[StarlingWings]

He's doing great. For context, my girl Mallorn is nine, very tame and bonded to me, and took more than nine months to decide to come up to me on her own

 

[StarlingWings]

Nine months! WOW! Were you passively or actively working on the taming?

A bit of both; she was a very, very skittish bird when I got her, anything would scare her (she was also TINY, couldn't have weighed more than 20 grams) so what I did is every single morning I would get up early, before others were awake (to minimize the stress of things going on in the environment) and I would uncover her, play soft music, and sit by her cage and talk to her. I would also talk to her a lot directly when we were all up and about, asking her opinion on things, telling her about stuff, etc. I'd take her cage with me (she was in a small cage at the time) whenever i'd be gone to another room in the house for a long period of time, which scared her at first, but she started to see me as a safe and consistent presence, I think? Anyways, I remember the day she came up to the bars of the cage, right up to my face, and just looked me right in the eye. I was so proud of her, I told her over and over what a good girl she was and promised her I'd always keep her safe. After this moment I gradually started offering her my hand, etc. like what you're doing with your little one. I would also keep her cage open on my desk a lot, and I put a perch right in the entrance of her cage door so sometimes she'd come out and sit there for a little bit before going back in. So it was a gradual progression, I think. I really wanted to let her trust me first which especially for her was the right choice.

This is why it bothers me so much when people say "i'm so annoyed my budgie won't sit on my finger after two weeks" or even "two months". Not only are all budgies different but in the end every budgie is capable of building trust, love, and friendship with their human flock irrespective of how long it takes to "tame" them. People with these expectations are only forcing their budgies to do things before they're ready and then perhaps never really getting to the point where their birds feel comfortable with them 100%. And in the end even if it takes a year or more you'll have so many more years ahead of you with your budgie that it's worth it!

 

[StarlingWings]

Awww Chiri is getting so bold! What a brave boy It's a great feeling, right?

 

[StarlingWings]

On the other hand, Mallorn gets bothered if I don't cover her at exactly 10:30 🤣

 

[StarlingWings]

Oh I guess Mallorn is part owl 🤣🤣