. he wont sit on my finger anymore, except when i put a treat right in front of him. im starting to think i made a big mistake putting them bac together, but they look so happy together and i think they would be devestated if they were saperated again. how do i get him to get on my finger again WITHOUT the treat? my females the same, she easily goes on my hand if theres a treat on it, but without the treat, she gets frightened of my hand and fly away
what are some ways i can try to handtame them more? and could you please be specific? THANK YOU SO MUCH :)

Answer
Dear Zsuzsu,
thank you for your question.
It's normal for the budgie to prefer his mate because even if you spend a lot of time with him, you are still not able to really communicate with him - it's like being the only human in a group of chimps or something.
Try clicker traning with them. Basically, you reward good behaviour with a signal (made with the clicker) and a treat. At first, you offer a small treat on your hand and when the bird sits on your hand, you click and allow him to eat the treat. Repeat this a few times for a few days to teach them click = treat. They should learn to set up on your finger/hand readily in a short time. Lengthen the time they have to spend on your hand to get a treat then, only a bit at a time. It may take some time, but taming birds does need a lot of patience.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/
has very good and extensive further info on clicker training and bird taming and the people in the group are friendly and helpful.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer