# Is my Budgie beginning to trust me?



## Kneeveh (Jan 12, 2018)

I have Micháel over a month now! I've allowed him time to settle in! He seems like a right little character! ?? The last week and a half I have been slowly beginning to put my hand in the cage for a few minutes at a time! At the beginning he would panic and run away from my hand! The last few evenings he has allowed me to get very close to him, and today he ran under my hand several times brushing of my fingers. Is this a sign of trust or is he panicking? He has also let me rub is claw and he remained calmly on his perch! Thankfully I have not experienced a bite yet! ? He also won't eat from my hand, but that will probably come in time? I understand that you need great patience with budgies! I am a little worried too that he won't leave his cage. The door is left open all the time when I'm home, but he shows no interest yet. I don't wanna grab him out because that might damage whatever bit of trust I have with him? Any advice?

Also, he has started tearing the paper on the bottom of his cage! Is this something I should be concerned about? It doesn't look like he's eating it, just tearing. He spends a good bit on the floor of his cage, tapping the side with his beak and biting the bars, but it looks like he's playing? 

Thanks in advance! ??


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*It takes a great deal of time and patience for a budgie to learn to trust you.

At this point, you can put a few seeds or a bit of millet on your palm, slowly put your hand in the cage near the budgie and simply hold it completely still.
Let your budgie decide if he is brave enough yet to lean over and eat from your hand.
Never grab your budgie or force him to be touched.

Don't worry about the fact that he is not leaving his cage. 
He isn't feeling safe enough yet to do so and that is perfectly fine. 
You can set up a little play area outside his cage with a favorite toy and some millet which may help to entice him out over time but it may still take several weeks.

Budgies love to shred things. Does he have shredding toys in his cage?
Look at the suggestions in this thread:

Essentials for a Great Cage

The fact that he is shredding the paper on the cage bottom is nothing to be concerned about unless he begins eating it. 
Some of my budgies like to play on the cage floor and shred their papers as well. *


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## philw (Aug 22, 2014)

You might try crumpling into a ball, small pieces of plain paper (post it size) and placing them in a corner of his cage. Small size will allow him to carry them around and chew as needed for enrichment. You've made good progress.


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## Hunterkat (Mar 29, 2017)

Just as additional information to what FaeryBee stated above, don't worry if your budgie isn't coming out of his cage- my budgie still doesn't come out often and I've had him for almost 8 months now.


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## rhopkins (Jul 15, 2017)

The next step I did was removed the millet from the spray. Placed it in my hand and one of my birds immediately jumped onto my hand and started eating. I have done this once a day for the past week and now I have both of my birds eating from my hand. I now only give millet from my hand.

I think you have made a lot of progress. I am a novice as well but wanted to share my experience.


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## Kneeveh (Jan 12, 2018)

Thanks for all your help! I've started putting Millet on my hand, so far he's showing very little interest, but it's still early days. Plus I'm happy to report that he came out of his cage on Friday and wandered around for an hour, managed to get him up on a loose perch to place him back in!! 
I've looked into shredding toys, but for now I've used the paper balls, again he hasn't shown much interest.

Once again thanks for your help!


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## lbeckman (Jun 26, 2016)

The kabob shredding toys are the absolute favorite of my budgies. 

One additional step I take is that if Budgie doesn't want to take millet/seed when I offer it from my hand, I put it on the bottom of the cage after a bit. You might think that would discourage them from ever taking it from your hand, but it seems to make them more confident. "Oh look, there's that nice hand that gave me seed, no need to wait for her to put it down, I'll just go grab it now!" It can take a while; patience is key.


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