taming parakeet

Question
Hello!  I purchased an 8 week old male parakeet 3 weeks ago.  Despite slow, gentle, nonthreatening interactions with him (mainly with my hands outside the cage), he is still very fearful.  Occasionally he will take millet from a sprig I hold inside his cage.  I am wondering...he is housed in his own cage, but his cage is near my zebra finch cage.  Is it possible that he may tame sooner if I move the finches to another location?  On the average, how long can I expect the taming process to take.  He's beautiful and I am so anxious to begin working with him. It seems I've made little progress these past 3 weeks. Many thanks, Phyllis

Answer
Hello Phyllis and thank you for your post.
I do always recommend that when taming/training a bird, the bird is in a room by itself to keep from being distracted.  
Parakeets are a little more difficult to train because they are so tiny and they feel threatened more easily than a larger bird.
Try coaxing him onto your hand with the millet spray.  Once he steps onto your hand, then give him a few nibbles of the millet spray.  Once he get his trust in you, he'll be easier to train.

Good luck and God Bless.
Dianna