# Bonding with Momo, Yuki settling in, & quarantine almost over!



## Vixenfur (Nov 28, 2021)

Hello all! Last time I posted here, I had just brought my 2nd budgie, Yuki, home a few days prior. Ever since he has been quarantined and adjusting to life at our home. It has been quite noisy as Momo and Yuki call out to each other during the day, and I feel like an evil evil mother keeping them apart! Haha but I know it's necessary and besides, we're just days away from allowing them to meet.

Yuki is perfectly healthy and behaving well; he exhibits much of the same behavior Momo did with me when he first arrive, and I've been working on getting him used to my hands in the cage. He is doing so good! He is still too nervous to step up, but when feeding a millet snack and pulling it away slowly to see what he will do, he actually will stretch veeeeery far, so much so that his neck brushes up on my hand! He also has paused to nibble at my hand in a tentative manner, as if to inspect it—Momo did the same thing.

It breaks my heart seeing Yuki's clipped wings. Either he was clipped completely, or my better guess was that only the inner feathers were clipped while the longest 3-4 feathers at the ends were left alone. Or perhaps they are just growing back at an odd rate. It will take him time to grow them back. Nothing seems wrong with them though, they just look awkward and choppy!

I mentioned weird feces when he arrived, but that was completely solved within a couple days; he was just tired, scared, hungry, etc. He's had normal waste ever since. 

As for Momo and I, sparks are flying!!  I posted in here about a biting issue, but that has been resolved. He likes nibbling/licking my fingers, which is completely fine but when he starts to bite, I pull my fingers away and hide them. After that was repeated for a few days, he hasn't bitten hard since then—smart little guy figured out what I wanted him to stop doing. On top of that, we've had some very special moments over the last month. Check out our first photo together!










He jumped at my phone a second later, definitely demanding me to turn the bird videos back on that we were watching. He got what he wanted 

A few days ago, I was also able to give Momo a kiss for the first time. Slowly I had been bringing my face closer to him and letting him get used to my huuuuuge looming face beside him so he knows I'm not scary lol. It has worked—before this, he actually reached forward and gave _me_ a kiss, on the tip of my nose! When I say I almost cried! 🥺 Then recently I was able to kiss his beak. He didn't mind, didn't even lean back, and when I backed away, his little cheeks fluffed up and he got so cozy on my finger that he tucked one foot up into his belly.

I'm just so happy that Momo and I have formed such a strong bond that will only get stronger as the months and years go by. He's been with me for almost 6 months now and I know that any bird owner, especially one who hasn't had a bird before or hasn't had one since childhood (like me), wishes for this sort of connection right away. But I've learned that it all takes plenty of time and patience. Some birds aren't ready for this sort of affection for much longer than 6 months, and some not at all, and that's okay—I was prepared for anything with Momo, and am currently feeling that way about Yuki! All birds are different. So that being said, I am so beyond thrilled that Momo found me and I found him. I am really excited to form a bond with Yuki as well and watch them grow to love each other!

Introducing them is the next step. I've done lots of reading and researching, my plan is to put Yuki's cage next to Momo's and monitor them for a couple days. If all seems well I will then let Momo out and allow him to investigate Yuki's cage... then let Yuki out, and supervise them outside of the cage. I have a feeling Yuki's first time out of the cage is going to go like Momo's, with a lot of panic and crashing into walls. Should I do this with him alone before having Momo in the room with him, or would it help to have another bird there? Any tips appreciated. Thanks for reading and I'm really excited to take the next step with my birds soon. 💖


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Having Yuki in the room with Momo during Yuki's first out out of cage flight time will be fine.
I'm happy to hear things are going so well for you and Momo and hope that when Yuki is introduced to him they will become best budgie buddies!*


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