First bird/budgie ever

Question
I just bought a budgie. This is my first time ever having a bird at all. I'm nervous to start taming it because the people at petsmart said it had not been hand tamed yet. ow do I start so that it is not scared and doesnt attack me. Also, when a budgie bites, does it hurt? I'm also pretty nervous about that. I just need some help raising it so that it is very tame and I can have fun with it and make it happy. Thanks for any help.

Answer
Hi,
thank you for your question.
Start with offering millet spray on your hand, most budgies really love it and even very shy birds willeat it from your hand, you just need patience. It's best to offer the millet outside the cage because most birds don't like when you reach into their cage unless they are already tame. If the bird hasn't had millet spray before, offer it once as a treat so that the budgie can taste it and then start offering it on your hand only.

Clicker traiing 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 budgie probably won't take treats form your hand in the beginning, out a small bowl in or on the cage where it can easily be reached by both of you, out 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).
www.clickertraining.com has more info on this method, under Other Animals there's a bird section, including a very active mailing list

I recommend getting the budgie a partner once it's tame. Budgies, as all parrots, are extremely social and need constant company. A single bird will get lonely when left alone even for an hour, but two bird can always interact with each other and they are a lot of fun to watch together. They are also much more active than single birds. It's a myth that two birds cannot be tamed and the second bird will learn the tame behaviour from the first one. It's true that two birds don't bond to you as closely as a single one, but in my opinion it's much better to have birds that are tame because they choose to be than one bird that's tame because he has no other choice.

Budgie bites can hurt, but rarely draw blood. They usually don't really bite unless you grab them, they prefer to fly away. Normally, you just get pinched if the birds chooses to bite at all and that#s not a big deal.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer