# Two budgies, one hates me..



## Sandyshores (Sep 28, 2021)

Hello! I am a new bird owner and have had my pair of budgies for 2 months now. In the beginning, obviously they were quite nervous but started warming up and would eat millet from my hand, even jumping onto my hand to eat. They both ended up getting a minor respiratory infection at the one month mark, so I took them to the vet and I was to give antibiotics by mouth for 10 days, twice a day which required me to grab them...Sadly, this ruined my progress with them! Now a month later, Bluey seems to be regaining my trust again, even flys to my hand to eat millet and willingly comes to me when out of his cage. Lulu on the other hand, seems to hate me! She wants nothing to do with me, wont eat millet from my hand, wont perch my finger so I can put her back in the cage, and will even go out of her way to peck me! I will have Bluey in my hand eating, and Lulu will come all the way over from the other side of the cage just to peck my hand while Bluey is eating. It even upsets Bluey. Will I ever be able to gain her trust back? Will it later encourage Bluey to not like me? Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Just an fyi they are about 4 months old, and currently going through there first molt.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Hi, Welcome to Talk Budgies!

The purpose of this forum is to promote the BEST PRACTICES in the care of budgies for their optimal Health and Well-Being*

*Locating an Avian Veterinarian*

*Is Bluey a male budgie?
If so, then you have a mixed gender pair and it is very important you do everything necessary to prevent breeding.*
*A heartfelt plea to forum members new and old*
*Tips For Discouraging Breeding*
*Before You Ever Consider Breeding Your Budgies*
*Guidance for Breeding Advice Threads*

*Rearranging their cage frequently will help tremendously. 
Please be sure you never put a nest box or anything that could be used as a nesting site in their cage.
When they come into condition, limit the light they get to 8 hours a day and limit the amount of protein in their diet at that time.

Right now, Lulu doesn't trust you and when you put your hand into the cage, she perceives you to be a threat.
To her, the cage is her "safe" place and you are intruding on it.
The best way to help Lulu would be to do your "taming and bonding" sessions with each budgie separately.

For Lulu, you need to start over from the beginning.
Taming and Bonding is all about helping your budgie learn to trust you and it takes a great deal of time and patience on your part.
You should never grab your budgie or force her to be touched. 
To bond with your budgie, you need to build her trust in you.
She will have to learn over time that you will not hurt her, grab her and try to force her to allow you to hold her. 

To build your budgie’s trust, sit by her cage and read, talk or sing quietly to her for a period of at least 10-15 minutes, 3 or 4 times day. 
After the 2nd or 3rd day, rest your hand on the outside of the cage when you talk to her so she'll learn that your hand is safe and will not hurt her. 
If she comes to the side of the cage and tries to bite your hand, then go back to sitting and talking, reading and singing to her without your hand on the cage.

After a couple weeks or so of successfully resting your hand on the outside of the cage, rest your hand inside the cage when you talk. 
Don’t make sudden moves, don’t try to touch her. 
Let her get used to the idea that the hand is now in her safe place and not harming her. 

After 2 weeks, begin moving your hand slowly toward your budgie. If she becomes agitated, stop moving your hand and just hold very still until she calms down. When she's comfortable with your hand near her, you can offer her a bit of millet or a few seeds. In a few more days, you can begin your taming and bonding sessions.

Always work at your budgie's pace. 
Move slowly and talk reassuringly and calmly to her whenever you interact with her.

The fact that she is molting right now isn't helping matters. Budgies often become much more "bitey" when they are uncomfortable.
Growing feathers is a lot of work and the budgie is probably itchy and more fatigued than normal as well. 

Budgies generally have a first light molt at around 3 - 4 months old and another at 6 -7 months old.
When a budgie reaches at 1 year old their molts adjust to the Seasons., After the adjustment the budgie will have its big molts in the Spring and Fall. Budgies may also have lighter molts throughout the year; triggered by stress, change in diet or change in environment.

You can supplement your budgie’s diet with egg food during a molt.
This helps your budgies replenish the energy lost during the time they lose and grow in the new feathers.
Additionally, egg food promotes good and healthy feather growth.

