how to potty train two budgies and to get them to talk

Question
how can we potty train our 2 budgies aged 6 months & the other nearly 4 months old also we would like them to talk to us they are very chatty to each other but not us. We cannot gat them to sit on our hand and they appear frightened. the 6 months old one used to be so friendly but sinse we got him a companion he will not come to us any more please help thank you

Answer
Hello Keith,

By potty train I am guessing you want your bird to use the bathroom in a particular spot? Well that's not going to happen! If you can train a bird to potty in a particular spot you would be a master trainer at sea world getting whales to walk on land! Seriously though, birds poop.. It's what they do. Luckily bird poop is non-staining and it is easy to clean. I have found letting the birds play for a short time and then return to their cage for 20+ minutes helps, but does not eliminate the problem.


As for getting your birds to talk, not all will talk. Parakeets do not have the capabilities to talk like some birds better know for talking. Getting a bird to talk requires alot of patience and repitions of a single word. Saying the word "mom" or "dad" over and over again, hundreds of times a day. They make CD'S and DVD'S that are meant to play all day while you are gone or whatever but I have mixed feelings about them. The bird will not learn to use the word in the correct context and call out words in a rather random fashion. Birds that speak well such as Quakers, African Grey's, Amazons, etc all pick up on talking fairly quickly. Of course most of these birds are hand tamed and think of their owner as their "flock".

This leads me to the next thing, you must hand tame those birds before you even consider getting them to talk. A bird does not talk just to talk. They are communicating with their flock for whatever need they have. If you are not their flock, they will use the language OF their flock which is bird chattering. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to hand tame a bird when 2 untamed birds are together. They view each other as the "same kind" and view you as an outsider. They have no interest in talking to you or bonding with you at this stage. You will either have to get rid of one bird, or both and start over with a handfed baby that will be mostly hand tamed by the time you get him home. Handfed budgies are pretty rare as the time it takes to hand feed a bird is far to great for a breeder to make any money off of. They can raise them in a nest with the mother and sell them for 10-15 dollars to the pet store, or spend several weeks feeding him//her 4-5 times a day and sell him for 20-25 dollars?


Best of luck!