Little Lemon

[KTyne]

So I got a Budgie three days ago that I named Lemon, and he's not yet 3 or 4 months old since he hasn't had his first molt yet.
Since he seems comfortable in his new cage now I thought I'd start the process of hand taming him (and taming him in general).
I just did a 15 minute session holding millet with my hand in his cage and just sat there and talked to him. After about 10 minutes he relaxed. :)
He didn't try and get away from me either when I put my hand in the cage, so that's good! I know that if I pushed him and tried to move my hand closer he would have though.
Slow and steady wins the race!
So I'll keep doing that a few times a day until he starts to actually come down to the millet and then I'll move to the next step. :D

Yay for the start of my training journal! :P

[jane1888]

well done and the best of luck in training (patience is a virtue) lol

[KTyne]

Why thank-you! Patience is something I might have a problem with, but I'll just have to stick it out and not push forwards too hard!

[Val1948]

Sounds great and way to go. Good luck.

[KTyne]

Luck I shall need! Currently he's sitting in his cage watching what I'm doing on the computer, lol. In a while I think I'll do another hand in cage with millet session. :P

[atvchick95]

what I do when ever I get a new bird is Talk to them the entire time I'm doing anything - sort of like giving them a play by play of what I'm doing

"Hey lil one I'm just going to change your water"
'' i'm going to change your food" "I'm going to fix this toy that fell" etc. etc.

it seems to of helped with all the new birds i get from freaking out when I put my hand in the cage they still freak out at first but they get used to it and i talk to them as I'm coming up on the cage even if they do see me it just seems to help, sometimes it only takes a day or 2 and they don't freak out any more some take a little longer but it seems to help

[KTyne]

Thanks for the tip! I've been doing that, and making sure I don't make any sudden movements around him just yet. ^_^

[KTyne]

So I just put my hand on Lemon's cage, and then once he seemed comfortable with that I kept moving my hand closer and closer to him until my hand was overtop of him (like an inch or two away)! This morning he would freak out if I put my hand anywhere near him outside of the cage.
Yay! Baby steps! ^_^

Oh btw, I did this while talking to him the whole time really calmly, and it took probably around 20 minutes, lol.

[KTyne]

Day 2 of my journey of taming Lemon.
I put my hand in his cage with a long piece of millet on the perch in front of him and after a few seconds he basically attacked it! I moved it away from him a couple of times until it was far enough away that he had to take a tiny step towards me, and he did it! ^_^
He totally devoured the milltet for a few minutes while I talked to him and then he told me he was done for now so I took my hand out.
He's such a lovely boy! :D

[KTyne]

Day 4
I put my hand in Lemon's cage to offer him millet and he's now eating the millet from less than half the stick of millet away from my hand! (aka- he's probably only an inch or a bit more away from my hand when he does it)
While feeding him the millet today too I moved my fingers around and a bit closer to him and he didn't even flinch. He stopped eating for half a second and then went right back to it!
I feel like we're moving along at a very good pace! He's quite the wonderful little guy! :D

Here is a picture I took. He stopped eating from the millet when I took my camera out though, lol.
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm258/Modify-Your-Mind/DSC01347.jpg

[louara]

Excellent progress, he is lovely. Great job-keep it up:2thumbs:

[KTyne]

Thank-you! :D
He has a spunky little personality! ^_^

[KTyne]

Day 6

Things with Lemon are going amazingly well! Lemon is now eating millet only a few centemeters from my fingers! :D :D :D (with me holding the millet stick halfway up!)
I'm so happy with his progress ^_^
Now I think I'm going to stick with this distance for a couple of days until he's comfortable if I move my fingers when he's eating the millet like he is if I'm holding it further away.
I'm so happy about this, I thought it'd take way longer (especially since when I got him a week ago he would fly about the cage madly when I put my hand in the cage even a little to change his food or water).
Didn't get any pictures today but I wish I had to show how close he was!

Also, is it normal for Budgies to flock call when you're sitting right beside their cage? :P Lemon has done it a couple of times where he'll start calling and swawking and comes and sits on the perch closest to me and watches me.

[KTyne]

So I've had Lemon now for just over 2.5 months and Siren for maybe just over 1.5 months and things are going smoothly, albeit a bit slowly.
Yesterday or the day before I was offering the two of them millet in their cage and they are now both comfortable enough to eat the millet sitting right beside my fingers and they don't care if their heads/beaks touch my fingers when they're eating! This is a big step because neither of them (especially Lemon) would really take the millet if they had to be near my fingers. They would always stretch from as far away as they could, lol.
So I'm hoping that soon enough they'll be comfortable enough to hop ON to my fingers to get to the millet! ^_^

Just thought I'd update on my progress with these two. Trust seems to still be an issue if I move too quickly around them but we're working on it! They seem to recover more quickly now than before after they've been startled which is great!

I can't wait until I can start working on stepping up with these two. :D