It is possible to buy ready-made egg food at any specialized pet store but just as easy to make your own by hard boiling an egg, mashing it up and mixing it with a bit of cooked quinoa and flax seed. You can also finely chop some veggies and add it to the egg food mix.
Budgies get itchy during their molt, so they'll preen and scratch more often. Additionally, they may be sleepier and quieter as molting takes a lot of energy, and their poop could be a little runnier. To make them more comfortable, you can offer them baths either in a shallow dish of water at the bottom of their cage or by hanging wet greens (romaine lettuce or kale works best) in their cage so they can nibble on it and rub against them.*

*Molting FAQs*
*Miserable Molting*

*A Healthy Diet for your Budgie*
*Quality Seed Mix*
*CuttleBones, Mineral Blocks and Manu Clay Roses*
*Safe Foods for Budgies*
*The Truth about GRIT*

*Please take the time to read through the Site Guidelines, the FAQs, the Budgie Articles and all of the Stickies located at the top of each section of the forum.
Truly, the very BEST advice anyone can offer you is to take the time to read ALL of the stickies throughout the various Talk Budgie forums as well as the Budgie Articles we have posted.
(Stickies are threads “stuck” at the top of each forum sub-section)
These are great resources for Talk Budgie members and have a wealth of reliable information which will assist you to learn the best practices in caring for your budgies for their optimal health and well-being.*
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*Cage sizes.*
*Essentials to a Great Cage*
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*Resource Directory*


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Hello and welcome to the forums! 
FaeryBee has given great advice and resources, and I agree completely. It’s important to work with Lulu at her own pace.

Meanwhile, you’ve come to a great place to learn even more about the best of budgie care practices! Please be sure to have a look around the forums’ many budgie articles and “stickies”, provided above, to ensure you’re up to date on everything! If you have questions after doing so, please be sure to ask as we’d love to help. 

Please keep us posted! 
Cheers! 👋


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## Sandyshores (Sep 28, 2021)

FaeryBee said:


> *Hi, Welcome to Talk Budgies!
> 
> The purpose of this forum is to promote the BEST PRACTICES in the care of budgies for their optimal Health and Well-Being*
> 
> ...


Thank you for the tips! I'm not 100% sure of their genders, but I can see a blueish tint to Blueys cere, and Lulu's is more white/pink, so I'm assuming male and female. I definitely have no intention of breeding them. I do not have any sort of housing or nesting areas in the cage. When you say rearrange frequently, does that mean weekly or monthly? Since I initially wrote this post, there hasn't been too much improvement with Lulu, but she has eaten twice from my hand on her own while bluey was eating from it. But I have a question reqarding her behavior...when she did come to eat from my hand, she first attacked bluey and made him leave, then pecked my hand twice then started to eat some millet from me..I question if I should even allow her to eat the treat when she just did something bad, like I'm rewarding her for naughtiness. Should I ignore her behavior and remove my hand not lettting her eat the treat, or do I continue to let her eat because its some sort of progress? She has been guarding both food bowls in the cage as well, and won't let Bluey eat unless she is occupied eating herself. But even then, she will hear Bluey eating from one bowl and immediately rushes to the other side of cage to shoo Bluey away from his bowl. It goes on almost the entire time of feeding. I've been leaving out their vegetables for a maximum of 2 hours becuase they JUST had a breakthrough last week and starting eating vegetables and some wild brown rice for the first time after months of trying. That brings me to another question.. My budgies barely eat their pellets (Harrisons). They do eat it, but it seems like only teaspoon worth gets eaten a week. They eat about a tablespoon of veggies each including carrots, green beans, broccoli, brown rice, lentils, and corn. They also eat a tablespoon and a half of seed. So my question is: how much veggies and seed should I give if they aren't eating too much of the pellets? Is there such a thing as too many vegetables?


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## Sandyshores (Sep 28, 2021)

StarlingWings said:


> Hello and welcome to the forums!
> FaeryBee has given great advice and resources, and I agree completely. It’s important to work with Lulu at her own pace.
> 
> Meanwhile, you’ve come to a great place to learn even more about the best of budgie care practices! Please be sure to have a look around the forums’ many budgie articles and “stickies”, provided above, to ensure you’re up to date on everything! If you have questions after doing so, please be sure to ask as we’d love to help.
> ...


Any idea on gender? Im assuming male and female.


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## wmcburke (Sep 30, 2021)

Would it be possible to get a full frontal shot of the lutino (the yellow bird) to see the cere more clearly? Also, are these taken in natural light? Assuming they are, the double factor dominant pied (the blue bird) does appear to be male.

And your bird doesn't hate you.


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

The lutino (yellow) is almost certainly a female, though more photos would be helpful! I do agree that the blue appears to be male, if his cere is that pink in real life. They’re adorable!


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Please try to get a couple more full frontal pictures of both Lulu and Bluey taken in natural light (with no flash and no direct sunlight) so we can be sure regarding their genders.*


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## Sandyshores (Sep 28, 2021)

All the photos are in natural lighting, no flash and not in direct sunlight. It was a little hard to get a front picture of Lulu as she doesn't care for me at the moment. These are the best I could get for now! I got them in July of this year, and was told they were about 3 months old. Blue's cere had zero color at first but I see a blushish/purplish tint to his cere now. Lulu's hasn't really changed at all since I got her.


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Lulu is definitely a cute girl  As for Bluey, he does have a bit of a tricky cere but from the photos it does seem evenly pink so I do think he’s male. They’re precious 🐥


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