# Trust beginning to form



## SilasCrutherton (Mar 13, 2016)

I posted a few weeks back about my son M and I and our two birds, Link and Zeke. Zeke is female and Link is male.

It has been a fun few weeks. We have discovered that Zeke is in charge - she leads, and Zeke follows. When Zeke eats, Link eats. When she exercises, he exercises. When she talks, he talks.

I will say that up until recently I have not had the time (due to work) to be able to put in the time that I would have liked to bonding with them. But the past few days have been great. They sit still, but don't panic and jump away, when we offer them millet with our hands inside the cage.

Last night, I was sitting outside the cage softly talking and whistling, and Zeke started really talking to me. I'd whistle, she'd warble, and there were several times that I could tell that she was trying to emulate what I was doing.

So progress is slow but steady.

Questions...

1) We have been moving slow in training, because we had thought that pushing them until they freak out and fly around the cage would cause a back-slide. Is this true, or is this something that I had just assumed?

2) It's a corollary to #1, but there are some things inside the cage that I would like to move around - a swing too far away so it never gets used, etc. Again, I've put it off because I didn't want to cause them undue stress. Is there a rule of thumb about this kind of thing?

-Silas


----------



## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

Hi Silas! 

You are doing a great job in your approach with training. 
It's always best to take things slow, respect the safe boundaries when it comes to a closer interaction and to know how to read and interpret the budgies' body language and only take a step further in training when your budgies are showing receptiveness and confidence in your approach.

As to the toys/accessories relocation, you will be in a better position to tell how your budgies will react by how they behave when you change the water/food daily and when cleaning the cage.
If they aren't bothered by these little "interferences", then if you slowly and carefully move one toy, they will likely not freak out. 
The next day or so, you can move another item and continue to do so till you have everything placed the way you want, little by little.

Best of luck with Zeke and Link's continued training!


----------



## SilasCrutherton (Mar 13, 2016)

aluz,

Thank you for the kind and informative reply! I was getting a little discouraged, but I'm now quite happy with their progress.

As a point of clarification - if they do freak out, I've gone too far, and that is actually a bad thing?


----------



## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

You're very welcome. 

Depending on the freak out, the trust your budgies have in you could be shaken and you would end up by having to work on building back some of the trust lost.


----------

