taming my 3year old budgies

Question
hi, i have 2 3year old budgies, 1 girl 1 boy, the first year i got them i didnt interfer with them much but the second year i began taming them and eventually they had my trust and were capable of coming onto my hand/finger. Although after quite some time the boy bite me for the first time and i became afraid to ut my hand into the cage again. We took them to the vets and they said the budgies were fine so i continued feeding them and supplying them with water regualry but didnt put my hand to them for a while and not as frequently. Eventually i again stopped putting my hand in and they became afraid of me once more. I want to tame them properly, but when i search for it the results are mostly for younger budgies please help me. Also im 12 years old and was wondering, how often and for how long should i give my budgies a bath. furthermore, what else can i feed my budgies besides seeds, i tried apple a few times but they didnt even try! Please add as much detail.

Answer
Dear Gina,
thank you for your question.
Taming budgies is more a question of the bird's personality and of how much time you spend with it that of the age of the bird. Older birds can be tamed just as well as young birds. Offer them millet spray on your hand, even shy budgies will come and sit on your hand for it. If they have never eaten it before, offer it once or twice in the cage so that they learn how good it tastes.

Clicker training is a very good and easy bird taming method. Basically, you reward good behaviour with a specific sound and a small treat, so that the birds knows: "what I just did gets me a treat" and will repeat the behaviour. Since your budgies probably won't take treats form your hand in the beginning, put a small bowl in or on the cage where it can easily be reached by both of you, put a treat in it and then wait until the bird starts to eat the treat and click in the exact moment it picks up the treat. Repeat that a few times, then again on the next day. Most birds learn the combination click=treat very fast. Then you can start offering your hand to it, without a treat, just hold it as close as the bird is comfortable with. Leave it there for a few moments, then click and put the treat in the bowl. Repeat a few times and then on the next day you can put your hand a bit closer (or you just repeat the exercise at the same distance until you can come closer). The training should be done with one bird at a time. The other bird can be present, they usually work out who is meant with the click and treat.
www.clickertraining.com has more info on this method, under Other Animals there's a bird section, including a very active mailing list

Budgies don't need to be bathed, but you can offer them a bowl of water on the cage, moist salad or other greens to bathe in, most budgies love that, or you can mist them with a spray bottle. Some birds don't like that, you need to find out what your budgies prefer.
They can have all sorts of vegetables and fruits. Keep offering different sorts, sometimes it takes week s for them to try it. My budgies love basil, dandelion, chickweed, chicoree and chard. This website has a list of all the food you can offer your birds and a lot of other useful information:
http://birds-online.de/nahrung/nahrung_en.htm

I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer