# Update, and some progress!



## SilasCrutherton (Mar 13, 2016)

I haven't posted since the initial introduction of Link and Zeke, but it has been a VERY busy summer.

Soon after we got Link and Zeke, a friend of my daughter A moved to a different city, and they didn't want to take their birds with them, so we adopted another pair of budgies. I don't know how old they are, but they are at least two years old. Their names are Percy and Pedro. Percy (a female) is definitely dominant over Pedro (male), and they quarrel and squabble, but they seem to get along.

After a couple of months A didn't want to have the noise in the early morning, so we moved the cage up to M's room. There are now 4 birds in there, and they can get talkative. 

Percy and Pedro from day 1 in our house are used to people. They will eat from your had, and Pedro will sit on your finger at times.

Link and Zeke, however, continued to be quite skittish for a while. They have learned to talk with us - they chatter while we're around and respond when I whistle at them, but any attempt to open the cage or get too near them would send them huddling together.

Well, I think that having Percy and Pedro in the same room has been good for Link and Zeke. I would offer some millet to P&P, and after Percy had hers first (always with that one), Pedro would eat. I think I finally saw Zeke getting a bit jealous.

So I stood next to the cage and offered her some millet through the bars. It took a couple of minutes, but she came closer and closer, warily. Finally she took some!

It was a small thing, to be sure, but it felt like a huge step. I tried to get Link to eat some - he was actually starting to edge closer, but Zeke chased him away. (She's the dominant as well in that cage).

Anyway, I felt like it was good progress. When I told M about it, he stood for about 5 minutes with his arm stretched out with a tiny little piece of millet before Zeke came over to try to eat some. Sadly the first piece she pulled off pulled the whole thing out of his hand.  But he grabbed a larger spray and she ate some from it.

As I mentioned, it has been a busy summer, with week-long summer camps and vacations to grandparents' houses, but with slow and steady steps they are coming to trust us more.


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## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

Welcome back to the forums and congratulations on your latest arrivals! 

Despite the busy Summer, it's good to know that you have noticed a breakthrough with Zeke and Link and that Percy and Pedro have been a good influence on them.
Keep up with the training and soon enough there will be even more milestones achieved! :thumbsup:


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

It's good to hear from you again! :wave:

I'm so glad things are going well for Link and Zeke! Percy and Pedro seem to be settling in wonderfully, and will hopefully continue to build trust in you. 

Best wishes!


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## SilasCrutherton (Mar 13, 2016)

So last night I walked into the room, and amazingly enough as soon as Zeke saw me, she started edging TOWARDS me. That has not happened before. She is still a little nervous and skittish - but as I was holding the millet and my arm got tired (as it usually does) I shifted it, and she sat up and looked at me for a moment and went back to eating. Usually she runs away before coming back.

My son M was on the other side of the cage, and Link went over to eat from his hand as well. They are both doing great!

But I do have a question...

Zeke is definitely the dominant bird. She will NOT let Link get anywhere near the millet. The only way he gets some is if we put some on both sides of the cage. And even then when Zeke sees Link eating from the other side she sometimes runs to that other side and chases him away. I'm pretty sure this is normal - but is there anything to do about it? Zeke is learning some trust, but Link much less so, as he hasn't had as much opportunity to take food from our hands.

Any thoughts on this?


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## Budget baby (Jan 1, 2013)

Good to see you back at Talk Budgies once more. Firstly what size cage do you have the two budgies in, Zeke and Link that is.
having two budgies together you need to make sure they have enough room to not cause territory fights, especially females can be like this.
Also always have two of everything, two food dishes so they both can eat. If The female keeps doing this you may need to separate them permanently, this sort of behaviour can make Zeke very stressed.


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## SilasCrutherton (Mar 13, 2016)

Sheesh. Posted a reply but for some reason I had been logged out in the interim and the post was lost.

Basically I was just saying that other than with millet they seem to get along very well. I was watching them the other night and the way they were preening each others faces and feeding each other it was actually rather sweet. They really do like each other.

The cage is pretty large, bigger than the minimum recommendations that I read for two birds. They have a lot of room to roam.

So I think that we'll just offer millet at the same time to both so that Zeke can't keep him away, and we'll be good. Thanks for the reply!

***Edited to add:

We do have two food dishes, two water dishes, two sets of pretty much everything, so they seem to get along pretty well.


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

It's good to hear that they mostly get on just fine :thumbsup:


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