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My darling Budgie, Abby

23 9:35:10

Question
Hi Angel!

I have a budgie named Abby.  We have had her for about 2 months, and she seems to be a very happy bird.  She will sing for us and expects praise when she sings.  If you do not acknowledge her singing, she gets mad!  :)  The problem is that I would like to get her out of her cage and hold her, but everytime I reach my hand into the cage, she beats herself up trying to get away!  She has suffered a bleeding head, and an injured wing so far!  I don't want to further injure her, but I would like to tame her more.  Also, could you maybe point me to tips on working with budgies and getting them to talk?  I know that some budgies are able to talk, and I would like to try with Abby!  Thank you so much for your help!

Amanda

Answer
Amanda,

The key to hand training a budgie is patience. It takes awhile for them to trust your hand being close so they'll respond the way that Abby did until they trust you completely. In order to gain this trust you need to work with her often. Make sure that you move slowly and speak in a gentle voice. Avoid wearing bracelets or large rings, they may startle her. Also, budgies don't like to be held in your hand, it's unlikely that she'll ever respond well to that. They do like to sit on your finger or on your hand, as though you are a perch! When she is tame enough to allow you to rest your finger near her try to get her to allow you to place your finger against her tummy, at the bottom right near her feet. When she gets used to this she may choose to jump onto your hand on her own. If not, apply very very gentle pressure against her feet, this will cause her to feel a little unbalanced and she will use your finger to regain her balance. Once she is okay with that you can start getting her used to the movement of your hand as you take her out of the cage. If you are letting her out of the cage to fly daily (budgies love this once they get used to it) you can try to work on  finger training when she's outside of the cage too. The important thing to remember is that when she gets really agitated you need to  give her a break for awhile. Eventually she will she see that nothing bad has happened and she will learn to trust your hand more.

I haven't had great success with teaching my bugies to talk, although my first one, Chippie, did learn to tell me what a pretty bird he was. It takes a lot of time to teach them, but I will share with you what I've learned. You need to pick a fairly simple phrase and repeat if often. Use the same tone of voice everytime, it has to be repeated the same way everytime in order for them to mimick it. Female voices are easier than male voices, probably because the budgies respond better to a pitch closer to their natural ability. Also, remove all mirrors and bells from the cage during the training sessions (which should last about half an hour) so that Abby won't be distracted. And turn off all tv's and music as well.

I hope that this answers your questions, if you have any follow-ups I will be more than happy to try and help. Good luck with Abby, she sounds like a real sweetheart.

Angel