# Budgie still won't come near me



## Laureneon

Hello! I've had my budgie for a year now, and nothing has changed. He won't let me come anywhere near him no matter how slow and patient I am. This mostly upsets me because I want him to have an active life. I've been persistent with him, trying every day but nothing has worked. I'm starting to think it's impossible. The only time I can get near him is when I feed him millet spray. Any tips will help.


----------



## Sim

Did you follow the guides in the forum about taming budgies?

If you did and they didn't work, even if you have been very patient and slow, sometimes there is nothing you can do, there are budgies who don't like the company of humans.

I had a similar situation with Sid, my first budgie (the gray male in my signature).
It took 8 months to make him jump on my hand to eat seeds, and only because I had removed the seeds from the cage for a bit (which is something that should not be done, but I didn't know it), otherwise he wouldn't have been so "brave".
Then I bought a chick, Sole, and handraised him, and Sid started to trust me because he saw that Sole was not afraid of me at all. After some time, Sid followed Sole out of the cage, explored the room where I kept them (even going relatively far from the cage) with him, and jumped on me with basically no hesitation if the other had done that. As the time went on, he didn't necessarily need to have Sole near him to stay on me. 
Unfortunately, after Sole died (a year ago) and I bought Stella (the hen in the picture with him), who is terrified of humans, Sid became "wild" once again and now he only jumps on my hand if I have seeds for him, and bites me if I don't.

Perhaps this is what you need to do. If keeping more than a budgie is not a problem for you (but you need to reflect on that), why don't you buy a handraised and/or very young male (to avoid mating problems) budgie?
Also, if your budgie spent a year alone and he is not tamed, it is time he gets a friend.

You can find articles and threads regarding taming and thinking about adopting another budgie in these sub-forums:
https://www.talkbudgies.com/545-budgaholic-support-group/
https://www.talkbudgies.com/93-articles-buying-rescuing-budgies/
https://www.talkbudgies.com/96-articles-budgie-training-bonding/
https://www.talkbudgies.com/290-taming-bonding/

I hope this helps. :001_smile:


----------



## StarlingWings

I agree with the above advice :yes: 

I would start over at the very beginning, as if your budgie was brand new, and don't move on to any other steps until he gets used to it. I know you have already done a lot of this, but maybe he wasn't totally comfortable the first time around after each set of steps? Anyway, it's worth another try. 

If after several weeks of patient taming practice he still doesn't respond to anything, then you should evaluate whether or not he'd benefit from a little brother


----------



## RavensGryf

Good advice in posts above. Start from the beginning. Remember too, that any changes will take a considerable amount of time and patience. 

We ‘usually’ don’t just tell members to add another bird, but one instance where it might be considered, is when one is just more wild in it’s nature, and not even interested in befriending humans. They’re all different. If you do add one later, keep in mind you could end up needing a separate cage. Even when introduced in neutral territory, some birds just won’t get along. They still benefit from seeing/hearing a member of their same species in the room or maybe side by side.


----------



## sweettreat

All of the above posts sound like good advice. Budgies being very sensitive creatures can sense when there is tension in the room. I try to make sure before walking into my birds room, all tension from the day is gone. They seem happier that way. Maybe your bird can sense the anxiousness in you wanting to be apart of their flock.
Just trying to help. Good luck.


----------

